OUR PROCESS

PreProduction - Planning & Specification

Define Output Format: One of the first decisions in the preproduction phase is to determine the format of animation playback, for example HDTV, DVD, Web, PowerPoint Video, CD-ROM, Print images or iPhone movies. Different formats have very different resolution requirements, and knowing this up front is important.

Determine deliverable dates and budget range: Since we know that TIME + SCOPE = COST, we need to know your approximate budget and timeframe for delivery. Our sales staff arrange for a Scoping Call to talk through your basic requirements before investing a lot of time in storyboarding and bidding.

Collect Content and Scripts: In order to meet your needs with regard to technical accuracy, we thoroughly research the subject of the animation. We ask clients to supply photographs, illustrations, and video footage. Also supporting marketing content, such as brochures or PowerPoint presentations are very useful in helping us understand your product objectives. We prefer that written narration scripts are supplied by the client, as this is the first checkpoint in assuring that our client has gained approval from internal subject matter experts.

PreProduction - Storyboarding

Goal of the Storyboard: The storyboarding process determines the success of the project. Storyboards increase in complexity according to budget, and will show the key visual elements at various points in the animation. The storyboard is used to generate lists of all models and assets required for the animation. The client will sign off on the storyboard, asserting that the business requirements will be met by the final animation. Design decisions can be made during the storyboarding process to avoid particularly difficult (read expensive) shots. For example, if animating a human heart beating, a decision could be made not to show the blood streaming through the arteries, to avoid a complex fluids simulation, thus reducing the overall cost of the animation..

Determine deliverable dates and budget range: It is essential that we know your schedule dates and a working budget range, as TIME + SCOPE = COST. We obviously want to be sure that we can deliver a quality product within your schedule deadlines, and we can make design decisions to target your budget range during creative storyboarding. We also perform a Return on Investment study of your proposed animation, to ensure that what we create for you meets your business needs.

Final Quote: Only after the storyboard has been created can a firm quote be given for the project. We know of animation companies that will quote a fixed price per running minute/second of animation. With this pricing method, we find the client either pays far too much for a simple animation, or gets a low quality result because the required shots were too complex for the budget. Interact uses simple factors to determine the cost of the animation:

User-Centered Design

User Centered-Design (UCD) is a philosophy and a process. It is a philosophy that places the person (as opposed to the 'thing') at the center; it is a process that focuses on cognitive factors (such as perception, memory, learning, problem-solving, etc.) as they come into play during peoples' interactions with things. UCD seeks to answer questions about users and their tasks and goals, then use the findings to drive development and design.

UCD seeks to answer questions such as:

• Who are the users of this 'thing'?
• What are the users’ tasks and goals?
• What are the users’ experience levels with this thing, and things like it?
• What functions do the users need from this thing?
• What information might the users need, and in what form do they need it?
• How do users think this 'thing' should work?
• How can the design of this ‘thing’ facilitate users' cognitive processes?

UCD can improve the usability and usefulness of everything from "everyday things" (D. Norman) to software to information systems to processes. . . anything with which people interact. As such, User-Centered Design concerns itself with both usefulness and usability.