We design brand motion, explainer video, product demos, hero loops and interface animation — designed by senior motion teams who treat time as a deliberate part of the brand. For ambitious product brands across the UK, US, Europe and the Middle East.
The web is animated by default now — every modern site, every product UI, every social platform expects motion. A brand that ships only static assets into a moving environment looks slower and less considered than its competitors before a single word is read. The penalty is not aesthetic; it is positional.
Template easing, library presets, and AI-generated motion all share the same tell — the rhythm is generic. A trained eye reads it instantly, and a non-specialist viewer feels it without being able to name it. The cost is brand quality perception, and it stacks every time a generic asset ships under your name.
Easing, duration, entrance behaviour, and signature moments carry brand personality the same way typography and colour do. A "decisive" brand snaps; a "considered" brand settles; a "warm" brand bounces. Brands without motion rules let every team in the company decide that personality independently — and ship inconsistency in the wild.
Animated logo lockups, signature transitions, easing fingerprint, motion guidelines. The brand moving on-character across every surface it ships into.
60 to 120 seconds. Scripted, scored, animated frame-by-frame. The format that turns a cold visitor into someone who understands the category and feels they have learned something.
90 to 180 seconds. Real product UI walked through with annotation overlays, motion callouts, and a deliberate edit rhythm. The format that converts mid-funnel.
6 to 15 seconds. No narrative. Brand framed in time — the visual equivalent of the front-panel logo, designed for hero sections, social ads, and app-store previews.
9:16, 1:1, and 16:9 cuts derived from the master commission. Same animation, same brand — sized and paced for Reels, Stories, TikTok, YouTube, and feed.
Lottie animations, scroll-linked motion, hover states, page transitions. The motion that lives inside your product — designed once, exported as JSON, deployed everywhere.
Every motion we ship is governed by four decisions: how things ease, how long they take, how they enter, and how the brand signs off. These four primitives are the difference between motion that feels like the brand and motion that feels like a default.
One or two cubic-bezier curves that govern every transition in the brand. The fingerprint that says "decisive" or "considered" before words do.
Four values — typically 120ms, 250ms, 400ms, 700ms — mapped to micro, small, medium, slow. Every motion in the brand picks from this ladder.
Drift, scale-in, or stagger — one signature pattern used most of the time, with the others reserved for specific contexts. Consistency makes the brand feel composed.
One or two motion artefacts that exist nowhere else — the stinger, the lockup transition, the loading moment. The brand's calling card in motion.
What is the audience asking right now, what funnel stage, what platform, what duration constraint, what budget band. Three working days of structured intake that produces a written brief signed off before any frame is designed. The brief decides the format; the format decides everything downstream.
The script is the load-bearing element on every video — most explainer failures are script failures. We write, edit, and approve the script before any storyboard work begins. Then frame-by-frame storyboard panels signed off before animation starts.
Static design frames in the chosen visual direction — key moments shot-listed and designed at presentation quality before animation. This is the phase where the visual decisions are locked, so animation does not become a moving target.
Frame-by-frame animation, motion-graphic overlays, voiceover sync, sound design, music selection or commission. This is the longest phase and the one most often under-budgeted. We deliver versioned cuts at the end of each iteration, not just at the end of the project.
Final master in every format you need (MP4 H.264/H.265, ProRes, WebM), captioned and silent versions, derivative cuts at 16:9 / 1:1 / 9:16, Lottie JSON for web-friendly animations, source files (After Effects, Figma), subtitle files. Copyright transfers on final payment.
Six of more than 1,000 motion projects. Hover any card to see the motion language sample.
Six projects from a portfolio of more than 1,000. If you want to see motion work in your category, ask — we almost certainly have it.
Tell us about the funnel stage, the platform, and the question the audience is asking right now. You will get a written format recommendation within 48 hours.
From the hero loop above the fold to the social cut on TikTok — one master commission, derivative cuts planned at the script stage, consistent brand motion through every surface.
Working notes from inside our motion practice — written for founders and product teams making decisions about what to commission, when, and in what format.
Six conditions under which landing-page video lifts conversion, five under which it hurts, and the three-question test before commissioning anything.
Static identity systems are running on a moving web. The four primitives that turn a static brand into one that moves on-character.
Three different formats, three funnel stages, three production timelines. The decision framework most agencies skip.
After Effects template packs, Lottie marketplaces, motion graphic asset stores — the rhythm of stock motion is recognisable to anyone who has seen enough product videos. Your audience has. Stock motion does not look "fine" to them; it looks generic, and generic is positional damage.
Template motion ships with template easing — Material Design defaults, After Effects presets, library standards. None of them carry your brand. Personality in motion lives in the easing fingerprint, the duration scale, the entrance principle. Stock libraries give you none of these, and you cannot bolt them on after the fact.
Every motion we ship comes from the brand's easing fingerprint, duration scale, entrance principle, and signature moments — designed once, applied across every commission. The first piece costs more than a template; the second, third, and fourth cost less than they would otherwise, because the language already exists. Owned motion is an asset, not a deliverable.
The cost depends on the format (explainer, product demo, hero loop, brand motion), the duration, whether the engagement includes brand-motion specification, and the scope of derivative cuts. There are honest bands for every scope — a single hero loop is a focused engagement; a connected video system (explainer + demo + hero + 5 social cuts) is a larger one. We share a written estimate within two working days of the discovery call — scope, deliverables, timeline, and team named — before you commit to anything.
An explainer takes 4–6 weeks. A product demo takes 2–3 weeks (the visual content — real product UI — already exists). A hero loop takes 3–4 weeks even though it is the shortest format, because every frame matters and there is no script-padding. A standalone brand-motion specification takes 3–4 weeks. A connected video system (one explainer + one demo + one hero plus social cuts) typically runs 8–10 weeks because the derivatives are planned at the script stage, not as separate engagements.
Video is the medium (time-based moving image); animation is the technique used when there is no live-action footage (frame-by-frame motion, motion graphics, 2D and 3D animation); motion design is the discipline of designing how things move with intent (easing, timing, rhythm, brand voice in time). Most product brands need a blend: live-action footage for human and product moments, motion-graphic overlays for explanation, motion-design rules running consistently across both. We work in all three and treat them as one toolkit, not three separate services.
We handle both. A weak script is the single most common reason explainer video projects miss the mark, so we include scripting and storyboarding in every video engagement by default. If you already have a strong script you want to bring, we will work from it — but we will audit it against the funnel stage and the platform first, and flag any structural issues before animation begins. Audit-and-bring-your-own is roughly 30% cheaper than full scripting from scratch but only saves time if the existing script is structurally sound.
Master files in the formats you need (typically MP4 H.264, H.265, ProRes, and WebM for web); silent and captioned versions; derivative cuts at platform-specific aspect ratios (16:9 for YouTube and embeds, 1:1 for social feed, 9:16 for Reels/Stories/TikTok); poster frames for use as fallback images; subtitle files (.srt, .vtt) for accessibility; and source files (After Effects project, Lottie JSON for web-friendly animations, Figma source for static frames). Source files are included. Full copyright transfers on final payment.
Yes — full copyright and exclusive ownership transfers to you on final payment, with a written statement confirming the transfer. Source files (After Effects projects, Lottie JSON, master MP4s) are all yours. You can use the video on any surface, in any geography, in perpetuity. Dream Steps may include the work in our portfolio and case studies unless you specifically request confidentiality. Licensed stock footage, music, and typefaces used in the video remain governed by their respective licences, which we transfer to your name where possible.
Across the UK, United States, Ireland, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, the UAE, and worldwide. Most of our motion work is commissioned by founders, marketing directors, and product teams in those markets — from SaaS and fintech to consumer brands, healthcare, and education. We work in your timezone, communicate entirely in English, and have senior motion designers available across UK and US business hours.
Yes — a focused refresh keeps the script and concept intact but updates the visual treatment, motion language, or duration. A 90-second explainer can be cut into a 30-second social ad and a 6-second hero loop without re-shooting. We can also adapt an existing video to match a new brand identity (re-typeset, re-coloured, re-eased to match new motion guidelines). The refresh is dramatically cheaper than recommissioning from scratch — usually 30–50% of the original production cost.
A senior motion freelancer is appropriate for a focused single-deliverable project where one experienced person can hold the script, animation, and edit. An agency is appropriate when the work spans multiple formats (explainer plus product demo plus hero), requires live-action footage and motion-graphic overlays together, needs brand-motion specification alongside, or involves multiple stakeholders and review rounds. The rough threshold: if the project includes more than one format or requires both live-action and animation, an agency band tends to produce more cohesive output.
Yes, with one caveat. AI video tools are useful for rough animatics, stock-style B-roll, and stylised concept frames — they generate output in minutes that would take a designer hours. They are not yet good at brand-specific motion, character consistency across cuts, lip-sync, precise typography animation, or the kind of judgement that separates a ‘fine’ explainer from one that converts. We use AI tools where they save real time and produce output to brand; we don’t use them where they would force a compromise on the work. The final master is always a deliberately-crafted piece, not a generated one.
Book a free 30-minute discovery call. We will ask about the audience, the funnel stage, the question they are asking right now, and your target launch date. A written proposal — scope, timeline, team, and price — follows within two working days. The project can usually start within a week of proposal sign-off. Book directly from this page or email info@thedreamsteps.com.
Book a free 30-minute consultation. We will look at the audience, the funnel, and the question they are asking right now — and tell you honestly which format moves the metric. If we are the right team for the work, we will tell you exactly what we would do and what it would cost.
What to expect
A direct conversation with Vikas, our founder. No middlemen.