How to Create an Effective Animated Video for Your Business
If your marketing videos are all starting to look the same – talking heads, a few shots of B-roll, maybe a few lines of text and a phone number – maybe you should switch things up with an animated video. Online viewers are skimming and scanning through thousands of web videos everyday. Make yours stand out with colorful, interesting motion graphics and a style that’s unique to your brand. Animated “explainer” videos – or demonstration videos – are a great way to simplify complex ideas through basic moving images and text. Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating an animated video for your business.
1. Make sure you set a specific goal for your video. You don’t want to make an animated video just for the sake of creating one. Establish the purpose of your video – what do you want to achieve? Do you want to entertain, inform, educate, or drive people to act? How do you want your viewer to react? Answer these questions before moving onto the next step of the pre-production process.
2. Find an experienced animator and/or video production team that offers high quality editing and animation services. Creating motion graphics and “cartoon-style” videos takes great skill and a lot of attention to detail. Looking at different companies’ animation demo reels can help you determine the skill level and style you are looking for to create your animated video.
3. Nail down a script, storyboard, and key design elements. Your script is the backbone of your animated video. Without it, your video is just a collection of moving pictures and words. Your message should be clear, concise, and easy to understand. Some animated video scripts are developed like a story, with a main character who has a problem or concern that must be alleviated (by your product or service, of course!). Once you have your script, you will need to decide on the design elements needed to produce your animated video. This can include logos, icons, characters, and kinetic typography (moving text) essential to getting your message across in a clear, simple way. Piece it all together in a storyboard before moving into the production phase.
4. Because your video will not have any “actors” to carry on a dialogue, you will need to employ a narrator. Voiceover artists are often easy to come by, but you will need to decide exactly how you want your narrator to sound. Male or female? Demanding or passive? Soothing or energetic? It sometimes helps to have more than one voiceover artist provide several samples to choose from, so you can match up your visuals to the tone of your audio before making a final decision.
Finally, you’ll need the help of an experienced video team to help you put everything together. Professional videographers and animators use state-of-the-art editing software to piece everything together and create the effective, engaging animated video you desire. Contact In Focus Studios today to get started on your animated video. With studios in Raleigh, North Carolina and Baltimore, Maryland, our video team serves the entire east coast.
