eBay
Stop Motion + Digital Animation
During my time at RogueMark Studios, eBay hired us to create a series of animated videos about the company’s HR benefits and policies. These playful stop-motion videos play an integral role in eBay’s global HR compliance training.
We combined handmade paper props and digital animation to bring eBay’s colorful brand identity to life. Because it was such large scale project and a small (but mighty) team, I contributed to all steps in the process-- prop construction, storyboarding/color blocking, stop motion filming, editing of footage, and digital animation.
Scroll for the final video and full process.
Credits
Art Directors: Julia Cone and Eliza Reisfeld
Producer: Abby Van Muijen
Animator #2: Maris Rafter
Process
Purpose
To re-invigorate Ebay's mandatory company training and get employees excited about completing “mundane” annual compliance. Wanted to inject their playful and colorful brand into their internal processes.
Existing Materials
Ebay provided brand guidelines, and an existing internal Employee Welcome Video. These gave us initial direction - we chose stop motion to match the existing internal video style, and experimented with ways to match the digital motion style in a different medium.
Experimentation / Ideation
We sketched out ways the stop motion style could match the existing motion conventions. One for more rigid shapes, the other for more amorphous shapes. My colleague Eliza designed characters that addressed their desire to make sure these videos represented their diverse workforce.
Storyboarding
Below is a small sample of the extensive storyboards we completed for this project. This was from the first round of boards.
Motion Testing
We then tested what certain scenes looked like on camera. We initially mimicked the desk background of the existing internal video, but quickly realized the wood grain outshone eBay's brand colors. We then pivoted to a more color block, monochrome approach. We also loved how the cut paper showed up on camera, and felt that it had a cleaner look than the paint or the clay.
Shifting Gears
We went back to the drawing board, excuse the pun, and applied this new approach to our boards. We cleaned up the storyboards and made sure we had a cohesive color story.
Production
We created paper props for the underlying stop motion element of the video.
Final Product
Once we shot the stop motion, we compiled and added digital animation (character animation, text, motion graphics, data, and flourishes) to complete the video.
