Crisis are the national charity for homeless people. They help people directly out of homelessness and campaign for the changes needed to solve it altogether.
The Brief
Crisis came to us needing to connect with their audiences on multiple levels, helping to raise awareness of the problems of Homelessness. They needed a characterful charity animation that fit within their already strong brand identity, whilst at the same time standing out from the competitors.
Our Response
We often work with Charity animation producing videos on important topics. We love to tell those stories and to do so effectively we research. This enables us to bring the animation to life in a way that effectively communicates the key objectives set out by our client. After researching the project thoroughly, and working with Crisis to lock down a script that addressed key messages, we started sketching out individual scenes. We went on to refine these designs until it started to resonate with everyone involved. With all animations, connecting with your audience is one of the major factors for a successful video. To do this we decided that showing different points of view throughout would help to connect with individuals, whilst also showing them something they dont normally see. On the right you can see a selection of early design routes that we explored, planning out ideas and sketching characters. This includes a concept we had for the film that would juxtapose the perspective of two individuals, one homeless and one not. We went down a different route in the end, to better fit the message Crisis were trying to convey.
Creating these designs early and sketching up a storyboard allows a clear direction and goal to be established at an early stage in the project. The ideas we pitched to Crisis were exactly what they were looking for. Once we had a collection of ideas to branch out from, we moved into producing some cleaned up style frames. This is an image that helps to visualise the final look of the video. Creating style frames guides everyone involved along the same path. This helps to ensure that the direction and chosen style of the project are in line with the brand and what the audience will connect with, as well as the story Crisis wanted to tell. We can tell these stories effectively through consulting with our clients throughout the project. Often the style frames will help to pinpoint the key direction and story that needs to be told. Sometimes this means that artwork doesn’t make it into the final film, but we still love that we get to share it in this case study.
For this Crisis project, there were multiple deliveries of the final video. The first was created as part of a video which included live-action portions, this was geared towards a specific audience and event. The video was then later reworked with additional scenes added, turning it into the final animation you see at the end of this case study. This version also included a social media video. To do this we reworked each of the scenes and the display text to a portrait format. The edit was to be shown via the Crisis story on apps like Instagram in a portrait video format. Creating multiple versions and editing the content you already have for different formats and platforms allows you to increase the reusability of the animation that has been crafted.
The Result
This wonderful charity campaign animation for Crisis was very successful and a joy to work on. We regularly work with charities, giving us a chance to tell important stories that the world needs to hear. We ended up with multiple versions of this Charity Animation for different formats and audiences.
What our client Said
“Working with The Animation Guys has been an absolute delight. We were really excited to be working on this project with them. From start to finish they made the process enjoyable and informative. NFA couldn’t be happier with the final product and we very much look forward to working with them again soon.”
Luke Barritt
Network For Animals
