Animation requires more time in pre-production than anything else we do. It is really important to get good, visual storyboards created and only progress with the video when these are signed off.
These should include:
Graphic creation can take a long time, so we often use stock graphics (these can be tweaked if needed but will save a huge amount of time).
The actual animation process takes time but should be fairly straight forward if you have a good storyboard. We tend to record the audio track first (voice over part anyway) and will sometimes select a music track. This gives us all the timings. Next, we will make an animatic, which entails overlaying the storyboard to the music and voice over. This helps solidify timings and also breaks the video down into sections which will be easier to animate.
We then go through and replace the animatic with the proper animation.
The final bit is sound effects; we add these as they can really help sell what’s happening on screen.