Every studio approaches animated video production differently. Some swear by animatics, others prefer storyboards. Some take weeks scripting and developing a concept, others dive into production. We’re all unique snowflakes.
But the top studios and artists consistently create great animation day in and day out.
So what’s their secret?
I asked eight leading animators to share the most important step in...
I’ve written every day for years. But that doesn’t make it any easier to come up with new story ideas or blog post topics on a daily basis. Writing a video script is hard. Creativity is the enemy. You need to limit yourself with boundaries and rules. That’s right – rules. Set limits. Fence in your imagination. Commit to a single format. It sounds counterintuitive, but your video script needs more structure than a word-count or run-time. A writer’s mind is a hot ball of unfocused...
Animation is on Google’s mind – or their homepage to be exact – and it’s an animation first.
June 9s animated Google Doodle is the first time that a student-created piece has been animated for the homepage.
The Doodle is the winning entrant for Google’s 7th annual Doodle 4 Google – a K-12 competition where young artists from all 50 states doodle it out at the Googleplex as they compete for a $30,000 scholarship.
Roughly half (42%) of viral video shares happen within the first week of publication. In 2012, Unruly Media studied the 200 most shared videos and found that “peak social shares” – roughly 10% of the total – happen on day two, and that 25% of shares happen within the first three days. Just look at that spike. Wow. But this article isn’t about that impressive spike. That spike isn’t even very important. No, this article is about the little blue line that trickles off the...
People want to know more about the world. It’s written in our name – Homo sapien literally means “wise man,” from the latin word “sapere” meaning “to taste, have taste, be wise.” Our very nature is tethered to our ability to perceive and discern truth through experiences – both real and narrative. And it’s the power of narrative experiences – our stories – that is capturing the attention of linguists, psychologists, and historians alike as they search for the answer to...
Relax, I don’t mean “phony” – far from it. This post is about honesty. I promise.
Remember that awesome (yes it was awesome) TV show from the late 90s The Pretender? If you don’t here’s a quick recap:
The hero, a child prodigy named “Jarod,” bounces from job to job flawlessly impersonating surgeons, lawyers, fireman, etc. while he runs from the evil thought collective “The Centre.” Riveted? Obviously. It’s like white...
As online video continues to develop, video email marketing is revealing itself as a fast growing tool for marketers. More recipients than ever before are now able to quickly view video. There are 3 common email video marketing practices currently in use. 1. Static Image Hyperlink. The most widely used practice. This is done by attaching a hyperlink to a static image within the body of an email. Usually, these static images contain a “play” button to let the viewer know where to...
As you’re probably well aware, Vine is a new mobile application that enables user generated 6-second video content that can be instantly shared on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. We previously took a look at a few great examples of the format here, through a contest held by this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. Marketers have also sought to utilize the creative potential of this app to communicate their brands through video. While the benefit of the format is...
“How long should our video be?” This is a question that comes up early with nearly every one of our clients. The answer depends on a number of factors: 1) Shorter is Better. Research by Visible Measures indicates that viewership falls at a steady rate as a video progresses, with 20% of viewers dropping out within the first ten seconds. If you want viewers to see your whole video, keep it short.
2) Viewers look at time left. The video-hosting firm...Joining a band was once the holy grail of coolness. In a time when “seed funding” only referred to money set aside for growing weed, young people convened in garages and basements to bend out-of-tune guitar strings and hope for the day a cigar-smoking record executive would hand them a jumbo jet on which to tour the world and abuse groupies. Nowadays, the institution of ultimate hipness is the social media startup. The out-of-tune guitar is now a four-year-old MacBook Pro....
