Even if you don’t have a basic understanding of vector style animation, this is the vector animation article of your dreams.
We’ll break it down for you and explain exactly what it is and how it’s busy impacting the current digital industry.
These days, interesting visuals are key in any type of meaningful content. Motion visuals have taken over the digital industry and are more impactful than static images.
Whether it be 3D animation, live action video, hand drawn animation or vector (illustration) style animation, the average web user prefers to watch something interesting/entertaining than to read an article. This doesn’t just stem from the fact that most web users are using the web to research something and expand their knowledge as fast as they can, researchers have proven that web users also now have the attention span of goldfish.
A very interesting trend that has come about in the past few years is the use of vector style animation explainer videos.
What is a vector?
A vector can be explained in many ways, but the easiest definition would be: A simplistic digital image that has the capability to scale up or down without losing any resolution or showing any signs of pixilation.
Logo designs for instance are created in vector form in the beginning, simply because a logo needs to be dynamic enough to be scaled, recoloured, overlaid and placed anywhere it needs to be.
Artists can use vector images in all sorts of creative ways, from creating highly detailed illustrations to simple flat styled icons to dynamic motion visuals. Pretty cool, right?
How vectors are used in the animation industry
The emergence of the explainer video, further broken down into “Vector Styled Explainer Video” or “Animated Explainer Video” has had a huge impact on the digital marketing industry over that last few years.
These are friendly faced, colourful productions which catch the viewers’ attention. They are informative, humorous and detailed enough to give the viewer a basic breakdown of one’s service offering.
They highlight potential problems that the viewer might face before continuing on to provide them with a solution, followed by a swift call to action which guides the viewer on their potential next step when considering using such services.
To give you a better understanding of this concept, let’s break down the “Gigtown explainer video” as an example:
Within the first 25 seconds of the video, the possible problems that potential users face are highlighted.
After that, there is a calm introduction to the solution, building up to the actual product reveal at the 45 second mark.
The rest of the video is an explosion of wonderful visuals focusing on the features that the product offers.
The last 20 seconds of the video focuses on how the user can start using “Gigtown” followed by subtle call to actions which are simple for the user to understand and execute.
Take aways from this execution.
The use of humanoid characters makes the production relatable to its viewers. This can be described as adding the “human element” to the production.
A product or service can be explained in less than 2 minutes, making it easy for viewers to understand (and pay attention to).
Simplistic and colourful visuals are much more eye catching than reading pages upon pages of content.
The use of an explainer video can help reduce your websites’ bounce rate and help increase overall brand awareness and conversion rates for your service or product offering.
This video can easily be shared on social media platforms and promoted on any website.
The technical version
If the above information wasn’t enough, here is the technical definition which we feel best explains what a vector styled animation is: “A form of motion graphics which consists of having moving vector images such as: characters, icons, shapes and objects to convey a complicated message in a more understandable way to the viewer”.
The step-by-step process of creating a vector style animation
Planning
This is essential when establishing what the purpose of the video will be. Other considerations to take into account during your panning are:
Which services or products are you trying to highlight?
Who your target audience is
Your budget for this production
The length of the production
Establish a format or formula for presenting the problem followed by the solution and then the CTA
Script writing
Considerations:
Consider the word count of the script (try to keep it below 2 mins)
Follow the format established in the first step and write accordingly
Defining the overall art and audio direction
Considerations:
Research on voice over artists
Research of music and sound effects
Defining of character/objects
Storyboarding
Treatment
Creation of assets
Considerations:
Creation of vector images/illustrations (in an animation friendly manner)
Recording of voice over (if needed)
Selection of background music or sound effects (if needed)
Animating
This is the fun part.
Considerations:
Animation of each scene as established in the storyboard/treatment phase
Syncing animations to voice over
Adding in any extra visual effects
Sound editing
Considerations:
Syncing the sound effects to the animation
Adding in and looping the background music appropriately
Mixing and mastering the final production
Considerations:
Final mixing of sound for the overall production
The future of vector animation
We can safely say that visual marketing, including vector style animation, is more than just a trend, it is here to stay and paving the way for future digital marketing.
If you or your company require a high-quality video explainer, please don’t hesitate to contact our always eager-to-help team of professionals here at Flint, or simply pop in for a cup of coffee, we love our coffee.
