Our Process
Here at Stretch, we pride ourselves in bringing your vision to life using a variety of techniques!
Building Your Idea
It is important to us that your idea is understood and envisioned. With that in mind, we take great steps to communicate with you to explore your intended project.
Stage 1: What Are You Looking For?
To begin with, we meet with you online to establish what you would like from our services, including the requested service(s), the quantity, the visual style and any other relevant information. We repeat this back to you in writing to ensure that we properly understand your vision and that any necessary amendments can be made.
Stage 2: Is This What You're Looking For?
Here, we return to you with early production versions of the project, primarily a rough annotated storyboard and pieces of concept art. This showcases what we envision your project will look like once the main production process begins. We do this to ensure that our interpretation matches your vision, allowing for any requested adjustments to be made.
Stage 3: Timelining the Project
With both you and us confident of the vision of the project, we will work out a timeline for how long each stage of the project will take, as well as the commission for the piece(s).
Stage 4: Production
At this point, production of your envisioned project begins. We begin the pre-production, leading into the main production and any necessary editing afterwards. Weekly check-ins ensure you are kept up-to-date with the project's progress and that you are happy that it fits the agreed brief.
Stage 5: Completion!
Your project is completed in alignment with the agreed brief and we send you the final rendered version of your project.
Case Studies
Take a look at our previous projects to see how we develop our animations!
Case Study 1: The Genco Study
01
Idea Communication
Here, we discussed with our client their idea and the aims they had for our animation via a video call. In this instance, our client requested a short animated piece using simple, clear visuals to demonstrate the findings of their academic research. Additionally, they requested a series of character designs of both people working in medical professions and patients for use in both this animation and their further projects. From this, we were able to develop a projected timeline for the project - 1 week for the character designs, 1 week for the storyboard and 5 weeks for the animation.
02
Pre Production
With our client's brief in mind, we then developed a range of character and environment concept art to ensure the visual style of our work would fit with our client's intended look. Once our client was please with our concept work, we moved on to developing a storyboard for the animation. Through this process, we regularly communicated with out client, sending the work-in-progress versions of the storyboard as it was developing to ensure the piece properly demonstrated our client's intention.
03
Animation Production
In this stage, we began development of the animation. Using a draft voice recording of the script our client sent us, we implemented the backgrounds for each shot of the animation to line up with the dialogue and the timings projected in our storyboard. This allowed us to immediately get a stronger idea of the timings of the animation. From this, we developed the key frames of the animation. These are drawings which showcase the start and end points of a movement. By doing this, we could present a general idea of what the piece would look like before beginning the lengthy animation progress, allowing us to check back with our client to ensure they were happy with how things looked - which they were. Following this, we developed the rest of the animation, drawing the remaining frames and regularly showing our client how the work was progressing.
04
Post-Production
With the main animation finished, we moved on to post-production. Here, we implemented credits, links and other information requested by our client. Furthermore, we added the finalised version of the dialogue our client provided us with to the animation, making slight adjustments to the visuals to ensure they still properly aligned with the audio. With this, our client signed off on the project and we delivered the finished rendered piece!
Case Study 2: Your Brain is Amazing
01
Idea Communication
To begin, we talked with our client over a video call about their idea and the intentions they had for our animation. This included the visual style, what ideas they wanted to present and the length of the animation. Our client then provided us with a visualisation of their idea through some Adobe Illustrator images they had created. From this, we immediately understood the visual style they wanted. Following this, our client provided us with a storyboard for the animation for us to adapt.
02
Pre Production
As our client had provided us with their own storyboard for the animation, we were able to begin animating straight away.
03
Animation Production
Using the storyboard provided as reference, we began to develop the animation, starting with the key frames (drawings of the defining poses in a movement) to create an idea of what the animation would look like. This allowed us to check back with out client to see if they were happy with the look, or wanted anything altered from the storyboard. Following this, we developed the remaining frames of the animation whilst regularly meeting with out client to ensure they were happy with how the animation was progressing. Our client requested some altercations, which we implemented following our discussion clarifying exactly what they wanted.
04
Post-Production
With the main animation finished, we edited the video together with the animated opening and closing title cards (which we were also commissioned to develop) and ensured the visuals and audio of the piece were properly aligned for rendering. With our animation fitting our client's brief, they signed off on the project and we send them the rendered animation!
"There’s so much we love about [the] animation… the tiger scene is brilliant, and the kitten is really cute, the look of the stripes and the running character work so well - and it totally communicates the feel and the story that we need."
- Nicola Jane, Growing Me CIC
"Exactly what I was looking for. It really gets across the points of the research project clearly in a concise and engaging way!"
- Dr Helen Anderson RN , York University
Our Previous Clients
We are currently working on an explainer animation for Sheffield Hallam University.