Archives For How To (Video Production)

powtoon0

You Can Make Fun Explainer Videos With PowToon

Ricardo —  September 24, 2012

Video explainers are on the rise, and they are fast becoming a corporate favourite instead of the “old” Powerpoint presentations.

And besides marketplaces like Wooshii where you can have one custom made for you, there are now appearing tools that allow you to do explainer videos. Enter PowToon.

PowToon is a brand new presentation software that allows just about anyone to create awesome presentations and animated product demo videos containing the WOW!-Factor.

Making your own presentoon is intuitive and drag-and-drop simple. PowToon’s awesome animation effects, vibrant designs and creative styles give your presentoon a professional look-and-feel.

(4 hours using PowToon can achieve the result of 4 days of professional Flash animator work)

That is the official description but better yet than that, you knowyou want to see a video about it! Check it out:

Isn’t that cool?

We spoke to Daniel Zaturansky, co-founder & COO of PowToon last week about the genesis of the idea and the business. Being an entrepeneur, he always had to make pitch presentations about new ideas, but they always felt a bit stale. What if they were animated and looked more cool? One of the next thoughts was what if there would a be a tool to make such presentations that anyone could use?

He and his partner than had a video made about what PowToon would be like even before creating the service, and it had such great reception that they knew they had to build it.

After much work, PowToon was born and opened to the public this past August.

So how does it work?

You sign-up first of all, and then get to choose the style of you video/presentation, and then several templates to choose from.

Next up, you are on the main center of creation of your video, and now the fun begins.

You can drag and drop backgrounds, characters, text, and many more elements, and animate them along the screen.

Here’s how it works, on video:

It’s pretty simple and within a few minutes you should be able to get started doing a cool video presentatioin.

Now are there limitations? Of course there are. That’s why they are constantly working on the product and have recently alpha launched a marketplace, where anyone look up for a Pro to make their video on PowToon, or get a voice over, and so on.

Wooshii members who are looking for more freelance work could also check this new section out, benefitting from the potential of PowToon users that are looking to get their work professionally done.

Bottom line is, PowToon is a great service to make quick, fast, video explainers and something you should give a try.

Of course there are people that would rather just have custom made professional explainers, and to those – you can get your project live on Wooshii and in front of professionals from all around the worl in a few minutes time. Get started right now!

In Buyer, Creative, How To (Video Production), Online Video Advertising, Tips n Tricks, Video & Rich Media, Video Marketing , , ,
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html5_logo2

How to Make HTML5 Video

Ricardo —  September 21, 2012

HTML5 Video is promising and something that many say will be the future of online video, but there is still plenty of confusion around it, mainly to do with support from browsers, what codecs to use etc.

You can find some good resources right here on the Wooshii blog, and today we’ll add up to those by bringing you a presentation of by encoding expert Jan Ozer talk about it, as part of Streaming Media East.

Bottom line, you can’t use just one codec if you want to have complete penetration over all HTML5-compatible browsers, and that is something that won’t help make HTML5 the standard faster.

But watch Jan Ozer explain it much better! (you can also get the .pdf presentation right here)

In Buyer, How To (Video Production), Tips n Tricks, Video & Rich Media, Video Marketing , , , ,
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timelapse5

How To Make A Time-lapse Video

Ricardo —  September 5, 2012 — Leave a comment

Ever seen one of those beautiful time-lapse videos? Sure you did!

Here’s a recent one, from the city of Los Angeles:

So you’ve seen those and you always wanted to do one yourself but didn’t know how…

SOME BASICS

Like stop-motion animation, a time-lapse video involves taking one picture at a time and then combining them together to give out the ilusion of movement.

But unlike stop-motion animation, in a time-lapse video a time interval is involved: that is, you take photos every few seconds, minutes, or hours, depending on what you want to achieve or the subject matter of your video.

KEY TIPS

Some absolute key tips are:

  • First things first: Get yourself a camera – any camera will do, even smartphone ones
  • Keep it steady – you don’t want different angles or differences of perspective in your shots, will give the video unwanted movement
  • Make the auto-focus and exposure manual if that’s possible – again, differences in between shots would give it some weird movement
  • Experiment – try different intervals for one specific subject, see how the movement behaves
  • Have fun!

AND NOW, A VIDEO

Finally let’s wrap it up by watching a video on time-lapse and how to do it:

Now, get started making that time-lapse video ;)

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music

Where To Get Free Music For Your Videos

Ricardo —  August 28, 2012 — 1 Comment

Music is a very important part of many videos, so knowing where to get it – for free – is an essential task for any videomaker out there.

Here are 5 good resources to bookmark where you can get royalty free music:

http://freemusicarchive.org/

The Free Music Archive is an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads. It is directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America. “Radio has always offered the public free access to new music. The Free Music Archive is a continuation of that purpose, designed for the age of the internet.”

http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/

From African to Silent Film and Reggae, this site has plenty of great music that you can use on your videos, and it’s one of our favourite spots!

http://www.freesound.org/

Freesound aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps, … released under Creative Commons licenses that allow their reuse.

http://musopen.org/

Musopen is a non-profit focused on improving access and exposure to music by creating free resources and educational materials, providing recordings, sheet music, and textbooks to the public for free, without copyright restrictions.

http://publicdomain4u.com/

This onecontains recordings of songs that were published prior to 1922 and are now in the public domain which means the public is free to copy and use the works in any way, so a bit different from the previous links.

And there you have it, we these five resources you should be able to find the right track for your video.

What about you, do you have a favourite site to get your music for free?

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5things

5 Tips To Set Your Message Free Using Video

Ricardo —  August 22, 2012 — Leave a comment

This is a great video from Wooshii member Jim Herkert, a whiteboard animation that lays out the 5 things that may be holding your message back from reaching your audience.

Check it out:

So to recap:

  • Too many messages trapped in a medium difficult for people to consume are a don’t;
  • Don’t noose your video in a 30 to 90 second snippet with a blatant marketing message;
  • Don’t give people a format that is hard for people to process (too many stats, for example)
  • Beware of video production companies that don’t deliver
  • Video analytics are important.

    • -
    The tips are great, and moreso the whiteboard drawing and animation looks great! Nice job Jim :)

    In Buyer, How To (Video Production), Online Video Advertising, Tips n Tricks, Video Marketing , , , , , , , , ,
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    9tools

    9 Tools To Easily Create A Video And Animation

    Ricardo —  July 9, 2012 — 3 Comments

    For the past few years, Youtube has been adding tools to help people create videos as easily as possible, and also make their videos as good as they can get. No wonder 72 hours worth of footage are now being uploaded to Youtube single minute!

    And while a few years ago you had to download a bunch of software to use all of these, nowadays many of these tools live in the web and your browser, you don’t have to download anything to use them.

    In this blog post, we will take a look at some of Youtube’s Create tools that will allow you to edit your videos and even create animations in a few minutes time. Here we go:

    YouTube Video Editor

    We will start with Youtube’s own Video Editor. It’s been in development for some time and has had some new features, and besides being available here it’s also there when you click Edit on your videos, in the Video Manager on your account.

    The YouTube Video editor lets you make quick edits to your uploaded YouTube videos. You can combine multiple clips, incorporate Creative Commons footage, enhance your clips with effects, and more

    WeVideo

    WeVideo is a cloud-based video editing platform. Edit movies in your browser, with media files from any device. Combine clips with music, effects, titles, transitions, animation and more! With WeVideo, you can invite friends to co-create your story. Share movies on Social Media with one click.

    We have another post coming soon about WeVideo, but in the meantime see what it can do on Youtube:

    One True Media video creation and editing

    This is another good video editor:

    One True Media, simply powerful video creation. Robust, fast and easy video editing with real-time preview. Clip video and combine it with photos, transitions, effects, text, music and more. Edit as little or as much as you want.

    GoAnimate

    Now so far it’s been mostly video editing. But there are tools too that let you create animations very quickly, with your text and all. Granted you’ll not get a Pixar movie out of it, but you get the point, it let’s you very easily and fast create an animation.

    GoAnimate is a fun app that lets you make animated videos, for free, in just 10 minutes, without having to draw. You can even create your own cast of characters. There are millions of people using GoAnimate. Try it out now

    Stupeflix Video Maker

    Tell a story with your digital content. Mix photos, videos, maps, text, music and watch Stupeflix produce a stunning video in a few seconds. It’s easy and free to try: we give you a FREE HD 720p video when you sign up!

    Xtranormal Movie Maker

    Another one for making animations, a CG look this time and with some nice features like getting to choose the angle of the shot, and more.

    Xtranormal lets you to turn anything you type into a fully-animated CG movie. Set up your scene, type in your script, and animate it instantly. Easily share something funny with friends, or create the next viral sensation. If you can type, you can make YouTube movies!

    Vibop

    Vibop makes your videos shine with just a few clicks. Add an animated intro, a vintage filter, a cartoon look, a silent movie theme, and dozens of other effects. Brighten dark images and fix a shaky camera. Fun, fast, and easy, Vibop will take your memories to the next level!

    Magisto – Video Editing In a Click!

    We’ve blogged about this one before and it seems to come straight out of magic!

    Magisto will analyze and understand your video, select the best parts and make it look amazing on YouTube!

    Vlix – video effects and text

    Create great videos by applying video effects and adding text. Select from a variety of effects – fix effects, time altering effects, artistic effects and fun video borders. Add opening and closing text. It’s easy and completely free.

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    And there you have it, no excuse whatsoever to make your own videos or animation!

    Have you tried any of these? Which one is your favourite?

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    videoeditingbasics

    Video Editing Basics

    Ricardo —  May 28, 2012 — Leave a comment

    Editing your video can be one of the most fun and at the same time challenging parts of making your video.

    To ease it up, we’ve got this great tutorial from the always entertaining Vimeo Video School, to give us a good overview of some video editing basics.

    Check it out:

    To recap:

  • Get it from your camera to the computer
  • Organize it
  • Back it up
  • Get yourself video editing software you are comfortable with
  • Lear the general editing program layout
  • Get started on the video editing software
  • SAVE frequently
  • Trimm clips
  • Use transitions
  • Text
  • The importance of sound
  • Export you video

    • At this point, you should have your finished edited video!

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    12principles

    What Are The 12 Principles Of Animation?

    Ricardo —  May 16, 2012 — 9 Comments

    Today we thought we’d go over some classic animation stuff, the almighty 12 Principles of Animation.

    These were introduced by veteran Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas as part of the in their 1981 book “The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation”, which has since become a bible of animation.

    Johnston and Thomas in turn based their book on the work of the leading Disney animators from the 1930s onwards, and their effort to produce more realistic animations. The main purpose of the principles was to produce an illusion of characters adhering to the basic laws of physics, but they also dealt with more abstract issues, such as emotional timing and character appeal.

    After you read through them you’ll see they are present in every major animation film you’ve seen, and they continue to be applied and be very influential to this day.

    So what are they?

  • Squash and stretch

    • This one is deemed as the most important principle, the purpose of which is to give a sense of weight and flexibility to drawn objects.

  • Anticipation

    • Used to prepare the audience for an action, and to make the action appear more realistic

  • Staging

    • “The presentation of any idea so that it is completely and unmistakably clear”, whether that idea is an action, a personality, an expression or a mood.

  • Straight ahead action and pose to pose

    • These both represent different techniques of animating: while “straight ahead action”, more fluid and dynamic illusion of movement, means drawing out a scene frame by frame from beginning to end; “pose to pose” involves starting with drawing a few key frames, and then filling in the intervals later.

  • Follow through and overlapping action

    • These are related to realistically movement and making sure a character follows the laws of physics. “Follow through” means that separate parts of a body will continue moving after the character has stopped. “Overlapping action” is the tendency for parts of the body to move at different rates.

  • Slow in and slow out

    • This principle states that animation looks more realistic if it has more drawings near the beginning and end of an action, emphasizing the extreme poses, and fewer in the middle.

  • Arcs

    • Most natural action tends to follow an arched trajectory, and animation should adhere to this principle by following implied “arcs” for greater realism.

  • Secondary action

    • Adding secondary actions to the main action gives a scene more life, and can help to support the main action.

  • Timing

    • Timing refers to the number of drawings or frames for a given action, which translates to the speed of the action on film.

  • Exaggeration

    • Exaggeration is an effect especially useful for animation, as perfect imitation of reality can look static and dull in cartoons.

  • Solid drawing

    • The principle of solid drawing means taking into account forms in three-dimensional space, giving them volume and weight.

  • Appeal

    • Appeal in a cartoon character corresponds to what would be called charisma in an actor.

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    To recap, here’s another good video examples of all 12 principles as numbers:

    So, what are for you the most important principles of them all?

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    eyeballs3

    Getting Your Videos Seen

    Ricardo —  May 9, 2012 — 2 Comments

    Getting your videos seen is probably one of the most asked questions amongst creatives getting started in the online video industry. “How can I get more views?”, “How can I get more people seeing my videos?”

    While there isn’t a instant magical answer to that, there are plenty of ways you can get your videos seen and start building a community around them, either while making them or marketing them. Here are a few:

    1 – Make a good video. We cannot emphasize this enough! It is key to getting your video seen. If you make a good video, you can then can direct people to it and they will see it and maybe pass it on to other people. If the video isn’t good, then it’s all going wrong from the beggining in getting your video seen.

    2 – Grab your audience in the first seconds. The attention graph in most videos goes immediatly downwards in the first few seconds. If you can’t grab their attention by then, then chances are they’re not seeing more of your video.

    3 – Choose a good thumbnail. Many times thumbnails are the first thing people see about your video, so you should have an attention grabbing one (but not as attention grabbing to not represent the nature of the video).

    4 - Get the title right. As with the thumbnail, titles are one of the first things people see, and they’ll also have to be attention grabbing but not as far as not representing what the video is all about.

    5 – Be topical. This may or may not suit your type of videos, but people search a lot for topical content and want to see topical content. It connects them to what is happening. If you make a video that is topical, than the chances of it beeing seen and discovered and higher.

    6 – Find your audience. Find sites and blogs that are similar in theme and tone of your video and drop them a line letting them know of your video. If your audience is there, this might be a first step to getting them to your site or Youtube channel.

    7 – Use social discovery channels. Many people get their content from such sites as Digg (not so much these days), Buzzfeed and the like. Submit them there and interact.

    8 – Use multiple video services. Sure Youtube is the top dog in the field, but what if you distribute your video through Metacafe or Dailymotion or the like and find your audience there? If you want to build your audience it doesn’t matter where you find them. In the end, you can always redirect them to your site or even Youtube for that matter, if you’re really adamant about it.

    8 – Be regular. While building an audience, if people know when to expect a new video, they will come. It can be one video a week, two, one every two weeks, however you can. But be regular with it and let your audience know when to expect it.

    9 – Be persistent. It takes a lot of effort to keep trying even if views aren’t that good, but with time, it will pay off. Soon you’ll have a library of videos and a portolio that will allow people to explore deeper into work, and allow different points of entry to it.

    And there you have it. Hope those tips help!

    If you have others that helped you getting your videos seen, please let us know in the comments.

    In Creative, Featured Posts, How To (Video Production), Tips n Tricks, Video & Rich Media, Video Marketing , , , ,
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    greyscaleg1

    How To Make An Animated Title Sequence

    Ricardo —  January 25, 2012 — Leave a comment

    We LOVE title sequences sequences here at Wooshii. So it was great to find this gem from the Vimeo Video School: they got the always awesome Nick Campbell (Greyscalegorilla) to do video on how to do an animated title sequence, using Cinema 4D and Adobe After Effects. It is great stuff.

    Here’s the finished piece:

    And now how to actually do it, Part I, beginning in Cinema 4D:

    And Part 2, where he puts it all together with After Effects:

    Still here? Good, now go make your masterpiece animated titles!

    In Creative, How To (Video Production), Tips n Tricks, Video & Rich Media, Video Marketing , , , ,
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