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Stages of Samatha - Visualisation and Metaphor

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Stages of Samatha - Visualisation and Metaphor

It is interesting to see how the fundamental tools we use everyday at Cognitive, such as mapping out a story arc or using a metaphor to simplify and explain a complex idea, can be used in the pursuit of mental and spiritual improvement.

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When pictures really are worth a thousand words

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When pictures really are worth a thousand words

At Cognitive we tell stories. If you want to remember a message then storytelling is the best vehicle to do this. Our brains are far more engaged by stories than lists of facts and figures.

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Character Development in Gaming

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Character Development in Gaming

Powerful storytelling in games is a key feature for creating a world that players can immerse themselves in. Broaching a variety of difficult subject matters, interactive software has increased it’s suitability and accessibility to a wider audience and it’s fair to say the gaming world has expanded its horizons exponentially, giving it’s creative fantasy world a fundamental core of all-too-real issues.

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Capturing the essence of someone

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Capturing the essence of someone

In a lot of our Cognitive films, we are required to draw a public figure within the animation, whether it be a celebrity or a company employee. In this blog one of our brilliant illustrators takes us through the steps to creating an uncanny portrait.

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A little trick that helps humanise our animations

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A little trick that helps humanise our animations

Easing is a technique that allows us to humanise the animation and enable viewers to follow narration more smoothly - here we show you the effect works and why our animations are so successful.

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Mapping out, drawing and animating history *Ahem* Herstory!

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Mapping out, drawing and animating history *Ahem* Herstory!

At Cognitive we love unpacking complex information and mapping it out in space and stories like ‘What the suffragettes did for us’ are a great opportunity to supercharge the narrative with emotive drawings and kinetic animation.

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Visual Synthesis - How Does It Work?

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Visual Synthesis - How Does It Work?

When working this way it is best to try and keep a balance between the logic of a piece and the stylistic realisation. We want it to be attractive and engaging but we also want it to make sense to the audience. The key for us is to try and build a map of relationships, a connected diagram to visualise the thought processes of the speaker.

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Animation - it's character building

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Animation - it's character building

Characters are what drive the emotional reactions of the viewer to a story. The viewer invests their emotions into the characters. Find out how and why we use characters in our work...

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I Always Thought, If This Works Whiteboard Animation Is Going To Spread Around The World

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I Always Thought, If This Works Whiteboard Animation Is Going To Spread Around The World

I read an interesting interview with Jon Kabat-Zinn the other day. His name might not be on the tip of everybody's tongue, but most people have come across his work in some shape or form.

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When One Returns To Something There Is A Tendency To Look Back Over What Went Before, In Order To Move Forward

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When One Returns To Something There Is A Tendency To Look Back Over What Went Before, In Order To Move Forward

I have over the past few weeks been doing just that - looking back at the catalogue of work we have made for the RSA Animate series to get a sense of the here and now.

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