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Lilipip Creative Profiles: Alex Budovsky

Fancy Morales — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 15:00:20 +0000

Alex BudovskyAn illustrator and animator in one, Alex’s unique designs stand out among peers’ because of their distinct style. The Alex Budovsky look is edgy, whimsical, modern, and urban.

We’ve had the pleasure of teaming up with this New York-based talent on several Lilipip animations, beginning back in May of 2009. Alex is known among the Lilipip team for his prompt turn-around (he can do 30 seconds in 2 days!) and his remarkable ability to time his animations to music. His most recent delivery was a vibrantly colorful video for Mundia, a subsidiary of ancestry.com, that promotes a new international product geared toward capturing younger generations’ interest in researching their family history.

Some of his work with Lilipip was mentioned on NW Cable News in July of 2009, but this wasn’t the beginning of Alex’s recognition. He has a whole host of awards under his belt for his animations, including Best Applied Animation at the International Film Festival of Animation Bimini, Best music video at the Animation Block Party (New York), Best Animated Clip at Tindirindis IFF, Special Distinction Award in TV Program Category at China International Animation and Digital Arts Festival (CICDAF 2009). Several of his animations have been in the Official Selection at Florida International Film Festival 2009, Brussels International Film Festival 2009, Stuttgart international Film Festival of animation (2009), Russian Festival of animation in Suzdal 2009, Aspen Shortfest 2009, Los Angeles Film Festival, Anima Mundi (Brazil), and SICAF 2009 (Korea).

One of my personal favorites in the Budovsky portfolio was a one minute intro animation that Alex created for the Wiyos US summer tour with Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson & John Mellencamp – check it out on his YouTube channel.

Lilipip Creative Profiles: Fancy Morales

Fancy Morales — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 15:00:09 +0000

Fancy Morales

I joined the Lilipip! team back in late February, about a month after I met the amazing miss Jen Zug, our master story-teller and Creative Director here at Lilipip. Jen was a fun new friend, full of brilliant writing skills and wit. However, it wasn't much time before I saw her office desk... and diagnosed her phobia of filing cabinets. Fortunately for our beloved Jen, I myself suffer a familial fear: that of disorderly filing cabinets. (Some might call it acute O.C.D.)

Having just relocated to the Seattle area, and still without a job, I was rich in time to help out my new friend. I happily jumped neck-deep into overflowing bins of files and documents. Little to my knowledge, however, the Lilipip! team was earnestly on the prowl for some professional administrative help. Apparently my tedious accomplishment did not go unnoticed; they offered me more work within 48 hours! After a few months and a whole lot of witty banter with my new boss-lady/friend, I'm the Managing Editor for our blog and newsletter content. Lesson in job-hunting? It really is all about who you know.

I cannot communicate clearly enough what a treat it is to be on the Lilipip! Team. We have an amazing group of talented folks here, each one wholly-willing to make huge strides and sacrifices alike for our company. They are blessing enough to just share an acquaintance with - and truly a pleasure to work with.

Well, thanks to everyone for checking in. Visit again - and often! We're sure to have lots of new exciting ventures in the near future - and I'm looking forward to articulating them to you.

Virality Ain't the Only Way to Measure Success

Jen Zug — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:33:47 +0000

Potential clients often ask us for proof, or evidence, that a video will be successful for them.

As with most things you're designing or building, there's a lot of variables to consider. So the answer to the proof question is... it depends.

A lot of times "it depends" is a scape goat answer, but a lot of times it's the right answer. Which is why we say "it depends" a lot.

We then take the time to explain what it depends on. We get this question so often that we figured it'd be a good idea to write it all down. So here you go...

1) It depends on the nature of the product or service.

Is your product/service for consumers? Small businesses? Enterprises?

Each of these markets is different in size, shape, and velocity – and customers from these different markets have different ways of communicating and gaining trust.

While videos about enterprise products rarely go "viral", they do move a lot of lucrative deals forward at trade-shows. Champions inside companies also show them a lot to decision makers that your business development staff will never get a chance to pitch to.

So videos like this may not garner a viral amount of views, but they do perform an invaluable service -- they don't just tell your story to these enterprise influencers, they show it in an extremely efficient form.

On the other hand, consumer products with lower price points have a larger audience, and, normally, larger marketing budgets that compliment a video.

A viral video about a consumer product may have many views, but it's important to note that part of the reason it is viral is because it is a great video, and part of the reason is that it has additional marketing support (social media and otherwise) to help it gain momentum on it's way out into the world.

So sometimes large view counts can have more to do with factors outside the quality/clarity/content of the video itself.

2) How clear is your current marketing?

You might have a really great/useful/groundbreaking product or service, but how clearly are you able to communicate what it is?

In a recent TechCrunch article Michael Arrington writes,

...a company should be able to describe in simple terms what they do. Even if what they do is really technical and complicated.

Why? First so employees and investors can get on board and help the company get where it wants to go.

But it’s just as important that your potential customers know what you can do for them. And just because you offer a product to businesses or developers instead of everyday consumers doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep things simple.

You could have the best product of its kind on the market, but if a visitor has to dig around your website or piece together what problem you're solving for them, they'll move on to someone else.

The metrics question here is – Do these videos help convert more customers than what you had previously?

The answer to this question is an all caps YES 99.9% of the time.

3) It depends on how it's deployed.

How do you intend to use the video? How do you plan to measure its success?

If it lives on your homepage, how many conversions from visitors to customers means it is a success? Will it live on a site that currently has muddled non-visual communication? Did the previous page design have any video in it at all? Do you give users an easy way to share it? Will it be used in trade shows and pitches?

These will all impact the number and nature of views, and their corresponding business value.

Most often, because this is sensitive business data, the only metric we get from a client for a video like this is, "It's worked great and we'd do it again in a heartbeat."

Much of our lilipip work is used during biz dev cycles, and the success of these projects is not measured in terms of "viral videos." But that does not mean they don't deliver a great deal of business value.

For example, many web sites have way too much information on their main pages. So much so, that many visitors have to work very hard to understand what it is you can do for them and why they should give you money or attention.

The videos we create at lilipip are an exercise in distilling your message down to a clear and compelling visual story, so that when you deploy it simply or as part of a larger campaign, you are generating significantly more results than you would have without it.

3) It depends on things like timing and luck (so be wary of people who promise you a hit record).

The truth is, a lot of things go into creating a video with very high view counts – timing, natural demand, and serendipity are among these.

But none of those things matter if the content of the video is clear and compelling.

Oprah recently asked Jon Stewart what he thought about the impact of The Daily Show on culture, and Stewart's response hit the target dead on:

I try not to be too self examining of things I can't control. The thing I examine most on the show is the standard to which we execute, in terms of content.

We make great animated videos, and we can offer suggestions on how to give them the most exposure. But we can't absolutely control where it goes from there, and you should be wary of people who tell you they can.

For example, local tech meetup Ignite Seattle began in 2006. The earliest videos of Ignite presentations were low-fi and, to this day, have only 300-400 views each.

Yet within just four years these videos helped Ignite spread to 100+ cities worldwide. In this case it wasn't the number of people who viewed the content, but rather the right people who saw it at the right time and caught a vision to carry the event to their city.

So to answer the question...

...it still depends.

But as far as marketing and branding goes, a Lilipip animation is the most cost effective marketing value for your dollar.

And, I'm just gonna come out and say it – we can probably tell your story better than you can.

Just because you made it, doesn't mean you own it.

Jen Zug — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:32:01 +0000

There are all sorts of places a story wants to go that you can't imagine at the time you create it.

When you create something, you want it to be epic, to have a life of its own. But to give it a life that's timeless you need to let others own it for themselves.

In this way, most epic stories move beyond their creator and become something Other.

For instance, Apple created the iPhone. But there are users who demand to use cool things, and developers who make cool things happen - together they make the iPhone epic.

People you don't know, people you've never even met, will pass on your story, but only if you hold it with an open hand. If you create something and say It's mine!, you come off like Gollum in a cave.

But real stories, true stories, stories with momentum, they take on a life of their own that is much bigger than us nitwits who create them.

This is why we at Lilipip have an affinity for stories like Knocking Live. Here's a little app that allows you to stream video from phone to phone, getting used in ways its creator hadn't even considered - deaf people are signing to each other, blind people stream a restaurant menu so a friend can read it to them, families are staying connected while separated by great distance.

And because these stories were bursting out of the platform box, Knocking Live followed its own story where it wanted to go -- by creating a cross-platform app, giving its users the ability to stream video between an iPhone and an Android phone.

The universe is full of recurring themes, and in this age of the mash-up, creators can't afford to hold their creations with a closed fist.

And with that being said, I give you APPATAR...

Lilipip Creative Profiles - Andrew Imamura, Storyboard Artist

Admin — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:26:54 +0000

Since he can remember, Andrew has found himself immersed and in love with storytelling.

Lost in the romantic Audrey Hepburn films, swept away in the fantastic novels by Richard Adams, and captivated with the lyrical music of Chet Baker, Andrew found his own creative outlet in drawing. With his supportive parents encouraging this passion, he had all he needed to make his own stories come true.

Andrew found that storyboarding was everything he loved about storytelling: visualizing scenes, transitions, actions, angles, and quite simply making words into images! It was all his imagination spilled out into small panels.

Born in Los Angeles, Andrew eventually found his way to Portland where he graduated from the Art Institute with a major in Media Arts & Animation. There he met his beautiful wife Yas, and together they are continuing the never ending practice that is art.

You can follow Andrew's artistic work on his blog at boardsbyimamura.blogspot.com

Animation Highlight: Circle Street

Admin — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:36:18 +0000

Circle Street was a fun project for a client who chose to write their own script with coaching and editing from Lilipip. One thing I've noticed about clients who write their own script, is they tend to be wordy and too general in their initial attempts. The folks at Circle Street were great about listening to our suggestions to make it more concise and engaging.

We also worked with a great animator, Kevan Atteberry, who captured the vision of our client and developed the storyboard. I love all the little extras he put into the illustrations, like the x'd out eyes of the dead fish and the dollar signs floating up with the bad smell.

I really enjoyed working with Kevan - he's a seasoned illustrator/animator that understands great storytelling, and I hope we get a chance to work with him again soon.

Virgins, Veterans, and the Wingman

Jen Zug — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:22:53 +0000

Like most websites, yours likely has two types of visitors.

First you have the regulars. They like what you have to offer - your product, your service, your concept. They keep coming back because they just love that thing you do.

These are the veterans.

Then there are people who have no idea who you are or what you do or whether you are worthy of their money and time. Maybe you were the fourth link down on a Google search, and now you have the moment, you own it, you better never let it go.

(Sorry. I really like Eminem.)

These are the virgins.

A one minute video about your product, concept, or service helps distill your Big Idea - gets it down to a succinct story to show what problem you are solving.

But a video isn't just for the virgins who come knocking. Sometimes you get a special kind of veteran, called a fan. They love what you do and want to hook you up with people you've never met.

They know virgins you don't know.

A video about what you do gives your fans an artifact to carry with them, something they can easily pass along to a virgin when you are not there.

Like a wingman, your video will always have your back. It will tell the story for you while you do other things, like tend to your veterans and convert them to fans.

Your video can go anywhere and play at any time. You could be brushing your teeth at 1am while someone is watching your video. You could be lunching with a potential investor while someone is watching your video. You could be freaking out about what to do with all this new business while someone is watching your video.

So the next time you wonder about the ROI on one of our animations, think about the all the virgins your video can reach while you take a nap after a sixty hour week.

p.s. Check out our latest animations here.

Lilipip Creative Profiles - Mike O'Brian

Jen Zug — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:27:35 +0000

We've had the pleasure of working with Mike on three projects to date - Parallels, Adobe, and Circle Street. Following is a little about him, but you can find out more on his website.

Never at a loss for words, Mike can remember holding a pretend microphone almost as soon as he could walk.

His award winning voice has been selected to represent dozens of high profile companies including Motorola, Paramount Pictures, Adobe, Microsoft, Fox and Sea World. Mike's list of credits also include being chosen by Dick Clark Productions to host a nationally syndicated special with Tim McGraw & Faith Hill.

But still to this day, the highlight of Mike's career came as a sophomore in college. Mike, a communications major, was on summer break and waiting tables at the Olive Garden in Mansfield, Ohio. Through a chance meeting, in between breadsticks and lasagna, Mike was personally invited to the set of Shawshank Redemption (being filmed just outside of town) to interview Morgan Freeman. "The 30 minutes I spent with Morgan Freeman in his trailer on the set of that incredible movie was one of the greatest moments of my life."

Animation Highlight: Adobe eLearning Suite 2

Jen Zug — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:35:37 +0000

For the Adobe project we teamed up illustrator, Andrew Imamura, with animator, Alphonso Orozco, to create the character of Karen. Adobe was so impressed with our work and with our developement of this character that they used our animation source files to develop an entire tutorial campaign around "Karen's Story."

You can see an example of these tutorials on Adobe's YouTube channel.

(Rumor has it they also made t-shirts, though I have not yet seen one.)

This project was challenging in that it had an aggressive deadline, and the client was eleven time zones away. I think. It may have been twelve. All I know is, I was often exchanging emails with the client until well after midnight.

With the aggressive deadline we were given, Alphonso pulled at least two all-nighters to get it done on time. I know this because he emailed me at 3am and called me at 5am. He works hard, and I appreciate all he sacrificed to deliver the project.

And for the record, in case you are a wondering if we'll produce a 2 minute animation for YOU in three weeks, the answer is... yes... for an additional fee! :)

Also worth noting: Adobe requested a non-standard video size that would fit within their web banner space. My compliments to Andrew for designing a storyboard that filled out Adobe's requested non-standard video size quite nicely!

Jen Zug Joins Lilipip As Creative Director

Jen Zug — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:32:59 +0000

You know how you haven't called your sister in months, but every time you think about calling her you're faced with the daunting idea of catching her up on everything you've been doing but you just can't fit that into one conversation over your lunch hour at work?

That's a little bit how I feel right now.

Lilipip is up to great things so far this year, and I'm excited to tell you about it all - one story at a time.

To start with, my name is Jen Zug, and I joined the Lilipip team in January as Creative Director. I work with our Project Managers and creative teams to set the tone and style of each project according to the client's needs. I'm also the Head Writer and oversee all script writing - one of my favorite parts of the job.

Here is a little about me from our Team page:

Jen brings years of writing experience to the Lilipip team, using her love of story telling to help shape the scripts and storyboards that give birth to future animations. As a blogger and active twitter user, Jen's approach to script writing is quick and dirty, catering to the short attention spans of today's web surfers. After a lifetime of writing stories, producing short home movies, and creating the proverbial "mix tape" for every occasion, Jen can hardly believe she gets to do all this for a living.

I look forward to bringing you many more stories of Lilipip in the weeks and months to come!