Shawn Forno, Author at IdeaRocket

Case Study: Santa Monica City Explains It ‘Like A Kid’

Shawn Forno — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 08:20:47 +0000

Everyone knows that whiteboard animation and explainer videos are great for explaining complicated topics. It’s in the name. This style of video is often used by tech startups to show off the newest features of flashy apps. But a great explainer video doesn’t have to look like the brainchild of a corporate synergy business meeting. In fact, one of our favorite explainer videos looks like it was made by a kid.

Explain It To Me Like I’m a Kid

When the Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office set out to make an animated video explaining tenant rights under Fair Housing Regulations, they turned to an unlikely source for inspiration—children. They held an elementary school poster contest. Then they asked IdeaRocket to create an explainer video from the winning entry.

“As soon as I heard the concept, I was really excited about the possibility of creating an animation in a children’s art style,” explains IdeaRocket’s Creative Director, Will Gadea. “The idea of approaching an issue like fair housing from a kid’s point of view, with kid’s art was really powerful.” The result is one of the most innovative (and fun!) explainer videos we’ve ever made. See for yourself.

Picking a Winning Design

Housing law may not be everyone’s idea of entertaining subject matter, so hooking viewers with a compelling angle and great character design was key. Seventh grader Peter Riedel delivered all that and more with his design.

“We were looking for a student poster that had plenty of character and style for carrying an animation across the goal line,” says Deputy City Attorney, Gary W. Rhoades. “As soon as Andrea Cavanaugh and I saw the wheelchair-using, eye-patch-bearing ‘John’ on Peter’s colorful poster, we knew we had a winner.”

The Santa Monica City Attorney’s office liked Peter’s contest-winning design (and the subsequent video) so much that they held a public screening of the explainer video on October 18th, 2017. The event featured an interview with Peter, a presentation on the implications of the Fair Housing Act by Rhoades, and a life-size cutout of the video’s protagonist, “John.”

Re-learning Animation

The video shows what tenants, regardless of disabilities or special circumstances, should expect from landlords and properties under California Fair Housing Regulations. While Riedle provided some fantastic concept art, Gadea confesses that turning a seventh grader’s poster into a full-fledged animation is more challenging than you might think.

“I’m a big fan of children’s art. It’s a fresh view of life,” explains Gadea. “But our designers had to unlearn how to draw, essentially.”

“I hadn’t really done a lot of hand-drawn animation since my college years,” admits Director/Animator, Scott Strong. “This project benefited greatly from the imperfections of a human’s touch, so I decided to hand-draw the animation. I was actually re-familiarizing myself with long-dormant skills!”

The project came together when Gadea suggested a live-action introduction. “We suggested that we film Peter with his art, then zoom in to kick-off the animation with Peter reading from a script.” After that, the message takes center stage, and that’s the whole point—the message.

Rhoades agrees, “When you have the right production team, you can achieve your exact vision for the project—and then make it even better. That’s what happened here. IdeaRocket and Peter did such a great job with the animation, along with our feedback at every step, that we got our dream animation.”

Clarity and Simplicity Guides Animation

Even the script was carefully crafted to match a young person’s way of speaking. It helped illustrate the idea that anyone can understand Fair Housing laws. That clarity and simplicity are exactly why Rhoades brought kids into this unique project in the first place:

“We saw animation as a way to creatively raise fair housing awareness and bring complicated fair housing law to laypersons. The Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office has sponsored a fair housing poster contest with local students for many years. Hundreds of students participate each year and from the many works of art that we see, it’s been clear to us that kids bring a vibrant understanding to the issue of equality in housing.”

Explaining Complicated Topics

Santa Monica’s Fair Housing video highlights all the classic strengths of animated explainer videos. The video grabs viewers right off the bat with a unique idea and interesting, colorful visuals. Then, it keeps people hooked with a narrative that delivers clear, concise information in under a minute. It’s a total slam dunk.

Santa Monica’s Fair Housing video is cute, eye-catching and memorable, but it also conveys exactly what the City Attorney’s Office wanted to say. It succeeds at explaining complicated topics in an accessible way. Whether you’re using slick graphics or children’s drawings remember that all the elements of an animated explainer video should work toward one goal—getting your point across.

The post Case Study: Santa Monica City Explains It ‘Like A Kid’ appeared first on IdeaRocket.

11 Easy Ways To Optimize Your Mobile Video

Shawn Forno — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 08:41:17 +0000

Mobile video accounts for more than 75% of worldwide video views. Many of your potential leads likely encountered your brand for the very first time on their phone—probably while doing something else. Mobile viewership of everything from micro-content to long-form documentaries is on the rise, and even “paired viewing” (watching video on desktop and mobile devices simultaneously) has become the norm.

It’s never been more important to create mobile video and to upgrade your existing video for mobile viewing on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube. Before jumping into the 11 easy ways to create better mobile video, let’s look at why mobile video is more important than ever before.

Experts have been proclaiming the rise of mobile video for years. The most compelling data comes from the world’s largest online video provider: YouTube. YouTube has revealed that more than 70% of watch time happens on mobile devices. That’s huge, especially considering YouTube has an audience of more than 2 billion people.

The internet has gone mobile. Are your videos ready?

Mobile Video for B2B

Mobile video is a fundamental part of the B2B buying process. In the 2016, Think With Google study “How Video and Mobile are Changing the B2B Buying Process,” director Richard Robinson spelled out the importance of mobile video:

“In the B2B buying process, we’re seeing a huge increase in the number of people using video—going from 29% of B2B buyers only two years ago to 70% of B2B buyers today.”

In short, decision makers are watching video and they’re watching it on mobile devices.

Robinson says that “Video, alongside mobile, has the strongest impact on increasing consideration rates during the B2B buying process.”

So mobile video is important whether you’re trying to reach individual consumers or buyers for Fortune 500 companies. With this massive audience watching, you want to make sure your mobile videos are as good as they can be. Here are 11 best practices to help you optimize mobile video.

1. Keep it Short: 120 Seconds or Less

When it comes to optimal video length before, shorter is better. While each platform has its own ideal length, less than two minutes is a solid guideline.

Shorter videos achieve higher engagement rates. That’s especially true for mobile video.

Most mobile viewers just aren’t willing to commit to a long video. Aim for brevity and focus. Committing to a tight time frame will help you cut out the unnecessary elements and make videos more engaging.

2. Narrow Your Focus

If your message is too complex to explain in a sentence, it isn’t ready for mobile audiences. Find the one narrative or single product feature that you want to highlight and maintain laser tight focus on that message. Get rid of extra content, or split it into multiple videos that each highlight one facet of a problem or feature. The bonus to this approach is that people won’t get bored seeing the same video over and over. You’ll have a steady stream of fresh content to share.

Your mobile viewers will watch the videos that apply to them and thank you for the sleek, digestible videos. Remember, mobile viewers don’t skip past boring or irrelevant sections the way that desktop users do—they simply move on to a different video that better answers their questions.

3. Create Better Video Thumbnails

Remember, mobile video optimization starts before the video even plays. Too often companies spend massive production budgets producing a fantastic animated video only to drop the ball with a boring, random video thumbnail chosen by a YouTube algorithm. People judge a video by its cover, and if your video looks boring, no one is going to waste time watching.

Scrub through your video for an exciting moment, grab that frame, and use it to create a video thumbnail. Then hook viewers by adding a bold text overlay announcing what your video is about. For animated videos, you can ask your animator to create a custom thumbnail that projects a more professional image than a screen shot.

4. Hook Viewers in the First 3 Seconds

You have about three seconds to grab viewers’ attention. Include brand or product imagery in the first few seconds and skip splash screens to get right to the point.

The best video hooks combine visually interesting characters with rich imagery and a dramatic starting point. Grab mobile viewers right away with something exciting and keep them watching until they walk face first into a pole.

This ad from Amazon immediately sets a scene that many can relate to—waiting for your significant other to finally be ready to leave the house.

Mobile video is exactly that—mobile—which means your video better get moving right out of the gate.

5. Optimize Mobile Video for Audio Independence

The right soundtrack or quality voiceover can add personality and nuance to a product video or explainer video. But, many mobile viewers watch with the sound off. According to a Verizon media study 69% of people watch videos without sound in public places, and 25% stay on mute even in private places.

If your video relies on voiceover to communicate your message, you’re missing out on potential leads. Optimize mobile video to be audio independent with clear visuals that communicate the message without sound.

Captions and subtitles can help, but the most effective tool is a visually engaging video.

6. Add Some Text

Your video can incorporate words into the animated images and visual content. Use on-screen text to underscore key points and drive home your message. In this screenshot from a video for Know Better Bread our animators used onscreen text to make their point.

If you watch the video with the sound off, you still get the impact of the timeline. With only a few seconds to work with, on-screen text is a great way to increase information density. You may have heard that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” If that’s true, your 60-second mobile video is worth 1.8 million words. Don’t waste a single frame.

7. Establish Visual Hierarchy

Mobile video is built on a simple hierarchy: visual cues outweigh audio messaging every single time. To achieve the greatest impact with your text, establish a visual hierarchy.

The Know Better Bread video packs a lot of information into each frame. To counteract visual overload we use bright primary colors to highlight the most important text. You can do the same through thoughtful use of text size and color.

Stick to large, bold text that stands out from the color and content of your video. If you’re concerned your text won’t be legible, use white text and outline it with a thin black border. It will be visible against any background.

8. Use the Right Aspect Ratios

The default dimensions of mobile video—or aspect ratios—are different from a desktop. Most smartphone viewers aren’t necessarily going to view your video at full size. Plus, many people prefer vertical video on mobile devices. They don’t want to rotate their phone to watch a video, so make sure your video fits the aspect ratio of the platform. Check our vertical video guide for ways to optimize mobile video aspect ratios on YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram.

9. Use Quick Cuts to Keep Things Interesting

Holding on one steady shot will bore viewers quickly, and boredom equals bounces. Keep the camera on the move to tell your story with quick cuts that frame and reframe the subject in new and compelling ways. Rapid cuts and interesting transitions accelerate the storytelling of a video

This animated explainer video for Scandis is constantly on the move. Every new beat has a new “setting” and a new story to tell.

The rapid dynamic pace gives the animation a sense of purpose while also clearly separating selling points in the viewer’s mind. It’s a powerful combination driven by purposeful transitions and cuts.

10. Choose Unexpected Angles

If you only take one thing away from reading this blog post let it be this: mobile videos cannot be boring.

Animation lets you zoom to the top of a skyscraper, dive into your computer screen, or even jump into a child’s drawing. Use unexpected perspectives and innovative story angles to catch and keep attention.

In this animated explainer video for The City of Santa Monica City Attorney’s Fair Housing project, we “zoomed” into a child’s drawing to explain complicated housing regulations.

That’s a lot more interesting than someone in an office explaining your housing rights, and in the end the engagement factor is essential to getting the important information out there. Have fun and your viewers will too!

11. Ask for What You Want

Once you manage to engage mobile viewers, your next goal is converting them. You can increase conversions with a simple call-to-action that’s easy to follow-through with. For help setting one up, check out our video CTA guide.

Keep it simple. Mobile video should aim to produce a single, measurable action. Every click means a better target audience for future campaigns.

Provide a path to conversion (shares, learn more, sign up, or buy), and track what works.

Mobile Video: The Future is Now

Mobile video is already making an impact on decision makers from casual browsers to B2B C-suite buyers. Cisco predicts that by 2022, mobile video will make up 82% of internet traffic. Embrace the future by optimizing mobile video.

Download our free eBook to learn more about how to succeed with mobile video.

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Choosing An Animation Studio: Portfolio Assessment Tool

Shawn Forno — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 07:00:14 +0000

If you’re looking for an animated explainer video or a corporate animation, it’s important to shop around. Reviewing animation portfolios is the best way to choose an animation studio that is the right fit for your project. By looking at the studio’s previous work, you can get a sense of their style and quality. The problem is, there are hundreds of studios to choose from. How do you know what to look for?

Will Gadea, our CEO, had this to say about finding the right animation company:

“When you are assessing the quality of animation providers, trust your instincts. Just as how a person untrained in music can recognize a good song, you are most likely a trustworthy arbiter of the quality of a video.”

But if you’re not an animation expert separating the good from the generic can be a daunting task. Luckily, we’re here to help you narrow the field down with our free animation portfolio assessment tool.

Just click the link up above to get our simple evaluation spreadsheet, broken down into six separate metrics by which to judge a studio (including how to weigh each category appropriately with useful percentages). Judging an animation company’s portfolio isn’t rocket science, but there’s more to it than just a gut feeling. This tool will help you gauge, and more importantly track, each portfolio you see in your exhaustive search.

Choose An Animation Studio: The Script

The single most important element in a great animated explainer video is the script. Your script should leave viewers with a clear idea of your product and brand. The most memorable way to convey that information is through story. You only have a few seconds (literally) to hook viewers with your video. A compelling story makes an impression that lasts.

A great script needs to help viewers easily understand what your business is all about. Your video can’t feel like a lecture. Viewers will click away the instant they get bored. Your only defense is a great script.

When reviewing a studio’s animation portfolio, ask yourself: Does the script explain the product or service while entertaining viewers? Does the narrative flow, or does it feel contrived? Will viewers invest time and emotions into this story?

The script in this video from Venmo feels like a friend telling you about her weekend, not a blatant sales pitch. At the same time, it clearly explains Venmo’s key value proposition, benefits, and features. Yet it never breaks away from the story.

When this video came out, sending a friend money from your phone was a new concept. This great idea needed the help of an interesting, straight-forward script to explain the service in a way that made sense to everyday users.

The script is the scaffolding of your animated video—if the story’s not there, even the best ideas will get lost amidst the distractions of the internet.

Choose An Animation Studio: Design

Aesthetics matter. People click on videos that look interesting, and they’re far more likely to stick around until the end (and your ever-important CTA) if the design is compelling. Good design is an essential element of any studio’s portfolio.

When you browse through an animation portfolio, examine the characters, the scenes, and the settings: do they have personality? Are they memorable or unique? Most importantly, does the predominant style of the animation fit with your brand and your message?

Don’t confuse complexity with good design. Sometimes simple is better. A clean design takes true skill and top-tier studios can create a circle character with more charisma than a Hollywood star.

Executive producer at Outpost Worldwide, Michael Wunsch says:

Style, flavor and creative approach play a huge role in the messaging of your video. Choose a company in which your creative tastes match with theirs, but don’t let creativity override clarity of message. You can have the most cool, creative video on the web, but if the viewer doesn’t understand it then the effectiveness may be lost.

An animation studio’s portfolio should be full of engaging designs. The animation should draw you in and keep your attention. Take for example, this video from gTeam. The vibrant colors, imaginative character design, and psychedelic style keep viewers hooked all the way through to the end.

You don’t have to be able to explain what great design is, or why a certain style moves you. You’ll know good design when you see it.

One final note: Be wary of trendy animation. Work that just copies a popular video or style will seem predictable or hackneyed. That reflects poorly on your brand in the long run. Don’t imitate. Innovate. A professional, memorable, and, above all, original design will elevates your brand and ensure your message is heard for years to come.

Choose An Animation Studio: Movement & Motion

Ironically, it’s easy to overlook the actual mechanics of animation while evaluating an animation portfolio. Yet movement is an essential part of successful animation.

When you watch an explainer video, ask yourself: Is the motion in this animation fluid and true to life? Is it varied and interesting? If you’re not sure what to look for, take a quick peak at the 12 Principles of Animation. It’s a six-minute read (with GIFS!).

Now that you’ve seen what animation is all about, watch that video that you love one more time. Is the animation jerky and stilted, or smooth and flowing? Are the transitions distracting or effortless?

This explainer video for Skyhook is a great example of quality motion in animation. See how that smartphone swivels and curves fluidly into the frame in the opening seconds? That animation infuses an inanimate object with energy and personality. Notice the smooth transitions from the scene to scene, and the subtle point-of-view pan in the café? It gives the entire video a professional, polished, and authoritative style. A lot of that sleek, polished impression rubs off on the brand.

A rushed project may feature fewer frames per second or fewer animation layers, resulting in jerkier motion that feels inauthentic and cheap. If you’re paying for a premium explainer video, shouldn’t you get premium quality? Fluid animation is a subtle yet fundamental indicator that the animation studio knows what it’s doing. Mastery over the mechanics of animation is one of the “little things” that separate great animation from work that’s just okay. Trust us, people will notice the difference even if they can’t explain it.

Choose An Animation Studio: Voiceover

Voice talent is an integral part of any animation. Some videos call for a soothing, sonorous tone—others are better served by high-pitched excitement. Choosing the right voice for an animation delivers subtle cues to the viewer. Take this explainer video from Scandis:

The narrator’s voice is amiable and nimble, even playful, just like Scandis’ brand. Listen in particular to the line, “furniture that has been marked up, just so it can be marked down,” about 20 seconds in.

The narrator peels back the curtain on the whole furniture buying experience and invites you to take control of your furniture shopping with her warm, welcoming voice. Her tone is knowing and makes you feel like you’re in on some kind of secret. She respects your intelligence while reflecting Scandis’ style.

The voiceover hits each line nearly perfectly. The result is an explainer video that’s convincing, compelling, and memorable. That’s the kind of voiceover you should be looking for in an animation portfolio.

Choose An Animation Studio: Music & Sound Mix

Another hallmark of a great animation studio is the ability to pair the right soundtrack with the animation (and mix it properly). Although many viewers (particularly on mobile) are choosing to watch video without sound, the right soundtrack still brings depth and emotional resonance to your animation.

When listening to a soundtrack, ask yourself: Do the audio elements clash or compliment each other? Does the tone of the music match the tone of the subject matter? Do the transitions and wipes match up well with the beat of the music? Are the sound effects overdone, or does every element add to the message? If there’s a song (instrumental or vocals), does it enhance the animation, or distract from the visuals?

In this spot for Breton Gluten-Free Crackers, the jaunty ukulele sets the tone, while brilliant sound effects amplify the animation. Hear the whoosh of loosed wheat-arrows, the drip of the tear of happiness and hope, and, of course, the satisfying crunch of the cracker itself. The message is a serious one, but the tone is still light and optimistic.

Choose An Animation Studio: Years of Experience

In the grand scheme of things, a studio’s length of experience is the least important element to consider. Animation is evolving at an incredible pace, and there are some great young studios working in a host of new mediums. However, experience is a sign of sustained success and time-tested professionals. It signals not just tried and true animation chops, but also the ability to work with clients year after year.

The best animation portfolio in the world doesn’t mean a thing if the studio can’t keep the lights on because they’re impossible to work with or don’t meet client expectations for edits, revisions, and deadlines. Remember, you’re not just hiring animators, you’re contracting with a business. Years of experience says a lot about the ability to deliver the product you want.

How To Choose An Animation Studio

Your animated explainer video is a big deal. The right animated video has catapulted businesses from obscurity to phenomenal success. Take the time to evaluate as many animation studios as you need to come to a decision, but do so in a calculated, trackable way. You’re video is a big investment; don’t just shoot from the hip.

Rate every animation portfolio from 1-10 using our six category scale and add it up. You’ll feel a lot more comfortable moving forward with your purchase armed with a host of tangible metrics.

Download our free eBook for more information about how to succeed with animated video (once you decide to make your own!)

The post Choosing An Animation Studio: Portfolio Assessment Tool appeared first on IdeaRocket.

6 Video Metrics That Actually Measure Results

Shawn Forno — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 11:59:45 +0000

You’ve written the script, created the graphics, and made your explainer video. You’re hosting it on the homepage of your site (way to go), and you’ve launched your shiny new video on every social media platform from YouTube to Facebook. Congrats! But your work isn’t done. Now, it’s time to track video metrics to see what works and what doesn’t. These 6 video metrics will help you create better custom audiences, build more effective landing pages, and write better CTAs to increase engagement rates and site-wide conversions.

Video Metrics & Marketing Objectives

Before we break down the importance and applications of these 6 video metrics, it’s worth noting how certain metrics inform your specific video marketing objectives. Tracking the wrong metrics is worse than a waste of time—it’s misleading. Make sure that your video metrics correspond to your primary video marketing objectives. Wistia made this handy image to explain some of the most common objectives and their corresponding video metrics.

As the graphic shows, different metrics help you measure progress toward different goals. For example: Tons of comments signals a completely different level of engagement than total view count. The same goes for social shares vs. bounce rate.

For an educational explainer video, your most relevant metrics are likely play rate and watch rate. Both indicate that the content is engaging and relevant to your audience. Meanwhile, videos introducing a new product (or outright selling it) should track CTR and social shares. The point is: the “right” video metrics depend on your goals. Ideally you want to define your objectives before you make your video, but if you didn’t, try to at least define your objectives now so you know which metrics to track.

The risk of defining your video objectives after you look at the video metrics is that you’ll be tempted to massage the data to support whatever objective you’ve defined. A lot of views, while a good sign of interest, does nothing for driving sign-ups if you have a low CTR, and no amount of metric magic can change that. Remember the “Texas sharpshooter fallacy.” Don’t redraw the lines after your video metrics tell you something that you don’t want to hear.

1:Video play rate = Relevance

High view counts are exciting, but not every explainer video has to be a viral video sensation. In fact, just tracking views can make a video seem more useful than it really is. Since many social media sites are autoplay enabled, the video may be running, but that doesn’t mean anyone is actually watching it. It’s the age old “If a video falls in the forest…” argument. If nobody watches your video it’s the same as not having one. Play rate—or the percentage of visitors that click play—is a much more accurate indicator that your video is finding the right audience.

Tracking the percentage of people that click your video—especially on your homepage or landing page—can help you adjust your video marketing strategy to capture more viewers and increase conversions. Make sure you use an enticing video thumbnail to encourage users to click your video. You’ll use this thumbnail for YouTube, Vimeo, newsletters, and email outreach, and anywhere else you need a still image to promote your video. Spend a little time crafting an engaging video thumbnail, and see if play rate increases.

2: Video Heatmaps: A Different Kind Of Video Metric

Video heatmaps are a video metric that will tell you not just if people watched your video, but how they watched your video. Sound super useful? It is. If you’re unfamiliar, a video heatmap is a insight tool that visually displays the portions of a video viewers spend the most time watching. Much like website heatmaps that track mouse location, scrolling rates, and clicks, video heatmaps are a great way to visualize engagement rates, watch rates, actions and drop off points on the timeline of your video.

Wistia heatmaps are a useful resource because they include relevant viewer data (device, location, referral page, time of day) in addition to color coded reports of viewer activity. You can see when viewers paused your video, skipped ahead, and even rewatched sections. These insights help you spot any potential engagement gaps that are killing your conversions. They can also highlight parts of your video that resonate with viewers. You can even track when viewers take action (like clicking on your video annotation or CTA) and see where they go next.

This granular approach to real-time video metric tracking is a powerful tool if you apply it well. Crazy Egg, HotJar and Heatmap are just a few heatmap metric sites with affordable plans to get you started. And remember, you can also apply traditional heatmaps to landing pages that feature video. Watch how many people hover over that play button for some instant feedback on the engaging power of video.

3: Viewer Engagement

According to Crazyegg, the the more videos a site visitor watched, the more money they spent. A visitor who watched just one video spend about $150 on average while a visitor who watched 3 videos spent almost $200. If that doesn’t make you want to track engagement rates, nothing will.

Audience retention is one of the many SEO benefits of landing page video. Video makes your page “stickier” to incoming users, since it promises a quick and visually stimulating summary of the information on the page. Make sure you position your video “above the fold,” that means instantly visible without having to scroll, to maximize your potential play rate. Pay attention to drop-off points in your video engagement metrics to see if viewers are sticking around to the end of your video.

Play rates and heatmaps can help you get a handle on engagement, but pay attention to how many videos visitors watch. If it’s just one, your video might not be all that engaging. If they’re binge watching three or four at a time, congratulations, you’re making truly engaging videos.

Domain & Website Video Metrics

YouTube isn’t the only place to track your video metrics. If you’re adding video to your homepage or a dedicated landing page, chances are you’ll see a spike in engagement, increased dwell time, and a lower bounce rate. Track these changes! Comparing everyday SEO metrics is a great way to see if video is driving conversions and engagement on your site (that’s kinda the point of making a video in the first place).

4: Bounce Rate Metrics

Bounce rate is one of the clearest indicators of whether the content on your web page is working. Google calculates your bounce rate by dividing the total number of visitors that leave your site after visiting one page by the total number of visits. Monster Insights put together this handy graphic to help you visualize where you stack up to your competitors when it comes to bounce rate.

Bounce rate is a key metric, and can help you decide if more videos might be helpful. If the pages with video radically outperform pages without video, well, it’s clear what the difference maker is. For example, when Daniel Loeschen, Marketing Director for MixerDirect wanted to track their key objective—engagement—he used bounce rate as his yardstick:

“We paid a lot of attention to measuring our videos’ success [using] overall site bounce rate. Over the last year and a half as we have had added more and more videos to our product pages, blog pages, and category pages, we have seen almost a 20% decrease in bounce rate, which means that customers and potential customers are finding value in our content and that content is nurturing them toward a purchase or quote request. For us bounce rate has been very important to measure the impact of an overall video strategy.”

Different industries have different average bounce rates as Neil Patel explains in this infographic. As a general guideline, a 30-50% bounce rate is excellent and 80%+ is terrible. Everything in between depends on your content, industry and your marketing strategy.

FYI: People bounce from websites all the time. If your bounce rate is below 20% it’s probably a tracking error or really low site traffic. Nobody is that good.

5: Social Shares

Decision makers are increasingly influenced by online video, but they’re also driven by influencers, social shares, and online reviews. Nielsen found that 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over advertising. People are just more likely to trust their inner circle than they are to trust an ad. Social shares build trust and strengthen consumer confidence because they come from friends, family, or trusted influencers.

Fortunately, you can make some smart choices to increase the odds of your link being shared. Even though Twitter just doubled its character limit, nobody wants to share, or click on, a link that’s mostly numbers. Which of these links seems more appealing to you?

http://www.prettyurl.com/hotel-dream-vacation
http://www.example.com/hotel-abc.jsp?fitness_centre=y&Ne=292&N=461+4294967240+4294967270

Tools like bit.ly can help you create short, customized URL’s and track the number of clicks each one gets. Make it easy for people to share your video, and don’t be afraid to ask viewers to share. Then track the results.

6: Conversions

A lot of companies create explainer videos to increase conversions, and rightly so. Video gets prospects over the obstacles that keep them from opting-in. Email signups, downloads, subscriptions and sales, known collectively as “conversions” are great ways to track the real world impact video has on your bottom line.

Phil Nottingham, a independent video strategist says:

“If you’re creating a video to improve conversions i.e. increase the number of people pressing the “add to cart” button on your website, then more or less the only metric you should care about is conversion rate at a page level. This is predicated by ensuring you have a decent attribution model, but once your analytics is in good order, this is the metric.”

There are a few different ways to track how people are converting depending on your video hosts. Adstage has a great guide to get you started on the process of conversion tracking using Google Analytics.

Make sure you test CTAs to see which is the most effective at driving conversions. The right CTA is simple, clear, and direct. The viewer should easily understand what you want them to do and feel compelled to do it.

Video Metrics That Matter

Video metrics matter. It’s not enough to upload and share your video. Choose video metrics that relate to your video objectives so you can improve your video assets for the highest possible ROI. Quality videos last a long time. Hone your video content and targeting with informed video metrics and your explainer video could drive conversions for years.

For more information on how to succeed with animated video, download our free eBook below.

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Professional Animation Tips: Articulation & Key Frames

Shawn Forno — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 09:00:15 +0000

While it might look like magic, the best professional animation is really just meticulous attention to detail. When animators care about every single frame and master Disney’s classic 12 Principles of Animation, the results are smooth, realistic animation that people live. The most convincing animated videos use techniques ranging from “squash and stretch” and “arcs” all the way to character appeal. However, this post will take a closer look at one of the most basic yet overlooked aspects of animation — articulation and key frames and how they affect the timing and smoothness of the animation. Don’t panic. It’s not that technical.

We’re just going to slow things down a bit and examine how an animation gets from one frame to the next, and how those in-between frames say everything about the tone and the story. Before you make your next animated video explainer video or full-length feature film, learn how to spot a professional animation from the rest.

What Is Animation?

To understand the importance of articulation choices and how they relate to key frames and the overall look and feel of your animation, you have to understand a couple of basic animation concepts. Like live action films, every second of an animated video is really a collection of dozens of individual frames. In a film camera these frames go by at a rate of 24 frames per second (fps), and online most animations are timed to change at the same rate. That means every single second of movie is made of 24 complete images that progress fast enough to look like fluid movement. How quickly an animator makes objects on screen move through these hundreds of frames every few seconds determines the look and feel of the animation.

Basically, the more frames it takes for something to happen, the smoother the animation looks. And while it’s usually ideal for an animator to make every action as smooth as possible, sometimes that’s just not feasible. Budget and time constraints don’t allow an animator to use thousands of frames to make Bugs Bunny cross the street. It just takes too long to mimic life-like action in most cases. No, instead, animators rely on several animation techniques.

Professional Animation Hack: Smears

The first animation technique is called a “smear,” and it’s one of the original animation hacks from legendary animator Chuck Jones (Warner Bros.). This technique basically uses one single “smeared” frame of animation to fudge over all the individual frames of a fast action that an animator would normally have to draw.

The result is a blur of action that viewers’ eyes interpret as movement. It’s a time saver and in the hands of a master like Chuck Jones it lead to the development of the Warner Bros. cartoons so many people grew up with. The other way to accomplish smooth transitions and actions is what animators call “key frames.”

Articulation: More Key Frames = Smoother Animation

If every second of animation is made up of 24 frames per second, all of those frames can’t be “important” moments. Your eye just doesn’t register images that quickly. No, instead of spending time and energy drawing 24 perfect frames that will just fly by, animators create “key frames” (often called “key poses”) to show action happening on screen. These frames are literally frames that are key to the action being drawn — and let other animators (or computer software) fill in the surrounding frames with…less than perfect animation or the bare minimum movement to get the point across. IdeaRocket Creative Director and Founder Will Gadea puts it succinctly:

“Articulation is how much detail there is in the movement. How many drawings for a particular amount of time on screen. Quality animation is all about detail and movement.”

Basically, the more key frames per second, the better (and smoother) the animation looks. The fewer key frames, the more choppy and cookie cutter it looks. Picture Scooby Doo and Shaggy running. Not every part of each character moves on every frame, in fact the animation is so jagged that it’s easy to see that their heads and bodies stay perfectly still while their arms and legs do the (very repetitious) moving. Each time Shaggy and “Scoob” do something different—like come to a stop—the animation changes. That’s a key frame.

This image actually employs low key frame density and smears for a super blurry frantic feel. More key frames per second means better articulation for every action and smoother animation. There are a tons of other factors that go into professional animation, but key frame frequency and articulation are at the top of the list. To help you spot articulation, we’ve come up with a few examples of articulation in animation on a scale ranging from highest to lowest. Once you can spot what separates the best from the rest, recognizing professional animation is a breeze.

High Articulation Professional Animation: Disney Films

It’s no surprise that Disney animated films have the highest articulation. They literally wrote the book on animation. “Disney is the gold standard of animation,” claims Gadea. Part of what makes Disney so much better than the rest is their commitment to high articulation animation. Gadea goes onto explain that quality. “Disney animation is all done on ‘the ones and twos,’” referring to the frequency of key frames (or key poses) occurring either every single frame or every other frame. That means practically every single frame of animation in a Disney feature-length animation is a key frame. That kind of quality shows, but professional animation takes time and money.

Snow White, Disney’s first full-length animated feature (and the first truly animated feature length film) took nearly five years to produce. This gargantuan task required the skills of over 500 animators and crew and produced nearly 2 million sketches, although the final run time only contains about 160,000 individual frames.

Quality animation with high articulation takes incredible time, skill and money. Walt Disney spent over $1.4 million to produce Snow White in 1937. That’s not adjusted for inflation. He spent over $1 million dollars. During the Great Depression. For a cartoon. Disney could have cut corners, but their commitment to “articulation on the ones and twos” set the stage for dozens of critically and commercially successful blockbusters and a brand new multi-billion dollar industry as the leader in animation for most of the next century. Not bad.

Average Articulation Professional Animation: TV Cartoons

Animated television shows are a far cry from full length Disney feature films (just look at Scooby Doo). The animation of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s are particularly guilty of cutting down on key frames to keep up with production timelines, but thanks to shorter animations (11 minutes is the new standard), and the rise in computer assisted technology key frames and articulation are making a comeback in television animation. Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time, is a great example of an animated show that pays attention to articulation and quality animation. Each second of the roughly eleven minute episodes features smooth animations full of fluid movement, point of view shifts and the key frame frequency that lets your mind relax and enjoy the show.

While the key frames don’t occur in every single frame, every other second is still really good. The animation in Adventure Time is smooth and more stylized than schlocky animated tv shows from a few decades ago. Articulation leads to immersion. Animators on hit television shows (with bigger budgets) can add more key frames per second, and thus make more realistic animation. Although Adventure Time does experiment with fewer key frames to give the show a hint of an anime feel, which brings us to our final entry on the articulation scale…

Low Articulation Professional Animation: Anime

I love anime. However, anyone who’s watched Dragon Ball Z can tell you that it’s not the smoothest (or quickest) animated show. Production budgets for anime are typically lower than other animations, and turn around time is extremely high. Some shows even release episodes in a season before the final episodes are finished. Talk about a time crunch! When that happens, key frames are usually the first things to go.

In this type of animation animators will let whole seconds go by without changing more than a few key frames. The action is slow and drawn out with long slow pans of the (static) environment, close-ups of a barely moving character, or a handful of easy to draw recycled key frames. One of the best examples is a flapping mouth when a character talks. Anime animators typically use key frames every third or fourth frame to capture the main action. However, background objects, and even some main characters are often drawn in key frames as low as 6 fps. It’s cheaper and easier to do, but looks stitched together with choppy cuts and unrealistic motion.

While anime is a style adored by millions, and the long slow pans are “epic,” the end result is typically poor quality animation. Fewer key frames means less articulation, and more jerky, less realistic motion on screen. Sorry, Goku.

High Articulation Anime: Studio Ghibli

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Animators and audiences alike revere Akira for its meticulous care and craftsmanship. Studio Ghibli has been making some of the most moving animations for years (both technically and emotionally). The difference between DBZ and Studio Ghibli is largely a matter of key frames. One of the best examples of slowing down to create realistic moments happens when Miyazaki animates Chihiro putting on her shoes. “It’s those little magic moments that convince you that this is not an imaginary world. This is real.”

Professional Animation: Articulation and Key Frames

Animation is a lot more than “just cartoons.” Hundreds of hours go into every minute of animation. And the harder an animator works, the less you can see their hand in the final product. Keep an eye out for key frames and smooth articulation in your next animated video, because people notice when you cut corners. When it comes to animation, more is usually better.

The post Professional Animation Tips: Articulation & Key Frames appeared first on IdeaRocket.

15 Video Transitions For Animation (And Why They Matter)

Shawn Forno — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 23:41:18 +0000

A truly great animated video is all about persuasion. You want to persuade people to click on your link with an enticing thumbnail. Then you want to convince them to watch the video long enough to click, subscribe, like, share, or whatever CTA you attach to the animated explainer about your company. The success of your video is all about getting viewers to believe what you say about your company in the short time you have their attention, and persuading them to take further action. And while a great script, compelling character design, and a professional look and feel are all essential to a great video, the way your video transitions from shot to shot during your 60-second explainer video might be the most persuasive element in your entire video.

Here’s a guide to 15 video transitions you should be using to hook viewers and make your explainer video as compelling as possible.

15 Types Of Video Transitions And Why They Matter

Evan Puschak (aka “Nerdwriter1”), is a film critic and self-proclaimed “video essayist” with nearly 2 million followers on YouTube. In one of his videos, he breaks down all the different types of transitions in the artfully crafted transitions in the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, directed by acclaimed indie (now mainstream) director, Edgar Wright.

This fan favorite film is full of interesting transitions from scene to scene, Puschak notes, largely influenced by the fact that it’s adapted from a graphic novel (where transitions happen dozens of time per page). However, Puschak notes the importance of transitions not just for their stylistic value, but for their ability to tell a persuasive story.

“Transitions are a site of opportunity for Edgar Wright,” Puschak notes. “They’re a chance to build important connective tissue that brings the viewer through the story.” He continues, “In fact, a story is a lot like an argument—it has to be persuasive to work.” according to Puschak, what makes this movie so good aren’t just the great shots, acting, and writing, but the “connective tissue”—the in-between transitions—along the way.

Video transitions matter. Here are five of the most important transitions in video and film.

Diegetic Transition: Moving Objects in Frame

This transition sounds fancy, but in this term, “diegetic” simply means “that thing on the screen.” Diegesis is the “story” that you see on-camera—the characters, sets, and action. A diegetic transition is when something in the shot moves across the frame to create a seamless transition to a completely different scene. A good example is a pedestrian walking through the frame near the camera while the two main characters are talking.

The person blocks the camera, the shot goes dark, and when the person “moves out of the way” poof—you’re magically watching the same couple talking, but from a different angle, closer up, or from the point of view of one or either main character. It’s a seamless, effective, and strangely natural to use an object or obstacle that’s actually in the shot to transition versus a cut, wipe, or other transition technique.

Using foregrounded objects that are already in the shot to aid transitions makes each transition look seamless, “momentarily tricking the brain into not registering the transition,” according to Puschak. In a recent video for the City of Santa Monica, we use a combination of camera zoom and a diegetic transition to a child’s drawing to transition from live action to animation for an equally effective way to trick viewers into “jumping” into an animated drawing.

It’s a simple effect, and one that can easily help smooth over any jumps from live action to animation you use in future videos.

A final example comes from a purely animated video we created for Scandis. In this diegetic transition, the object actually grows to be the focus of the frame, acting almost as a wipe for the next shot.

Diegetic Transition: Pair with Sound Effects

What’s interesting about using these sneaky, yet strangely overt transitions is that they’re often accompanied by a sound effect. In Scott Pilgrim it’s a whooshing car, a school bell, or something audible from the scene in transition like a sliding door beep. It’s an immersive way to transition that viewers can’t detect on first watch, even when they see it plain as day.

Video Transitions: Cut

Ok, enough with the fancy stuff. What about the basics? Sometimes the simplest way to move from one shot to another is simply to do exactly that. Cuts literally just place two different shots or scenes side by side. It’s the most basic transition there is, and it’s the most common video transition online.

There a lot of ways to perform a cut in a video transition, and each accomplishes something different, but three of the most commonplace are:

Cutting On Action: Someone goes through a door, and the shot cuts to him walking inside = action
Cut Away: Something happens, the shot cuts away, then cuts back = drama
Cross Cut: Jumping back and forth between two locations (like a phone call) = tension

Another popular cut, and one that you see a lot in short online video is the jump cut.

Video Transitions: Jump Cut

Jump cuts are cuts in the traditional sense—you place two nonlinear shots side by side— however, jump cuts are more narrative than most traditional cuts. The sole purpose of a jump cut is to move forward in time. Vloggers on YouTube are especially guilty of jump cuts as an editing crutch, and while they can be annoying (too many jump cuts with different lighting as the day goes on can be like staring into a strobe light), they can also be fun.

When I think of jump cut transitions and animation, I can’t help but mention the Academy Award-nominated animated short, A Single Life.

This brilliant animation is driven exclusively by a special kind of jump cut (a matching shot jump cut, but more on that in a bit). These cuts forward or backward in time are purposefully jarring to the protagonist and to the viewer. The metaphor—a skipping record playing out all the seconds of your life—is a perfect tool for jumping into and out of the timeline, and the cuts themselves actually play the starring role in this animation.

Action is driven by cuts, so don’t be afraid to use them to tell your story in whatever time frame you like.

Video Transition: Dissolve & Crossfade

A dissolve is any time that one shot gradually fades as another shot replaces it. This classic example from Spaceballs is really all you need to know about dissolves.

In my humble opinion, dissolves can be a little sluggish for short online video, so use these transitions sparingly in your videos. Unless you’re calling attention to them. Then go nuts. Crossfades are a more relaxed type of dissolve and work well for thoughtful transitions and scenery changes, but they’re not great for explainer videos. Again, use dissolves and crossfades sparingly.

Video Transitions: Fade

Fade transitions are like dissolves except you’re not dissolving to anything. The “fade to black” ending from old films, or a character blacking out as the camera fades to black are common uses. You can also fade to white—a more popular way to transition from scene to scene—but again, use sparingly or you’ll wear out your viewers.

People notice fades and dissolves a lot more than cuts (they take longer), so unless you like slowing down your video (you shouldn’t), keep these to a minimum.

Video Transitions: Wipe

A wipe is when one shot progressively replaces another shot on camera over several frames. The best wipes also typically involve a camera pan in the direction of the action and the direction of the wipe. Again, pay attention to the first scene dissection in the Nerdwriter transition video at the top of the article. The camera pans right, and the school scene wipes across to the left to replace the phone call scene.

Our animated video for Scandis is full of wipes from scene to scene as we explain why Scandis is a superior choice for buying furniture. The wipes move from beat to beat, giving the animation a chance to set the scene for each new thought without jarring the viewer with a series of disconnected jump cuts.

Wipes are particularly great for animation, especially whiteboard animation, because they connect the visuals on screen in a long progression, much like scanning down a page or reading left to right. We’re wired to expect a smooth rolling transition from thought to thought. Connect is ideas visually by stitching them together with smooth, interesting wipes.

Matching Scene Transitions

This is simply what it sounds like. When you jump from day to night without moving the camera.

Like a distilled jump cut, matching scene cuts or transitions are used all the time to convey a large gap in time in just a single shot, making it a particularly great way to transition in a short animated explainer video.

Video Transitions: Matching Shot Pivot

Another type of transition related to matching shot transitions is a point of view pivot. This technique combines elements of matching a shot framing while swapping out elements in a smooth manner similar to a wipe. The example above from the animated video for Scandis takes a static shot of a living room, then pivots the point of view replacing elements as it spins, finally ending in a different room, without actually changing the framing of the original shot.

The camera didn’t “go” anywhere, but the point of view pivoted. This transition is typically used in animation where it’s easy to control where a camera “goes”, however, it’s employed to great effect in live action from time to time.

Video Transitions: Star Wipes

Heck yeah.

No Transition at All: Steady Shots and Unique Film Transitions

Sometimes the best way to transition from shot to shot in your video or animation is to…not transition at all. Think of the wildly popular Dollar Shave Club Video. This running steady cam video captures the absurd energy and movement as the CEO and founder moves from room to room in the factory.

Yes, there are transitions in this video, but the dominant transition is no transition. The camera smoothly moves from location to location, absurdity to absurdity as the explainer video blasts through selling points like a CEO through a paper banner. The lack of transitions is what makes this video so compelling and fun to watch. The thoughtful use (or lack) of transitions is why so many people shared an explainer video about razors. Think about that.

Another great example is the 2010 Pixar film, Day and Night. The unbelievably clever use of negative space as the outline for our titular characters is inspired. Each embodiment of either Day or Night moves through their own disconnected landscape of gags and development, yet the frame never once cuts, zooms, or transitions. It’s a 6-minute animated video without almost a single cut, fade, or transition. (There are a few, but they’re practically invisible).

https://vimeo.com/127342009

This fluidity of the masking technique (each character has a scene projected onto them) pulls you into the story—even without dialogue. LINK What’s more, the lack of transitions and even the lack of a traditional “frame” means that anything can happen at any moment. That anticipation is great animated film making, and it’s why this animated short was nominated for an Oscar.

Video Transitions Guide and Best Practices

Professional animated video isn’t just about the images on the screen. Top shelf video is about piecing all the elements of your video together in a way that’s as persuasive as it is entertaining and easy to watch. The right use of thoughtful transitions goes a long way toward captivating—and retaining your viewers—so your video can increase conversions.

Download our free eBook to learn more about how to succeed with animated video, and transition your business to the next level.

The post 15 Video Transitions For Animation (And Why They Matter) appeared first on IdeaRocket.

5 Interesting Ways To Use Landing Page Video

Shawn Forno — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 14:56:37 +0000

Online video is one of the most versatile sales and marketing tools in your arsenal. You can use an explainer video as a tool to build brand awareness, as a pitching resource for your sales team, as a way to increase clicks to your company email, or even for live events and conventions. However, the number one reason to make an animated explainer video is of course for your company website.

The right explainer video can launch your startup from obscurity to stardom in under 60 seconds, but don’t think that you can just slap your video on your homepage and call it a day. There are different types of explainer videos for all kinds of marketing goals, and each goal needs a different kind of landing page. Luckily, thanks to sites like WordPress and Squarespace, you can make a landing page for each one of these kinds of videos.

From About Me pages to time sensitive campaigns, landing page video is the customizable (highly effective) face of online video. Here are 5 Interesting Landing Page Videos (and why they work).

Best Landing Page Video: About Me Video

Everyone loves a good About Me page. It’s a chance to (finally) talk about yourself and share a bit of what makes you so awesome at what you do, right? Wrong. When it comes to About pages, lifestyle blogger, Christina Nicholson from Christina All Day says it best:

“The number one reason people are checking out your about me page is to see if you can help them.”

People don’t care about where you went to school (unless they’re applying there), or what your favorite color is. They just want to know how you can help them with whatever problem brought them to your site. Your About Me page is a chance to quickly qualify yourself, so why not do that in the fastest most effective way possible—with a video.

This video from the About Page of photographer Sue Bryce isn’t even about her, but hot dang is it perfect.

This video is perfect way to introduce not only exactly what Bryce does best—Mother/Daughter photoshoots—it shows you the value of that service. Getting mothers comfortable enough to come out from behind the camera to pose with their daughters is a powerful message, and the way Bryce communicates that journey with this video shows her expertise so much more than a typical “About Me” section ever could.

She mentions briefly that she’s been photographing women with their children for 25 years, but mostly she shows you what they looks like, and why now is the time for you to take pictures with your daughter. It’s a powerful narrative, and an master class in using explainer video on an About Me landing page.

Best Landing Page Video: How-To Video

Most people are visual learners. If your product solves a complicated problem, or you have a quick easy fix that adds value to your target audience,

“Videos are an especially compelling way to learn how to do something online because, well, the video shows you exactly how to do it,” argues Sophia Bernazzani from HubSpot. And she’s not alone. According to Animoto, 4X as many customers would rather watch a video about a product, than read about it which means if you don’t make an explainer video that shows your new [software solution, kitchen gizmo, accounting tool, shoelaces] in action, one of your competitors will.

Adobe Creative Cloud is the name in graphic design (heck, we use it), yet even though they’re on the top of the heap in the design space they still create videos that help new designers create interesting work using the Creative Cloud suite of tools. And more importantly, they host those videos on dedicated tutorial landing pages to get your to their site, increase their SEO value and SERP results, and drive home the value of their premium product.

This GIF creation tutorial teaches viewers how to make an animated GIF with Photoshop in under 60 seconds. That’s instant value in a clear, repeatable tutorial that people can watch, refer to, and share. This video has already racked up over a quarter of a million views on YouTube since it’s release in March 2017, and it’ll likely get double that over the course of its online life. That’s a lot of people buying and Photoshop…

Best Landing Page Video: Individual Product Features

Sometimes your product or service is too complicated for one 60 second explainer video to do it justice. We get it. When your video needs grow past the boundaries of a single video, it’s time for your video to splinter into several short helpful videos that show existing users (and potential users) exactly how to use your groundbreaking product or service (and why they should use it if they’re not already a paying customer).

Asana is a collaborative project management platform with loads of cool features, but the functionality can actually be pretty overwhelming, especially if you’re new to the site. Luckily Asana has embraced the power of dedicated landing page video for all their features.

This overview functions like a typical explainer video, showing the features and strengths of the platform, but it’s also a great primer for actually using the platform. You can see (through animated motion graphics and screenshots) how the product will actually look and feel. This video lets you picture using the product while it explains it, which is a fantastic way to hook interested prospects.

Asana features this animated explainer video as a welcome/episode 1 on their “Quick Start” landing page for new and interested users. It’s insanely effective, but it’s far from the only video in their arsenal.

Asana mixes live action how to videos with screen capture and animated explainer videos for a suite of dozens of short, helpful videos that show you how to use Asana for any project, and more importantly all the ways you can save time once you embrace the streamlined functionality of the platform.

Landing Page Video: Seasonal Campaigns

Landing pages are great for promoting seasonal or temporary campaigns. You can target a specific keyword strategy, create an explainer video for your time-sensitive product, and drive traffic to the site with simple CTAs that increase conversions. What’s even better is that single-use seasonal landing pages provide excellent metrics for tracking the success of your campaign.

We worked on a seasonal campaign earlier this year with the NYCFC when they launched their new 2017 home jersey with a live action and animated video. The result is a high energy video aimed at getting fans hyped for the coming season (and the new jersey).

Seasonal landing pages thrive with video. It communicates quickly and drives conversion rates when time is of the essence.

Landing Page Video: Education

Landing page video is great at focusing on a single topic. Case in point: the whiteboard animation we created for Novo Nordisk to explain the pathophysiology of diabetes. This specific (and complicated) topic demands its own separate landing page, especially when the objective is educating healthcare professionals on this specific topic.

Creating standalone landing pages with rich topical explainer videos is a great way to communicate large amounts of information—specifically when it comes to dense topics. But don’t take our word for it; just look at the empire that RSA style whiteboard animation and TedEd animated shorts have built with the educational power of animated video.

Landing Page Video Best Practices

Landing page video can increase conversions by 80%, but only if you do it right. Here are a few tips and best practices to create a clean, streamlined landing page for your video that will drive conversions and keep your business moving in the right direction.

Design the Landing Page First

Create the url, the header, and the content for your landing page before you take the (considerable) time to create an explainer video for that topic. Tighten up your message and your aesthetic—the colors, fonts, and feel of the page—then let that look and tone guide your explainer video.

You can always change it if your video takes on a life of its own, but it’s nice to have an existing landing page to keep you grounded on a specific message, objective, and CTA while making a video. Plus, if you already have the landing page (and url) designed, you can give the CTA in the video when you make it instead of adding that as an afterthought later.

Keep it Above the Fold

“Above the fold” is a design term that basically means when something is visible on your computer screen before you scroll. There’s no point making a landing page video if you bury it beneath paragraphs of text. People clicked your link to get a quick look at whatever you’re selling, so show it to them. You landing page video is the both the welcome and the closer for your product or event.

Keep people focused on your video by making it the only thing on the page. The hierarchy is real.

Keep it Short and Sweet

Nothing bogs a landing page video down like a long-winded message. “Lack of clarity can destroy your conversions, since most people are prone to not make a decision if given too many options,” points out Eric Hinson from Kissmetrics.

This landing page video is not about your company or product as a whole. Focus on one thing—one single thing—that your viewers want to see or learn or do, and make the video about that. Keep your video under a minute if you can, and certainly under two minutes. Anything longer than that is not a landing page video.

CTA, CTA, CTA

Explainer videos are great at increasing conversions for a lot of reasons, but the ability to add a clear, simple CTA is probably video’s strongest feature. Landing page videos are like explainer videos dialed up to 11. Your landing page video will act as the funnel for your product or event, even when it’s not on your page. People will link to this page, you’ll share the video on YouTube and social media, and when people do finally make it to your landing page, they’ll watch the video again (that’s just how it works).

End your video with a strong CTA that asks viewers to do the one thing on your landing page. Make it about signing up, downloading, registering, buying, or learning more. Tell people what you want them to do in your video and they’ll be a lot more likely to do it. It’s crazy, but it’s true.

Once you have a landing page video you are happy with, it’s time to set up your landing page. Various tools are available today to make building a landing page or website easier than ever. Bookmark Website Builder, for example, is a website builder powered by Artificial Intelligence which builds personalized websites and landing pages that fit your specific needs.

Best Landing Page Video

Creating stand alone landing page videos for your unique products or time sensitive services is a great way to track and increase conversions through targeted CTAs and focused content. People appreciate the value of videos dedicated to a single goal, and honestly, they’re easier to make and more effective in the long run than general purpose video. Take your video marketing by the horns and create your own landing page video today.

To find out more about you can succeed with animated video, download our free eBook today.

The post 5 Interesting Ways To Use Landing Page Video appeared first on IdeaRocket.

Ask An Expert: Pros & Cons Of Remote Work

Shawn Forno — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 07:00:40 +0000

Remote work is on the rise. In 2016, Forbes reported that “the number of freelance workers is growing quickly,” with over 55 million U.S. freelancers (up from 53 million in 2014). Another large scale survey from the Freelancers Union, an organization with over 300,000 members, reports that “freelancers make up 35% of U.S. workers,” and that these freelancers and remote workers “earned $1 trillion in 2016.” Remote work is here, and it’s profitable. But should your company institute a remote work model? We asked CEOs, founders, marketing managers, and HR heads how remote work has helped or hurt the way their companies operate.

Here’s what remote work consultants and other experts have to say about building and maintaining a team of remote employees.

The Pros of Remote Work

The good news first. On average, remote workers are happier, more productive, and higher performers than their office counterparts. In fact, Forbes cites a recent study that showed “all other factors being equal, remote workers make 13.5 percent more calls (the metric for the business in question) than their comparable office workers…the equivalent of almost a full extra day’s worth of work in a given week.”

Remote Work: Increasing Productivity & Reducing Waste

Remote work alone has the potential to produce a full day of extra productivity per single week. That’s incredible. Numbers like these are a driving force of why these CEOs swear by remote employees.

“The single biggest advantage to remote working is increased productivity due to the extra time saved not having to ‘dress up’ for work or commute. We’ve been 100% remote since day one.”
Hugo Lesser, Communications Director, Bright!Tax

“In the past, we grew at an annual rate of 37%. Now, thanks to remote employees we recently hit 69%,” claims Rennella. “It’s all thanks to working from home with fewer office interruptions.”
Cristian Rennella, CEO & co-founder, El Mejor Trato

“Remote work adds more freedom and flexibility to a company, while removing a lot of unforeseen distractions. No more “random” meetings, wasted lazy Friday afternoons, or rigid 9 – 5 hours.”
Jake Tully, Creative Director, Truck Driving Jobs

Remote Work: Hire the Best Talent from Anywhere

One of the best arguments for a remote office is that you can hire the best people from anywhere—not just driving distance from downtown. That’s a game changer. Because a remote team of all-stars is worth any few communication hassles or time zone hiccups.

“Talent is out there, but it might not always be conveniently located in your area,” argues Melissa Smith, a virtual assistant staffer, remote work consultant, and author of Hire the Right Virtual Assistant. “Whether it be getting the right person for the job, attracting a larger talent pool, or saving money remote work eliminates the need to find the needle in a haystack. You have to be honest with yourself about what your company needs, desires, and person who fulfills these them. It raises the standard and now, with the right job description, that person finds you.”
Melissa Smith, Author
The PVA

“The pros of remote workers are countless but one of the key positives is that we can hire smart people from around the world. In turn this allows team members to manage their own lifestyle and work life balance, and this has a profound impact on overall happiness and productivity.”
Greg Mercer, CEO
Jungle Scout

Fit Small Business co-founder, David Warring also recommends hiring from a larger applicant pool. “When people don’t have to come to the office it increases the talent pool from NYC to the entire world.” The upside? “Access to much greater talent at much more affordable prices.” Embrace remote work and expand your eligibility pool to the entire world. Literally.

Remote Work: Flexibility & Time Zones

While some companies see a sprawling network of remote workers as an obstacle to productivity, many CEOs see a diverse remote team as another asset. “Remote teams allow people to work in environments and on a schedule that is best for them. It also allows teams to be spread across different time zones, which can be really helpful if you have clients across the United States or internationally,” notes Valerie Streif, Senior Advisor at the job search site, Mentat.

Jerry Nihen, web developer, and founder of Jay Nine Inc., also sees remote workers as a selling point. “We have different employees who work different hours, so we’re able to offer close to 24/7 responses to our clients without overburdening anyone.”

Employee Happiness

One of the most obvious (yet important) reasons to institute a remote work policy is simple: remote work makes employees happy. Happy employees are loyal employees, despite all the trash talk about freelancing millennials. One thing that contributes to employee happiness is a balanced work-life lifestyle. Part of achieving this balance can also be facilitated by a stress-free meal delivery service like Hello Fresh. With a service that takes care of meal planning and grocery shopping, employees can have even more time and energy to focus on their work, boosting productivity, and promoting overall well-being.

Since they produce one of the premier remote collaboration tools, Basecamp is of course also one of the biggest proponents of the remote office.

Basecamp made a name for itself as a great place to work, due in large part to flexible remote work policies like a 4-day summer work week, 3- week paid vacation, and 1-month sabbaticals every three years. But at the center of this groovy management style is the simple commitment to employee productivity—however those employees can find it.

The first paragraph on Basecamp’s about page isn’t about the founder or the mission statement. It’s about the importance of remote work:

“Our headquarters is in Chicago, but everyone at Basecamp is free to live and work wherever they want. Many of us love working remotely – we literally wrote the book on remote working!”

No, seriously. They actually wrote the book on remote work.

According to Basecamp, when you trust your employees to get the job done in a way that fits their work preferences and schedule, you get the best work from your team. This sentiment is echoed time and again by nearly every manager and CEO we talked with. Like Basecamp, some companies even see remote work as a recruiting tool. “Remote work is a huge attraction to anyone applying for a role with us,” Max Robinson, WeSwap Euros.

Remote Work: Employee Morale

But are remote workers really that much happier (and productive) than their cubicle compatriots? “Staff morale is difficult to measure,” says Cristian Rennella, co-founder of O Melhor Trato, “but none of our 34 team members wants to return to work in an office. So there’s that.” Rennella even found that average retention increased from 74.6% to 91.2% after implementing remote work. “People want to work from home and then enjoy their family.”

“Remote work is great for employee morale and a lot of studies show that people are more honest when they track their hours themselves,” argues Valerie Streif, senior advisor at Mentat. “I know for a fact that if I was trapped in an office for 8 hours a day, a significant chunk of that time would be wasted on irrelevant web searches and other distractions.”

“Remote working adds ownership to a company,” says Melissa Smith. “When people feel like they have a direct impact on what the company is providing they want to make a greater difference.” But Smith cautions using remote work as an incentive. “Remote work is not a perk and shouldn’t be used as such. You can have a flexible office, but not everyone is skilled to work remotely. Even worse, not all offices are prepared to handle the policies surrounding how a flexible or work at home office should function.” It all depends on your industry.

One of the clearest answers for why employee morale matters came from Emily LaRusch, CEO & founder of Back Office Betties, a virtual receptionist staffing company. LaRusch notes the added cost and lost time of remote training new staff:

“Most call centers have very high turnover rates. Our team members love the flexibility of working remotely so much that they stay with the company for a long time. Give people what they want. This trend is not going anywhere and all the ping pong tables and catered lunches you can throw at them won’t reduce the desire to work remotely. I had a scooter to cruise around the office on, popcorn and slushy machine at one job and the moment they gave me the token to work from home, I was out of there.”

And that loyalty saves a lot of money because training new remote workers can cost a lot.

Remote Work: Cost Saving Analysis

Cost, surprisingly, was one area where the experts disagreed. “Hiring remote employees can save money in office space, equipment, etc., particularly if you implement a BYOD (bring your own device) policy,” argues Clary. Hugo Lesser agrees, “Having a 100% remote team is highly cost effective due to saving on the overheads associated with having an office.”

However, some argue that while remote teams can save money, the saving benefits are conditional:

“In many cases it’s more cost effective to hire remote employees, but only if you don’t have an office space,” declares Melissa Smith. “Companies shouldn’t see hiring remote workers as a way to hire outside the US and pay lower wages. When you hire on a contract basis you’ll pay more upfront for quality work and less on the backend in employee benefits.”

Valerie Streif echoes this concern and keeps the focus on geography. “Depending on the industry and location, it can be way more cost effective to hire remote employees. Paying for office space in San Francisco will eat up a significant portion of a company’s budget.” But things change when it comes to hiring new remote workers.

“If anything, remote training is more expensive because it takes longer than in-person training” argues LaRusch. Jerry Nihen agrees, and cautions against hiring remote employees just to save a few bucks. “It can be more cost effective to hire remote employees, but if cost is the only reason you’re interested in doing remote work, remote work isn’t going to work for you.”

Like everything else in the corporate world, remote work comes with added benefits and hidden costs. Evaluate your situation carefully.

The Cons of Remote Work

Remote work isn’t all happy employees and fun Skype chats. There are a lot of obstacles and problems to tackle before you commit your company to remote employees. Take a look at what remote work really means, and establish a plan before you burn you sell all your IKEA desks on Ebay and burn your office to the ground.

Remote Work: Diversity & Communication

“A diverse remote workforce with different perceptions and fresh eyes can solve the problems you’re currently facing,” declares Smith. However, that diversity comes at a price.

“Remote work adds a nice balance of employees who may come from diverse backgrounds, or geographic parts of the world, but it can be difficult to bring everyone together,” warns Bob Clary, Marketing Director at Develop Intelligence. “ Communicating across the entire team at once is tough. You have to commit to technology to make it work.”

“The main challenges involved in managing a remote workforce are maintaining morale and a company culture despite being geographically dispersed. The solution is employing technology (e.g. Skype, Facetime and live chat groups) to keep communication lines open. Another good strategy is sharing and celebrating the company’s successes and asking for (and employing) ideas for innovations and improvements from the whole team.”
Hugo Lesser, Communications Director, BrightTax

“The biggest con is that it’s harder to build a cohesive company culture when some people are in the office and others are not.”
David Waring, CEO & co-founder, Fit Small Business

“The biggest con we face is IT support. Our virtual call center requires team members to have solid and strong internet connections. Helping team members troubleshoot problems takes more work than if everyone came to the office and worked off one connection. The plus side is we are a remote team spread across the US so if one area is affected by weather, it doesn’t shut down the entire company.”
Emily LaRusch, CEO & founder, Back Office Betties

“One thing a remote team lacks is the identity that comes with the ever-present ideals of company culture. Remote teams can somewhat identify with the outcome or product from a project or campaign that they have accomplished, but the work that goes into the finished product can feel somewhat anonymous when there isn’t a physical atmosphere in which to connect.”
Jake Tully, Creative Director, Truck Driving Jobs

“Remote teams can lack some cohesiveness. If there are updates or changes made, it can take a little while to make sure everyone is informed/up to date. Typically most people check their emails and phones often for notifications, but occasionally important messages can get lost due to the lack of face time. It also is made up of independent individuals, which can sometimes take a toll on the “teamwork” atmosphere that most companies strive to cultivate.”
Valerie Streif, Senior Advisor. Mentat

The Best Remote Work Software & Tools

We’ve written about our favorite remote work and collaboration tools before. Here’s a few more team management tools, platforms, and software our experts swear by:

Remote Employees: Client Transparency

One often overlooked aspect of remote work is client transparency. How much do your clients need to know about your remote staff? If you charge a premium, does a remote team affect your business model? When asked if you should tell your clients that you hire remote workers, the experts agree:

“If you have the right kind of clients, they’ll appreciate the diversity of thought and capability that a remote team can bring to the table.”
Bob Clary, Develop Intelligence

“We have thousands of clients in over 150 countries, and not one has ever inquired as to whether our employees work remotely or not. The important thing is to provide superlative service and exceed our clients’ expectations. Remote working is in no sense an impediment to this for us.”
Hugo Lesser, BrightTax

“Our clients understand that our staff is remote, but they also understand our focus is on them. Regardless of where we’re located, we are one united team determined to provide them the best quality service and product possible.”
Chris Maeda, CEO
Mail Monitor

Initially, I didn’t have the capital to start a brick and mortar business so I had to get creative. I was embarrassed when competitors warned prospective clients about “those other guys” who let their people work from home. After hearing this from yet another prospect, I grew angry and decided I would shout from the rooftops that this is who we are and part of what makes us great. We’re in great company with AmEx, JetBlue and Discover who all have remote call centers. I guarantee our competitors aren’t refusing to use their AmEx because they have remote employees. I’m surprised that in 2017 people still have a perception of people working from home means they are doing laundry and taking care of kids while they are working.
Emily LaRusch, Back Office Betties

“There is rarely a stigma in remote work. Most larger companies and C-suite level individuals have worked around remote workers for a while. This was one of the reasons it was such a shock to the remote community when Mayer pulled all the remote workers from Yahoo—it seemed like a step backwards.”
Jerry Nihen, Jay Nine, Inc.

Remote Work: Future or Fad?

Is remote work really the future of business, or is it just another “paperless office” pipe dream? Again, our experts agree:

“Outsourcing and remote work is the future. We’ve evolved from desktops to laptops to technology that allows anywhere to become the office. We’re not going back.”
Bob Clary, Develop Intelligence

“No question: Technologies like virtual reality are going to make it grow even faster.”
David Waring, Fit Small Business

“Remote work is definitely the future. I don’t know if we’ll ever get to a 100% remote world, but I think that soon it will be the norm rather than an exception. I recommend remote work to CEOs and managers, but with the caveat that it may not work for you or your team. Plan a transition period first. Really think about your company and culture before just going remote, and ensure you have proper systems/processes in place before doing so.”
Jerry Nihen, Jay Nine, Inc.

“Remote working and outsourcing is the future. It’s not a fad. However, the idea of it being one or the other is what companies are struggling with now. There are three scenarios, the traditional office, the flex office, and the remote office. A flex office and a remote office are not the same thing.”
Melissa Smith, The PVA

“Remote working and outsourcing are certainly not fads, but options made possible by the global proliferation of high speed internet. That said, they are not necessarily the future for all businesses. It depends on the business model, and whether remote working and outsourcing can allow the business to better achieve its objectives and meet its clients’ needs.”
Hugo Lesser, BrightTax

The Remote Work Revolution

Remote work saves money, boosts morale, gives you a competitive advantage, and ramps up productivity—if it’s right for your business. The widespread use of remote work tools and easy-to-use communication platforms means that remote work will continue to thrive. If we learned one thing from these CEOs and entrepreneurs, it’s this—remote work isn’t the future, it’s the present.

The post Ask An Expert: Pros & Cons Of Remote Work appeared first on IdeaRocket.

A New Kind Of Animated Explainer Video: Top Trends

Shawn Forno — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 07:00:00 +0000

Mashable’s new social media optimized “Reels” videos are changing the game, Disney is launching their own streaming online video platform soon, and Hyundai may have made the best brand building video in a hundred years (you’ll get that joke later). This week’s online video marketing roundup is a big one with tips and takeaways on the current state and the future of online video for animation and beyond.

Idea Blog Recap

Monday: Micro Video Content: The Future of Online Video

Tuesday: 5 Reasons Why Video is More Effective than Text

Wednesday: What Drives Viral Videos?

ICYMI: 10 Ways to Promote Your Video

Online Video

Shackleton’s Return (Hyundai)

If you’re unfamiliar with the exploits of Sir Ernest Shackleton, he attempted to be the first man to cross the Antarctic in 1916. His ship was trapped in ice, and he was unable to attempt the journey, but he did manage to get his crew home safely—no small feat for a stranded ship in Antarctic waters a century ago.

I was dubious about this video from Hyundai, celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the expedition with a drive across the continent lead by a descendant of Shackleton, but just a few seconds into the video, I was hooked. Yes, this is video marketing, and sure it’s an ad, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t one of the best brand building campaigns I’ve ever seen.

The power of a great online video to tell a memorable story, and build up a brand is incredible. This video shows off the versatility and durability of the Hyundai Santa Fe, it’s also a great advertisement for a car company. Full of emotion, aspiration, and vision—this ad leaves an impression.

8 Insights into Online Video

Allison Stern, Co-Founder of Tubular Insights moderated an Online Video panel at the YouTube space in LA a few weeks ago. Here are some of her takeaways for online video in 2017:

“Hands Beat Faces” — Online videos of just hands preparing food or a tutorial outperform the same videos featuring people’s faces.
“Live video is not a thing.”
Know your audience — “Create for your audience. That’s the secret. Never forget that who your audience is—their tastes, likes, shares, and views—will drive what you create.”
If you use celebrities, it’s all about behind the scenes video

Animated Video

Disney is Starting it’s Own Streaming Video Service

Disney pulled all of its animation from soon-to-be competitor Netflix in the opening bid for their own standalone streaming service. CEO Bob Iger told CNBC’s says that Disney has a “good relationship” with Netflix, but decided to exercise an option to move its content off the platform. Animated movies to be removed include Disney as well as Pixar’s titles, according to Iger. Netflix said Disney movies will be available through the end of 2018 on its platform.

Animating the “Science of Cute Rage”

Mashable’s new vertical style of online animated explainer videos—called “reels”—are changing the game. These short micro videos are geared toward social shares and away from traditionally hosted YouTube videos. We’ve seen a trend toward this vertical style format from Facebook, and wonder if this could signal a new aspect ratio trend toward vertical videos in online video formats.

These videos are perfectly optimized for social media and platforms like Facebook, thanks to the on-screen text and lack of voiceover. Will these “reels” be another fad, or are they the next big thing in online video?

Business Animation at IdeaRocket

The future of animation is a constantly moving target. Download our new e-book Succeeding With Animated Video to help make the perfect video for your business!

The post A New Kind Of Animated Explainer Video: Top Trends appeared first on IdeaRocket.

Tutorial: Creating Whiteboard Animation In After Effects

Shawn Forno — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 07:00:10 +0000

Whiteboard animation comes in all shapes and sizes, but there really is a difference between budget whiteboard animation effects and quality animation. The devil is in the details, and to demonstrate just a hint of the meticulous care that goes into smooth seamless whiteboard animation, we asked one of our top animators, Scott Strong to break down two fundamental whiteboard animation effects in Adobe After Effects.

In the video below Scott shows you:

How to create a mask effect to “reveal” whiteboard animation in After Effects
How to add and animate a hand to “draw” the revealed animation in After Effects

In the video, Scott walks you through the process step by step, including the tools he uses, how to sync up the keyframes for seamless animation, how to add a realistic drop shadow to your animated hand, and a few of his own personal tips and tricks to make the whole process as easy as possible. Scott really is an animation expert, and if you follow along you’ll have a great understanding of how to create professional level whiteboard animation using After Effects.

Whiteboard Animation In After Effects

Scott starts this project with a simple look at layers. Scott sets a standard 16:9 aspect ratio and 24 fps of this project to 1280 x 720 px.

He uses three layers to keep things simple—a white background, an illustration layer, and a layer of text. You can add as many layers as you need for the project, and still use the same techniques from the video.

How To Create A Whiteboard Mask Reveal In After Effects

Select the “Pen” tool
Isolate the layer you want to mask
Click on the start point of your mask and add anchor points around the shape in the order you want to reveal
Change the color of the mask (for better visibility)
Choose the “Effect” Menu
Select “Generate”
Choose “Stroke”
Increase the brush size until the mask covers up the artwork
Move any mask points to completely cover the image
Click the “Stopwatch icon” in the “start” layer
Hold “U” key to set the keyframes for this effect to the desired time (1 second in this video)
Change the value of “Start” to 100%

How To Create A Mask For A Layer Of Text In After Effects

The process is almost identical to masking an image with a few differences. When you create an animated reveal of text you have to account for the way that people write, i.e. the hand will move from left to right, top to bottom. That means you have to set your initial mask anchor point at the top left of the first letter being animated.

Select the “Pen” tool
Click on the start point of your mask and add anchor points around the word in the order you want to reveal them
Create an individual mask for each line of text (in this example, Scott creates two masks)
Change the color of the mask (for better visibility)
Choose Effect > Generate > Stroke
Increase the brush size until the mask covers up the artwork
Move any mask points to completely cover the image
In the “Stroke” menu click the box that says “All Masks” to apply the effect to both masks

To Mask Text Over an Image:

If you’re creating a mask on text over another image you have to take a few extra steps to create the reveal illusion.

Choose Effect > Paint Style > Reveal Original Image
Reduce the “End” value to 0%
Set a keyframe for “End”
Determine the timeframe of your animation (1 second in this example)

Whiteboard Animation In After Effects: Timing

The point of creating this reveal effect is to give the illusion that a hand is actually drawing this effect. To do that you have to smooth out the reveal and mask effects just a bit. A great way to achieve this is by delaying the animation effect on each layer by 4-6 frames. So in the example, Scott paces the initial animation on the first layer 6 frames after the video starts, and provides a 4 frame buffer before the second layer of text animation starts. Repeat as needed.

Pro Tip: Dragging your layers to the precise animation points streamlines your workflow and provides fewer frames for After Effects to calculate when you set your final render. Every time you apply an effect to a layer, you’re adding calculations. Keep your timeline tight and the render will be faster.

How To Add A Hand Effect To Whiteboard Animation In After Effects

It’s time to add the effect that practically defines whiteboard animation—the disembodied hand that “draws” the animation you just created. There are layers of complexity to this step in the animation process, and each one adds another bit of realism. Take your time and the end result will be seamless.

Add the video of the hand to your timeline. Scott uses a sample from the RSA.
Add a New Layer
Select “Null Object”
Place the Null where the “drawing” is actually happening, aka near the pen in the video sample
Make the “Hand” layer a child of the “Null” layer
Create Position on the Null layer
Create Rotation on the Null layer
Rotate the Hand 90°
Drag the hand off screen
Set the first keyframe at this off screen, rotated point
Sync the animation with the first layer (6 frames in this example)
Drag the Null back up into frame and rotate it to a natural angle
Arc the path of entry for the hand to make it look natural. Remember that real life moves in Arcs, not straight lines
Now, animate the hand — drag the hand layer to the animation points. Hold down Option+Command as you select the keyframe to use the angle tool as you work for better adjustments of the hand layer
At the end of the image, rotate the hand 90° and drag it off screen. Make sure to arc the path off screen and add an ease out effect to the final 4 frames.
End the animation with 4-6 frames of animation off screen

Whiteboard Animation in After Effects Pro Tips

Set an “ease in” at the beginning of the keyframe
Change the opacity on the Hand layer to 50% so you can better see the image it’s animating
Rotate the hand as you animate to create a more natural “drawing” motion
Select the last four keyframes (off screen animation) and “Hold” the animation to keep the image smooth

How to Create a Drop Shadow Layer in After Effects

How you create the shadow on your hand layer separates the quality whiteboard animation from the cheap stuff. It all depends how you establish the opacity, the distance from the object, and the rotation of a single off camera light source.

Duplicate the Hand layer (Hide the original layer)
Choose Effect > Perspective > Drop Shadow
Click the “Shadow Only” box
Reset the LAYER opacity to 100% (in the timeline)
Change the EFFECT opacity of the drop shadow layer to 35%
Increase the “Softness” to about 35
Turn on the original Hand layer to check the Shadow layer against it
Increase the distance to the desired length (44 in this example)

You can leave the drop shadow effect here, but it runs the risk of looking a little artificial. The shadow won’t change with the rotation of the hand, and it looks uniform to the surface of the whiteboard, instead of graded in accordance with what an actual hand and arm would like on a real whiteboard. Remember that the pen and the hand would be closer to the whiteboard than the forearm. If that realism matters, here’s how you fix the shadow effect.

How to Add a Realistic Shadow Layer in After Effects

Select “Distort” in the Effect menu, and choose “Transform”
Align the Transform effect anchor point and position to the original Null layer point
Set the “Skew Axis” to 90°
Push the Skew over until the shadow looks natural, or adjust the Drop Shadow effect distance
Select the Copy of the Hand layer and click on Effects > Transform
Hold Option and select Rotation
Select the pic whip and slave it to the rotation of the Null layer
Type “*-1+value” to the expression. This will negative out the rotation on the shadow layer and keep it centered on that single Null point

If you do all that, the end result will look like the hand is closer to the whiteboard than the arm. It’s a subtle difference, but that’s what high quality production means—a bunch of little details that add up to seamless, realistic animation.

How To Make Whiteboard Animation In After Effects

Attention to detail is the main difference between cookie cutter whiteboard animation, and top quality videos that set your brand apart. Take the time to make every layer of your animation the best it can be and you’ll see the results in the finished product—and so will your viewers.

The post Tutorial: Creating Whiteboard Animation In After Effects appeared first on IdeaRocket.

Shawn Forno, Author at IdeaRocket

Case Study: Santa Monica City Explains It ‘Like A Kid’

Explain It To Me Like I’m a Kid

Picking a Winning Design

Re-learning Animation

Clarity and Simplicity Guides Animation

Explaining Complicated Topics

11 Easy Ways To Optimize Your Mobile Video

Mobile Video for B2B

1. Keep it Short: 120 Seconds or Less

2. Narrow Your Focus

3. Create Better Video Thumbnails

4. Hook Viewers in the First 3 Seconds

5. Optimize Mobile Video for Audio Independence

6. Add Some Text

7. Establish Visual Hierarchy

8. Use the Right Aspect Ratios

9. Use Quick Cuts to Keep Things Interesting

10. Choose Unexpected Angles

11. Ask for What You Want

Mobile Video: The Future is Now

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Choosing An Animation Studio: Portfolio Assessment Tool

Choose An Animation Studio: The Script

Choose An Animation Studio: Design

Choose An Animation Studio: Movement & Motion

Choose An Animation Studio: Voiceover

Choose An Animation Studio: Music & Sound Mix

Choose An Animation Studio: Years of Experience

How To Choose An Animation Studio

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6 Video Metrics That Actually Measure Results

Video Metrics & Marketing Objectives

1:Video play rate = Relevance

2: Video Heatmaps: A Different Kind Of Video Metric

3: Viewer Engagement

Domain & Website Video Metrics

4: Bounce Rate Metrics

5: Social Shares

6: Conversions

Video Metrics That Matter

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Professional Animation Tips: Articulation & Key Frames

What Is Animation?

Professional Animation Hack: Smears

Articulation: More Key Frames = Smoother Animation

High Articulation Professional Animation: Disney Films

Average Articulation Professional Animation: TV Cartoons

Low Articulation Professional Animation: Anime

High Articulation Anime: Studio Ghibli

Professional Animation: Articulation and Key Frames

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15 Video Transitions For Animation (And Why They Matter)

15 Types Of Video Transitions And Why They Matter

Diegetic Transition: Moving Objects in Frame

Diegetic Transition: Pair with Sound Effects

Video Transitions: Cut

Video Transitions: Jump Cut

Video Transition: Dissolve & Crossfade

Video Transitions: Fade

Video Transitions: Wipe

Matching Scene Transitions

Video Transitions: Matching Shot Pivot

Video Transitions: Star Wipes

No Transition at All: Steady Shots and Unique Film Transitions

Video Transitions Guide and Best Practices

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5 Interesting Ways To Use Landing Page Video

Best Landing Page Video: About Me Video

Best Landing Page Video: How-To Video

Best Landing Page Video: Individual Product Features

Landing Page Video: Seasonal Campaigns

Landing Page Video: Education

Landing Page Video Best Practices

Design the Landing Page First

Keep it Above the Fold

Keep it Short and Sweet

CTA, CTA, CTA

Best Landing Page Video

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