How I build a logo animation, start to finish

A logo animation is usually the shortest thing a client orders and one of the most watched. It opens every video they publish, so a 7-second sting may be seen more often than any campaign. That's why I treat it as a small film, not a preset.

1. Decide what the logo should feel like

Before any keyframes, I write down three words the brand wants to be. "Premium, steady, trusted" for an institution leads somewhere very different from "loud, playful, fast" for a content house. Those words decide the speed, the easing and even the sound.

2. Sketch the reveal

I draw four or five thumbnail frames: where the logo starts, the one moment of surprise, and how it lands. If the idea doesn't read in rough pencil, it won't be saved by glossy materials later.

3. Prepare the artwork properly

• Separate every part of the mark onto its own layer in Illustrator, named the way it will animate.
• Keep the vector file: shape layers stay crisp at any size and in any aspect ratio.
• Agree on the final colours before animating; changing them later breaks the lighting.

4. Animate the timing first, the polish last

I block the whole move with simple keyframes and play it on loop until the rhythm feels right. Only then do I add the graph-editor easing, motion blur, light sweeps and particles. Polish on a bad rhythm is wasted time.

The landing frame matters most. It's the frame people will remember, and the one that sits under the client's voice-over for the next two seconds.

5. Sound is half the animation

A whoosh, a hit and a short tail make the same motion feel twice as expensive. I cut the sound to the frame and keep it mixed low enough to sit under music.

6. Deliver the full kit

Every logo sting I hand over comes as: a light and a dark version, 16:9 and 9:16 cuts, an MP4 for everyday use, a ProRes 4444 file with transparency for editors, and the project file. Clients reuse these for years, so it's worth getting right.