Motion graphics brief template

When "we have the assets, they just need to move" is true, when it is secretly a 2D animation, and how the brief tells them apart.

Start this briefAbout 90 seconds. No account.

Motion graphics is the technique clients reach for when they say "we have the assets, we just need them to move". Sometimes that is exactly true, and the job is a fast, cheap treatment of a logo, some type and existing footage. Sometimes the assets do not exist in the form the animator needs, and the job quietly becomes a 2D animation with a motion-graphics budget. The brief is where those two possibilities get told apart.

What "existing material" actually means

An animator can work with a logo in vector, footage at the right resolution, product stills with enough pixels to be cropped, and a typeface that is licensed for use in video. An animator cannot work with a logo in a Word document, a PowerPoint export, or a JPEG from the website. The list of what exists is the most important part of a motion-graphics brief, and every unticked item is either a line in the estimate or a reason the technique is not really motion graphics.

Where it plays sets the frame

Idents and stings for a venue screen have no sound. A website hero loop is muted, must loop seamlessly and has a file-weight budget. A LinkedIn feed plays silent by default and needs captions. Digital out-of-home wants no small type and high contrast. The placement decides the frame, the duration ceiling, the sound default and the safe areas, and none of that needs to be written by the briefer. Choose the placements and it is derived.

Type on screen

A great deal of motion graphics is animated type, which means the words have to exist before the animation does. A brief that says "text on screen" and does not say who is writing the text has left out the thing the animator is waiting for. If there is a voiceover instead, the same applies to the script.

Music drives the edit

Motion graphics cut to a track feels different from motion graphics with music laid under it afterwards. If the music is to be licensed, the territory and term have to be decided, and a worldwide perpetual licence costs many times a one-year, one-territory one. If the track exists, the animator needs it before starting, not after.

Idents are many, not one

A set of idents or bumpers is usually five to ten pieces that share a system: the same logo resolve, the same transitions, different content. Brief them as a system with a count, not as one film, or the quote will be for one film.

Versions

Language versions on a motion-graphics job multiply the text layers, which is cheap if the animation was built for it and expensive if it was not. Say the count in the brief and the animator builds the text as a separable layer from the start.

The one thing that must not be got wrong

For motion graphics it is very often the logo animation: the resolve, the clear space, the speed at which the mark can move before it stops looking like the mark. Put it at the top, in a box.

The questions, and what goes wrong without them

  1. Scope
    What are you making?
    Without it the designer prices the smallest reading of the job and everything after is a change request.
  2. Scope
    Where will it play?
    Each placement is its own deliverable with its own ratio, duration and sound rules. Three placements briefed as one film is a threefold deliverable count nobody priced.
  3. Scope
    Which cut is the hero?only when it applies
    A 9:16 hero re-framed to 16:9 is a different film from the reverse, and the difference is usually a shoot decision.
  4. Craft
    How is it made?
    Live action and 3D can differ four times over in cost. Left open, the designer quotes for the cheapest reading.
  5. Craft
    What does this need?only when it applies
    A shoot day implies a producer; talent implies casting; a location implies permits. Unnamed, these arrive as extras.
  6. Craft
    What kind of 3D?only when it applies
    Photoreal 3D built from scratch is a different budget from stylised work on existing models.
  7. Craft
    Sound
    A voice means a script someone has to write. Licensed music means a territory and a term someone has to negotiate.
  8. Look
    Pick what you like
    People are unreliable at describing taste and reliable at recognising it. Five picks say more than a paragraph of adjectives.
  9. Look
    Your picks pull two ways. Which is closer?only when it applies
    When the references contradict each other, the designer has to pick a side. Better that you do.
  10. Look
    What exists, and what must appear?
    Every unticked asset is a line in the estimate. Skipping this produces the phrase 'we assumed you had that'.
  11. Look
    Who is this for?
    A film for existing customers and a film for people who have never heard of you are different films.
  12. Practicalities
    Budget range
    A band is a signal about which kind of job is on the table, not a commitment. Without one the designer guesses.
  13. Practicalities
    When does it go live?
    A date only means something next to the minimum production window. If they do not fit, better to know now.
  14. Practicalities
    Who signs it off?
    The number of approvers, with a named tiebreak, predicts revision rounds better than anything else in the brief.
  15. Practicalities
    The one thing that must not be got wrong
    Every project has one. It is rarely written down because it feels obvious to the person who knows it.
Answer them by tapping

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