MRI Living & MRI @Work - Animation

We partnered with MRI to create short animated videos that provide an in-depth look at their software capabilities while remaining broad enough to stay relevant to their constantly-updated product offerings.

Utilizing a style of 2D characters and environments we had previously worked with for the MRI Ascend conference, we developed and animated a series of short videos that tell the story of how MRI software helps their customers tackle the problems of modern real estate.

Building a new addition together

After working together on the Ascend 2020 conference video, we had the opportunity to collaborate with the team at MRI once again. This initial video’s style was developed in-house by MRI’s Senior Designer, and it provided an overview of MRI’s two main platforms: MRI Living and MRI @Work. For this project, we worked with MRI to dive deeper into both platform’s offerings while expanding on the work that we had done for the Ascend animation.

This presented an exciting opportunity to revisit a style we had success working with before and take it in new directions.

Extending our lease on style

For the MRI Ascend 2020 video, we took MRI’s Live, Work, Play graphic and expanded upon it to create a city’s worth of characters and environments. With this new round of MRI product videos, we took that expansion further. The style’s main features are flat 2D shaded characters and small amounts of character animation in each scene, relying on transitions between scenes to drive the larger story of each piece.

Working in the established style had a few benefits. As we could leverage already existing assets, this approach was budget friendly. But even more importantly, using this style to show more ways that MRI’s software helps their customers reinforces their brand identity and story.

About a third of the way through the video, MRI is introduced, and the tone of the video shifts in every way: color, music, and even narrator attitude. MRI’s signature blue, green, and orange emerge after it has begun to help the main character, creating a sunny outlook for the rest of the spot.

This basic structure and tonal shifts help drive home MRI's brand story of how their software help their customers run their properties more smoothly and efficiently, leading to stronger companies and communities.

Creating a flexible environment

Environments were built in 2D or 3D, depending on the camera/transition needs. We also utilized a nebulous “void” environment in which to explain more abstract concepts, such as chaos vs. order.