Guide to Creating an Animation
Turn complex manuals into clear, visual instructions that anyone can understand at a glance. With our custom 2D and 3D animations, you can reduce the number of support requests, speed up onboarding, and ensure safety and quality at scale. Animation Agency the entire process from script to sound design, tailored to your product, brand, and target audience. Ready to simplify your manual and help your users from the very first second?
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Why an instructional video works
An animated guide combines visuals, text, and audio into a single, clear sequence of instructions. This helps your audience understand what to do more quickly, in the correct order, and without any misunderstandings. You can reduce support spikes, ensure safety, and increase adoption of new features or processes.
For the high-tech, healthcare, finance, and retail sectors, we create visualizations of assembly, maintenance, software workflows, and safety procedures. This includes 3D visualizations of internal mechanisms or invisible processes that cannot be filmed in real life. For example, we clearly visualized Vanderlande’s FASTPICK system, including process flows and product interactions.
Benefits of an animated tutorial:
- Consistent guidance at scale – always the same, error-free instructions.
- Faster onboarding – a shorter learning curve for new customers or employees.
- Enhanced safety and compliance – risk levels presented visually and unambiguously.
- Easy to share – embed on product pages, intranets, LMS platforms, and service portals.
- Multilingual and modular—tailored to each target group, product variant, or task step.
Proud partners
We are privileged to work for these wonderful brands and are proud of the trust we have earned from our 700+ customers.
"Super work they did! They move quickly, understand what you want and deliver great work."
Zoë Smit
Go Socialup
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Social Advertising Specialist
"Very fast party, contact is nice and personal, additional questions were addressed immediately and we were well thought of. Super satisfied!"
Anneloes Kuipers
Solar Plan
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Social & Creative Marketer
"Together with Animation Agency we created an animation campaign for Hurks. The end result is top notch and the first leads are already in through the online campaign."
Ralph van Essen
Webzies
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Owner
Our step-by-step approach
You’ll benefit from a structured, transparent process with multiple rounds of feedback. This allows you to maintain control over content, scheduling, and quality. Want to know exactly how we work before we get started? Read about our approach to animation projects. Still looking for the right partner? Choosing the right animation studio can help you make the right decision.
- Intake and scope
- Define objectives, target audience, context of use, KPIs, and distribution channels.
- Gathering source materials: manuals, CAD/STEP files, sketches, photos, SOPs.
- Script Development
- We break down complex steps into short, action-oriented instructions.
- We group tasks into logical modules and establish the tone of the voice-over and terminology.
- Frame styles and choice of 2D or 3D
- Visual samples in your brand style for typography, iconography, and color schemes.
- Recommendation: 2D or 3D, depending on complexity and desired level of realism.
- Storyboard and animatic
- Shot-by-shot overview with annotations and camera angles/perspective for each step.
- Optional animatic with timing, so everyone can get a sense of the pace before production begins.
- Voice-over and sound design
- Voice-over recording in the desired language and tone of voice.
- Sound effects and music that emphasize actions and enhance the rhythm.
- Production and delivery
- 2D or 3D animation, compositing, and rendering. Quality checks for clarity and brand consistency.
- Delivery in the desired resolutions and formats, plus versions tailored to each platform or target audience.
Want to see the entire process at a glance? Check out the complete step-by-step guide to creating an animated video.
Throughout this process, we schedule regular review sessions after the script, style frames, storyboard, and initial animatic are completed. This helps us avoid surprises and ensures we deliver exactly what you need, on time and within budget.
How much does it cost to have an instructional animation created?
The cost depends on the length, complexity, whether it’s 2D or 3D, the number of versions or languages, and the desired turnaround time. How much does an animated video cost? In this article, you’ll learn about the key cost drivers. After the initial consultation, you’ll receive a clear scope of work with a schedule and a fixed price agreement per version or module. It’s often worth breaking a longer manual down into modules: easier to navigate, easier to measure, and often more cost-effective to maintain. Want to optimize costs? Reuse assets, stick to a single format, and schedule multilingual recordings in a single session.
