The story you tell builds around your hero. You want a character audiences can quickly understand and get invested in. In video marketing, there are only six general categories of hero.

1. Set Up The Customer as Hero

Perhaps the safest choice is to set your customer up as the hero. They’re the ones you’re trying to persuade, and it’s a good bet that people are interested in themselves and their problems. The customer-hero marketing narrative most often follows the classic three act structure: 

1. The customer has a problem/pain point
2. They discover the product
3. Their problem resolves and they live happily ever after 

This is a simple but compelling structure that is common because it works. For example, this video for CBC Credit Union features an unnamed main character who represents the audience. 

2. Personify Your Brand or Product

Your brand or product is what you’re trying to sell, so letting it be the protagonist of your marketing narrative is an attractive option. By personifying your offering, you can truly create a personality for your brand. In the video below, the operator becomes the face of Repipe Specialist as she helps the customer solve his problem. 

3. Turn the Pain Point into a Main Character

If Despicable Me taught us anything, it’s that everybody loves a good villain. Personifying the problem can be a fun and memorable approach. It’s especially helpful if you’re dealing with a complicated problem. Here is a video we created for LeadID, (now Jornaya) where we depicted the unscrupulous lead sellers that LeadID is designed to stamp out.

4. Bring the Competition into the Narrative

Building a narrative around your competition is a bit touchy, because you don’t want to look like you’re putting the competition down. One of the classic examples of this genre is the Mac vs. PC ads, which you can sample below. The reason they work is that PC, played by John Hodgman, is such a sympathetic and lovable character. It is the PC, not the Mac, that truly wins our hearts, even as the advantages of the Mac are made clear.

5. Feature An Authority

Sometimes a testimonial from an authority or celebrity can make your story feel more credible. If you don’t have the budget for an actual celebrity, you can invent one. Remember the World’s Most Interesting Man from the Dos Equis commercials? He was an imaginary celebrity, but he still managed to add both humor and gravitas to the brand. You can also lean on a historical figure, like we did with this video we made for Know Better Bread.

6. Build Your Video Narrative Around a Third Party

This is probably the least common option, because it is a bit indirect. But it does work if done carefully. We are social animals. We want to please, romance, captivate, and thrill those around us. Sometimes a story that talks about what the product does for others can be very effective. This video for Passat is a classic example.

Invite IdeaRocket Into Your Marketing Narrative

At IdeaRocket, we are experts in using video storytelling to deliver results for brands. If you want support crafting a script, developing characters, and animating your next video, we’re here to help. We’ve worked with healthcare, human resources and training, SaaS, and many other industries to deliver quality explainer videos and animated commercials. Contact us to get started.

The post Video Marketing Narrative: Who Is The Hero of Your Story? appeared first on IdeaRocket.

A video style guide can help your brand: 

• Stay consistent across the internet, from YouTube to TikTok
• Be recognized and remembered by customers
• Work with service providers to create brand-consistent custom videos

As video creators, we love to see a brand with a thoughtful video style guide. It usually means that the project will run smoothly and the end result will serve the client well. With that in mind, here’s how to develop a video style guide step by step. 

Display Your Graphic Identity

If you have a general brand style book, this part should be easy. You may already have a consistent style you use in print and online. Many of those guidelines can be copied directly to your video style book. 

Elements to consider: 

• Typefaces
• Colors
• Additional graphic elements, ex. quote boxes, framing devices, or underlining devices
• Style or feel, ex. modernist and sleek or classical and elaborate
• Photo treatments, ex. desaturated, lightly tinted, or duotone

Keep in mind that you might have to modify your style to work for video. A typeface that looks great in print might be difficult to read on a video screen, for example. Use your existing guidelines as a starting point, but don’t be constrained by them.

Identify Your Brand Voice And Personality

Again, your brand voice and personality might already be mentioned in your brand book. Because video is a story-telling format, video makers might need a more detailed explanation to hit the right notes.

Start with the overall brand voice. Identify where it falls on a spectrum from casual to formal. Define how your brand will use humor. Are you comfortable with puns, sarcasm, snark, situational humor or none of the above? 

Next, think about how you want to relate to your customers. Some brands aim for entertainment (think Geico commercials) while others focus on conveying information. Some use technical words and jargon to appeal to those already in the know, while others are more plain-spoken and approachable. 

Define Your Footage For Reuse

You shouldn’t have to recreate animated logos, bumpers and other branding elements from scratch every time you make a video. Save and reuse them to create brand consistency across your videos. Your branding guidelines can include links to reusable footage elements, or directions for where they can be found. 

Reusable footage might include:

• Bumpers: footage at the head or tail of the video identifying your brand.
• Logo animation: an animation that builds your logo onto the screen.
• Lower thirds: a text treatment (and sometimes) background for titles identifying a speaker on screen.

If you don’t already have these, make them and store them in an easy-to-find place. Over time, you can also collect a proprietary library of stock footage. This could include video of your company headquarters, your people at work, or important events. Categorize these clips neatly in one place so they’re easy to find.

Learn more about choosing the right stock footage.

Select Your Audio For Reuse

Audio may not be defined in your current brand book, but it definitely should be included. Audio adds atmosphere and emotion to your content. Using audio consistently can create continuity across platforms. 

Try to specify:

• Music, either specific pieces or tone and mood
• Theme song or jingle if you have one 
• Branded sound effects

Think of the drum beat and fanfare that accompanies the 20th Century Fox logo. You would probably recognize it even without visuals on screen.

Learn more about choosing the right music for marketing videos.

Set Casting Guidelines for Actors and Voiceover

Define your expectations for actors and spokespeople. Think about whether you prefer to work with union or non-union actors. What does the “voice” of your brand sound like? You might even choose a few video or audio clips that represent the style you’re looking for. 

Consider: 

• Age
• Gender
• Attitude
• Accent
• Culture

None of these characteristics need to be set in stone, but they can give you a starting point when auditioning actors. 

Learn more about how to cast voiceover artists. 

Choose the Best Animation Styles for Your Brand

Different animation styles convey different ideas about your brand. Traditional 2D animation may seem warmer and more playful. Motion graphics tend to be more message focused. Stop-motion gives a DIY feel. 

List approved animation styles in your video style book. If possible, include samples from previous projects or other media that illustrates what you’re looking for. 

Here are the styles of animation available:

• Motion graphics (limited or no character animation)
• Drawn or traditional 2d Character 
• Vectorized or puppet style 2d Character
• 3d
• 2.5D or pseudo 3d
• Stop-motion and mixed media
• Whiteboard

Learn how to choose the best animation style for your brand.

Develop Animated Character Guidelines

Character design is a key part of many animated videos. Consider what character styles best match your brand and describe them in your brand guide. You don’t have to have a character fully designed, just consider the broad strokes. A set-in-stone character style may lock you into a single provider or price point that might not always make sense for you.

Consider the differences between the character designs below. Both represent the IdeaRocket brand. The ones on the left are from our Founder’s Story. The ones on the right from the Kite video. These two styles are different, but they share a posture and expressiveness that marks them as IdeaRocket designs.

Get our quick guide to animated character design.

Specify video formats and other tech specs

The format of your video will depend on how you plan to use it. Include acceptable technical specifications for different video types in your brand guidelines. You might want to consider. 

• Web: 1080p is good for nearly all web uses
• Social media: vertical video with a 9:16 aspect ratio tends to be the standard, but it depends on how you’re using it
• Events: 1080p or 4K video for large-screen projection
• Trade shows and in-person demonstrations: Usually these take a digital file
• Internal and Broadcast TV: Ask the broadcasting outlet about delivery specs 

For each of these end uses, you should define the following technical specifications:

• Resolution, such as 720p, 1080p, or higher
• File format, such as Quicktime or WMV
• Codec, such as .H264 or ProRes 444
• Audio specifications, such as 48Khz Stereo
• Bitrate
• File-naming convention

Most video providers will deliver video in a fully formatted file that is not easy to edit. If you need files you can edit, note this in your style guide and let your video provider know in advance. These types of files can make your project more expensive. Usually, it’s better just to let your provider know what types of video formats you need so they can deliver all the right fully formatted files.

Dive deeper into video formats and technical specifications.

Outline Digital Distribution Guidelines

Your brand guidelines aren’t the place to lay out a full video distribution strategy, but there are some questions to consider. 

• Who is responsible for approving videos?
• Who will choose video thumbnails? 
• Do you need .SRT files, subtitle burn-ins, or dubbing for a multilingual audience?
• Do you want cut-downs or gifs from videos?

Answering these questions in your video brand guidlines helps ensure you have everything you need to promote each video.

List Do’s and Don’ts for Consistency

Brand books often have a do’s and don’ts section where they cite examples of practices that are on-brand or off-brand. The example below comes from our own brand book.

It’s a good idea to include what you do and don’t want to see in your video brand guidelines too. Consider whether you’ll use stock footage, logo animations, canned laughter, ai-generated content…and anything else that seems important to specify.

Get more expert tips for infusing brand into your videos.

Leave Room for Creativity in Video Brand Guidelines

Your stylebook doesn’t have to specify every possible scenario. You don’t want to choke off creative expression. The goal is just to give some clear guidelines that maintain brand integrity.

If you define the tools your video-makers can use too tightly and strictly, if you limit their palette too dramatically, you just might end up with something that looks and feels exactly like everyone else – which is the opposite of what you are trying to achieve.

We can help you develop video branding guidelines and create animation for business. Our video experts have made explainer videos for technology, healthcare, human resource, and other uses. Contact us today to get started.

The post Video Brand Guidelines: How to Develop a Video Style Guide appeared first on IdeaRocket.

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These details matter, because getting them right helps your video look great on social media, your website, or wherever else you want to share it. Learning this language can also help you communicate more easily with your video producers to make sure you get a quality video.

Basic Video Specs: File Types

File types or formats are the names for different ways that information is stored in a computer file. Most animated videos are delivered in one of three basic file types: mov, wmv or mp4. You can tell which one yours is by looking at the last few characters of the file name. These are usually written with a period before the letters and numbers. 

For example: YourAmazingVideo.mov

The same video can be delivered in several different file types, sometimes called containers. Each container is designed to fit in different places. 

An .mov is a Quicktime file. Developed by Apple, this is the most common video file type you’ll run into. These containers hold higher-video-quality content, which means they tend to be larger. That makes them ideal for video editing. This format is easy to work with and widely supported, but some Windows-based media players may need a plug-in to display it.

MP4 stands for Moving Pictures Expert Group 4. You may sometimes see it written as MPEG-4 as well. This file type is the international industry standard for video files. As a result, it’s the preferred file type if you plan to host your video on the web. MP4 videos are mobile-friendly and also look great on desktop.

Finally, a .wmv is a Windows Media File. While we can deliver your video in WMV, we’ll caution you that MP4 is the better choice in almost every case. WMV files tend to be smaller, but that often means they’re lower quality as well. 

Letting us know where and how your video will be used helps us pick the right video specs for your project.

If you plan to run your video as a commercial, keep in mind that some broadcasters require a slate—a sequence with information about the video including title, duration, and product. They might also ask for a 2-pop—an audio tone that helps sync sound and picture. Both slates and 2-pops are included at the beginning of a video. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of these, your video provider can help.

Compressing Video With Codecs

We started with the easy one. Chances are good you already knew what a file type was even if you didn’t know which ones were the most popular for video. So let’s move on to one of the video specs you might not have heard of: codecs. What is a codec?

First, understand that video files are big. We have to compress them to make them more manageable. Basically, the information in the file is condensed into a smaller package that gets rid of redundant data. The file is temporarily unplayable in its compressed form.

A codec is the tool we use to compress and decompress video files and the most common codec we use for animated videos is H.264. Small and efficient, this codec is perfect for web videos that need to load fast. The trade-off for that high compression is that you do lose a small amount of data in the process. Graphics get a little fuzzier, but not enough to notice on a computer screen, and certainly not on a mobile device. 

If you want to store your video for archival purposes, or if you need to be able to edit it, you  might need to make different codec choices. That’s one of the many reasons it’s a good idea to let your production team know where and how the video will be shared. 

Basic Video Specs: Frames Per Second

Frames per second (FPS) is just the number of pictures that display in every second of your video. Think of it like a flipbook. Videos are really just a number of still images that flash by really quickly to give the illusion of motion. Each one of these images is called a frame.

If you don’t have enough frames per second, the motion looks jerky and unconvincing. It might sound like the more frames the better, but there’s an upper limit too. The human eye can only take in so many images at once, and more FPS means your file gets larger.

We almost always deliver animations at 24 FPS, the standard for online video media. Televisions generally run at 30 FPS, although you might see some higher rates used for 4K and Ultra HD. This is another case where knowing where your video will be shared can help us deliver the right video specs.

Sound Options: Mono or Stereo

Sound is an important element in many videos. Even if you’re working the silent video trend, you might still have music for those who watch with the sound on. In that case we’ll need to consider whether mono or stereo is the right option. 

Mono is recorded on one channel. Stereo is recorded on two, divided into left and right channels. Well-mixed stereo sound can create an aural landscape where different parts of the audio are coming from different parts of the stage. 

You can take multiple channels further by going to 5.1 home theater sound. The 5 refers to five different location speakers: Front left, front center, front right, rear left, and rear right. The “1” refers to a subwoofer channel that reproduces the low frequencies of the soundtrack. This sounds great in a home theater, but it’s overkill for digital web delivery. 

Multiple channels make for bigger file sizes. Choose what you need and nothing more. If your audio is a voice captured by a single-channel microphone, there’s really no reason to make your file stereo.

Audio also has a resolution that affects file size and clarity. Measured in kilohertz or kHz, audio with higher sample rates will deliver higher resolution audio. A good sample rate is usually between 44.1 and 48 kHz. Plan ahead so you deliver the audio experience your audience expects for each platform. 

Video Dimensions and Resolution

Video resolution comes down to how many pixels are contained in each frame of your video. Usually this is written as two numbers, like this: 1280 x 720. 

In the example above, the video dimensions are 1280 pixels wide by 720 pixels tall. The shorthand for this is 720p HD. This size is ideal for most web applications and is the most common way we deliver video.

Don’t confuse resolution with aspect ratio. Resolution refers to the number of pixels, aspect ratio is about physical dimensions. Most television and computer monitors use a 16:9 aspect ratio, because they’re longer than they are tall. 

Now that mobile video has taken over the world, many social media sites are favoring vertical formats. Videos on these platforms look best in 9:16 — taller than they are wide. So, once again, you’ll get the best results if you let us know where you plan to share your video. 

Use Video Specs to Your Advantage

By now you should be a little more comfortable with common video specs. We hope you’ve also realized how important it is to discuss your distribution plan from the start. We’re here to help you manage your video project and create a custom animated video that fits all the right specs. If you’re ever confused, just ask, we love talking about video.

Contact us to get started on your next video project. 

The post A Quick and Easy Guide to Basic Video Specs for Animated Video appeared first on IdeaRocket.

As video producers that work with a range of brands and organizations, we’ve seen all kinds of video creative briefs. Some were immediately useful, others actually created more confusion. Here’s what you need to know to make sure your briefs work for your production team. 

What is a Video Creative Brief?

Simply put, a video creative brief is a document that outlines important details about your video. It helps the production team make strategic decisions by sharing the who, what, how, and why of your message. 

A video creative brief may be packaged as an email, a shared document, or a slide deck. Whatever the format, what matters is that you’re giving the production team the information they need to create a quality video for you. As the name implies, a brief should be short — generally two pages or less. 

At IdeaRocket, we prefer to build a creative brief based on an in-depth interview, because it allows for some serendipity. Other studios use questionnaires. Whether you’re drafting a brief, answering a questionnaire, or joining a discovery call, you’ll want to have certain information at hand.

Parts of a Video Creative Brief

Every video creative brief should include seven parts. Think of these as the questions your video production team needs answered so they can do their best work.

1. What Is the Objective of the Video?

Your video marketing objective is quite simply the “why” behind your video. What do you hope to accomplish by making this video? All of the other information in your brief is based on this. A good objective should be: 

• Specific
• Connected to broader marketing or branding goals
• Measurable by a metric
• Time-based

2. Who Is The Audience?

Your word choice, metaphors, character design, and messaging all depends on who you are trying to reach. In real life, you wouldn’t talk to an 18-year-old the same way you would address your boss. The same is true in video. Getting to know your audience can help you make a better video.

At minimum specify these demographic factors:

• Age
• Gender mix
• Income level
• Educational level
• Race/ethnicity
• Nationality

For B2B audiences, make sure you also include the person’s job title and place in the decision-making process or hierarchy. 

You might take it a step further and consider psychographics. These include goals, interests, temperaments and ways of interacting with the world. A group of yoga teachers are going to be very different psychologically than a group of stockbrokers.

3. What Is The Brand?

Branding helps people recognize and learn to trust your organization. An animated video can help you build brand awareness if it clearly represents your brand. Share your branding guidelines with your production team. If you don’t already have a video branding guide, think about: 

• Your graphic identity: typefaces, colors, graphical elements, etc.
• Brand voice and personality: formal or informal, funny or serious, entertaining or informative?
• Reusable footage: do you have logo animations, text treatments, or video footage that represents your brand?
• Audio elements: music, theme song, jingles, or voice recordings you already have. Some brands have sound effects that are integral to their identity (HBO, for instance.)

Finally, define how important it is to express this brand as part of the video. Sometimes, companies have good reasons to not brand a video strongly, or to leave their brand out of it all together. Just make sure your level of branding is a conscious choice.

4. How Will The Video Be Distributed?

Think about how you plan to share your video. Every platform has its own requirements for length, format, and compression. Knowing how your video will be used helps us optimize it for that platform.

The distribution method can affect how the video is made and delivered. For example, a trade show floor video is will need to be more graphic (to attract booth visitors), less dependent on sound (because it’s a noisy environment,) and will loop well.

Sometimes clients tell us they want to distribute their video everywhere. In that case, we can offer adjustable formats or other solutions. 

5. What Is The Message?

Now we come to the heart of your video. The message is what you want to tell the audience you’ve identified to help you achieve the objective you’ve set. 

This might include information about the solution, pain points, or differentiators. Consider: 

• The pain point you want to address
• How buyers experience that problem
• Features and differentiators
• Emotional and practical benefits
• The action you want viewers to take after watching

For videos aimed at employees or other internal stakeholders consider: 

• What you want them to learn and why
• How you want their behavior to change
• Any compliance requirements this video must meet
• Your organizational culture

In most cases, your goal is not simply to share information. Usually you want to change behavior or encourage action. Refer back to your objective to help shape your message. 

6. What Is The Style?

Each animation style brings its own flavor to your video. The right style can support your message and help define your brand. Decide whether you prefer: 

• Motion graphics (little or no character animation)
• 2d animation
• 3d animation
• Whiteboard animation
• Stop-motion
• Mixed media

Mixed media videos may mix elements of some or all of these styles and there is some overlap between them. A lot of motion graphics videos use 3d animation, for instance. At this stage, you’re not making an ironclad commitment, just specifying which animated video style feels right for your brand.

7. How Long Should The Video Be?

Research shows that viewers are more likely to watch shorter videos. Average engagement drops off for videos longer than 60 seconds. That doesn’t mean you can never make a 2 minute video. It just means you should keep your videos as short and focused as possible.

Your target audience and distribution plan both matter here. We’ve put together a whole guide to help you understand how long a video should be for each platform. If you’re not sure, just ask. We help our clients make decisions like this everyday. 

A Super Simple Video Creative Brief Template

We’ve created a super simple video creative brief you can download, print and fill in. Use it to organize your thoughts or share it with your production team. 

If this post was useful, you might want to download my ebook, Succeeding With Animated Video. It offers even more advice on how to manage an animated video production for your organization. Sign up for our newsletter to receive the ebook for free.

The post How to Put Together A Useful Video Creative Brief appeared first on IdeaRocket.

Of course, the term AI has a certain plasticity to it. Many of the following functions have been around for years and did not necessarily require machine learning on existing data to be created, as the most famous AI tools did. However, given their almost magical capacity to save time and headache, we are including them in the same bucket. The tool names (organized under the categories of desktop, web, and mobile apps) have links to more information on how to achieve these effects in the different softwares.

Transcript-based Editing

In the old days, if you wanted to use a transcript to edit an interview, you would need to send the footage to a transcription service. Many days later it would come back and you would highlight what you wanted to include in the paper version. Finally, you would have an editing assistant come in and put together a rough cut. The whole process might take a week or two.

No more. With transcript-based editing, you can generate a transcript automatically, or upload one if you prefer. Then you can just highlight the quotes you want to include, and the software will give you an instant first cut. Veteran L.A.-based documentary editor, Robert McFalls, finds this tool useful: “I find that having the words in front of me helps focus on what’s being said, so I can craft a clearer statement,” but he cautions: “These edits don’t always work. The tone of the reading before the edit might not match what comes after.”

This feature has been around for years and is now fairly mature. It is available both within editing softwares, and as part of standalone apps.

Desktop: Premiere, Avid. Web: Descript, Visla. Mobile: CapCut.

Remove Filler Words

Do your, ummm, video subjects like… insert verbal fillers into their… uhhh… conversation? And does it annoy you? Filler-word removers are the perfect way to delete non-verbal garbage words like ‘er’, ‘umm’, etc. All of a sudden, your interview subjects will seem a lot more articulate and concise.

Desktop: Premiere. Web: Descript, Veed.io. Mobile: CapCut.

Remove Silences

In the same way that you can automatically remove filler words, you can automatically remove silences too. Run your podcast or audio VO through these applications and you will hear an immediate improvement of the pace. If, however, you have video footage, you will be left with some jump cuts where the silences were. Luckily, the next feature can make those jumps cuts seem invisible.

Desktop: Premiere. Web: Descript, Veed.io, Kapwing. 

Morph Cuts

If you are conducting an interview and delete silences, filler words, or other unwanted material, what you will be left with are jump cuts: you will see the interview subject move abruptly from one position to another at the point of the cut. You can actually use this as a stylistic element. (Remember Ask a Ninja?) But if you would prefer not to, you can use a morph cut. What this feature does is shift the pixels in the image gradually, typically over 6 or 8 frames, hiding the jump.

In some circles, use of this transition is seen as disreputable. McFalls points out that “by making the cut seamless you’re saying, rather unequivocally, that the second phrase immediately follows the first. Which is not true.” But on balance, he doesn’t see an ethical problem: “Is it more truthful to add a cutaway to someone listening so you can make the compression? Personally, I don’t think so.” 

Desktop: Premiere, Avid. 

Overdub

Speaking of ethical quandaries, there was a big to-do recently when a documentary about the deceased Anthony Bourdain took some of his writings and voiced them using an AI-generated version of his voice. The director, Morgan Neville, went to an outside firm to create the voice he used, but now an even greater capability is available to you at low cost. With Descript, you can literally change the words that your on-camera subject is saying with a feature they call Overdub. Both the cloned voice and the lipsync for it will be created. Please don’t do anything deeply immoral with this feature.

Web only: Descript.

Auto-reframe

Many times when you have shot 4K footage and want to push in for a closer frame, you need to reframe the crop because the subject is moving. With auto-reframe, that process is automated. Just set the initial frame and this feature will adjust to maintain good composition on what it judges is the most important part of the shot. Of course, you have the capability to tweak the framing once it is done.

This feature is particularly helpful when you are trying to create different formats for pushing out to social media. With auto-reframe, you can take 16:9 footage and pull 9:16 and 4:5 clips from it far more quickly and easily.

Desktop:  Premiere, Avid (called frame-flex) Web: Filmora, Veed.io. Mobile: CapCut

Blur Faces

Given the litigiousness of our media environment, if you are creating a product video or producing documentary footage that might have sensitive connotations, you will need to blur the faces of any people you have not procured a signed release from. Sometimes you will need to blur other things, like a brand-name or a visible ID.

There are two ways to do this. You can motion-track a face or object, and then apply a blur. This is the more traditional way. But some apps are also able to recognize the faces and blur them automatically.

Desktop: Premiere, Avid.  Web: Subtitlevideo (finds faces), YouTube Studio,  Mobile: CapCut

Auto-ducking

Happily, this feature does not require either automobiles or amphibian aviary. Ducking simply means that when the voice track comes on, the music track is dipped – typically over a couple of frames – so that it doesn’t fight with the voice. Then when the narration goes silent again, the music comes back to the fore. To do this manually over a long piece can become annoying, but auto-ducking will do it automatically. However, if you’re fussy, it might not give you exactly what you want. Says McFalls: “I always end up changing the keyframes to my liking.”

Desktop: Premiere, Avid.  Web: Filmora. Mobile: CapCut.

Color Grading

The task of color grading has always been a little bit of a science and a little bit of an art. You will still need the artist’s eye for fine adjustment, but AI-assisted color grading can help a lot. Runway ML, a web-based suite of AI tools, has introduced a new feature that lets you describe a color grade in words and have it applied to your footage. Color.io goes a step further: you can upload an image sample of a color grade, and the software will pull a grade from it. Both these apps let you download a LUT file, which you can then upload to your editor for application and fine adjustments.

Web only: Runway ML, Color.io.

Sound Clean-up

Descript has also developed an impressive sound clean-up function which they call Studio Sound. You can hear it in action here:

Noise reduction, either by using frequency cut-offs or using a noise gate, has been around for years. But what Studio Sound can do that is truly remarkable is remove the reverb, echo and low-fi transmission effects from badly recorded sound and make it sound… well, not perfect, but substantially better.

Web: Descript.

Upscaling

It used to be that if you shot standard definition, you lusted after 1080p. And if you had 1080p, you wanted 4K. It was always about playing with the toys that gave you higher resolution, because once the video was shot you were stuck with it for good.

But what if you could take old, low-resolution footage and make it look like it was shot in higher resolution? Or blow up a portion of 4K footage beyond what you technically should? Today we have a number of remarkable web-based tools that let you up-res images, letting you recover detail that was never there to begin with.

Not only can you upscale spatially, you can also upscale temporally. Even if you have shot something at a standard frame of 24fps, modern software can interpolate between the frames you’ve shot, adding in-betweens that provide smooth slow motion without having shot at a high frame rate.

Web: Topaz, Tensorpix, CapCut (not on mobile), AVC Labs.

AI tools can do amazing things, and they will continue to get better. At IdeaRocket, we believe that humans will always be useful in translating a business need into a video solution. We use these and more traditional tools to make explainer videos for technology, healthcare, and other verticals. We also make some pretty good TV commercials for streaming, broadcast or cable distribution. We work in 2d, 3d, whiteboard, motion graphics, and mixed media techniques, as well as live action. Contact us to learn more.

The post The Best AI Video Editing Tools appeared first on IdeaRocket.

Unfortunately, there’s no foolproof way to find the perfect music for marketing videos. You have to rely on music libraries and your own knowledge. Even after you’ve picked a song, music copyright rules can make the process more complicated than you might think.

Fortunately, patience and a little help from experts, like our own music guru Jared Paul, can simplify the process. Here are our top tips for how to find music for marketing videos, while respecting artists and copyright laws.

Prioritize Finding the Right Music for Marketing Videos

Music selection often comes at the end of the project when you may be running low on time and budget. It can be tempting to skimp on music, but that will make your video weaker. Avoid this by planning ahead so you have time and budget to choose music for marketing videos. 

Select the music early in your project. For animation projects, you can start thinking about music as soon as you have a storyboard and character designs. By that point, the mood and tone of your video should be clear, and you can focus on music choices that match these elements. Or you can choose music early to inform your creative decisions.

Our experience is that music can affect the timing of edits and movement, so it should definitely be in place by the animatic stage for animated videos. If you are going to record original music, you can use a scratch track to help with editing and later have the original music match the tempo.

How Much Does Music Cost?

Set aside around 8 to 12% of your video budget for music. You might need a little more if you plan to compose and record original music. Licensing a popular song can take up a lot more. We know of projects where the licensed music took up more than half of the budget. On the other hand, if you’re choosing from a royalty-free music library, you might get away with a little less. We’ll take a closer look at some of these options below.

Pros and Cons of Different Music Sources

You have two broad options for how to legally and ethically get music for marketing videos. You can:

• Compose and record an original soundtrack
• License existing music

Composing and recording might be more affordable than you think. Some home-studio composers provide good results starting at about $1,000. Find the right composer and the results can really elevate your video. Just remember that perfecting a composition can take time. Make sure you build that into your project timeline.

The video linked below includes original music by Michael Mancini. We built the video around his composition, and it added life and personality to the Indiana 811 message. 

Licensing original music might seem more budget-friendly, and it can be. However, if you want to license a popular song, the costs add up quickly. The process can also be time-consuming, so don’t forget to build that into your timeline. Royalty-free music libraries are quickest to work with and can offer a wide range of options.

Tips for Recording An Original Soundtrack

Modern composers have high-quality instrument samples and music editing tools on their desktop. A composer working in their studio can create respectable orchestral effects. Of course, samples will never match the work of talented session musicians, but often all it takes is a single real instrument – recorded live – to lift a recording and give it warmth and professionalism.

But why bother recording original music at all? Imagine that you spend the first third of your marketing video talking about a pain point. Then the customer finds the product that solves their problem. Things start looking up! You can’t take the viewer on that turn unless the mood of the music changes in the right way and at the right time. A composer can hit cues so the music participates in the storytelling.

For example, in this video for The Spice Hunter, notice how the custom soundtrack evokes the sounds and musical styles of different regions of the world.

On the other hand, if you’re not using the music as a storytelling device, you might not need a custom soundtrack. In that case, you’ll probably get more affordable results with something pre-recorded that fits the mood of your video.

Licensing Music for Marketing Videos

Music licensing for video can get complex. You need permission from the copyright holders to use any kind of music in your video. And a single song can have multiple copyright holders, including composers, performers, lyricists, and publishers. While it is possible to get permission to use well-known songs, it will be expensive and the process is complicated. A music clearance service can help, but plan to wait months for a result.

An online royalty-free music library is the easier and more affordable option. Their search tools that let you look for music based on style, tempo, orchestration, or mood. Here are some of the services we have used, along with some comments from our music guru Jared Paul:

• NeoSounds: Three tiers, with prices starting at $34.95. They have useful search tools that can help you find music by mood, style, or instrumentation.
• Premium Beat: A service from shutterstock. You can subscribe to get 5 standard licenses per month for $64.95 per month. Single purchases are available starting at $49 for a standard license and $199 for a premium license. 

Jared says: “Premium Beat offers great value, with quality tracks at price points friendly to indie producers and small businesses.”

• Artlist – One of the more versatile solutions on this list, Artlist offers more than just music. You can also get SFX, footage and templates to polish your projects. Plans start at $9.99 per month, but pay attention to the licensing offered at each tier. The lowest-priced plan only licenses music for social platforms and podcasts. You’ll need the $16.59 plan to get music for broadcasting, websites, client work or paid aids. 

The services above are affordable whether you’re making one video or a whole Youtube channel. The following services can sometimes be a bit more expensive, but usually still in the hundreds.

• Music Bed: Licenses are based on usage and the size of your company. Annual subscriptions start at around $110 per month. 

Jared says: “Music Bed tends to have tracks from up-and-coming artists and bands, who would be writing the songs anyway for themselves and their fans, rather than specifically for production use, so sometimes their tracks sound a bit more authentic.”

• Music for Productions: This is a more professionally oriented service, based in Montreal. Their new pricing model is broken down by usage type including: personal, non-profit, wedding, business and enterprise. Brands will pay around $199 per song or $89 per month for a subscription.
  
• VideoHelper: They offer six licensing tiers based on usage. You’ll need to contact them for commercial rates. In fact, there are enough nuances to their pricing that you might want to contact them regardless of how the music will be used.

Jared says: “VideoHelper  tracks are carefully crafted to have multiple good breaks and built-in edit points, which gives a lot of good options for editing.”

Most of these services allow you to download a sample to try out on your cut. They may put an audio watermark on the file or provide a lo-fi version of the track in order to discourage non-payment. Once you are happy with your music, you can pay for the license and obtain a high-quality, mark-free file.

What to Consider When Choosing Music for Marketing Videos

So far we’ve talked about where to find music for marketing videos. But how do you know which track to choose? Each of these platforms has thousands of songs. It’s easy to get overwhelmed. These four factors can help narrow down your choices.

1. Budget – The most straightforward factor influencing your music choices. Knowing your budget before you start looking will limit your choices to what you can afford.

2. Tone and Mood – You want a piece of music that matches the mood of your video and the story you’re telling. Keep your video branding guidelines in mind too, so you can choose music that fits both this video and your overall brand style.

3. Audience – Ideally, an understanding of your audience informs all of your video marketing decisions. Music is no exception. Think about the style of music your audience is most likely to enjoy and identify with.

4. Pacing – Look for music that matches the pace and speed of your video. The number of beats per minute matters here.

How To Edit Your Soundtrack

If you choose library music, you might need to edit it to fit your video cut. Follow a few simple guidelines to unite video and music into a seamless experience for your viewers.

• Figure out the structure of the music. Try to preserve that structure as much as you can. For example, you don’t want to put two choruses back-to-back.
• Try to keep the beat when you make a cut.
• Try not to change the key abruptly.
• Experiment with straight cuts (changing the music with the scene) and very short crossfades (fading two tracks in and out over 2 to 4 frames) to see what sounds best.

Follow these rules, and your cuts are more likely to sound natural. If the idea of editing your own soundtrack frightens you, look for an audio editor to help.

It’s Worth the Effort to Find the Right Music For Marketing Videos

Whether you have commissioned an original piece or licensed an existing track, music has the power to complete a video experience. Don’t settle: the sweat and resources you put into music will be paid back to you many times over.

For help uniting music and video into a seamless marketing video, contact the experts at IdeaRocket.

The post How to Choose The Perfect Music For Marketing Videos appeared first on IdeaRocket.

These days, internet connections are faster, more people watch video on mobile devices, and whole social media platforms are built around video sharing. In this video-first environment, getting video right can make a big difference for brands. 

The Case for Animated Text in Video

One of the main reasons brands are exploring animated text in video is the trend toward watching without sound. The thinking goes like this, many (perhaps most) people watch video through social media platforms that they access on their phones. When watching on a phone people are much more likely to keep the sound off. 

When a narrated video loses its soundtrack much of the message is lost, but animated text can be read even without sound. That doesn’t necessarily mean that brands must stop using voiceovers. This is a long-established method of communication for a reason! 

You can still add captions to narrated videos so viewers can read the message, even if they can’t hear the narrator. Take this video we made for LendLedger, for example (turn the subtitles on by pressing CC on the playbar):

Mobile captions like these can be turned on or off by the viewer. That’s helpful for people with hearing impairments and those without headphones in a public place. However, mobile audiences are often scrolling quickly. They may not take the time or effort to turn on captions.

TIP: If you’re creating a video specifically for social media platforms, it’s sometimes worthwhile to add burnt-in subtitles. That way, the text will appear automatically.

However, turning on captions is really a work-around to a problem that can be solved more elegantly by animating text. Consider the video linked below, which we produced for Slice:

This video is made to be read. The text is larger and easier to read than captions. Because the text is animated, it’s more engaging than captions on the bottom of the screen. It’s also timed so the eye easily alternates between reading the animated words and viewing the actions of the characters. 

Animated Text Has the Advantage in Some Environments

On Facebook, video ads on your timeline usually start playing without sound as you scroll by them. If your ad doesn’t get clicked (and that probably happens around 99% of the time) visitors can still see and read your animated text. That’s an important advantage for your awareness or brand-building efforts.

On the other hand, B2B decisions are usually still made at desks.. That means key views will probably be on desktop computers or laptops.

But, mobile isn’t the only place where animated words have an advantage over audio. If you plan to use your video on a trade show floor, the noise might make it impossible for people to hear the narration. Some trade shows restrict or even ban the use of audio on the exhibition floor. Animating your text means your message will still get through.

When Voiceover Is the Better Solution

We’ve made a compelling case for animated text, but that doesn’t mean it’s always the ideal solution. There are some situations when the benefits of voiceover outweigh any potential drawbacks. 

Voiceover Can Increase Density of Information

When you make a narrated video, you’re utilizing two channels to convey information: audio and video. Narration can sometimes cut through dense information to add emphasis or variety. It can also complement what’s happening on screen by adding additional information or context. 

For instance, in the LendLedger video, the visuals show the narrative of the shop owner, but also provide extra examples of the kinds of digital records LendLedger draws upon to provide credit. Combining voiceover and on-screen text makes it easier for audiences to absorb the information.

Narration Can Support Storytelling

Sometimes voiceover is an integral part of the storytelling. When it represents a single character’s perspective it can add human texture and personality to a video. Embedded below is a broadcast spot we made for Dare Breton gluten-free crackers that includes a first-person narration.

Spoken Words are Easier to Translate

If you have a global audience, animated text may not be the most efficient choice. A video that relies heavily on on-screen text t is harder to translate for multiple languages. You’ll either need to remake the whole video for each language, or add subtitles. 

Subtitling a text animation video is likely to be distracting and make some part of your audience feel marginalized. Switching the voiceover for different language audiences is more inviting. Plus, it’s much easier than reanimating a whole new video with different text. 

If you’re creating for a global audience, you might want to stick with voiceover.

Should Your Brand Choose Voiceover or Animation?

By now it should be clear that when choosing between voiceover and text animation, there are several factors to consider. Rather than making a blanket decision, we recommend choosing the format and style that best fits your message for each video. 

Does Your Audience Prefer Animated Text or Voiceover?

The audience should be your first consideration whenever you create a video. Consider the case of the brand that asked us to make a video for an app related to outdoor music concerts. Our first recommendation was to ditch the voiceover. Why? Because this is a product for people that love music. Removing voiceover made music the star of the video. Other lifestyle and youth-targeting brands can probably learn from this example. 

Pictures can spark emotions, but few things touch our hearts quicker than a strong piece of music. If you are going for the heartstrings, it might be best to get the voiceover out of the way and let the music do its thing.

There are many examples of this, but here’s a classic, produced at Curious Pictures:

How Will People Watch Your Video?

This brings us right back to where we started. Perhaps the most important consideration of all is whether people are likely to watch on mobile or desktop. There’s no reason to guess here – check your analytics and find out what devices your visitors most frequently use.

All of these factors — audience, storytelling, emotion, and platform — can influence your decision. No single dimension should be the deciding factor. For example, a product for bond salesmen is probably going to be seen on a laptop, but that device will be on a noisy trading floor where audio might not be easily heard.

Choosing whether to use voiceover or animated text with music is a complicated decision. If you need a sounding board to bounce your thoughts off, reach out to the video marketing experts at IdeaRocket. We’re here to help brands create videos that resonate with audiences and deliver results.

The post Is Animated Text a Better Choice Than Voiceover For Videos? appeared first on IdeaRocket.

Fear not! The human walk has been broken down into a series of poses and codified by many of our finest animation educators: people like Thomas & Johnston, Richard Williams, Whitaker & Halas, and others have laid the framework. All we need to do is follow their recipe, work methodically and patiently, and success is all but assured.

If you would like to follow the tutorial on video, here it is. However, this blog post can also fit the bill. Let’s get started!

Work on After Effects or Whatever You Like

If you would like to work on the same file I worked on, you can download it from here. However, you don’t need to do this exercise on After Effects if you don’t want to. If you would prefer to work traditionally on a program like Toon Boom, or on a 3d program like Maya, Blender or C4D, you certainly can. The poses will be the same, and you will even be able to add some details that 2d puppet animators won’t be able to provide, like rotation of the shoulders and waist. (More on that later.) 

If you do work on a 3d program, please turn off inverse kinematics. For many kinds of movement, it is helpful; for the walk cycle, it just tends to get in the way.

In this tutorial, we will be working on a walk cycle on the 12s, meaning each step takes 12 frames (on a 24 frames per second timeline) so that the cycle repeats every second. This is a common pace for human walking, but of course, people walk at different speeds. A faster walk might be on the 8s; a slower walk might be on the 16s.

Our Rig

The After Effects work file is set up with no source files. The parts of the body are created with solids shaped by mattes. The rig is set up so that expression controls on a null object named WALKING MAN RIG manage the angle of each part of the body, and the torso is parented to that null object. All you will need to animate is the expression controls and the position keyframe of that null object.

If you would prefer to work on a 3D rig, here are some that are free to download:

• Maya
• Blender
• Cinema 4d
• 3DS Max

Heel-to-Toe, Right Leg Forward (Frames 1 and 25)

The heel-to-toe position is the first pose when making a walk cycle, and in many ways it is the most important. If you see a walk cycle that looks wrong, chances are the heel-to-toe is where the problems start.

The only contact with the ground is light: the back toe is touching and the edge of the front heel is touching. The front leg is completely straight; the back leg is only very slightly bent. The arms go in opposite directions to the legs on their side. That is, when the right leg goes forward, the left arm goes back; when the left leg is back, the right arm is forward. I like to put a little bend on the front elbow then straighten it out when it goes back, so that it doesn’t look too stiff.

Once you have created this pose on frame 1 copy all the keyframes and paste them onto frame 25. Set the work area to end at frame 24; this way the walk cycle will loop over a second. 

Common mistakes that beginning animators make with this pose are bending the knees too much and having too much contact with the ground.

Heel-to-Toe, Left Leg Forward (Frame 13)

This is the same pose as the right leg forward, but we reverse the position of the legs and arms so that what was forward is back, and what was back now goes forward.

One quick note on how we are working, since it is a pattern that you will repeat many times when you work on digital character animation. We are setting the basic timing by placing the key poses first; that is, the poses with furthest reach of movement. Then we go back to the middle of that stretch and define the pose there, and then we split these halves into quarters, quarters into eighths, etc. This allows us to shape the flows and arcs of a movement just the way we want, while keeping a steady pace.

I like to set the keyframes for all the controls that are likely to be animated just because it drives me crazy when I go back to a pose and see that it has been changed by a tweak I made further ahead. Other people work in different ways! You will eventually find your preferred method.

Passing (Frames 7 and 19)

In the first passing pose, the left leg is passing a planted right leg. The right leg is straight; the left leg is bent with the knee forward and the sole angled to the ground. The arms have swung down so they are both by the sides. If you set the extremes of the arms at the three heel-to-toes, you shouldn’t need to touch the arms; the keyframe interpolation will do the work for you.

Once you have set the passing pose in frame 7, skip to frame 19 and create the same pose, but with the legs reversed: that is, the left leg planted and the right leg passing.

A common mistake with this pose is having the passing foot too high in the air; it is actually just clearing the ground.

Landing (Frames 4 and 16)

Right after the heel-to-toe, when the body is nearly flying through the air with the barest contact to the ground, comes the landing pose. In frame 4, this is when the right foot lands full on the ground, the right knee bends to absorb the impact, and the left foot rises off the ground. This is the pose where the body is lowest.

The most common mistake here is not angling the foot sufficiently. The sole should be facing backwards, very nearly perpendicular to the ground. This is counter-intuitive, but it is the way humans usually walk. 

After you have set the right foot landing in frame 4, skip to frame 16 and reverse the pose, so that the left foot is landing.

Push-off (Frames 10 and 22)

After the passing pose in frame 7, in frame 10 the body pushes off to begin a new step. The left knee rises and the right foot elevates on the toe. At this point, the body is at the highest point of the walk.

Advance to frame 22 and reverse the legs and arms.

Common mistakes on this pose are having the foot flat on the floor or raising the foot too much off the floor (as I did, before fixing, in the video tutorial!)

If you have gotten this far, congratulations! You have finished your walk cycle. Press preview and take a good look at your animation. Are there any hitches in your walk cycle? If there are, go through each pose and see where the kink is and try to work it out.

If you are drawing  your walk cycle traditionally, or if you are working on 3D, you have the opportunity to add a detail that 2D puppet-style animators can’t add (at least not with fancier rigging): that is, the turn of the shoulders and hips.

Torso Movements

In the walk cycle, the torso counter-turns in the opposite way. That is, when the left arm is swinging forward, the left shoulder turns forward, and the left hip turns back in the opposite direction. Then when the left arm swings back the spiral motion turns the other way: the left shoulder turns back and the left hip turns forward. The right side mirrors these positions.

Before we move on to compositing, remember that there are some subtle variations between how animators do the walk cycle. Here I write about how Richard Williams’ walk cycle is different from Preston Blair’s.

Compositing

Many of these walk cycle tutorials don’t include the important step of compositing. I have created a simple scene (also just with solids) so you can have the experience of compositing your walk cycle onto a background.

Open the scene entitled SCENE FOR COMPOSITING and drag the comp you have been working on into the scene. You will need to shrink the comp so that it is relative in scale to the background.

Now turn on time remapping for that layer and create keyframes at frame 1 and 24. Copy those two frames and paste them at frame 25 (or 1:01, in time code). You now have the walk cycle looping twice, over two seconds. You can repeat this process as much as you like.

Next, create a null object and place it right underneath the heel of the front foot. If you move one frame forward, you will find that the foot is no longer aligned with the null object. Simply move the comp forward so that the heel is over the null object again. This assures that the character doesn’t slide over the ground as he is walking.

Now move forward in your comp one frame, and repeat. This frame-to-frame adjustment is necessary when compositing a walk because the forward movement of the character is irregular.

In this exercise, we are compositing a comp over another comp, but in many workflows you will need to adjust the position of the character right in the scene. The same principles apply; adjust the movement of your rig on a frame-by-frame basis.

You have now created a walk cycle and composited it in a scene. But your investigations are just beginning! Here are some suggestions for further study.

The Sneak

The Sneak is when a character is trying to walk without making much noise. That means he/she needs to put their feet down gently. To dramatize that, the up-and-down movement is exaggerated. This is a good example of how animators poeticize a movement. Here is good documentation of a female sneak. And here is the inimitable Richard Williams on the sneak, giving some credit to Warner Brothers’ Ken Harris.

The Marilyn Monroe Walk

Marilyn Monroe is a bit of a caricature of femininity, which makes her a good reference for animation, which as a rule adores exaggeration.

This video from YouTube makes the essential features of the hyper-feminine walk even more clear:

Since the hips of a woman are wider than a man’s, women need to angle their legs inward a bit in order to get their feet under their center of gravity. (Models on a catwalk exaggerate this by actually crossing the centerline.) As a result of this, the hips have to rotate just not on the y axis, but on the x axis as well.

Also, notice that the arms are very loose and away from the body. This creates more of a counter-balance to compensate for the wider hips.

Keep on Investigating!

Although it can be challenging, the walk cycle is a great entry into more advanced character animation. In this tutorial, we’ve worked on what we might call the ‘Vanilla’ Walk Cycle – a very general description of how humans, male or female, walk. But character animation is about character! It is about finding specificity.

When you’re out on the street, train your eye to look at how people walk. If someone has a very idiosyncratic walk, try to define for yourself what makes it so. As with drawing, good animation begins with seeing – actual, intentional seeing.

Another helpful tip: try things out in your body. For instance, when you are walking, try exaggerating the rotation of your shoulders and hips on the y axis. Pretty soon, you will find yourself not just walking but swaggering. You instantly feel more powerful and confident.

Or try walking like Marilyn Monroe! It’s delightful to feel another character in your body, and that experience can feed your ability to design movements. As a way of signing off, let me introduce myself. I used to teach animation at the New York Film Academy, but about 11 years ago I started an animation studio called IdeaRocket. Apart from 2d and 3d, we work in whiteboard, mixed media, and motion graphics. We make explainer videos for marketing or internal purposes. Animation has provided a great career for me and I love it more than when I first started!

The post How to Animate a Walk Cyle (With AE File Included!) appeared first on IdeaRocket.

That’s why we’ve divided our recommendations for animation production companies by price categories below. Business models vary from category to category and we’ve tried to capture the nuances there as well, so you know what to expect.

Why Do We Want to Help You Find the Best Animation Production Companies?

Before we dive into a value and portfolio comparison, we have to address the elephant in the room—isn’t it weird that we are telling you about our competition? 

Some people might think so. But we want you to be confident that you’re making the right decision when you choose IdeaRocket. Our goal is to create high quality animation that launches your message into orbit. We’re pretty good at it, if we do say so ourselves, but we’re not the right fit for every business. When that’s the case, we want you to find the best animation production companies for your budget and project. Why? Because we believe in the power of animation and we think there’s room at the table for everyone to succeed. 

Even so, we haven’t pulled punches. This list includes only the worthiest animation production companies in each price range and we’ve been honest about their strengths and weaknesses. Oh, and we’re leaving the entertainment companies off our list altogether. Obviously most businesses can’t afford to work with Pixar and Disney Animation Studios.

Elite Agency-Client Studios – $$$$

These animation production companies typically get their work from advertising and marketing agencies. They don’t market themselves directly to businesses. Their fees usually range from the upper five figures to well into the six-figure range and the number of people on their production teams can be as high as twenty or more.

Buck Design: With offices in New York City, Los Angeles, and Sydney, Buck Design has been an animation powerhouse for years. They don’t just do animation, either, but packaging, t-shirts, print, whatever. Here’s a peek at their collaboration with Sony Pictures for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Psyop: Founded in New York City in 2000, Psyop now has offices in Los Angeles as well. Their specialty is high-end, incredibly detailed CGI work. They’re the studio behind Chick-Fil-A’s acclaimed Christmas commercial “The Spark” and Coca-Cola’s 2019 Super Bowl Commercial. They’ve ventured onto content and gaming platforms as you can see in the Clash of Clans promo below.

Scholar: Founded by Will Johnson and William Campbell, Scholar started in Los Angeles before expanding to New York. They work in a variety of techniques from live action to CGI to traditional animation. Many of those styles are on display in their ad for ESPN Fantasy Football displayed below.

These are some of the best animation production companies. They do state-of-the-art, gorgeous work that can sometimes go viral just on the strength of its awesomeness. However, they are out of budget for many brands. These elite studios most often work from concepts brought to them by agencies rather than working directly with businesses. Often, they will do spec work to win a big or prestigious project – and of course, the cost of their failed spec pitches is amortized into project costs.

Bottom-line: Elite animation production companies charge an elite price and usually work with agencies rather than directly with brands.  

Premium Direct-to-Business – $$$

This is our category. Animation production companies like IdeaRocket might sometimes work with agencies – in our case, it’s about a third of our business – but more often work directly with businesses. That means we are concept-to-delivery houses, providing strategic advice and script writing as well as animation production.

The usual project fee for these companies is in the lower five figures. Typically, their production teams are small – usually two to six people.

IdeaRocket: That’s us! We are headquartered in NYC with a production facility in Buenos Aires. While many global companies are taking advantage of the incredible animation talent in Argentina by outsourcing, IdeaRocket is the only US-based animation studio with our own studio in Buenos Aires. Our leadership and our culture is both bilingual and multicultural, allowing for a unique global fluency and blending of talent from around the world. We’re also an employee-owned company, so you can rest assured that every member of our team has an interest in your success. We make videos in 2d animation, 3d animation, whiteboard and live action too.

Demo Duck: Demo Duck is a Chicago-based firm that often gets excellent results by outsourcing to elite artists around the world and offering sterling creative direction. Founded in 2011 by Andrew Follet, they started off creating demo videos and screencasts. Today, they offer both animation and live action for a variety of industries.

Epipheo: Cincinnati-based Epipheo Studios was one of the first companies in the explainer video market in 2009. They grew a client base thanks in part to a branded content program, and with more than 30 employees, they are probably the biggest players in the market. Much of their style has been imitated to death by others but Epipheo has continued to renew itself and create compelling work as the highlight reel below shows.

The bottom line: Premium animation production companies support your video creation process from concept to delivery. They work directly with brands to offer premium video content. 

Mid-Tier Direct-to-Business – $$

These animation production companies often (though not always) work on tiered price structures: different price levels for different quality levels. If you can’t afford a premium quality product, these are the next best option. 

Demoflick: Founded by Albert Berry in 2011, Boston-based Demoflick was one of the pioneers of the explainer video field. Their simplified animation style is the right choice for some brands and messages. They offer custom-designed animations as well as app/software demos, training, and corporate communication videos.

Whiteboard Animation: Specializing in whiteboard animation, Whiteboard Animation is based in Brooklyn, NY and Union City, NJ. They sometimes combine whiteboard with other techniques such as 3D, to create hybrid approaches. Pricing is based on the complexity of the video. You’ll pay a premium for color and seamless scene transitions. Their parent studio, ideaMACHINE offers other animation styles as well.

Gisteo: Founded in 2011 by Stephen Conley, Gisteo provides transparent (and highly competitive) pricing on their website. As their name suggests, the focus is on providing concise, engaging videos that help communicate their clients’ messages.

Press to Play: This is us again. We started Press To Play for brands that didn’t have the budget for custom-designed animation but still wanted to harness the power of quality design. We offer a library of design elements for animated and live action videos that we configure to create unique offerings for each client. You can see the result in the video below.

The bottom line: Mid-tier animation production companies don’t offer as much flexibility in responding to feedback, and they don’t quite match the quality of more expensive options. But they can sometimes offer solid value and they are the right option for many brands on a budget.

Economy Direct-to-Business – $

Animation production companies in this tier compete largely on price. The cost here is in the low-four-figures per minute. Although some of these providers pretend not to, most outsource their animation to India or Pakistan. The work you get at this price range is often generic, and the design tends to be much sparser than what comes out of the best animation production companies. 

Promoshin: Founded by Ben Marvazi, Promoshin is a California-based company that outsources its work overseas. With its streamlined quote system and its remarkably low rates, Promoshin has been a leader in Economy Direct-to-Business sector of the market for some time.

Broadcast2World: Broadcast2World is based in India with a sales and marketing office in New Jersey. They offer infographic animation in addition to traditional 2D animation. You might see their product in mid-priced studio’s portfolios since they white-label a lot of their work. They offer good value, but you might want to take care of the writing yourself.

Freelancer Platforms – $?

Can you go cheaper yet? Sure, if you use a freelancer platform such as Upwork or Fiverr. Sometimes, companies will look for business on these sites, but more often it is solo practitioners. It’s really tough to find someone who combines the skills to write a script, design, and animate a video, so you might need to chip in some writing or cobble together a team yourself. But yes, it is possible to create a video this way that will cost hundreds rather than thousands of dollars.

Choose the Best Animation Production Companies for Your Budget

As you can see, choosing the best animation production companies for your business depends largely on your budget. In my eBook, Succeeding With Animated Video, I write about how to set a budget for your animated video based on expected costs and projected returns. Join our newsletter to get your free copy!

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