Reinventing Counselling & Coaching for Men
How It Works Explainer Animation for a Men’s Counselling Service in Vancouver
We created an explainer animation to showcase Manifest Wellness’ proprietary counselling and coaching programs for men.
By juxtaposing an anthropological narrative with visual imagery full of surreal symbols, we produced an animation that creatively captures Manifest’s unique and practical approach to men’s personal development.
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Produced in collaboration with Black Rhino Creative for Manifest Wellness
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Natividad Chen - Illustrator & Animator
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Prospective clients, men who are seeking counselling and coaching services
Our Approach
Visual Metaphors
To convey that mental wellness requires honing practical skills, we used tools, machines and other physical objects as visual metaphors.
Different tools from a Swiss army knife represent different methodologies to approach mental wellness. A machine with stuck gears depicts a malfunctioning brain that can be loosened through mental growth. A maze marked with flagged checkpoints describes the personal development journey marked with goals and milestones.
These physical manifestations communicate the pragmatic nature of the client’s counselling method in a visually compelling and figurative way.
Our Process
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![Manifest Moodboard. A collage of reference images showing surreal and figurative imagery. For example, a person carrying a heavy cloud, a doctor whose mask is a peace dove, 2 speech bubbles that overlap to create face silhouettes.]()
Step 1: Script Editing & Moodboard
We worked closely with the client and their writer to hone the script for narration.
In parallel, we conceptualized two different visual styles for client feedback. Ultimately, the client went for a style we termed “surreal symbols”, consisting of abstract and figurative imagery.
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![Manifest Storyboard. The left show a series where the brain is represented as gears and a hand holding a wrench fixes them. The right column show a person whose head opens to reveal flowers and a lightbulb growing out of the inside.]()
Step 2: Storyboard
Once the script was finalized, we drew storyboards, a series of drawings that depict the action, composition and narration of each scene.
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![Manifest Animatic. A GIF of a sequence of sketches showing a hand holding a wrench turning one of many gears inside the silhouette of a man's head.]()
Step 3: Animatic
To create the animatic, we timed the storyboards panels to a scratch voiceover track into a movie file.
The animatic helps establish the timing and flow of the animation.
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![Manifest Styleframe. A full colour illustration of a hand holding a wrench turning one of many gears inside the silhouette of a man's head.]()
Step 4: Styleframes
Styleframes are illustrations that visualize the final look-and-feel of the animation. They are snapshots capturing the colours, character design and textures of select scenes.
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![Manifest Animation. A GIF showing a hand holding a wrench turning one of many gears inside the silhouette of a man's head.]()
Step 5: Animation
Now, we put it all together!
We illustrated and animated the visuals to the final voiceover. Then, we added the SFX and music track. Lastly, we exported the animations as a high resolution video file ready for the client to upload and share!
