Whiteboard animation is one of the best ways to educate your target audience or introduce them to new products.
Psychologist Richard Wiseman and his team found people who watched a whiteboard animation—animations where images are drawn from scratch on a virtual whiteboard—could recall 15% more information than people who watched a “talking head” video footage.
This result can mean a higher likelihood of viewers purchasing a product they saw on one of your videos some days ago or simply recalling the brand when discussing the video’s content with a friend.
You can create an engaging whiteboard animation video regardless of your animation knowledge in 7 steps.
1. Define your video’s intent
Defining your whiteboard animation video’s intent allows your team to align each step of the production process with a given goal. Whether to educate your target audience or to present a new product, the intent is a north star.
You can define your video’s intent by gathering the video’s stakeholders—videographers, animators, voiceover actors, managers—and determining the goal that would serve the company the most.
For example, sales might be the video’s intent for a new startup. But for a corporation, it might be to teach their audience about an industry trend. So choose yours based on your needs.
2. Write a script
A script covers your whiteboard animation video’s lines, the person who’ll speak them, and a description of what should be happening on-screen at every moment. If you animate without a script, you risk ending up with a disorganized video that doesn’t accomplish your intent.
The first step to create a script is to brainstorm your story’s structure. You can then describe the events that’ll take place and the characters involved. These two steps are your foundation.
From there, write the lines your character will say during these events alongside a rough visual description of what’ll happen. For example, if your line is about how your character works 24/7, you could add a note that says: “include a sun that goes from left to right.”
3. Design a storyboard
A storyboard is a format that mixes your script and your line’s visual representation, thus showing how your whiteboard animation will look.
Teams can use storyboards to ensure the project’s visuals match both the script and the intent instead of animating a project that doesn’t benefit the brand.
You can draw your storyboard on a piece of paper, whiteboard, or an animation tool like Vyond. Regardless of the medium, storyboards are static sketches of what’ll happen. So draw the only main activity of every scene into the storyboard’s squares instead of squishing in every detail.
Once you draw on every square, include the scene’s corresponding script lines so your team can verify if the story is cohesive. Or, in some cases, check if it’s missing a scene, prop, or character to make sense.
4. Pick a font that suits your brand
Viewers associate your font with your brand, just like they associate your logo, brand colors, and visual style. Therefore, it’s crucial to pick a font that suits the tone and style you want to convey.
For example, a brand animating for c-suite viewers might use serif types—those with a decorative stroke at the tip of the letters—to communicate formality and confidence. Meanwhile, a brand wanting to look friendly may go with a sans serif font—those without a stroke at the end of the letters.
You can use font sites like Google Fonts or DaFont to pick a legible font that suits your brand. You can then import these fonts into Vyond Studio and even make them move to maintain the viewer’s attention.
5. Create your characters and scenes
Now that your team validated the project’s trajectory, it’s time to recreate your storyboard’s idea in your animation tool.
First, create the characters that will say your script’s lines. You can base these characters on individuals or create identities from scratch. For example, you can use Vyond to create characters of any age group and then choose from more than 300 garments to create the voice actor’s outfit.
The next step is to add props that match your storyboard’s description of the background or stage. So if, for instance, your character is a banker, add bank-related props from our prop or Common Craft library: exchange rate boards, a safe, or a vault.
Vyond users can follow Rued’s video above to learn how to create scenes and characters from scratch.
6. Record a clear voiceover
A professional script and animated whiteboard video aren’t enough to achieve your project’s intent if the viewer can’t understand your voice artists’ lines. So it’s essential to record a clear voiceover.
Your project’s budget plays a vital role in how you record. For example, a team with a large budget can rent a sound-treated studio to guarantee the highest audio quality possible. On the other hand, teams with a small budget will spend a significant amount of time finding a room with perfect conditions, adjusting the audio recording settings, and ensuring proper mic placement.
Once you organize your recording space, it’s time to record. Using a smartphone, microphone, or audio recorder, let your voice artist read the lines in the tone and style you want. You can then export the audio files and upload them to your whiteboard animation software.
In Vyond Studio, you can drag and drop the audio files to your library. You can then assign voice lines to your characters so their mouths mimic your voice artist’s voice.
7. Add visual effects to stand out
Visual effects allow your work to stand out among competitors that also use whiteboard animation. In addition, these effects make your work recognizable, increasing the likelihood of a viewer remembering your brand and what you offer.
Typically, whiteboard animations are black and white. Therefore, you can use an animation tool like Vyond to change the color of some props and scenarios that appear in your video. And finally, stand out visually.
Create your first whiteboard animation video with Vyond
Vyond Studio offers dozens of props and characters you can use for your upcoming whiteboard animation video. Because of our intuitive interface and templates, anyone can start animating their storyboard’s idea without previous animation experience.
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