Sometimes you’ve got a clear idea of what you need, but sometimes you don’t. During our discovery call, we can review your goals and come up with solutions to meet them, as well as options at different budget points.
Science illustration projects include several review steps:
Pencil sketch
The pencil sketch is a rough outline of the content and layout of the illustration. This is the perfect stage for big edits! We can also jump on a video call and do a live sketch review, including sketch annotation during the discussion.
(Review & feedback)
Digital sketch
The digital sketch is a tighter drawing of the illustration produced on the computer. It’s still mostly in grayscale, with some spot color. There’s a complete draft of any text or labels, and any 3D models are brought in at this stage.
(Review & feedback)
Draft
The draft is as close to final as possible, albeit low resolution. We use the full color palette and refine the lighting and style. At this point, there should only be small content edits needed, since you already reviewed the pencil sketch and digital sketch.
(Review & feedback)
Final
The final is high resolution and incorporates any final tweaks needed. If you’re still refining text or labels, we can prepare either an Adobe Illustrator or a Powerpoint version with editable text.
Explainer videos, like mechanism of action animations, usually include narration and take at least 45 seconds to explain a scientific concept. Long form animation production is broken into the following steps:
Script writing
The script determines the animation length and content. We’ll identify the most important concepts to fit your target runtime. A good rule of thumb for scientific animation is 120 words of script = 1 minute of animation.
(Review & feedback)
Storyboarding & voiceover selection
The storyboard is a visual outline for the animation. It includes a pencil sketch of the planned visual for each line of the script. This ensures that relevant action is happening at each moment of the voiceover. We’ll also send a list of 2-3 scientific narrators and samples for you to choose from.
(Review & feedback, voiceover selection)
Initial draft animation
The draft animation is the “ugly duckling” version of the animation. It has voiceover and captures the movement, timing, and labeling. However it’s missing the final look and feel.
(Review & feedback)
Style frames
Style frames are stills from each scene of the animation showing how the final lighting and materials will look.
(Review & feedback)
Refined draft animation
The refined draft is low resolution and incorporates the movement from the draft animation, and the look and feel from the style frames.
(Review & feedback)
Final animation
The final animation is the high resolution version, including any final tweaks from the refined draft stage. We can prepare a range of sizes, and can also create variations as needed – some common requests are versions without voiceover, or short segments as separate videos.
Short videos take less than 20 seconds to show a scientific concept without voiceover or captions. They can be used as looping website headers, or to demonstrate one idea in a presentation.
Storyboarding
The storyboard is a visual outline for the animation. It includes a rough pencil sketch of the planned visual for each step of the motion.
(Review & feedback)
Draft animation
The draft animation is the “ugly duckling” version of the animation. It has voiceover and captures the movement, timing, and labeling. However it’s missing the final look and feel.
(Review & feedback)
Revised draft animation
The revised draft animation includes motion edits, and a low res preview of the render style.
(Review & feedback)
Style Frame
The style frame is a high resolution still image from the animation showing how the final lighting and materials will look.
(Review & feedback)
Final animation
The final animation brings together the movement from draft animation and look from style frames. I’ll prepare a few different sizes, and we can also create variations with different title or credit screens as needed.
