ANCESTRY
CLIENT
Ancestry
DURATION
3 Weeks
ROLE
Motion Designer
DESCRIPTION
Commissioned to create an infographic explainer video demonstrating how to navigate and utilise Ancestry.com. To ensure accuracy I had to first understand the site’s tools and functionality, which I did by exploring the platform and building my own family tree. The final video provided a clear and engaging walkthrough for new users while showcasing the platform’s extensive research tools to potential subscribers.
The client wanted a dynamic and clear-cut infographic that didn’t just rely on screen recordings. To achieve this, I built a sleek digital space using Ancestry’s brand colours and animated fluid lines to help guide the audience between sections. Using Adobe Illustrator I recreated screenshots that highlighted the site’s key features, turning them into crisp, high-quality, layered visuals which were then brought to life in After Effects.
Ancestry is a leading platform which helps users uncover and preserve their family story. With a vast digital archive, they offer access to digitized records, family tree building tools, and a collaborative research network to connect relatives and explore ethnic origins. Though they do offer DNA testing, this video focussed on the family history and record features only, so the DNA services were excluded from the animation.
INFOGRAPHIC:
The client wanted to maintain flexibility for future use so opted not to include any audio or captions, giving them the option to break up the animation into stand alone sections to promote future content. However, the following video includes a personally selected music track to enhance engagement, as well as a placeholder logo that I animated onto the end since I was never given the client's official logo animation and the video felt incomplete without it. This makes the version presented below a director’s cut while still maintaining the original animation as delivered to the client.
