Define the message
Start with your audience, the idea they need to understand and what they should do next. Supply the research, product information or approved wording that the explanation must preserve.
Animation & motion
Explainer videos & animation
that make complex ideas clear.
Based in Auckland, Lucid Lab creates 2D animation, motion graphics and explainer videos. Whether it's breaking down climate change or walking someone through paying council rates — we turn dense information into clear, engaging visual stories.
From source material to a clear explainer.
Choose the visual approach
2D characters, motion graphics, 3D diagrams or live-action overlays can each serve a different job. The aquifer mapping explainer shows how animation can make an invisible system visible.
Plan review and delivery
Agree the runtime, formats, approval owner and any specialist checks before production. Include captions, cutdowns and other versions in the brief so the scope reflects how the video will be used.
Not sure what belongs in a brief? The production brief builder covers the audience, source assets, approvals and deliverables for animation or a mixed production.
Specialism
If it needs explaining,
we'll help it land.
A background making scientific and environmental content accessible — now expanded into health, safety, and government comms. Because people deserve to understand what matters, and what to do next.
Environment & climate
Sustainability, conservation, sea level rise, biodiversity — turning the planet's hardest problems into stories people remember.
Health & wellbeing
Patient journeys, treatment explainers, public health campaigns — clear, kind, never patronising.
Government & council
Rates, regulations, public consultations, infrastructure projects — making civic life understandable.
Science & education
Research findings, white papers, lecture content — animating ideas that started in a journal article.
Project types
Many formats, one craft.
Explainer
Explainer videos
60-second to 3-minute animated stories that make a complex idea clickable, then memorable, then actionable.
Motion graphics
Motion graphics
Animated titles, infographics, data viz, and broadcast packaging that lifts the production value of anything it touches.
Brand animation
Brand & UI animation
Animated logos, loaders, and micro-interactions — for web, app, social, and pitch decks.
Hybrid
Live action + animation
Documentary footage layered with animated overlays, data, and characters — explainer power, cinematic feel.
Long-form
Educational series
Multi-episode animated learning content for organisations rolling out new policy, training, or curriculum.
Internal
Internal & training
Onboarding, change management, safety training — animations that make people actually pay attention.
Animation work
Animation we've made.
AI video · Animation· Bidfood New Zealand
Bidfood — Innovating for the Future
Lucid Lab's first commissioned AI-led ad, made with Indelible Creative Studio using the generative tools available in early 2024.
AI video · Animation
Griffin's — Life Needs a Snack
A director-led AI product ad built from generative imagery, 3D layouts, product photography, and detailed compositing.
AI video · Animation
Napier Port — AI archive animation
Historic Napier Port photographs brought into motion with AI animation and time-lapse transitions across 150 years.
2:01Film · Animation · AI video
Lucid Lab Showreel 2024
A two-minute cut of the work we love most — brand films, documentary, animation, and AI video. Ten years of craft, one studio.
1:30Animation
3D Aquifer Mapping Project
A 3D-animated explainer of aquifer mapping — making invisible groundwater systems visible, understandable, and worth caring about.
1:57Animation
Sunny Land — After Effects
An animated character piece built in After Effects — playful, hand-crafted, and used to demo our 2D animation chops on briefs that need warmth.
Good to know
Common questions, answered plainly.
What animation services does Lucid Lab offer?
Lucid Lab creates 2D animation, motion graphics, animated explainers, title sequences, brand motion, educational series, and live-action films with animated overlays.
Can Lucid Lab turn technical material into an explainer video?
Yes. Lucid Lab works from source material such as research papers, policy documents, technical systems, and training content, then develops a clear visual treatment that keeps the important detail understandable.
Can animation be combined with live-action video?
Yes. Documentary or interview footage can be combined with animated data, typography, diagrams, characters, and transitions to add clarity without losing the human story.
Next step
Got something complicated to explain?
Send the brief, the research paper, the policy doc — whatever the dense source material is. We'll come back with a treatment that makes it sing.