Despite the trends that come and go, it’s clear that we will continue to need engaging content that allows us to communicate with our audience and generate on-page visits and leads. Animated videos will be an essential part of any communication or marketing strategy.
The process of making Interesting Animated Videos
There are many purposes we can cover with animated videos. We can highlight its use for:
- Describe or promote a business, service, product, or application.
- Dissemination of relevant information: about the company’s activities over the past year, explaining its business model, goals, achievements over the past year, etc.
Different professional profiles within the agency and, possibly, external collaborators (producers, editors, illustrators, broadcasters, and animators) were involved in preparing these works. So, it is essential to have a working methodology that engages this profile and facilitates your work and iterations with clients. Today, we will tell you how we do it, and we’ll see how to tackle these projects step by step and chronologically.
1. Collection requirements
Usually, a client contacts Kita because they have special communication needs and need a possible animated video clip. As in all projects, our first goal is to gather as much information as possible regarding the work we are about to do. We ask about several aspects:
- Goals to be achieved.
- Our target audience.
- Broadcast channel.
- Required formats.
- If it’s a video for a web page, social network, a project at an event, etc.
It is also essential to know the main idea or message you want to convey to the audience and if there is an illustrative style or branding that we should consider.
2. Make a proposal
In our technical proposal for creating animated videos, we expose issues such as duration, the scope of content copy, script and narration, illustrative style to be used, and branding conditions.
Decide whether to be complex or straightforward about the type of animation. It can be text animations, characters, and icons, including library music, sound effects, speech, and anything else we deem relevant to define the work and its characteristics.
In addition, we create a schedule with different tasks, achievements, and results, where we explicitly state the need for client availability for validation, allowing us to move forward in the project. With all this information, we prepare a budget.
3. Script
The script should reflect all aspects of the story we want to tell in the video, describe what will happen in each scene, and make a detailed and detailed description of what we will see on screen, text, characters, etc., contains annotations for producers, writers, illustrators, and animators.
In addition, this is the first document that will help us interact with the client. It would help if you got a very rough idea of the final result by reading it. This is a document that the client must validate in its final version.
4. Narrative
While not all animated videos require it, having an introductory narration will greatly add value to the project. From the approved manuscript, the copywriter or editor will prepare the text that will serve the broadcaster to narrate the story. This document should indicate the tone to be used, and be careful not to use idiomatic variants, jargon, or expressions that could lead to misinterpretation.
In addition, if it contains words in another language, the correct pronunciation must be indicated. No elocutionary recording is performed without the client’s consent to this text.
We must bear in mind that some users may have problems with accessibility to sound content, either because they do not have speakers or because they have hearing problems. We can improve this user experience significantly by displaying the narration on the screen in subtitle mode.
5. Language Style
The manuscript will indicate a preference for hiring the most suitable broadcaster and an indication of the tone to be used (cheerful, mature, suggestive) that best suits the nature of the project, theme or intended audience.
Another important issue we should consider before recruiting voice talent is language variance. British Britons are not the same as Americans, nor are Spaniards from Spain or Latin America.
While online platforms have access to many professional voices, we have to do the casting and involve the client in the final decision to make the right decision. Among the qualities we should value in a publisher are:
- Sound management.
- Time management and silence.
- Has a suggestive voice.
- Make clear diction.
- Have acting skills.
Finally, it’s essential to highlight the importance of quality, professional footage because poor footage can ruin a project.
6. Storyboards
If we go back to the script, we find that we already have a different story, sequence, narrative, and indication of production. All of this will help graphic artists design illustrations and structure scenes based on text or graphic elements, relying on a timeline that will mark the length of the video.
In addition, you will have instructions that will help you develop the most appropriate illustration style, as well as observations regarding the use of colors, fonts, logos, and other issues related to the client’s company brand or the nature of the project.
This document, usually created in a vector design program such as Adobe Illustrator, will be used by the animator to do the work. It’s important to validate the storyboard with the client before proceeding with the animation task. Once validated, the work does not end here. Graphic files should be prepared so that they are accessible for the animator to handle. In this task, having a vector design will be very important to achieve optimal results.
7. Animation
Animators receive storyboards, treated files, and voiceovers. His job is to get things together, provide harmony and play the tempo of the narrative. This comprehensive job requires a lot of experience and knowledge in the advanced use of vector animation programs. Animators will bring characters and sequences to life to achieve stunning results.
8. Post Production Audio
Once the animation is complete, we can finish the job by adding music and sound effects to the project to optimize the final result. While custom music can be created, choosing the most suitable audio file is the most mundane. We can also add emphasis to our transitions by adding sound effects, and the end result will be a perfect video if we do it right.
9. Final delivery
Finally, we will send the video, generally in MP4-HD format or which we have agreed in advance with the client. We must remember that the most appropriate format will be given by using videos on different channels, and videos for YouTube are not the same as for Instagram.
10. Changes to the last video
This is a tricky issue because changes in the final version can involve additional costs in production. Thus, avoiding final changes will result in cost overruns and delays in the project. The goal of all previous work will be to skip this step.
After telling you the ten steps that we consider essential to the creative process of an animated video, are you ready to launch the project? Are you clear about the steps, but do you need help during the process? Let us know your ideas.