ENMAX is a Canadian company based in Alberta. It provides electricity, natural gas, and renewable energy services across the province. They were looking for a 2D animation explainer video to illustrate all the steps involved in the billing process. The idea was to explain the billing process as if someone was purchasing a pizza.
Studio: Gloo Studios
Role: illustration & animation
Style
The client provided a reference video called Umbro Blackout, created by BUCK. The desired result was an animated hand-drawn look with smooth transitions between scenes and a limited color palette.
To start, I developed a storyboard based on the script. I use Pinterest to create mood boards.
After receiving approval from the client, I started the creation of illustrations using Adobe Illustrator.
Animation
I animated this project using Adobe After Effects. To bring the assets from Adobe Illustrator into Adobe After Effects, I utilized the Overlord plugin. To achieve a hand-drawn animation look, I used the Turbulence Displacement effect to distort the lines, and set the frame rate to 12 fps. For further information on this technique, I recommend watching the tutorial Create an Instant Hand-drawn Look in After Effects by Ben Mariott.
One issue I faced during the animation was jittering in some movements. The solution was suggested by Gloo Studios. Instead of animating the entire video at 12 fps, they recommended to animate actions at 12 fps and camera movements at 24 fps. To learn more about this topic check out this link: How Oscar-winning 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' changed comic book movies forever.
To animate the pizzaiolo, I found references on YouTube.
Here's an example video.
I imported these videos into Adobe After Effects to watch them in slow motion and even frame by frame.
Here's an example of my creative process. Sketching, illustrating, and animating.
