Motion & Video Design
Brand animation, character work, and motion systems built from your identity.
Motion design is what a brand does in time rather than on a page: how the logo enters, how type builds, how a character moves. Video is the finished piece it ends up in, whether that is an explainer, a campaign spot, a conference open, or the fifteen-second cutdown that runs on social.
A brand that has never moved has half a system. The moment it hits video, social, or a screen at an event, someone has to decide how the logo behaves, and that decision usually gets made by whoever is closest to the deadline. It gets made differently the next time, and the time after that.
Most motion work here starts from an identity that already exists. The question is not what to invent. It is how the brand you already have should move.
That is why this starts with the identity rather than a storyboard. The line weight, the palette, the type, and the geometry all imply a behavior. Something built from geometric shapes resolves differently than something built from a hand-drawn mark, and getting that wrong is why so much brand animation looks like it was applied to the logo instead of coming out of it. Everyone has access to the same tools now, which is why so much of it looks alike.
How it gets built depends on the brand and what the animation has to do. An illustrated logo figure can be rebuilt so it moves like a character with weight and personality rather than a shape sliding across a screen. A real person can be drawn frame by frame over footage, so the movement stays human while everything you see is your brand. Type and graphic elements move on their own terms. Some projects call for animation built in three dimensions, which is a different craft again. Picking the wrong approach is how animation ends up feeling generic.
Then it gets documented. Timing, easing, entrances, exits, and the rules for what stays consistent across placements, so the next person is not guessing and the fifth video still looks like the first four.
Delivery is built for where it runs: landscape and vertical, MP4 plus packaged files, ready to drop into whatever your team edits in. If the identity underneath needs work first, that is brand identity, and campaign assets around the video are marketing materials.
What a Motion or Video Project Includes
- Logo animation and brand reveals
- Character animation and hand-drawn frame work
- Explainer and campaign video
- Motion guidelines and behavior rules
- Looping brand animation and social cutdowns
- Landscape and vertical delivery, MP4 plus packaged files
How Long It Takes
3-8 Weeks
Kickoff, asset prep, and storyboard
Build, whether that is a character, frame work, or graphics
Animation and first drafts
Revisions and delivery
Estimates, not promises. What moves them: current studio capacity, how many deliverables are in scope, and how complex they are.
Who This Is For
- Brands whose identity has never moved
- Campaigns that need video across several placements
- Organizations building a motion standard for the first time
- Teams whose video comes back looking off-brand
Every project is scoped individually. See how scoping works. Not sure a studio is the right fit? Compare it against an agency, a freelancer, and a full-time hire.
Quick Answers
Who actually does the work?
Direction, design, and the animation itself are done in house. When a project calls for something outside that, an animator who builds in three dimensions, a voice actor, a sound engineer, or a production crew, we bring in people from the studio's network and direct them. You have one point of contact, you never manage a vendor, and nothing reaches you before it has been reviewed here. Any outside cost is quoted to you before anyone is booked.
Do you work from our existing brand?
Most motion work here starts from an identity that already exists and works out how it should behave in time. If there is no identity yet, or the one you have will not survive being animated, that comes first.
What is a motion system, and do we need one?
A motion system is the documented set of rules for how a brand moves: timing, easing, how the logo enters and resolves, and what stays consistent across placements. You need one if more than one person or vendor will ever make video for you, which is most organizations after the second project.
Can you animate a real person in our brand style?
Live footage can be drawn over frame by frame, so the movement is real while everything on screen is your artwork. It suits anything where human motion matters, an athlete, a patient, a person at work, and it looks like nothing anyone else can license. The technical name for it is rotoscoping.
Do you handle voiceover and sound?
Voiceover and sound design are handled through voice actors and audio engineers brought in when a project needs them, quoted to you before anyone is booked.
Do you handle live action?
Live action is available through production partners, with FifthHouse directing so the brand decisions stay in one place. It is not the studio's day-to-day work, though. If your project is mostly a shoot, you are better served by a production company with a motion designer attached.
How much does motion design cost?
Every project is quoted individually after a short conversation, because a logo animation and a three-minute explainer with a script and a voiceover are not the same job. Outside costs like voice talent or production are quoted separately and shared with you before anything is booked.
Other Services
Brand Identity Design
Logo systems, color, type, and the guidelines that keep it all holding together.
Website Design & Development
Sites that load fast, are accessible to everyone, and are built for search and answer engines.
Graphic Design & Marketing Materials
Campaign creative, collateral, and the day-to-day work that has to stay on brand.
Illustration & Custom Lettering
Original illustration and hand lettering, drawn rather than licensed.
Event Branding & Environmental Design
Identity, environmental graphics, and collateral for conferences and fundraisers.
Creative Retainers
A monthly retainer for teams that need consistent creative without hiring in-house.
Your Brand Should Know How To Move.
Send over the details and we will take it from there. The form takes a few minutes, and you can pick a time to talk.