Let's keep it moving
September, 2005
Last month I wrote about vision, and the response created by powerful images. A single image captures a single moment in time, and has the potential to produce those proverbial 1000 words.
What if you could see 30 images every second? If they were 1000 words each, could you even read that fast? What is the potential response from such an experience?
Well, everyone has had just such an experience. If you've ever seen a television, you've seen almost 30 images every second. When you go to the movies, it's only 24 images every second, as if only 24 might allow you to somehow catch up.
The purpose of using such a high speed stream of images is to fool your brain. The world we live in is not static. Things are constantly moving. The only way to create the moving effect in an archival format is to save a series of images. If those images change slightly as they stream by, the brain is trained to stitch them together, and create the illusion of movement.
So what does all this have to do with business communication?
There are some things that just cannot be explained. A visual representation conveys the concept with a clarity that an explanation just can't match. Taking that a step further, sometimes a still image provides only a glimpse of what needs to be told. The ability to show action can be invaluable when trying to show the mechanism of action of a complex biological reaction, for example.
Animation is a powerful medium for showing such complex ideas. In the case of the biological mechanism of action, there is the barrier of technical knowledge. When reading a journal containing the scientific jargon, it can be quite a task to come to an understanding if one is not trained in the field. But a simple animation allows even the untrained person to get a grasp of what is happening. This has been used to great effect by many pharmaceutical companies advertising their latest drugs on television.
Another area where animation can add impact is in the area of product demonstration. The internet has become ubiquitous, and many products are promoted online. But since the viewer is in front of a computer, there is the option for interactivity. This can be as simple as a rotational view around an object, or as complex as a fly-through with various stops to highlight individual parts and mechanisms.
The bottom line here is that far more information can be delivered in a much shorter time period through the medium of animation. Would you rather read the 30 page "short" manual that came with your new digital music player, or watch 2-3 minutes of animation and be off and running? When was the last time you even read such a manual? What does that say about the potential number of viewers vs. readers for your next product launch?
Smudged Graphics works primarily in the 3D realm when it comes to these animations. We build digital 3-dimensional models of products, logos, or any item that might tell the story. This allows for a range of styles from a cartoon look to photo-realistic. But since everything is digital, we aren't bound by gravity, light, or anything other than the imagination.
If you have a question about how we can get your message moving, click here to contact us.