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Explainer Video

Holly Reidy & Sophia Bonaccorsi

Ideation

Brief

To better inform our viewers by giving them video-based content to help explain today’s complex topics. To create clear, engaging and visually stunning assets that support online articles. These are not just little videos, these are high quality, beautiful visual stories.

Script

Rats today are commonly perceived as filthy, disease-carrying creatures. They raid our food supplies, damage our infrastructure, and considered a menace to society.

 

 Rats have long been associated with the spread of the Black Death, one the most devastating pandemics in history. However, recent research shows the spread was actually lice and fleas.

 

Rats are remarkable. They can learn to play hide-and-seek with humans, simply for the fun of it. They even appear to laugh in their own way.

 

Much of our knowledge about rats’ emotional and intellectual worlds comes from experiments in which rats are used as subjects. These experiments have revealed that rats are capable of complex behaviors and showcasing empathy.

 

In a world where rats have been the subject of disapproval, it might be time to rethink our perception. After all, they can be playful, intelligent, and even charming. Just like another animal we often treat with kindness and respect. (dogs)

So, perhaps the next time you encounter a rat, you’ll see a potential furry friend instead.

Pitch

RATframe01.png
RatFrame003.png
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RATframe2.png
RatFrame4.png
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The first direction was chosen to go forward, with some edits. We had to work on contrast and add more colors to our scheme.

Work Divide

Together, Holly and I worked to establish a design style that we would both use. I developed the initial style frames that we used as our style reference. Then we each took a piece of the script to work on. Holly worked on the first half and I worked on the second half. 

Animatic

Summary

This stage was about getting the timing of the piece right, making sure the script we wrote was working, and creating imagery that conveys the ideas.

Artboard 1.png
Artboard 2.png

Notes

At this point the visuals and timing seemed to be working so we moved on with designing frames.

First Pass

Artboard 4 (1).png
Artboard 5.png
Artboard 8.png
Jail.png
Cheers.png
Guilty.png
Playful.png
Smart.png
Dog.png
tails.png

Summary

This pass we worked toward completing all of our style frames and making them feel cohesive.

Notes

The main note given was to integrate more rat related items such as rat traps and rat toys to create a comparison between how rats are perceived and what they're really like.

Second Pass

Summary

At this stage we were working toward getting some solid animation tests to establish a baseline for the whole piece.

Notes

The animation at this point was a bit stiff and needed more of the animation principles.

Revision Pass

Summary

By this pass, I had finished most of the second half and we were reworking some of the first half.

Notes

The animation still needed a bit more life and our creative director advised us to add some texts elements across the piece.

Final Pass

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