Environmental agency
The Environmental Agency needed to inform the public about the high risk of serious flash flooding this summer and educate them on safety measures, all while keeping them engaged.
We developed a targeted communication strategy featuring tailored messaging, engaging animations & interactive social media campaigns.
This approach successfully raised awareness and equipped the public with essential knowledge to stay safe.
the process
If only it went from an idea in your head to a fully formed animation.
There are of course plenty of steps in between check them out below.
early storyboard
Storyboards don’t need to be pretty, they just need to convey an idea that flows and can be quickly interpreted into a further edit. Knowing the assets that will need to be created allows for production to get started, while finer details can be developed . Following initial scripting, this was the first iteration of the storyboard.
Mood & concepts
CREATING THE FEELS
Concept boards are key to establish the look and feel of each project. Allowing us to quickly experiment with how the rest of the film will look.
GENERATIVE AI
Things like Midjourney, DALL-E and other generative AI tools have really sped up this process, allowing us to get closer to the look we want to achieve as soon as possible and set the blueprint.
characters optimised
The character animation pipeline is optimized for efficiency and consistency. All characters are built from the same base mesh, allowing us to swap hair and accessories to create unique looks. Dad almost rocked that ponytail.
This approach offers several benefits:
Skinning Consistency: Updates to skinning are applied uniformly & efficiently. One skin to rule them all
Shared Facial Blendshapes: The same facial blend shapes are used across characters, saving time and maintaining expressive consistency.
Resource Management: This streamlined method reduces the resources needed for character creation, freeing up more for other production areas like environment and effects.
Overall, this allows us to optimise high-quality, engaging characters while maintaining an efficient workflow.
effIcient animation
CONTROL RIG
For the tech wizards amongst you, the characters were rigged in Maya and utilised the incredible Control Rig system in Unreal.
LIVE ANIMATION IN UNREAL ENGINE
One of the standout features of using Control Rig in Unreal Engine is the ability to perform live animation directly within the viewport. This means you can create and adjust animations in real time, seeing the results instantly. This live feedback loop is a game-changer, allowing us to refine scenes on the fly and make immediate adjustments to achieve the desired look and feel. The result is a more dynamic and efficient workflow, where creativity and technical precision intersect to produce stunning animations.
