From Brief to Broadcast: Inside a Motion Graphics Video Agency Workflow

1. A good motion graphics piece looks effortless on screen, which is why its craft is often misunderstood. The truth is, behind a 60 second animation sits a web of conversations, choices, file naming conventions, design strategies, technical checks, and approvals that would make a production manager sweat. I have spent enough time inside a motion graphics video agency to know where the process breaks, where it sings, and why the best work rarely happens by accident. What follows is a practical walk through, from the moment a client sends a brief to the minute a broadcaster checks your file against tech specs and presses play. The intake: building a usable brief Most projects arrive with three things: a desired outcome, a deadline, and a rough idea of what success looks like. The intake is where you turn that raw material into working parameters. A good producer starts by extracting non- negotiables: brand guidelines, legal lines, logo usage, font licenses, and mandatory messages. A great producer also probes the soft edges: what tone really fits the audience, where the piece will live, and which references resonate. If the client mentions a popular spot from a consumer brand but they’re commissioning a B2B explainer, you flag the mismatch early. Two practical notes from hard experience. First, get target durations and aspect ratios in writing before you open After Effects. A single change from 16:9 landscapes to 9:16 verticals doubles layout work and often triggers rethinking animation staging. Second, lock color management at the start. Decide whether you are working Rec.709, sRGB, or a wide-gamut pipeline. If you are delivering for broadcast, your color space is a compliance issue, not a preference. When the client is new to animation, I show them a tiered menu of complexity with cost bands, using past projects as benchmarks. For example, a 60 second corporate animation with simple 2D character motion might take 120 to 160 production hours, whereas a full 3D product spot with simulated materials, particles, and photoreal lighting can push 400 hours. Those ranges help set expectations and prevent sticker shock. Creative direction: a stake in the ground, not a straitjacket Concept development is where motion graphics companies differentiate themselves. The aim is to pitch a core visual idea that maps to strategy, not to show off trickery. I prefer to start with a one page narrative spine. It forces clarity: what we want the viewer to feel, what we want them to remember, and what action we want them to take. Moodboards come next. I create two or three, each with a distinct logic. One might lean into clean geometry and cool colors for a finance client, another trades on textured gradients and organic shapes if the brand wants warmth. I avoid presenting five near-identical boards. Clients make better decisions when the differences are crisp. Styleframes seal the direction. Unlike rough scamps, a styleframe should look like a final frame. It carries color, typography, lighting, and compositing cues. If you are in the UK and pitching to broadcasters or compliance teams, keep legibility in mind. Ofcom guidance and Clearcast preferences on text size and contrast can derail beautiful but unreadable type. Seasoned producers in 2D animation studios UK will often include a micro-test of motion language with the styleframes. Ten seconds of a key scene is enough to vet timing and transitions, and it prevents later disagreements on how kinetic or restrained the piece should feel. Scripts and structure: writing for pictures, not for print Corporate animation rises or falls on structure. A lot of scripts read like brochures. In motion, that density alienates viewers. I use a three beat structure for 60 seconds: draw me in, prove the point, land the action. That can take different forms, but the rhythm matters. Word counts are the unforgiving part. Spoken English averages around 130 to 160 words per minute for VO reads that feel human. If a client hands you 230 words for a 60, they are asking for a sprint read that will sound like a legal disclaimer. Trim early. If the piece has on-screen typography, subtract another 10 to 15 seconds from the VO to give type room to breathe. Legal and regulatory content is a separate layer. In financial services, health, or pharma, the script requires compliance review. Plan two days for that feedback loop, minimum. For broadcast around alcohol, gambling, or medical claims, expect compliance to ask for disclaimers in specific frames and positions. Rather than hiding those lines in tiny text, design for them.

2. Storyboarding and animatics: the hidden engine of efficiency I have seen teams try to skip storyboards because the deadline was tight. They always pay for it later. A storyboard defines the visual grammar and the edit. For animation heavy projects, I build an animatic with a temp VO, temp music, and generous placeholder timing. Even a rough animatic will surface pacing problems in minutes that might otherwise cost days in production. A good storyboard artist thinks about motion while drawing. If the transition from Scene 4 to Scene 5 involves a camera pull through a chart into a product shot, the boards need to show continuity in composition and object placement. The animatic should articulate key timing beats: when the logo lands, how long the call to action holds, where the score swells. If the client is global, plan for language expansion. German and Russian type expands by 15 to 25 percent compared to English. If you design labels tightly, your localizations will break layouts. During boards, we build in responsive containers and test one alternate language to prove the approach. Design: where typography and brand collide with legibility Designers working inside a motion graphics video agency juggle brand fidelity and on-screen readability. The brand book might propose thin display fonts that look elegant on a website but fall apart over video compression. In those cases, I document the rationale for adjusted weights or outline strokes to keep glyphs crisp. The rule that saves projects is simple: design for the worst screen your audience might use. Color is not just cosmetic. Saturated reds and blues can bleed under certain codecs and on older displays. Test gradients and fine linework at 100 percent and at 50 percent scale. If your deliverable includes social variants, check contrast in vertical crops. Type that passes WCAG on a white background can still vibrate on video due to subpixel rendering and motion blur. Illustration and iconography choices should anticipate animation. A beautifully detailed illustration with six layered textures is an After Effects trap unless you have time to rig it properly. For corporate explainers, flat or semi-flat graphics often animate cleaner at scale. Where a client wants character work, we push for simple joints, clean silhouettes, and an eye design that reads at small sizes. Animation: the craft behind the ease No part of the workflow exposes experience like animation. The rookie mistake is to animate every element with equal intensity. The seasoned hand directs attention. I pick a focal subject in each shot and build motion around it, suppressing competing movement in the periphery. Easing curves define feel. Linear motion looks mechanical, which can work for UI sequences or schematic graphics, but human-focused scenes benefit from carefully sculpted curves. I use motion libraries as starting points but always tune to timing and context. A 12 frame overshoot can feel snappy in a tech explainer and cheesy in a sober corporate announcement. Rigging pays dividends on longer pieces. Even in 2D, set up joints and constraints so posture changes are quick and consistent. For repeat assets, precompose with naming conventions that travel. Good names are not a luxury. Six months later when a client asks for a tiny change before a trade show, your future self will thank you. Camera work separates nice from memorable. Parallax layers, simple Z space moves, and built-in depth of field can add volume without bloating render times. Be careful with camera shutter angles and motion blur. Heavy blur plus fine line textures often reduces clarity once compressed by social platforms. Sound design: the emotional multiplier Too many teams treat sound as a late add-on. In practice, early sound choices guide timing and energy. I bring a shortlist of tracks to the animatic stage, then pick one and lock tempo. Scenes cut differently depending on rhythm, and VO reads naturally when they lean into the score. Sound design gives shape to invisible actions. UI button taps feel real with subtle clicks and breaths. Logo reveals benefit from a restrained sting with harmonics tuned to the brand’s sonic identity. Avoid generic stock swooshes that

3. scream template. Customize layers, even if you start from a library. A single low-end hit timed to a key visual beat will make a scene feel intentional. VO casting deserves attention. Your narrator embodies the brand more than any color hex or font. For corporate animation targeting the UK, talent with neutral RP or soft regional inflections works well for national broadcast. If you are producing for multilingual markets, capture pronunciation guides in writing and audio references before the session. This avoids retakes when product names are voiced inconsistently. Rounds and approvals: speed without whiplash The sign-off cadence is a cultural choice. I prefer three formal rounds: animatic, first animation pass, final with mix and grade. Inside those, we allow micro-fixes, but we guard against reopening fundamentals. Time spent locking script and boards earns faster animation rounds, not more of them. Revision notes benefit from precision. Vague comments like “make it pop” waste time. We nudge clients toward intent, not filters. For example, “increase contrast on the chart to make the red line dominate over the blue baseline” is actionable. To help, we annotate frames and send timecoded links. I also cluster related changes per shot, then estimate the cost of each cluster. Clients can prioritize when they see effort mapped to asks. On the agency side, a short daily stand-up keeps a team aligned. The producer checks dependencies, the animator flags upcoming obstacles, and the designer previews any rework needed for late-breaking content. When a blocker appears, escalate early. If the VO is late, build the edit to a temp read and note that lip-sync shots are at risk. Surprises shrink options. Asset management and version control: boring, essential, lifesaving Every professional studio has a horror story about lost files or accidental overwrites. A robust folder taxonomy is insurance. I map projects by phase and date: 01Brief, 02Script, 03StoryboardAnimatic, 04Design, 05Animation, 06Audio, 07Deliverables. Inside animation, split by scenes or sequences with clear version numbers. Even better, put the whole project on a versioned server or a cloud system with file locking. Naming conventions prevent chaos. A scene file named PROJAgencyClientS04v17.aep is legible. A comp called “finalfinal_new” is not. For After Effects, collect files regularly and purge unused footage to keep projects lean. If you are collaborating with external motion graphics companies, share a manifest of required plugins, fonts, and software versions at the start, not when the render fails at 2 a.m. Backups are not optional. Keep daily snapshots during active production and an archival package at delivery. A surprising share of corporate animation work involves updates to past pieces, sometimes years later. Your ability to reopen a project and render with current specs wins repeat business.

4. Technical specs and delivery: where “nearly right” becomes “wrong” Delivery requirements vary by platform and region. Broadcast houses enforce strict loudness targets, color spaces, and file formats. For UK broadcast, EBU R128 loudness normalization around -23 LUFS is standard, with true peak often capped at -1 dBTP. Some networks accept -24 LKFS with CALM Act alignment for international versions. Check the tech sheet before you mix, and generate a QC report to document compliance. 2d animation studios uk For color, Rec.709 with 2.4 gamma is typical for TV. Many corporate pieces live primarily on the web, which skews to sRGB viewing conditions. If a project must straddle both, I grade to Rec.709, then create platform-specific versions after test encodes. Banding is a common complaint on gradients. Dither subtly in the grade or add film grain to break up flat areas, then test on a compressed stream. File format specifics matter. A ProRes 422 HQ master at the correct frame rate and resolution is a safe baseline for broadcast and archive. For social, platforms re-encode aggressively. H.264 in MP4 container with high bitrate and two pass encoding usually holds up, but I always upload a near-lossless mezzanine to the platform when possible and let their encoder do the work. Burn-in safe areas and legibility checks if the content runs on DOOH screens. Many outdoor networks crop unpredictably or scale content poorly. A simple on-site test with an older panel can reveal flaws that never appear on a calibrated studio monitor. The people side: producers, directors, and the invisible glue Processes only work if the people running them communicate well. Producers inside a motion graphics video agency blend spreadsheets with empathy. They translate client pressure into clear internal tasks and shield the team from noise. Creative directors set a north star and defend it when scope creep threatens cohesion. Lead animators make technical calls that protect quality under time pressure. Tension points are part of the job. A client who adores a reference with complex cel-style character animation but has budget for only vector motion needs a respectful but firm conversation. Offer alternates: a hybrid approach with limited cel accents on hero moments or a focus on striking design with restrained motion. Show what the budget buys in visuals, not just words. When working alongside external partners or within larger motion graphics companies, align on ownership. Who holds the master After Effects project? Who is responsible for the final mix? Who signs off on compliance? Ambiguity in responsibility is where deadlines go to die. Budgets and scheduling: putting numbers to ambition

5. A realistic schedule balances creative exploration and production momentum. For a 60 second 2D corporate piece with moderate complexity and a single language, I plan two weeks for concept, script, and boards, two to three weeks for design and animation, and a week for sound, grade, and delivery. That is a comfortable five to six week arc with buffers. Tight turnarounds are possible, but they force trade-offs: fewer exploration paths, heavier reuse of libraries, and longer render nights. Budget lines track the same phases: creative development, design, animation, sound, and delivery. Hidden costs include VO retakes due to script changes after recording, music licensing for paid media, and alternative aspect ratios beyond the initial scope. I put a contingency of 10 percent on projects with compliance oversight or complex stakeholder maps. It is not padding. It is planning for reality. Payment schedules tied to milestones align incentives. A common cadence is 30 percent on award, 40 percent on approval of design and animatic, and 30 percent on final delivery. For ongoing corporate animation work, retainer models give both sides predictability and allow an agency to reserve capacity for recurring needs. Working with 2D animation studios UK and beyond If you are a UK brand or agency, you have access to a rich network of 2D animation studios UK with distinct strengths. Some excel at character-driven narratives, others at data visualization or slick UI motion. The best relationships begin with a clear creative brief and an honest budget. Resist the temptation to split projects among multiple vendors unless you have a strong in-house producer who can maintain stylistic continuity. International collaborations can work brilliantly when standards are clear. Share frame rate, resolution, color management, and font licensing upfront. Cultural nuance matters for VO tone and visual metaphors. A gesture that reads as friendly in one market might feel flippant in another. Build a cultural review into the feedback loop rather than correcting after the fact. Corporate animation that lands: case patterns from the field When corporate teams ask what makes a piece effective, I point to three patterns. First, clarity wins over flourish. A complex product explanation lands when every scene advances understanding and removes friction. Second, authenticity outperforms bravado. Real data, real screens, real names, even if anonymized, feel credible. Third, specificity beats general claims. “Reduce onboarding time by 28 percent” with a subtle chart reads stronger than “improve efficiency” floating in a vacuum. One B2B client wanted a three minute film crammed with feature lists. We reframed it as a 75 second top layer with three sequels, each 45 to 60 seconds deep. The audience watched the short and self-selected into the relevant follow-ups. Watch time rose, and sales reps had modular content for different buyer personas. The production budget stretched further because we designed shared assets with planned reuse. Another client insisted on a voice that was far too energetic for their sector. We ran an A/B test internally with two reads: one brisk, one measured with warmer timbre. Their own leadership team preferred the measured take by a wide margin when they weren’t told which was which. Prejudices about tone often melt when people hear alternatives without labels. Risk management: where projects derail, and how to prevent it Three failure modes recur. Misaligned expectations on complexity cause mid-project rework. Prevent this with concrete references and a 10 second motion test. Late-breaking content, especially in regulated industries, upends timelines. Build placeholders and modular scenes that can accept text swaps without recutting entire sequences. Technical rejections at delivery burn trust. Run a preflight checklist against the destination platform’s specs and do a full-length test encode a day before the deadline, not an hour. Here is a short checklist I keep at the ready for final week sanity: Confirm aspect ratios and frame rates for every deliverable, including social variants Validate loudness, true peak, and channel layout with an objective meter Review legibility of all on-screen text at 100 percent and half-scale Cross-check brand colors and typography against the latest guidelines Run a compressed platform test and watch end to end with fresh eyes

6. The subtle art of client education A strong agency doesn’t just make a video, it builds a client’s muscle for commissioning better work. Teach them why fewer words yield stronger reads, why early approval saves weeks later, and why that sleek micro-detail they loved in a case study ate 40 hours of rotoscoping. When clients understand cause and effect, they become partners, not taskmasters. Share process artifacts sparingly. A peek behind the curtain demystifies effort, but a flood of working files invites micromanagement. I like to show the evolution of one scene from board to final, then keep the rest at review level. Clients who see the craft behind a crisp transition value animation more, and they also understand why “one small change” sometimes touches 15 comps. Aftercare: measuring impact and iterating smartly Once the piece ships, the work shifts from making to measuring. Performance on social platforms, time-on-page for embedded explainers, and click-throughs from CTAs tell you what hit and what missed. If the animation is part of a campaign, align metrics with the media plan. A 15 second cut that crushes on pre-roll may not need the same narrative depth as the hero film, but it should carry the same visual DNA. Archive assets cleanly, note what could be templatized, and document lessons. If viewers consistently drop at second 42, ask why. Sometimes the culprit is a dense information block that needs to be split. Sometimes it’s a music change that jars the ear. Small, surgical updates based on real data outperform big reinventions based on hunches. Why the workflow matters The smooth, confident feel of a finished motion piece emerges from a disciplined workflow that still allows for play. Agencies that treat each phase with respect, from the first brief to the final broadcast QC, deliver more consistent results and fewer fire drills. Brands that choose their partners thoughtfully, whether from local 2D animation studios UK or global motion graphics companies, find that a well-made corporate animation does more than explain. It shapes perception, builds trust, and opens doors that static content leaves closed. Every project educates the next. The lovely paradox is that structure creates freedom. When the process holds, the team can spend its energy where it belongs, on ideas and craft, and not on hunting missing files or debating color spaces at midnight. That is how you get from brief to broadcast with your sanity intact and your work shining on screen.