Case Study
Paul Bland
Paul Bland is an English Language teacher and Business Coach based in Italy. He recognised the power of animation to communicate the value of his services and secure new business.
It was important for Paul not only to attract attention but to make a favourable impression in a business culture predominately based on relationships of trust and passion.
Our Proposal
Since 76.8 per cent of Italy’s territory is covered by mountains, we used that as our creative hook through which to tell the story of Paul Bland’s Five Hats service offer. Mountain climbing requires good teamwork, effective communication and overcoming strategic challenges – things that Paul Bland helps companies to improve and streamline.
Choosing The Right Characters
The characters had to fit the brand, and our WakWak cast was a perfect fit for Paul’s animation. These characters are quirky and fun with a sense of authenticity that made them ideal for an engaging business animation.
Writing The Script
The script is the most critical aspect of animation to get right and also the most difficult. The first challenge was to dig through layers of information to get to the core values the company wanted to communicate. Next, we turned these values into a persuasive message. And then came the fun part of visual storytelling where we merged Paul’s message with the creative hook of mountain climbing.
The Storyboard
The storyboard is a visual outline for the animation. The storyboard showed Paul what we had in mind visually and made sure everyone was on the same page.
The Animatic
The animatic combined the voiceover with the storyboard in a video format so we could get a sense of how the animation was going to flow. The first step was to commission an English and Italian voice artist to read the script for us. The animatic helped to catch any issues before the more time-consuming animation process started.
The Animation
The first step in the animation process was to create environment sets and props the character would use. The animation was divided into 15 cut scenes. The models of a typical scene contained around 400 000 polygons, and we rendered out just under 4 000 frames of animation (25 frames per second).
Extras
We also created 40 static images for Paul to use on his social media marketing campaign, in order to create awareness of the animation.
Besides the skills you have, your professionalism shines through. I also share your philosophy on this type of communication strategy and its effectiveness to capture interest and more importantly for people to take action. I predict a very positive relationship, and I have no reason to doubt that belief.
Paul Bland