What is a Style Frame?
Style frames are images that portray what a finished motion graphic will look like to a client or editor. Similar to a mood board or stylescape, they help all of the stakeholders in the project get into alignment on how the finished motion graphic will look before any animation is created.
They are full-color frames that visualize each main scene, and determine the style and look of the video. If you pause a motion graphic at
Here’s how motion designer Jorge Canedo Estrada defines them:
Creating style frames is an important part of the motion design process as they portray the story being told in the proper visual style to the animator (s) who will use them as a reference when they are creating the animation.
Eve Weinberg, of Never Odd Or Even, specializes in illustrative storytelling of film title sequences and motion graphics that boost commercial video, interactive video, and everything in between that requires beautiful artwork. In the video below, she describes how she uses sketching to build her concepts and how she uses her style frames to guide the look of her finished motion graphics.