Janine Macdonald

Logo looking a bit lifeless?

Animation is a great way to bring your company logo to life. It gives it personality; it's far more memorable to the viewer, and it can be utilised across a range of media. Here's a selection of logo animations we've created:

BOP Film Logo

BOP Film contracted Braincell to animate their logo for use across various media.

When we saw the logo we could immediately visualise how it would be brought to life. The tricky part was capturing the bird's naturally distinct character which, thanks to Youtube, we found perfect video references.

It was a fun, fast-turnaround project resulting in a quirky yet life-like 2D animation.

Logo Showreel

This short sequence showcases some animations we've created over the years. We've included a selection of 2D & 3D animations covering a range of styles - cartoon through to technical design.

And, as the animation is short, it doesn't cost the earth. In fact, we can deliver on any budget!

Is it time to resuscitate your lifeless logo and bring it to life in animation? Let's chat!

“Lost for words, the whole team love it. Massive thank you to you and the team for nailing it first shot. Excited to roll this out!”
— JOSH GRANT, CEO, BINDERPOS

NZTE Capability Voucher Funding

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We're here to help! Did you know we're a registered strategic marketing provider for the NZTE Capability Voucher Funding scheme? The Capability Voucher Funding helps business owners to access business training and coaching services, by providing them with up to a 50% subsidy towards the registered service cost (capped at $5000 p.a).

The funding is one of the services available through the Regional Business Partner (RBP) Network to support business owners looking to grow and innovate. Whether it’s an in-depth marketing or brand strategy, or a concise one-page plan, we work with you one-on-one (no horrible group sessions) to build your knowledge and reach your goals. And remember, if you’re eligible, the voucher can be used to cover up to 50% of our service cost!

Any business can meet with us to discuss Marketing and/or Brand Strategy development, however to access co-funding your business must also meet the following criteria:

  • Have undergone an assessment with a Regional Partner (ie: Growth Advisor)

  • Have fewer than 50 full time equivalent employees

  • Be registered for GST in New Zealand

  • Be operating in a commercial environment

  • Be a privately owned business, or a Maori Trust or incorporation under the Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993, or similar organisation.

Want to find out more? Read about one of our sample Case Studies here and Get in touch with us for a chat over a coffee. You can also register to meet with your local RBP Growth Advisor to access your eligibility here.

Expose your brand!

Tradeshows give businesses the opportunity to engage and interact face-to-face with their target audience. They help raise brand awareness, provide a platform to launch new products, and allow you to network and build your database.

We recently finished developing Doherty Attachments & Couplers trade stand design for the National Diesel Dirt & Turf Expo which won Best Large Stand and Best Overall Stand.

For your next Tradeshow or Expo we’re here to help. We can offer full stand design through to individual elements such as backdrops, bannerstands, posters, tents and marquees, flags, fence wraps, table wraps/cloths - and that’s only naming a few! Check out some examples below:

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Humour in content marketing

Humour can be a very strong tool when used correctly in content marketing. This 1 minute spot had us in stitches. Combined with a pleasing female lead and solid acting, the commercial exaggerated it's edge on its competitors and turned the premise into one amusing narrative. Most of the best and unforgettable media campaigns use humour.

Comedy can be tricky though as it can become cheesy and cheap. Some people will find one thing funny, but some may not. In today’s politically correct environment, be cautious in dealing with sensitive issues such as sex, race, religion and politics. So take the time and care to infuse humour in your content.

Using Stock Footage

Want to have live footage on your video but limited in time? Or maybe you have the need for a range of footage filmed in different locations but the logistics are proving to be a nightmare. Or is budget just too tight? Well, you might be surprised how stock footage can save you time and money as well as give you a professional and effective solution.

Nowadays, you’ll find so many options on the web. From public domain or free video clips, to exclusive rights, high quality HD footage, you’ll have endless stock footage to choose from. Check out these two examples we made for our UK client. These are two large companies that chose to use stock footage for their company videos. It's a strategy that works.

Of course, quality editing, appropriate motion graphics and music, along with a market oriented script fully completes the recipe to give oomph!

TCC - 15th Ave Sequels

Hot off Lou's animation desk this month are 4 awesome sequels to Tauranga City Council’s 15th Avenue animation. For this project we used freehand drawn assets created in our first animation and animated in After Effects, with additional assets developed for different scenarios to reinforce the messages TCC wanted to convey. The animations were showcased on social media to encourage discussion on how to make Tauranga safe and as easy as possible for people of all ages and abilities to move around more effectively.

If you're looking for something similar to communicate to your audience, you can get in touch with us here.

Let music breathe life into your AV's

We’re hard-wired to respond to music and when used in combination with animation or video it can breathe life into any production. It can make you feel relaxed, energised, sad, happy… every emotion we feel can be enhanced through music and as visual storytellers we need to harmonise both the visual and audio so they feel synced, balanced and complement each other.

There’s great benefits to using music in your productions. Either used subtlely in the background with overlayed dialogue or in the foreground driving the animation, it can take the viewer from only seeing and hearing to feeling the scenes and generating the impact needed for it to become memorable. From simple bed-lines, sweeping and building audio-scapes to choreographed visual cues, we can draw the viewer’s attention, create anticipation, tension, climax and resolve, inspiring each scene and elevating them further.

Whether your brand or story is corporate, upbeat, energetic or relaxed, music can help create an enduring and meaningful production. Take a look at this production we did for a themed event where music has helped bring the production and era to life:

More of our work can be seen here and here.

Building exceptional visualisations!

Nerd alert! With the introduction of Cinema 4D R20 and the new CAD import function we continue to build amazing visualisations but even better and faster.

In previous versions there was never a perfect solution to getting the best geometry conversion from CAD surfaces to C4D. With back and fourth testing of different formats, inconsistent results from different CAD programs, time consuming imports, models that imported with disconnected surfaces which complicated texturing, it was always a hit and miss pipeline. It also meant if the model was complex C4D would quickly slow down to a crawl trying to compute dense geometry where it wasn’t really needed.

This all changes with Cinema 4D R20. With the introduction of the latest version we now have a better, faster, more reliable solution for importing CAD models with easy drag and drop of files (Solidworks, STEP, Catia, JT and IGES files). In fact, just about any CAD program can export to this file, and it’s extremely quick! Most importantly, we have greater control over the model. As an example, no more texturising of hundreds of individual screws. Now we only need to texturise the one screw, C4D then populates that texture to ALL screws within the model. Awesome!

There's great benefits of using 3D visualisation for your products. It’s a cost effective alternative to photography with the ability to not only animate products for demonstration and how-to videos, but easy to make changes to colour, geometry, camera angle, lighting – the list goes on.

Take a look at some of the visualisations we’ve done for some of our clients using CAD files…

Educating Tauranga residents with 2D animation

Hot off Lou's animation desk is Tauranga City Council's new fortnightly residential glass collection service which starts in October. 

For this project we used a similar 2D animation style we've created for other TCC educational videos. This particular style (created with freestyle drawings and animated in After Effects) is such an effective vehicle to engage and educate the audience in a friendly and informative way.

I absolutely love how our clever team can take a few bullet points and bring them to life through animation. Trust me, it takes a lot of work to make it all look so simple!

If you're looking for something similar to communicate to your audience, then let's have a chat.