Platform Content Animation

Summary

This animation was created for the NeuroFlow mobile app, serving as mental health self-help content for users. This particular animated video was on SMART Goals, a popular framework for evaluating and adding structure to goals.

Project

Platform Content

Senior Designer
Script Editor
Illustrator
Animator
Sound Designer

Role

Photoshop
Illustrator
AfterEffects
ProTools

Tools

3-4 weeks
(2023)

Timeline

Process

Step 1 - Scripting

Since there were many collaborators across teams and departments on this project, Google Docs were the most accessible option for scripting and sharing the storyboard. The Clinical Team informed the topic and a majority of the script given their expertise. I made suggestions in the script where I thought it was possible to get across the same idea but say it in a way that allowed for a better visual metaphor, more compatible with an animated scene.

Step 2 - Storyboarding

There was an existing library of in-app illustrations that were hand-drawn custom for the platform. Luckily, I had access to editable project files in Photoshop, I just had to organize and prepare the layers to animate independent elements within AfterEffects. Using these illustrations allowed us to maintain consistency within the platform. The hand-drawn aspect adds a certain character and honesty to the video that fits really well with this self-help wellness content.

Step 3 - Recording VO

For this video, we sourced an external voice-over talent. In past videos, I would bring in a condenser microphone from my music studio and we would find the quietest spot in the office to record our own voice-over. We achieved a professional quality even then, if I might say so myself.

Step 4 - Animation

AE

Finally, it’s time to animate the illustrations to the recorded script. Bringing to life the illustrations in clever visual metaphors really is the most fun and creative part of the process to me. It truly allows me to achieve depth and flow within the work.

One nerdy thing I added to animation is the effects which help sell it as a “hand-drawn” animation. Adding line boil, turbulent displace, and reducing the frame rate makes it feel like an animation drawn frame-by-frame as the edges of shapes slightly morph and displace from one frame to next.

Step 5 - Sound FX

I finalized the video by adding sound effects and even some of my own foley to really bring the animation to life. Audio is so important for the perceived quality of a video. This is also a fun process where I get to use a lot of the techniques I’ve learned over years of music production and work with software I’m very familiar with like Ableton and ProTools.