Classroom example Broken Pencil Studios
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The questionShow your class · 2 of 5
How it worksShow your class · 3 of 5
Who does this workShow your class · 4 of 5
Ways inShow your class · 5 of 5
Ask the classFor you
About Broken Pencil StudiosFor you
SourcesHow can a moving picture explain a process you cannot see?
Broken Pencil Studios · The company identifies itself as a Calgary animation production studio.
Where it fits
Pick your class- Physics 20 · Frame spacing, displacement and velocity
How it works
Schematic · not to scale
Plan, animate, then check understanding
Choose the question the animation should answer.
Plan the sequence with a storyboard.
Use frame timing and object position to represent motion.
Check what a viewer understood and revise the sequence.
Frame drawings are illustrative, not a quantitative motion dataset. Use the equal-time classroom activity to calculate and compare displacement.
The lesson, in the real world
A useful animation helps an audience follow relationships that a camera cannot easily show.
- 1
Start with the audience and one question the explanation must answer.
Our explanation - 2
Turn the idea into a script and storyboard that show the sequence before polishing the artwork.
Our explanation - 3
Use timing, viewpoint and visual choices to make a relationship visible. A model may simplify reality, so the simplification should be deliberate.
Our explanation - 4
Review whether a viewer understood the intended idea. Revise a confusing scene instead of adding decoration.
Our explanation
Who does this work
Role
Storyboarding and illustration
Decide what an audience needs to see before the final sequence is produced.
What might you actually do?
Investigate
Translate a message into visual scenes.
Test and compare
Check order, viewpoint and transitions using rough drawings.
Document and improve
Revise the sequence after feedback before detailed animation.
Typical of this kind of work in general. Not a description of any one person’s job at Broken Pencil Studios.
- Often works with
- Writers, animators and clients
- Classroom connection
- A model needs to preserve the relationship it is intended to explain.
Related job postings
Similar work at other employers in Calgary, AB, not openings at Broken Pencil Studios. These are live searches: results change daily and we have not checked them.
How to prepare
Bachelor of Design
AUArts
Ways in
For your students
Ways to prepare for this work
Programs that teach skills this work uses. Each is one route in, not a requirement, and no program has endorsed this page.
Showing routes for storyboarding and illustration. Show all
AUArtsBachelor’s degreeCalgary
Bachelor of Design
Develop visual communication through studio-based design work.
About this route
Check current admission, portfolio, intake and workplace requirements; program completion does not guarantee a job or professional registration.
Why it connects to the work · our interpretation
Storyboarding and illustrationSupports illustration and visual storytelling; portfolio requirements apply. A model needs to preserve the relationship it is intended to explain.
Ask the class
Use it in class
Ask the class
When does simplifying an animation make it misleading?
Draw four frames showing a ball at equal time intervals. Make one version constant-speed and one speeding up. Ask a partner to infer the motion from the spacing.
Mindset it shows
Use the ball activity to compare positions at equal time intervals. Constant displacement per interval means constant velocity; increasing displacement means speeding up in that direction. This is our physics extension, not a claimed client project. Artistic motion can depart from reality.
About Broken Pencil Studios
A useful animation helps an audience follow relationships that a camera cannot easily show.
- Headquarters
- Headquarters not separately verified for this example.
- Local connection
- The company identifies itself as a Calgary animation production studio.
- Source: Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 1(opens in a new tab); Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 2(opens in a new tab); Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 3(opens in a new tab)
- Team size
- Not verified. We have not found a dated, sourced figure.
- The problem
- How can a moving picture explain a process you cannot see?
- Source: Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 1(opens in a new tab); Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 2(opens in a new tab); Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 3(opens in a new tab)
- What they do
- Animation, illustration and technical visualization developed from briefs and storyboards.
- Source: Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 1(opens in a new tab); Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 2(opens in a new tab); Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 3(opens in a new tab)
- Who uses it
- Clients explaining ideas and audiences trying to understand them.
- Source: Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 1(opens in a new tab); Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 2(opens in a new tab); Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 3(opens in a new tab)
Broken Pencil Studios is a Calgary creative studio offering animation, illustration and technical visualization. Its own production account describes moving from a communication brief to script, storyboard, design, animation and delivery. The work is not simply making something move: the team chooses what to show so an audience can understand a message.
Source: Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 1(opens in a new tab); Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 2(opens in a new tab); Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 3(opens in a new tab)Read each source’s date and scope: a documented role is not proof of a current vacancy or of where every position is based.
Reported as Broken Pencil Studios states it. Broken Pencil Studios has not reviewed or endorsed this page.
Sources and course fit
Sources checked 17 Oct 2026
Where it fits
- Physics 20 · Frame spacing, displacement and velocity
Editorial mapping to published CBE course topics. Pending educator review. No outcome-code alignment is claimed.
Sources
- Alberta Physics 20–30 performance standards: A1, B1 and C1(opens in a new tab)
- Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 1(opens in a new tab)
- Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 2(opens in a new tab)
- Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 3(opens in a new tab)
- AUArts — Bachelor of Design(opens in a new tab)
- SAIT — Film and Video Production(opens in a new tab)
Organization claims are reported as the organization states them. Broken Pencil Studios has not reviewed or endorsed this page.
What we know, and how
| Type | Claim | How we know |
|---|---|---|
| work | Broken Pencil Studios is a Calgary creative studio offering animation, illustration and technical visualization. Its own production account describes moving from a communication brief to script, storyboard, design, animation and delivery. The work is not simply making something move: the team chooses what to show so an audience can understand a message.Source: Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 1; Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 2; Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 3 | Source-backed company/project account |
| local connection | The company identifies itself as a Calgary animation production studio.Source: Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 1; Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 2; Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 3 | Source-backed local work |
| course fit | Physics 20 A1 relates displacement, velocity, acceleration and time. Compare ball positions at equal time intervals; animation production supplies the context, not a claim that all studio work is physics.Source: Alberta Physics 20–30 performance standards: A1, B1 and C1 | Editorial application of verified curriculum topics |
| limits | The equal-time motion activity supplies the Physics 20 connection. Do not claim that animation improves learning by a measured percentage.Source: Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 1; Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 2; Broken Pencil Studios — company/project evidence 3 | Scope of this example |
Solid green: the organization states it. Outlined: seen in a dated source. Dashed: our interpretation, not yet researched, or announced but not yet real.