As a kid, we all had fancied about the imaginary characters in animated movies and cartoons, moving and acting as in real life. It would have been the coolest thing you ever saw at that time.
But in the digital world, animation is not just about entertainment and movies. It is an effective way of visual communication. It is an attractive way to explain about your product to consumers.
Consumer themselves agree that watching a video helps them understand a product better. And animated video can easily overcome the restrains of live footage. Also, a video helps to increase the time spent by the users on your website and generate more leads.
For beginners it could be very intimidating to think about making an animated video. But it’s not that daunting task as it seems. With a little bit of know-how, determination and a good video editor anyone can create awesome animated explaner videos , So lets get started!
What is an animated video?
Animation is a method in which figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most animations are made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Computer animation can be very detailed 3D animation, while 2D computer animation can be used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth or faster real-time renderings.
Here are some steps to help you out with creating an animating video.
1. Choose A Video Style
There are different types of animation videos you can make, but not all the styles will suit the needs of your business. Each type has their own purposes. Consider the options below and select a style that you feel matches your product or service and audience best.
- 2D animation videos – A 2D animation video is a movie clip that only covers two dimensions. It consists of two dimension characters and digital environment. This type of animation will suit both B2B & B2C audiences. As your audience grew up watching animated cartoons in their childhood, 2D animation videos instantly develops a strong emotional connection with them.
- Whiteboard drawing – Whiteboard animation videos are most suited for creating product explainer videos. If done the right way with a compelling script, you can get more sales conversions. It is also a perfect fit for the education industry, as teachers usually use a marker and a whiteboard to explain complex ideas to their students.
- Typography animation videos – It’s the ideal video format to use when you want your viewers to focus on the words being presented. Moreover, it usually takes very less time to create one. This type of video is generally used for creating lyric videos for your music tracks.
- Infographic animation videos – Infographic animation videos can be used to convert your boring data into engaging stories. These kind of videos are more eye-catching as they pack themselves with lots of animated charts, numbers, graphs and other visual content that naturally draw viewer attention.
- Screencast video – A screencast is a digital video recording that captures actions taking place on a computer display. Screencasts, which often contain voice-over narration, are useful for demonstrating how to use specific operating systems, software applications or website features.
- Live action/Talking head – It is like a person talking to the camera—either looking directly at it or gazing slightly to the side. Talking heads are great for establishing expertise on a topic and are popular for thought leadership videos.
2. Write a Stellar Script
Video scripting is as important for video making as blueprint of a building is to construction. No matter how amazing your video quality is, your video will have no impact whatsoever without a mind-blowing video script. While this can be intimidating at first, with a little bit of homework, things can be very easy.
Before scriptwriting, you should have a clarity on,
- Why you’re making this animated video?
- What it needs to achieve?
- Who is your target audience?
- What problem does the product or service solve?
- How does it solve the problem?
- What should a user do to get started?
- What action should viewers take after watching, and
- What is the core message of your video?
3. Create a Storyboard
A storyboard plays an essential role in any animation video creation process. It will give collaborators and decision-makers an idea of how your final video might look even before you start creating it. Moreover, a storyboard will also help you optimally utilise the capital, identify errors, and decide punchlines in the video.
To create a storyboard, you can follow these steps:
- In the beginning, you need to prepare the story stage that best suits your project.
- After creating a stage, you should use drawing tools like rectangle, brush, pen, and so on to develop a background.
- The final task is to decide your characters. There is no need to create a custom character from scratch. There are plenty of templates and libraries available in Adobe and other software providers. All you need to do is create a layer, separate it, and prepare your chosen characters for animation.
4. Animate your video
You have an option to outsource this task to an agency or a freelancer. But if you have less budget you can do it by yourself too. There are many websites and apps where you can make animated videos for free. Animate the characters and fine-tune the path. Then test the animation and adjust.
5. Add a suitable background music
Music conveys emotion and gives energy that narration alone lacks. There must be some background music that resonates with the audience. However, you should make sure that you purchase the right to use the music. There are free audios that are available for though.
Here are a few things to remember when choosing a Background music:
- Think of the emotion you want to evoke
- Like in script writing, you need to understand your audience and their taste in music. For instance, a kid might prefer funny music, while a teen may prefer fast rock music.
- Don’t stick with one. Select a few music tracks, apply them one-by-one to your video and see which suits your video the most.
6. Narrate Your Story
First choose who will be the ‘voice’ of your company. The truth is almost any voice can work. The key is how they say the script. You want the person reading to reflect the right attitude for your company, product, or service.
You also need to have a high-quality microphone to give a great final touch to your animated video. Once you have voice talent chosen, use a recording studio or very quiet space, a high-quality microphone and recording software to record the script. Then, edit your audio to remove bad takes, mistakes, and anything you won’t use. You should also remove background noise, breaths between lines, and, as much as possible.
Now that your video is ready, it’s time to publish your video on the right platforms. I hope this article has helped you out and cleared your confusion. You might need to refer other resources and tutorials in some steps of this guide. However, it might have helped to give a big picture about this topic.
Happy Recording!