I was responsible for storyboarding, designing, and animating this internal training video for Sonova. The script was approved but underwent further changes, which is never ideal. The late changes resulted in more iterations of the storyboard to replace 'hiking in the Alps' with 'paragliding in the Grand Canyon'. The sign-off process is there to safeguard the following stage of the project. Changes in the storyboarding stage are easy to absorb as the process is inherently quick and iterative; however, when changes impact a project's design or animation phases, the impact on the timeline can be much more serious.
The budget was not large enough to accommodate bespoke character designs and environments; for this reason, it was decided to use stock illustrations and adapt them as needed. The storyboard did need some new illustrations, such as dressing the lead character in a jumpsuit and creating a paraglider.
Character animation is time-consuming. In this project, the large number of characters meant a lot of time was spent preparing them for animation. It is worth the effort. Bringing a character to life does a great job of engaging an audience and provoking an emotional response.
I animated most of the video in After Effects, the only exception being the scene in which the laptop spins around, a 3D animation created in Cinema 4D. Mixing 2D and 3D animation adds another layer of complexity to a project, but I love exploring different ways of adding depth and interest with techniques such as these.