It’s a match! 

Not so long ago, Stuck AI was looking for an explainer video making company. A company that could see what they saw, understood what they wanted, keep the conversation alive and give them exactly what they were expecting. Of course, they explored the market – until, a common friend told them about us.They called us… aaanddd… it was a match! This is the story of how Stuck AI’s explainer video took form. 

Stuck AI is a Canadian advertising company that delivers contextually aware location-based advertising, through their network of Internet-connected digital screens, mounted on car & storefront windows. Wondering how the magic happens? We did too. 

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The magic

Picture this. 

It is eight in the morning and you are walking to work. You pass a pub and (although you are a party animal) that is the last thing on your to-do. Evidently, you may not even notice the pub’s billboard about its HAPPY HOURS that start at 4 in the evening. Meanwhile, the same ad has higher prospects of delivering results by 1 PM. Because that is when people start walking around the neighborhood for lunch. These are the people who will probably want to visit the pub in the evening. 

So, Stuck AI with their digital screens mounted on cars and storefront windows starts displaying the particular advertisement by noon. 

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We got hooked right away and couldn’t wait to get our hands on this fascinating motion graphic animation project.

Forward dive 

The idea was laid out in front of us. All we had to do was write a script, illustrate the visuals, direct the video, animate, add voice over, music and sound effects…Ta-da and Stuck AI’s explainer would be ready. Stuck AI’s explainer needed no analogies or anecdotes to entice the viewers. We started out with general research about outdoor advertising and innovations in the field. The first thing to catch our eye was how the established traditional methods were not really helping a business’ client acquisition. 

We wanted Stuck AI’s explainer to start with the same observation. So, we introduced Stuck AI right after giving an idea about the inefficiencies of contemporary marketing and advertising tools. 

Scope for creativity

Stuck AI, as a product, is a very new technology. We needed to convey the idea in an effective manner through motion graphic animation. We had the responsibility to do justice to the innovative spirit of the Stuck AI team. 

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That’s where we had ourselves some challenges and the most fun while doing the creative direction. Let’s take ‘geo-fencing’ for instance. The challenge of presenting this modern technology visually in Stuck AI’s explainer resulted in one long brainstorming session. So did the process of visualizing the pain points of outdoor advertising. By the way, did you already know that there is no finite mode of calculating ROI made through outdoor advertising? 

Going the extra(vagant) mile! 

However, the illustrators were in for a treat. In a first, we went extravagant (read opposite of minimalist) with our illustrations. Simultaneously, we produced sharp and vivid illustrations with vibrant colours, to speak for Stuck AI’s professionalism.

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The script based on the futuristic idea of Stuck AI demanded a whole lot of characters and scenarios. Moreover, this was the first time we had illustrations of different generation’s characters in one frame. 

Then came the animation. 

Something new with Stuck AI’s explainer! 

We looked up the streets of Canada for inspiration. Ooh…Ooh..and we have Canada’s own CN tower in our video too. As the explainer is on outdoor advertising, the visuals were mainly streets, roads, and traffic. This meant that it was time to go top angle.

Yes! Top angles, a whole lot of characters and movements. We started doing all these in 2D.

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Not one, not two… four of our animators came together to shape up the project. Almost twenty 2D characters were animated separately by one of our team members. We realized very quickly the explainer needed a special treatment and started animating in 3D. 3D setups and movements were animated by the rest of the team. We animated a portion in 2.5D too. So Stuck AI’s explainer is part 2D, part 3D and also part 2.5D. 

The music, which gently elevated to be an impelling track, added liveliness to the explainer.  Similarly, the voice-over, with its persistent yet supple tone, got entwined with the video. The voice-over, sound effects, and music mended together with the video was basically our team asking ‘where the party at?’. 

Good things take time

Stuck AI, a product of a budding startup, was evolving with the video. Now, we wouldn’t actually call this a challenge. But, we wouldn’t disagree if you called it one. As the product evolved, we went on improvising with it. 

It may seem like the video took a small period of time, but, in fact, a lot had happened during the process. The founder of Stuck AI became a parent to a little doll; he took some time off to relish his little one’s presence. Seasons changed. People came in and went out of our lives(this is a lie). Well, all good things take time. We made the most of this time and crafted the video to perfection! 

It’s all just memories

And all good things come to an end. We won’t lie, when Stuck AI’s explainer making ended, it was a bit difficult at first. Even now, we aren’t totally over Stuck AI, we repeatedly play the motion graphic animation explainer we made for them,  looking for tiny moments of happiness. But, as two grown companies, we shook hands and bid our goodbyes. However, if there comes a time when we shall do this all over again, we’d say ‘yes’. 

Team 

Creative Direction: Udhaya Krishna

Animation Lead: Saravanan

Animation: Saravanan, Aravind, Gopalakrishnan, Dinesh 

Script: Vimida

Storyboard & illustration: Ganesh, Mohan Kumar

Project Manager: Mahesh Babu

Music and SFX: Suriya Boomibalan

Voice Over: Chelsea Bates

Account manager – Anil Kumar