by Sophie Osinski | Sep 12, 2022 | Animation Process, Blog
9 tips and tricks for 3D Character Design 9 tips and tricks About this article We recently created a 3D animation for Circle Health, you can read the full case study HERE. We were tasked with creating 3x 3D characters to represent Circle’s staff for a recruitment campaign. The characters came out nice so we thought this would make an excellent and bang up to date (2022) article looking at how we actually make our characters at Bigman. Make a good plan The first thing to do for good character design is to figure out who our characters are. In this case we decided that fun, dynamic and energetic were the traits we wanted our characters to embody. They had to be funky and built to dance! BE your audience Celebrate the differences Humans are incredibly diverse, with many different languages, cultures, nationalities, ethnicities, sexualities, genders, ages, abilities, body shapes etc. Modern brands need to reflect the diversity of their customers, of course this is a moral imperative, but it also makes great business sense as you don’t want to alienate certain demographics of your audience. Inclusive character design As character designers, we often abstract certain character elements/traits so as to make our characters more suitable for everyone, we kicked off the design process by ignoring any details, and just exploring some quite crazy body proportions to see what we liked. Throw EVERYTHING at the wall… see what sticks Experimentation We took a few of our favourite body shapes we had been playing with and started to work into them with some details specific to our healthcare client’s...
by tompainter | Apr 21, 2016 | Animation Process, Blog
Collaborative communication In the CGI business concise communication is vital as our projects progress, both with our clients and internally. Email is a great tool but when we’re going back and forth with new ideas and changes to a project and the thread starts to grow it all becomes a bit unmanageable. We decided we needed a simpler, more organised and collaborative way to share our work and ideas. Enter RealtimeBoard… RealtimeBoard (RTB) is a giant online digital whiteboard that can be shared with anyone, no matter where they are and because updates happen in real time you will always be up to date. You do need an account to access any boards shared with you but you can login simply using Google or Facebook so it only takes a minute to get started. Once you’re in you can add new content and leave comments for other members. Below we’ve put together a quick how to guide explaining the main features and tools. Simple navigation Once you’re in it’s so easy to get around. The ‘Select’ tool allows you to move across the board by clicking on the background and dragging to different areas whilst holding the left mouse button. Incase you are worried you might disturbing something in the board as you are navigating you can also hold the space bar whilst clicking or hold your mouse’s scroll wheel (or middle mouse button). Moving objects With the ‘Select’ tool you can also move and scale objects on the board. For moving you just need click and hold on the item and move it across the board and once an item is selected you can drag the...
by tompainter | Mar 2, 2016 | Animation Process, Blog, FAQs
These days branding is much more than just a logo on your website and office stationary. A great way to think about it is how people talk about you when you’re not there. If you are thinking of commissioning an animation for a future campaign, here are some tips that will ensure that the finished product best represents your brand. 1. Use your brand colours A colour scheme is the most common way to visually communicate a brand, and any animation you produce should clearly reflect your brand colours. If you already have a brand guidelines document you can pass this onto your animation studio to help them understand who you are. 2. Choose a unique medium A particular style can become associated with your brand so choosing one that is unique will help to develop your branding. The more distinctive the medium used in your campaign the more of an edge you will have over your competitors. For example using a traditional craft can help your campaign to stand out, and if you can find one that has never been used before you will be able to create something completely unique and bespoke. Mediums that have often been seen as old fashioned such as knitting, needle felting or wicker crafting are great examples of techniques that are ripe for reinvention and could be used to add a human and quirky feel to a campaign. 3. Use music to engage your audience Music is well known for creating emotional responses in people and when used cleverly in a campaign audio can help to trigger these feelings with your audience. This can then help to boost your company’s branding by...
by tompainter | Jan 15, 2016 | Animation Process, Blog, FAQs
What’s the damage? Your first question when thinking about commissioning animation is mostly likely about the cost. Is your shiny new animation going to bankrupt your company or can you get it done for peanuts? What factors affect your quote? Unfortunately due to the unique nature of your project there is no straight forward answer and there are a number of factors that an animation company will consider when producing a quote, such as the script, storyboard, style, audio and the schedule. The script Writing a thorough script will force you to think about your animation idea in detail before a single penny is spent on production. Want to scrap that expensive and irrelevant scene with the space battle? Now is the time to do it! If the planning stages of your animation are perfected before production starts, the chances of any costly changes being made in the future will be greatly reduced. Be prepared All good animation companies will offer a scripting service but if you already have a script prepared, or a very clear idea of what you want, you will most likely save both time and money. After all no one knows your product or service better than you. Storyboarding The storyboard is a vital visual map of your ‘story’, which should always be developed for any animation project. When creating storyboards, questions and problems tend to pop up that weren’t immediately obvious from the script. By planning everything on paper, animators are able to solve any big issues and can get a much better idea of schedules and costs. Visualise your idea Thankfully you don’t have to be a world renowned artist to create your own storyboards and most animation companies will welcome your visual ideas,...
by tompainter | Jan 10, 2016 | Animation Process, Blog
Effortless video reviewing Tired of using email to review video? So were we! The collaborative nature of our work meant that lengthy email chains were just not efficient and so we began looking for ways in which we could simplify our own processes. We found Wipster, a premium online video review tool, that makes it easy for multiple users to view, feedback and collaborate on videos. Precise communication We encourage all our clients to work with us using Wipster as it is a much quicker platform for reviewing. It simply allows you to view a video and then leave comments or some feedback at specific moments of the timeline and you can even pinpoint a visual feature. The process means that reviewing is incredibly straightforward and communication is crystal clear! Getting started Wipster couldn’t be easier to use, all you need to do after a video has been shared with you is to enter your name to identify yourself and then you are able to view and comment on videos. To comment you just have to click on the area of the video that you wish to give feedback on, afterwards your comment will appear as a coloured dot on the timeline and on the viewer. Want to know more? If you want to learn more about Wipster and how it works, please click here. Take a look at our recent work Circle Health September 13, 2022 TMPW AAbot Augmented Reality December 3, 2019 Buhler Sorting Machine Explainer July 18, 2018 BBC Doodlebugs July 2, 2018 NSS Faith Schools May 25, 2018 Sony Eyepet Augmented Reality May 30, 2017 Puppy May 26, 2017 The World in Your Hands May 6, 2016 mCommerce...
