TFL and the London Bus Network needed a series of animated films to train their staff around best practises to be supportive of their customers. These were shown at bus depot staff areas and on social media.

Client

London Bus Network

Agency Straightforward Communications Ltd.

Illustration, Animation and EditingEugene Constable

CASE STUDY
London Bus Network - Driver behaviour training

01. Storyboard
Working from an inital rough script, the first step is to sketch out thumbnails to describe each scene into a draft storyboard. Here we can work out the range of characters, environments and camera angles that best tell the story for each film.

02. Animation Look: Character and Environment Development
With the rough storyboard approved, we then develop the look for the animations. Starting with the characters, we needed show a wide range of ages and diversity, whilst also keeping a consistent design style. The characters were also designed in a way that allows them to be rigged for animation later in the process.

03. Illustrated Storyboard and Animatic
Once we have our characters and environments designed, it’s time to finalise the illustration work for all the scenes in the storyboard, ready for animation. I’ll then import them into Premiere pro to create a basic edit or ‘animatic’ (sequence of stills) with a guide voice over. Here I can get the scene timings right and place in some music and sound effects, to get a sense of how it’s working overall. This is shared with the client before going into animation.

04: Animation

For animation, the characters are carefully designed in Adobe Illustrator, ensuring a seamless connection between the body, head and each of the limbs. These layered files are then imported in to After Effects and bought to life. For the walk cycles I used an AE plugin called DUIK, which is great for all kinds of character movement.

All the backgrounds are designed in Adobe Illustrator as vectors, this way the artwork stays smooth and sharp, even when we zoom in close.

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