Canon Whiteboard Animation Video Quest for Color

The content for this explainer video could have easily felt a bit stale, but we were able to make it a fun journey with the theme of the medieval quest. We had the wonderful assignment at Wienot Films of creating an animation that showed color advances in digital video over time. It was a little difficult to work up the concept at the beginning but once we got rolling, it was a pleasure. It is always fun to try to include a few famous people as I draw these, even if they don’t look exactly like the person or are not well-enough known faces that everyone would readily recognize them. I wonder if any film buffs will recognize the people I used for inspiration for some of these whiteboard characters.

Back to School Whiteboard Animation

It is an exciting time of year as kids are preparing with new clothes and ‘educational’ electronics. The elementary kids get to fill their new book bags with lots of shiny school supplies and everyone waits with anticipation to see who the new teacher will be for home room and find out how much school work they might be able to get out of in chemistry class.

For parents, it is a bit of a break for school to start, don’t get me wrong. We parents will be busy bussing kids back and forth to school, the science project due at the end of the first semester has to start this week planting seeds, and sack lunches don’t make themselves. But after a summer of keeping the next generation of leaders entertained and busy during the past summer, the school year is a welcomed break. Even if the school year brings work and worry, there is a moment of reprieve to which parents look forward.

The team at Wienot Films wanted to make this fun whiteboard animation to honor you. We recognize the hard work parents do both during the school year getting their middle school band students to that odd timed performance and all the hours of entertaining, carpooling, and care-taking during the summer months with swimming lessons, play days at the water park or skate park. We hope that after the kids get into class you can take a moment to yourself or maybe enjoy a cool beverage with a friend. But don’t take too long, you have the early pick up duty in the carpool this week. Good Luck and enjoy the show!

DirectDep's Mascot

One of the recent whiteboard explainer videos we produced at Wienot Films provided me a unique challenge. In addition to the regular storyboarding and final drawing of the whiteboard footage, I also had the challenging assignment of creating a cartoon mascot of sorts to represent the company. The company, DirectDep, provides a services connecting court reports doing depositions with attorneys who need them. I was thus charged with creating a fun mascot in the look of a stenograph machine. We affectionately called her Deppy.

We went through a few different versions of Deppy, getting feedback from the client throughout the design process. After narrowing the design to a specific look, I had to create two main versions: one with wings and one without them. We always want clients to be happy, so I even ended up producing different wing options to make sure we got everything just right. 

Another unique challenge of this video was creating a very stylized, more realistic look for the characters instead of something more cartoony. Our whiteboard characters are usually a bit more loose and less realistic in their style, making this video a fun challenge. At Wienot Films, we like to produce all kinds of whiteboard videos--from cartoony people to animals to toys to robots--so when I got the challenge to make the characters more realistic, it was a fun challenge. Plus at the end of the day, we always want the client to be happy. 

So with that introduction, here’s the final video:

For your next hand drawn whiteboard animation from Wienot Films, contact Marc and tell him Jim sent you. He’ll get you started on your next explainer video in style!

Canon Whiteboard Animation

One of our recent whiteboard video projects with Canon was a wonderful adventure. I always enjoy listening in to the early conference calls as the various representatives from Canon talk about what the new explainer video will depict and show. 

Wienot Films is dedicated to creating great stories and really crafting the perfect script for each clients' explanatory video. I personally don't deal a lot with the wording of the script but I do all I can to ensure that I put as much effort and perfection as I can into the drawings on the storyboard. This amazing attention to each word compels me to hone my own craft as I begin to work on the character development for each whiteboard animation. After I complete the initial round of character work I will start to draw out he general layout for each scene and the work of the sketch video is well underway. 

Usually when I receive a script and begin the early work, I begin with the characters. There is typically one main character, but in this particular Canon video, we used a whole family and depicted them on a safari vacation. ti is always fun to design a whole family, especially when I can use my own children as models for all the hand drawn characters. This video reminded me of similar situations on vacations with my own family. 

My favorite scene in the Canon series of videos has to be the family photo in which I had the chance to show how much fun we can . have when we want silly faces to remember the fun we have on our adventures and wild vacations. I took a little extra effort to have the dad do something I personally like to do that may or may not embarrass my children in the family photo. 

Here's the whiteboard animation we created. It talks about interchangeable lenses and different considerations to keep in mind when using them. I hope you enjoy the show!

If you want a similar whiteboard animation, get in touch with Marc over at Wienot Films. Tell him Jim sent you and we'll be sure to take good care of you!