Pre-Production

Concept & Scripting

The internal project What is a rapid prototype video? was developed as both an explainer and a live demonstration of our own animation workflow. The goal was twofold: to educate clients on the role and value of a rapid prototype (RP) and to proactively address common concerns about low-fidelity visuals during early production stages. From day one, the script was structured for clarity—short, direct, and built around a single visual metaphor: the RP as a bridge between the script and full production (FP). Narrative was stripped down to essentials, keeping the focus on process and progression.

Production planning kicked off with sourcing visual examples from a range of past projects—2D animations, 2.5D isometrics, and 3D conceptual and photo-realistic builds spanning solar tech, energy storage, and mechanical systems. These visuals formed the backbone of the transformation story, showing the evolution from RP blockouts to FP polish. Voiceover pacing was mapped around these transitions, allowing room for swipe cuts, overlays, and timeline markers. Text overlays were pulled directly from actual client feedback—questions about color, fidelity, and layout—making the video immediately relatable and grounded in real-world conversations.

Rapid Prototyping

The RP for this explainer functioned as a meta-demo—an RP that explains what an RP is. Built entirely in After Effects, it featured rough motion graphics, simple UI overlays, and screen captures from C4D and Unreal workflows. The focus was on sequencing, pacing, and message clarity. Placeholder visuals were intentionally low-fidelity: chat bubbles, static overlays, greyscale UI. These reinforced the central idea that RPs are about structure—not style.

Mock feedback—“Can we show a desert instead of an island?”—was baked into the UI overlays to illustrate how client notes get processed in early stages. Meanwhile, screen captures worked double duty: they showed actual production software in use while visually supporting the time-based evolution from RP to FP. One sequence paired a rough environment layout in Cinema 4D with the same scene rendered out in Unreal Engine—final textures, lighting, and atmospheric FX in place. A stylized “RP = Previz” lower third helped translate the concept to a broader, non-technical audience.

Early Visual Styles Explored

Visually, the piece leaned into deliberate contrast. Clean 2D design and UI-style overlays were combined with jumps between blockouts, greyscale assets, and polished frames. That juxtaposition was the point. Real styleframes from previous client work were pulled in as-is—not reworked—so the difference between RP and FP would be clear and credible.

Typography followed internal brand guidelines from the start, but color palettes were left loose during RP to emphasize a core teaching moment: color refinement happens later. That point was repeated in both the script and visuals, becoming a running narrative thread. Placeholder greys and mismatched tones weren’t mistakes—they were teaching tools.

Prototyping Animation Concepts

The animation structure leaned on temporal contrast and repetition. Swipe transitions between RP and FP were established as a core visual language. Screen-recorded workflows were embedded as time-lapse layers—C4D modeling, Unreal lighting, texture maps loading live—to reinforce process thinking. These were integrated in After Effects using masks and keying, allowing seamless toggles between rough and final visuals.

The swipe became more than a transition—it became a storytelling device. It demonstrated, in real time, the payoff of structure-first production. That interaction moved from stylistic to functional quickly, anchoring the viewer in how iterative visual development really works.

Internal Review & Iterative Refinement

Although built for internal use, the review process mirrored our external workflow. Review rounds focused on pacing, clarity, and whether the visuals answered common client questions. A recurring internal note was: “Are we addressing the top 3 things clients always ask?” That led directly to the final scene, dedicated to the most common color correction question, illustrated through real examples and swipe comparisons.

Full Production (FP)

Look Development

Building on the precision of the RP phase, Full Production focused on polish, fidelity, and narrative clarity—not structural change. The 2D foundation was preserved, but every frame was refined. Rough screen captures were replaced with clean, high-res timelapses; transitions were restructured; motion graphics were tightened; and VO-synced timing was reworked across all scenes.

Software workflows (Cinema 4D, Unreal Engine) were re-recorded with higher clarity, eliminating cursor noise, interface flicker, and stutters. One key sequence highlighted color correction—intentionally contrasting RP’s placeholder color artifacts with FP’s brand-approved palettes to reinforce the transformation from draft to delivery. This wasn’t just aesthetic polish—it supported the video’s educational purpose.

The minimalist design language was retained: white backgrounds, crisp UI, and a flat motion system prioritized clarity. Brand color gradients and typography were finalized in this phase, with all overlays refined through timed transitions and parallax layering for subtle dimensional depth.

Design, Animation & Finalization

Most RP layouts were kept, but all scenes were brought to completion through animation polish and pacing. Swipe transitions between RP and FP examples were carefully timed, using eased interpolation to improve clarity.

Additional animation elements supported conceptual delivery: script scrolls, pinging message windows, and looping iconography helped communicate abstract ideas like structure, story, and visual intent. The three-step timeline was anchored directly to VO cadence. When the script addressed production care, we synced a photoreal UE5 render timelapse in the background—providing visual context without overpowering narration.

Every scene was assessed for rhythm and readability. Typography was reviewed for mobile clarity, and timing was cut to the frame to match the VO. Sound and visuals were treated as one unit—the animation didn’t just illustrate, it delivered the message in lockstep with pacing and tone.

Style Choices and Reasoning

The 2D style—paired with embedded workflow screen recordings—wasn’t just a visual decision, it was functional. This was built as both explainer and internal training asset. The clean aesthetic kept attention on message delivery, while 3D workflow footage acted as contextual proof points.

The visual contrast between RP and FP wasn’t subtle—it was designed. Rough color, placeholder content, and greyboxes in RP scenes were emphasized to clearly demonstrate how the process improves visual output. Brand colors followed a defined hierarchy: warm tones for key teaching moments, cool for UI overlays, and neutral grey for RP callouts.

Technical Details & Compositing

All motion graphics were built in After Effects; sound design and final audio were completed in Premiere Pro. Screen recordings of Cinema 4D and Unreal were captured at high resolution, speed-ramped, and stabilized. These timelapses were composited as masked elements, layered with vector-based annotations and interface overlays.

Color grading was handled in After Effects to unify screen-captured environments. Linear wipes and custom mask transitions handled all RP-to-FP swipes, time-synced to VO phrasing for clarity.

Text animation used position and opacity keyframes with eased transitions tuned via graph editors. Mock UI assets (chat, notes, reviews) were designed as layered comps. 

Audio editing layered scratch VO over music, with timing nudges to match animation flow. Music and effects were balanced in Premiere with ducking and gain normalization.

Even as an internal piece, the review process was structured. Revisions focused on whether the animation effectively communicated the RP-to-FP evolution. The final inclusion of the “Can we change that color?” panel was a direct response to internal feedback. It addressed a recurring client question and tied together the message visually and textually using a triptych of before/after examples.

Final Deliverable

The final video was exported as a 1080p H.264 file optimized for internal sharing and online playback. Compression settings were tuned to preserve type clarity and transition sharpness. The piece was built for cross-functional use—training, pitches, onboarding, and social—demonstrating how rough ideas evolve into brand-aligned final products.

Transcript:

The rapid prototype, or RP, is the 2nd step in our 3-step video process. To understand the importance of this step, it’s helpful to see the gap that the RP needs to bridge from the story phase, all the way to step 3, the full production version.

A script is easy to edit on paper, but it’s hard to visualize what it will look and sound like. Plus, most of us are visual people.

In step 3, full production there’s meticulous detail and care taken in every shot. And to rework something after full production means wasted time and effort … and no one likes that.

An RP is a rough previsualization of the camera shots, using extremely rough models, set to a scratch VoiceOver and background music. It depends on the style of the video for how detailed the RP will be vs. the FP version. If it’s a 2D piece, FP tends to be pretty close to the RP. A 2.5D isometric or 3D piece is very different visually.

The purpose of the RP is (1) to make sure the story works, (2) make sure the overall structure of the video is right and (3) roughly to have a good idea if the ideas of the visuals will be a fit for the vision.