Illumina: Next Generation Sequencing

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Illumina Next Generation Sequencing

Sophisticated Concept Explainer Animation

Challenge

Illumina is a leading life sciences developer, manufacturer, and marketer of tools and integrated systems for the large-scale analysis of genetic variation and function. Customers include a broad range of academic, government, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and other leading institutions around the globe.

Our challenge was to create a series of animations that would explain next-generation sequencing which has replaced other, older, DNA sequencing methods.

The animations needed to be exciting, futuristic and should not be created in a style that would look dated in the future.

Solution

We created a sophisticated and engaging series of life sciences explainer animations by utilising the following approaches: The animations have a limited colour palette enhanced by negative space to ensure that the overall feel is uncluttered and the viewers focus is drawn to the colour and movement of objects which act as metaphors or literal representations of the voiceover.

The animations also make considered use of the camera angles and the z axis to help underscore messages that relate to quantity and speed.

Finally the animations were created with a bespoke soundscape intended to provide a light and uplifting feel for the viewer complimenting the overall concept. This is an approach that works well for Healthcare and Life Sciences.

The animation has had over 2 million views on YouTube – now that’s a lot of gene sequencing!

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SmartWater Global Crime Prevention

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SmartWater Global Crime Prevention

Explainer Animation for SmartWater's Properties and Applications

Challenge

There is increasing pressure for companies to be able to secure their supply chains from fraud and ensure they are compliant with ethical practise. SmartWater’s patented formula provides a new level of security to companies, stakeholders and consumers, but it’s complicated stuff.

Our task was to create an animation that informed potential customers of the product’s unique strengths and potential applications, in a clear and concise manner. The animation needed to be inspiring and educational to a broad audience.

Solution

We utilised a limited colour palette and clean, striking visuals. This ensured that the animation mirrored the authoritative tone of the content and that the key messages were easily understood.

The animation combined technical product information with broad market use applications. Fluid motion was implemented to emphasise the state of the art science powering SmartWater.

Testimonial

"The animation has been very well received. Thank you!"

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Bupa Health: Explainer Animation Series

The Like Minded Bupa Health Procedure Series
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Bupa Health

Explainer Animation Series

Challenge

To create a series of healthcare explainer animations for the Bupa Health Youtube channel. We created a simple visual style to describe a range of medical procedures through the series of contemporary animation explainers. These are aimed at existing customers and potential customers looking to better understand a specific procedure prior possible surgery.

Art Style & Animation

In order to create this series of animations, we developed a contemporary art style from the brand guides that balances solid fills with understated line illustration work. Using a simple visual approach focused on communicating what’s essential to the medical procedure while removing elements that don’t support the core message.

More in the Series ...

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Testimonial

"The Health Content Team at Bupa UK commissioned The Like Minded to produce some animated explainer videos on a number of medical conditions and procedures. We had a great experience from start to finish. The team were flexible, attentive to our needs, and a pleasure to work with. The videos perfectly reflect our brand expression requirements, are clear and easy to follow, and convey the topics with the requisite clinical accuracy. This isn’t an easy balance to strike! Early customer feedback has been really positive."

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Cambridge Consultants: DNA Data Storage

Cambridge DNA
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Cambridge Consultants & Catalog Technologies

Explainer Animation for DNA Data Storage

Challenge

By 2025 the World will run out of data storage. Catalog Technologies and Cambridge Consultants have created a machine that can transform the speed and cost of storing data in synthetic DNA. This revolutionary technology promises to take the potential of DNA storage out of the laboratory and into the real world.

Our task was to create an animation that informed and inspired commentators around the world to highlight the groundbreaking innovation and to discuss the commercial potential of DNA data storage to new audiences.

Solution

The concept of DNA storage is not widely known or understood. Therefore, we needed to develop a visual language of metaphors to help explain how DNA data storage works and the scale of its potential.  The animation was also created without a voice-over to ensure a visual focus on the key messages. This approach was further enhanced by using flat backgrounds that reduced visual distraction and increased the feeling of a futuristic landscape. The futuristic landscape of adventure was contrasted with the use of domestic imagery such as: a closet and an egg timer to increase audience engagement in the subject matter.

More work for Cambridge Consultants

Find out more about this welcome conference video created for Cambridge Consultants.

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Tick Tock Till Bedtime

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Tin Man Communications & Indeed

Tick Tock Till Bedtime

Challenge

Tick Tock Till Bedtime strives to stimulate conversation between children and their parents about the world of work and the home-life balance. The campaign needed to engage with the target audiences in a way that was fun, thought-provoking and natural, so we created an animated bedtime storybook!

We created this animated book to support Tin Man Communications with a campaign for their client Indeed. According to research, almost a third of British parents work too late to tuck their kids into bed at least three nights a week.

Storytelling

The well known children’s author Giles Paley-Phillips has written a children’s bedtime story which provides a natural space to spark conversation between parent and child. We worked with the author to produce a beautifully illustrated storybook. This then established the basis of our animation.

The animation is in the style and form of a picture book to mirror the experience of being led through the story with words and pictures. The illustration has a hand-printed feel, with soft edges to the background to achieve a dream-like effect.

We used exaggeration of characters and scenes within the animation to add humour, which was further enhanced with a custom soundscape.

The voice-over was provided by the award-winning actress Bhavnisha Parmar.

Impact

The Tick Tock Till Bedtime campaign has featured on; National TV, Radio and the press which has sparked debate and conversation around work life balance.

The Campaign has featured on National TV
The Campaign has sparked debate

Check out our ‘Making of’ video below

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Testimonial

"I have been completely inundated with press calls but just wanted to pass on, from the team here at Tin Man and at Indeed, our thanks and gratitude for your quality of work, time at turning things around and creative consultancy on this."

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British Footwear Association – Learning Experience

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British Footwear Association

Animated learning Content

Animated Videos

We worked with the British Footwear Association to create a complete blended learning experience that is a first in the world of footwear. The project involved animation, graphic design, copywriting, platform design and game based assessment.

We created a stylish character animation style that would engage a fashion conscious audience. The style also needed to clearly explain complex technical elements and the shoe construction process. We worked with leading global “shoe dogs” to ensure that the design and technical elements of each animation were accurate.

In total we created 9 animated videos that feature as anchor content in each module.

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St. James’s Place: Wealth Management

St. James's Place Featured Image
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St. James's Place Wealth Management

The Approach to Investment Management

Challenge

St. James’s Place is the UK’s largest local Wealth Manager offering financial services to individuals and their families.

They wanted to create unique visual communications around the value they add to clients’ lives across:

• Financial advice offered
• Investments & funds they provide access to
• Helping clients meet their financial objectives

This animation describes their approach to investment management. They offer multiple funds run by investment experts from all over the world and we were tasked to explain how & why St. James’s Place works with Partners for this expertise. We also had to demonstrate how they select, monitor and change fund managers as required; while sharing the work of their investment committee and the role of their consultants to help inform decisions.

Solution

We decided to develop a hybrid style of animation. By filming our client (the subject matter expert) first and using rotoscoping techniques (frame by frame tracing of the film footage) we gave the character movement a natural film quality.

This created a relaxed documentary style interview piece using hard cut camera framing techniques. This provides a human approach to the narrative while presenting the topic in a unique way.

The second component features shapes and graphics that aid the audience understanding by visualising more complex points using an infographic visual language we’ve developed for the St. James’s Place brand.

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Audio Production & Lip Syncing

As mentioned previously, the decision to film our subject matter expert (Andy) on location at our studio was a fantastic way to gain quality reference footage, however, it meant there would be the potential for inferior audio quality due to the acoustics and other background noise interference.

To avoid this and ensure flawless audio quality, we decided to record Andy’s voiceover in a studio sound booth. We then used this audio during filming to attain similar timings while Andy talked through his lines.

Knowing that we would only be using the film footage as a guide for the animation, minor timing discrepancies between the audio and the lip-sync in the footage were ironed out during the animation process.

Filming

We built a lounge area in our studio to carry out the filming element of the piece. By not requiring pin-drop silence for the filming, it helped provide a more laid-back atmosphere which carried through into Andy’s performance to camera.

We ran through the script a few times and referenced it against the pacing of the studio-recorded audio to ensure it didn’t differ too greatly. Using two DSLR cameras allowed us to reference and pick different head to camera shots for use in the final animation.

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Interview Animation

The interview segments of the animation were created with a blend of techniques. Sometimes straightforward rotoscoping (drawing over the top of footage) can lead to an aesthetic that is hollow and appears machine-made rather than feeling organically animated and natural. In order to produce something that felt closer to natural movement, the footage was used more as a guide and the team added creative license to tweak the human gestures.

2D & 3D Animation

The graphical elements of the animation were created using both 2D & 3D animation. The principle was to compare the innovative processes of St. James’s Place (realised in 3D), with the rigid and dated systems of their competitors (realised in 2D). It was important that, although different, both facets fit well within the same animation, whilst also blending seamlessly with the interview elements. The colour palette, grain texture and angled lines utilised across all components helped to achieve this unique visual language for the brand.

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CLOSER UCL: Longitudinal Studies

Longitudinal Studies
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UCL CLOSER - Longitudinal Studies

Cheerfully Explaining the Benefits of Longitudinal Studies

Challenge

Longitudinal studies are studies that are carried out over long periods of time, spanning lifetimes. For this reason, they provide a host of benefits over shorter studies. UCL’s CLOSER research department wanted to show potential researchers  the value of using this approach. The main task was doing so in an interesting way to engage viewers and encourage them to find out more.

Solution

We created a series of animations, packed with character, charm and a dash of humour. Each animation was packed with distinctive scenes, each with its own concept, helping illustrate points in a unique way.

The videos acted as a lure to draw people into the website where more detailed information was situated. For this reason, we were particular with the amount of information we shared, in order to peak their interest and will them to find out more.

Designing a Cast

The animation consists of a large collection of characters, illustrating the scope of the research data collected. We wanted to imbue personality in each individual we created, which we achieved through their appearance and clothing, but more importantly through their movement.

It was important to strike a balance between moments of larger, more over-the-top motion, such as a gentleman carrying a giant birthday cake, with moments of more subtle motion, such as the lady gently peeking out from behind the birthday cake. This creates a world which is both believable and entertaining. Subtle secondary motion such as hair and clothing moving in the wind as a bus races past, further helps the animation to come alive.

Creating Interest Through Variety

For each scene, we implemented a completely new concept. From a bus picking up and dropping off passengers, to a giant game of snakes and ladders, each scene is designed to add interest to the animation.

Importantly, the concepts for each scene were designed with their content in mind. So a ‘Guess Who’ game became a great way to show how a sample of people was reduced, while a video camera fast forward motif helped illustrate clearly how characters changed over time.

Mixing up these concepts frequently ensures that the scenes remain fresh throughout.

Stimulating Sound Design

For this series we proposed series of charming, lighthearted soundtracks, rather than reusing one across all of the videos. Selecting a series of soundtracks gave each animation it’s own distinct personality. With a total of 6 minutes of animation, this furthered the feeling of novelty across each video.

Finding soundtracks that were different but still harmonious was key; the tracks needed their own personality but were still required to feel like a set.

Testimonial

"The response from the research community has been very positive. Lecturers and policymakers have remarked that these animations made longitudinal studies easier to understand. They were full of creative solutions and were great to work with."

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Freeformers – explainer series

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Freeformers

A Characterful Explainer Series

Challenge

Our goal was to present the Freeformers value proposition to new clients while ensuring they understand how all the elements of the proposition work together. Enabling an individual to accurately convey this information to colleagues.

Our brief was to create a series of five explainer animations building on the branding and illustration styles developed by the business.

Solution

We created a series of 5 animations building on the existing brand and illustration work developed by Freeformers. The characters in the animation are deliberately simple to enable them to interact with and explain the digital world they occupy, without becoming a distraction from the key messages. The characters are brought to life with care and attention paid to their moments and mannerisms, allowing them to have a personality and engagement with the viewer.

In addition to the main animation series we also created subtitled versions, gifs and individual illustrations to ensure that the work will engage audiences across channels and have longevity.

Testimonial

"Thanks again for yours and the team’s hard work, words can’t express how happy everyone is!"

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Brand Story of a National Travel Group

Travel
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Brand Story of a National Travel Group

Animated Story of Business Growth

Challenge

We were asked to create a compelling story for a specific travel group client.

Aimed at SME’s in the travel industry, the animation needed to share the story of how the business grew from a fledgling startup to a successful national brand.

It was integral to demonstrate that the original ethos and values still remain at the heart of the company.

Solution

In collaboration with the client we pulled together anecdotes and threads of the founder story into a cohesive narrative. We researched real life locations in the UK while creating scenes to evoke a feeling of familiarity for our audience.

For more abstract messaging we wove in scenes that utilised the landscape in different ways while employing a hot air balloon motif. This meant we could keep viewers immersed and provide a different perspective.

Style Development

The art direction draws on a mix of influences from English landscape painting through to contemporary, low-poly illustration. We wanted to create a down to earth and honest aesthetic style with a nod to classic english landscapes and ‘holiday imagery’.

In order for the animation to resonate with the audience, it was important that the scenes feel quintessentially British. The change in lighting from dawn till dusk helped provide a sense of time passing over the course of a day.

Blending 2D & 3D

The team skillfully developed a style using both 2D and 3D animation techniques to provide real depth to the scenes.

To construct this animation, a variety of 2D and 3D techniques were implemented. Initial sketches and concept art was used to block scenes into 3D to get a general feel for how scenes would look. Environments were constructed using a combination of flat, illustrated planes set in 3D space and fully realised 3D models with painted textures applied to them.

Once the scenes were complete, 2D characters were animated over the top. Lighting, grading and effects then blended all of the different parts harmoniously.

Take a look at the behind-the-scenes animatics and 3D test to get a sneak peak of the processes involved.

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