For local authorities promoting public services, animation offers a lot of benefits — particularly for new projects. So, when North Yorkshire County Council launched the YorBus pilot scheme, they came to us for an animated explainer video.
It’s important to recognise that public sector animation often serves a subtly different promotional purpose than commercial service animation. While companies often use animation and motion graphics to sell to prospective buyers, councils need to explain services already provided. Above all, they need to generate awareness and understanding, rather than revenue and profit (even when it’s a paid-for service). That may call for a different communication style — but North Yorkshire County Council knew from experience that we could deliver.
Public Services Animation with
Motion Graphics and 2D Characters
- North Yorkshire County Council
- Local Government
- www.northyorkshire.gov.uk
Visual Design, Location Building, Scriptwriting, Storyboard, Animation, Voiceover and Audio
Thank you for your and Lauren’s great work on this project and for turning it around so quickly. The video is fab!
It has been lovely working with you and I shall certainly keep you in mind if we require another animated video in the future.
Manying Siu, Marketing & Communications Officer / North Yorkshire County Council
With this project, we did a lot of work with the client up-front to build a clear vision and understanding. Investing that time in pre-production paid off for everyone.
Once we jumped into production, the animation process was straightforward, and very quick. And since the council knew exactly what was coming, there were minimal changes and amends.
That gave us scope to finesse the details. Lauren particularly enjoyed capturing the Yorkshire scenery — and everyone who saw them loved the sheep! Later, we were able to capture and incorporate genuine output from the app, instead of having to fake it.
“But how does it work?”
When we delivered the first animation, our contact, Manying Siu, said she’d come back to us if they needed more. We didn’t realise how soon that would come, though.
Evidently, raising awareness of YorBus services was only half the battle. Having established that, the council also had to explain to the public how to use it, step by step.
Another animation was the obvious answer, and we got straight into it.
It’s something clients often overlook, particularly if they’re used to live action video projects. Shooting new scenes on video costs as much for the last day as it did for the first. That doesn’t change even if you’re going back to the same places, with the same cast and crew. Animated characters, on the other hand, don’t get a day rate; and locations are free once they’re in the computer.
We had already done the design work and created the characters and other assets for the first video. As a result, creating a second, “how to” animation was a very quick and cost-effective process.
