Creating an animation to illustrate what a piece of software does is quite tricky, but it’s probably better than trying to describe it, or for that matter, walking you through the software’s workings – although I did use a few examples of the real nitty gritty here.

The concepts behind Prodeceo’s online training system were all pretty abstract and it came down to trying to find generic symbols that were appealing enough to present them. I’m particularly proud of the ‘working from home’ image – it’s the same as the office image except there’s a cat on the desk.

Categories: 3d Animation | Tags: 3d animation, Business Graphics | No Comments

This is a little 2d motion graphics piece in a South Park-style created for the Vehicle Emissions Partnership at West Lothian Council. It was designed to encourage drivers to switch off their engines instead of ‘idling’ but the target audience was primary school-age. (What better way to get drivers to switch off their engines than to have their kids nag them into it?) So I created these little characters and lip-synched them to voiceover with various vehicles demonstrating the problem.

I had to find a way of illustrating pollution so that kids could understand it so I came up with the coughing bird and the sudden changes to monochrome. The other tricky thing was illustrating asthma. This had me stumped for a while until I decided to make the word itself expand and contract as if breathing.

I’m quite fond of idling myself, but I don’t need a car for that.

Categories: 2d Motion Graphics, Business Graphics | Tags: 2d animation, Business Graphics, Motion Graphics, Scotland | No Comments

This animation piece was commissioned by Sky Television for a management conference and was screened at the massive O2 Cineworld in London. The video above shows the rushes I created for them and the video below shows how these were used in the overall presentation by Edinburgh’s LA Media.

The idea was to illustrate the communication process between customers, engineers and sales staff and the fibre optic line effect connected the various satellite points in the galaxy.

It wasn’t the simplest of tasks, most notably because of the very short timeframe involved. It’s not every day you get asked ‘can you build us an inter-connecting galaxy by next week?’

This is an excerpt from LA Media’s excellent corporate presentation for the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. At one point in the script there was a need to show the centre’s close proximity to all Edinburgh’s main landmarks and most thriving tourist spots, so I was asked to create this whirlwind tour of the city. In terms of geography, it’s actually reasonably accurate!

To close the presentation I created the fairly simple but effective animation of the EICC logo with it’s square-set forms and letters.

Categories: 3d Animation, Business Graphics | Tags: 3d design, Business Graphics, EICC, Edinburgh, Scotland | No Comments

This presentation piece for Visit Scotland uses three different animation techniques for the three individual areas I was asked to cover: the fluttering ident, the landscape text, and the names that form into words. (These are the names of Visit Scotland employees.)

Each section was created with 3d animation and each brought it’s own challenges. But I have to admit there was something quite satisfying about making that text run along the top of the bridges.

Categories: Business Graphics | Tags: Business Graphics, Scotland, Visit Scotland | No Comments

This 3d animation formed the backdrop to a corporate awards ceremony held in Lisbon. The client was looking for a lifestyle piece that would provide an overall theme for the event and give a chilled out tone to the proceedings. I used these 2d illustrations and placed them in a 3d environment, adding some specifically 3d design tricks such as pool reflections and mirrorball lighting.

Categories: 3d Animation | Tags: 3d design, Business Graphics | No Comments

Corporate broadcasting is becoming increasingly viable over the internet, and businesses are now waking up to the online possibilities for video. Having worked in television and been a seasoned web designer, bringing the two sides together was a natural progression. For this piece of web video by LA Media, I was brought in to assemble all the video elements and help to integrate it with the Scottish Power website.

Categories: Web Video, Business Graphics | Tags: Business Graphics | No Comments

Standard Life were using a marbles theme throughout their printed literature and the natural extension of this was to animate them, to keep their branding consistent across all media. This 3d animation was used in their corporate broadcasting but also looped to create a very effective screensaver.

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Check-In was one of NatWest’s regular corporate broadcast programmes. It was important that it felt like a current affairs programme, so I took the footage within this 3d design title sequence from the body of each month’s show. This meant not only that the titles felt more localised but they also never got a chance to appear staid, even after a year’s worth of shows.

Categories: Business Graphics | Tags: Business Graphics | No Comments