Cengage

Cengage is an educational technology company that produces textbooks and e-learning materials. As a motion designer for over two years, I created a wide variety of animations and illustrations. These varied in topics – ranging from neuroscience to economics to cosmetology – and they varied in audiences, starting from kindergartens and going up to adult learners. Every project was truly different and tailored to each subject and education level.

With so much work to cover (and with quite a number of videos behind Cengage’s paywall) I created a highlight reel to capture my two years in less than a minute.

Finding the Right Style

A large part of my job at Cengage was to create style frames. Style frames allow me to show stakeholders what a final frame of the video will look like before I put in hours of work animating it. I typically developed multiple styles for a project so stakeholders had a few options to choose from.

Below you’ll find pairs of style frames, each set for a different project.

Creating Characters

We needed to keep characters simple to save time and meet tight deadlines. Throughout the style frames below, you can see how characters fit in with the overall visual language of their world.

We also need the character designs to be accessible to all learners. This meant giving them clear silhouettes and making their expressions easy to read.