Animation characters have been all around us the whole time. From the movies or cartoons we love, animation has become a familiar concept in our life. But these days, animation is not just a tool to entertain children, rather it has also become an effective tool for business.
In this modern era, many businesses have a character to communicate their value to their audience. We can use M&M’s animation characters as an example. These animated characters have been used by the brand as their identity through advertisements and packaging.
So what is an animation character? Why is it beneficial for your brand communication? Check out this article to know more about what an animation character is.
What is an Animation Character?
An animation character is an illustrated character created to have movements on a screen. These characters are brought to life by animators. Animators can create characters with desired designs, actions, emotions, and personalities. Animation characters also can speak and have their tone.
Benefits of Using Animation Characters for Brand Communication
According to Smart Insights, new statistics on video marketing in 2020 shows that 92% of companies believe that video marketing is growing in importance and should be considered as part of their marketing strategies. Below we have put brief explanations about the benefits of using animated characters as your marketing strategies to communicate brands.
1. Entertaining
Having a living animated character to communicate with your customers never fails to entertain customers. Most animated characters are unique and often involve comedic aspects that may entertain the viewers. People are more likely to pay attention to animations, because they are not just informative, but also fun, imaginative, and unique.
2. Customizable
Animated character is going to be the identity of your brand that will help set you apart from other brands. It is completely customizable, which means you can design it any way you want so it can represent your brand perfectly.
3. Good Investment
As your animation character will be the identity of your brand, you will make the design on your own, with or without the help of any professionals. This will also mean that you own this character that you have designed. You can reuse it across different storylines so it is a good investment for your company.
4. Relatable
Characters in animation are often made to share some of our human qualities. Besides that, animated characters also evoke a subconscious nostalgia for a carefree childhood. These are some of the reasons that make them relatable, which is very important for brands. Having your viewers empathize and relate to your brand is one of the key successes in getting your brand to be recognized by the public.
5. Easy to Understand
Corporate product explanations can sometimes be complex and hard to understand at first sight. But with character animation, corporates can use their unique and interesting characters to convey their messages simply. With an animated character, you can have your product explained in a fun and exciting way, so your audience won’t get bored.
Also read: Character Animation: Why It Works for Brand Communications
How Can We Create Animation Characters?
Interested in creating your own brand’s character animation? It will be essential for you to know and understand the process behind your animation production, whether you create your animation or hire a video production company.
There are 7 steps in the animation process according to Superpixel. With these steps, we believe you can create your super content with our help as a professional content creator.
1. Briefing
In creating your best content, we believe it is very important to listen to your story first. Only after listening to your story, we can understand you completely and be able to create the best content that suits what you need. Your objectives, vision, and goals will all go into the key elements of your content. In this step, it is also important for you to state who your target audience is, the deadline you want to fulfil, and the budget requirements for the content creation.
2. Scripting
The next step of the process is scripting, which is the first major milestone of the project. You can make or enhance your script, but Superpixel can also help you if you need any collaboration in crafting the message you want to convey to your audience.
After you’re satisfied with the script and sign off the script, Superpixel then can continue to the voice-over recording step if it is required for the project.
3. Storyboard
This is the step where your animation character will begin to be created. In this step, Superpixel will create a storyboard consisting of illustrated sketches to represent each shot that will be taken or how the video will unfold. Besides illustrations, this storyboard will also consist of descriptions of the visuals and narration relevant to the scene.
4. Styleframes
If storyboards only consist of illustrated sketches, styleframes are an enhanced form of storyboards with coloured frames. With styleframes, you can see how your video’s final look will be developed with the colours being used. These colours will help emphasize the look and feel of each major scene.
5. Filming
Before you can start filming, you must first prepare things that are necessary for the filming process, including casts, camera crews, filming location selection, filming equipment, etc. Only after those preparations are made that you can conduct the filming. After the footage is filmed, you can continue the studio’s post-production processes.
6. Editing and Animation
In this step, our creative team can help you edit raw footage, apply color correction, add filters, graphics, or special effects, or do any enhancements necessary in creating your perfect content.
7. Music, Voice Over, and Sound Effects
The last step is to add music, voice-over, or any relevant sound effects to your animation. Adding the ideal or relevant sound and music into your animation will make your animation more interesting.
You need to participate and collaborate actively in the process of creating your animation character. By being engaged in the process of your animation character production, you can help appreciate your animator’s service better and also manage your expectation of the animation you’re creating.
Be active in the process and enlighten your animator about which part you think might need some changes or improvement. This will then help you bring the very best version of the animated character that you want to bring to life.
Also read: Reasons Why You Should Hire Cartoon Illustrators
Get Your Very Own Animation Character
As mentioned above, you can gain many benefits by using animation as your business strategy. After learning about all those benefits, you might also consider using animated characters for your brand. Wonder how to start? We have the best answer for you.
We are Superpixel, a design-driven animation studio based in Singapore. Superpixel empowers brands and businesses from all kinds of fields through well-crafted 2D and 3D animation. We also believe that through the power of storytelling and design, we can help define brands creatively and uniquely for the brands to stand out.
Superpixel offers a wide range of creative services. With years of creative industry experience, we have collaborated with some international brands and bridged their vision through creativity and technology. Our main services are animation, motion graphics, and interactive content. We can also help you with content creation, TV commercials and broadcasts, online editorials, video editing, and even audio productions.
Some Animation Projects Ever Made by Superpixel
Let us show you some of the coolest animation projects we’ve done before below.
1. Health Promotion Board: Use Antibiotics Right
Together with the Little Red Ants studio and DDB, Superpixel was commissioned to create an animation to inform the public that “Antibiotics kill bacteria, but do not kill the flu viruses.” In this project, Superpixel created a 3D animation and transformed a creative concept into an almost realistic character.
2. Mandai Ranger Buddies
‘Mandai Ranger Buddies’ is a program that originated in Singapore that aims to nurture every child into an everyday hero that champions conservation and sustainability. This program built positive daily actions into everyday missions on the platform. Check out the animation Superpixel has created for this project!
3. Giant Plush Toys: The Goodness Gang
This project is initiated by Giant supermarket, which introduces some adorable fruit or vegetable plushies to get their customers to a healthy diet. In this project, Superpixel was commissioned to create a promo video to bring these plushies to life. Check out this video to view the cool animation Superpixel has made.
4. Change Up App Explainer Video
Change Up Application is an application developed by a European startup. Superpixel was commissioned to create a creative 3D explainer video. For this project, Superpixel Animation Studio created a frog character as their mascot and brought him to life with animation.
So what are you waiting for? Contact us and let’s start creating your very own animation for your brand, we can start by hearing your thoughts regarding your vision. Click this link to learn more about us.