2D Animation Services

Absolutely. Often we use custom character design for our 2D animations. It gives our clients a unique look and the opportunity to tell a story in an original way. We like to use anthropomorphism to give shapes and objects a feeling of character too. We have a roster of extremely talented illustrators who can create the perfect characters for your brand. An added benefit is that you can use these characters in future marketing campaigns and other marketing channels. They’re part of your brand.

We routinely work with brands that have extensive brand guidelines. We can also work with you to elevate your existing brand. We often find our extensive creative direction guides other suppliers. We will work with you to animate your logo and bring it to life.

Yes! We have a great roster of talented voice actors, able to turn their hands to a wide range of projects. From serious, professional scripts, through to playful characters. We can advise on nationalities, regional accents and much more. We can work together on what will work best for the project, and then supply you with a few options to pick your favourite.

There’s a common phrase in the UK - “how long is a piece of string”. And the answer is; it depends! If you have a very complex project with lots of moving parts and a long list of requirements then it’s going to take longer than a small, simple project with a single output. We typically say our sweet spot is 8 weeks. However, we can work together to meet any upcoming or urgent deadlines you may have. We routinely deliver animations within a 1-2 timeframe. We work in accordance with your needs.

One of our first questions will be ‘who is this for’, and ‘where will they see it?’ These two questions will answer this, but we have a couple rough rules of thumb. If it’s for paid advertising, keep it under 15 seconds. If it’s for organic advertising, keep it under 30 seconds. If it’s explaining a product or service then anywhere from 1-2 minutes should be your target. If it’s for training, then there’s no limit, but keep in mind people’s ability to hold concentration and attention! There is no definitive guide for how long a 2D animation for businesses should be, but we can define that together.

This is another example of “how long is a piece of string”. Ultimately it depends on a few factors; how quickly you need it, are there any versions that need to be made and how complex is the design style, to name just a few. We provide a free, no-obligation proposal with a couple of price options to meet a range of budgets. Drop us a message or give us a call and we can get you something to meet your requirements.

A 2D animation is a video typically made without cameras. The exception to this is stop-motion animation which is created from models that are photographed using a ‘time-lapse’. Most 2D animations are made from illustrations. There is a huge amount of variety and creativity that can be accessed through animation, and the options can seem overwhelming and endless. We’ll help you to choose a style that is appropriate for your brand and/or message.

We’ve worked with a wide range of businesses across many industries and see great success with professional 2D animation. 2D animation is a no-brainer when you have things that are hard to film, like underground waterproofing, the slow release of a drug inside your GI tract, or how electricity works. It’s also particularly useful when topics are extremely complex or hard to understand, like tech products. But these aren’t to say other businesses wouldn’t benefit from animation. Whether you’re using 2D animation for social media, your website or in sales materials, most businesses will benefit from animation. Think of it as video production without limitation!

Put simply, 2D animation is flat whereas 3D animation uses a third dimension. 2D animation is moving vector graphics, shapes, images and text around an artboard. 3D animation usually comprises modelling, lighting, texturing, simulating as well as animating. 3D animations tend to be photorealistic with physically accurate rendering, whereas 2D animations tend to be stylised and have a particular ‘look’. But these aren’t hard and fast rules.

We have an extremely thorough process in our 2D animation studio. There’s many steps that go into creating a 2D animation, but not to worry, as we do the bulk of them. A typical project will use a 2D animation process something like this - but no two projects are identical. We create a thorough brief of your requirements and objectives in our briefing workshop. We put together a bespoke proposal with a few cost options if you haven’t put a budget together, or don’t know what 2D animation cost. We create a series of mood boards that will define the style within the proposal option you chose. Then we take your likes and dislikes and create what we call ‘styleframes’. These are bespoke creative based on the moodboards, your brand and the style chosen. Simultaneously, we’re writing a script from your supplied materials, making sure the key beats are all covered, and the narrative is flowing. We create a ‘sketch’ storyboard that covers off the basics of the script, showing all the elements needed to understand the flow. Then once the sketch storyboard and styleframes are approved, we combine them, to create the ‘final’ storyboard; showing everything happening on screen, in full quality. 2D animation storyboarding is the final phase before we start making everything move smoothly. Finally, sound is layered on including voiceover (if required), music track and sound effects to accentuate movements. If there are further variations needed, like different sizes, lengths or languages, these’ll be done at the end for maximum efficiency. 

It sounds like a lot, but we’ve guided hundreds of projects successfully on time and on budget. We’re here to make the process smooth for you. It should require around an hour of your time each week of production for meetings with us, and any you might have internally.

Yes! We have a great roster of talented voice actors, able to turn their hands to a wide range of projects. From serious, professional scripts, through to playful characters. We can advise on nationalities, regional accents and much more. We can work together on what will work best for the project, and then supply you with a few options to pick your favourite.

Absolutely. We make the process as collaborative as possible. Each of our ‘stages’ (moodboard, storyboard, etc) are designed to build on each other. Everything is built on finding your preferences in a quick and efficient way so the actual animation stage runs as smoothly as possible. With each stage we include a round of feedback and amends to ensure comments are captured, considered and resolved before moving on. 

It is important to note, and we always discuss this at the start of any potential project, that going backwards through the stages may incur fees. For example, if we’ve got everything approved and have started animation, and the decision is made to change a fundamental part of the script, this will impact the storyboard and potentially a voiceover. We’d always have the conversation and advise what the cost would be to do this.

Most brands and companies come to us with a tone of voice document which would outline how the brand should sound in messaging and communications. If you don’t have a document like this, it’s not a problem. We have fantastic scriptwriters that relish in cooking up delicious snippets of text and copy. The same goes for the design. We’re well versed in working with brand guidelines and seeking out the edges of how to use what we have, or look to push the design forwards. You’re in regular communication with us, often weekly, so you stay involved and collaborate with us, without us adding lots of work back onto your desk.

Typically we deliver MP4’s. These are the most common video file type. If you really want to get technical with us and let us geek out, then we encode to H.264 or H.265. We also can deliver in raw .MOV format if you need, although this is increasingly rare. If you have a specific requirement, we’ll discuss it right at the start of any enquiry.

We’re often creating professional 2D animation for social media usage. Brands know how powerful a video can be on platforms for capturing attention and enhancing performance. We’ve got some great results where we’ve delivered multiple times the click through rate (CTR) vs static photography or graphics. This would be something we spoke about at the start, as it would influence certain aspects of the project. For example, we would suggest certain aspect ratios (like portrait for stories), and certain durations (like a 10s version & a 20s version).

There are definitely advantages and disadvantages to both, but overall, we believe in the power of 2D animation. We have the ability to transcend reality, which sounds extraordinary! But it really means that we aren’t limited by camera, locations, actors or props. We can just make the most imaginative, thoughtful and powerful creative. We can also work with live-action footage, incorporating it into our 2D animations (typically motion graphics). 2D animation lets you work with text, characters, narrative, story, imagery, footage, and much, much more. The options are almost limitless, and we believe for that reason, it takes the edge over live action videos.

We offer both. As with most things in life, there are scales of efficiency at play. The more you commission work, generally the quicker and easier it becomes to produce subsequent work. This is because we understand each other more, we know the in’s and out’s of your brand, your communication style, how to get the best from each other, more information about your product/service, and can build a team dedicated to delivering work. We only get this luxury after we’ve worked together (at least once). We do find that most (75%) of our clients return to us for a second project, so it doesn’t have to be a retainer for ongoing work.

Typically our clients test the waters with a one-off project, see the results we can enable, and come back to commission more.

We can work with almost anything. We like to say, if it moves, then we can do it. However, we’d need insight into your existing illustrations and artwork as there may be some additional pre-production work to organise the files and prep them for animation. There is a certain way that illustration has to be created for it to be illustrated and we’d need to gauge that before committing to a budget. The good news is that it could well make your 2D animation cost less as some design work would’ve been done already. However, we always prefer to create illustrations ourselves as we can make exactly what we need to tell the story in the best possible way.

2D animation for businesses are only really limited by your budget. If you want to create the John Lewis advert with live-action, you’d need locations, scouts, gaffers, sparks, camera ops, hair and makeup, catering, kit hire, and on and on. With 2D animation, it’s just how quickly you’d like it, what style you’re looking to achieve, and what the end requirements are. 

We always create a proposal with at least 2 options. This way, you can see what the option costs and what it would look like. We don’t do things like licensing. Once it’s been done and paid for, it’s yours. You don’t need to pay us down the line to use it again. Everything we create and illustrate is yours for other marketing channels too.

Motion graphics is what it sounds like - graphics (design) in motion. It has its roots in graphic design. This would be text, imagery, textures, simple shapes, graphic elements. Think of it like a brochure that moves, or a website that moves. 2D animation is founded more in storytelling and illustration. Think more like an animated film. There’s often no text, very rarely imagery or footage, and relies on illustrations to tell the story.

This would be more applicable to motion graphics as you’d design the infographics first in line with graphic design principles, then come on to animate those designs. You could use illustrations and animations as part of this, but it wouldn’t strictly be 2D animation.