Animated Explainer Videos for MiPermit

The County Council of the City and County of Cardiff has been the governing body for Cardiff, one of the Principal Areas of Wales, since 1996. In 2020, with the swap to cashless payments becoming even more prevalent Cardiff council decided it was time to update the parking process for the whole of Cardiff and work in partnership with MiPermit.

They needed an animation that would make parking, engaging and clearly demonstrate how parking would change in Cardiff, as well as how residents living in Cardiff could apply for their parking permits. It would be a series of three videos, focusing on different aspects of the new MiPermit scheme that was being rolled out across Cardiff, in both English and Welsh.

Each video needed a slightly different approach, one to introduce the scheme, the next to show how to use the MiPermit app, and the last to make the benefits of the new program clear. This meant a new discovery session for every video. By the beginning of production, our Wizards knew MiPermit inside and out.

Scripting was the start of learning how to make these videos engaging and informative. Our Wizards started with making sure all the key information was included and then began adding elements of fun and humour to help engage an audience who were probably not expecting to be watching a video about parking changes in Cardiff. Also because these animations were bilingual, we called in the help of the trusty Bla Translation who help us accurately translate scripts from English to Welsh in the blink of an eye.

The concept art stage was when we started to build the style. The artwork needed to be consistent across all three videos and we had to make sure it was something that would work with the three different topics, especially with the “how-to” video which was based heavily around how the app worked and would include a lot of visuals of the interface of the app.

Storyboarding is the first time the client really gets a chance to visualise how the animation will look and flow from beginning to end. It gives everyone a chance to make any last changes to the language, scenery, colours, and characters before we enter the production stage. Because our process is rock solid, any changes or concerns have been worked out by now and storyboarding is a smooth process. Each storyboard for Cardiff Council helped to establish the balance between information and engaging content and was an opportunity for stakeholders to make any final changes before production.

Working with the style created by our wizards, we set about creating three videos that would work perfectly as a series as well as be able to hold their own when viewed individually. This worked out so well because our Wizards created bespoke characters, scenery and all other assets to ensure that these videos for Cardiff Council wouldn’t look like any other explainer animation. We had a great response from Cardiff Council, and the Mipermit rollout went super smoothly thanks to these engaging explainer videos.