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How to Make a Whiteboard Video in 7 steps

How to make the best Whiteboard Video in seven steps.
1. Craft the Message
2. Decide the length
3. The Animation process
4. Distribution
5. Doin’ it yourself
6. Degrees of cost
7. Why hire a studio?

1. Craft the Message
The most important thing is your message. What do you want to say? Nothing is more important to your video than your message. So hire a professional writer to advise you on your script and guide you to a strategy that is right for you. Once you have your message you need something to make your message sticky. Should your message should be packaged in:
A) a story,
B) a diagram,
C) a metaphor, or
D) just tellin’ it to you straight. A veteran studio will guide you on the best strategy for your message.

So what’s the outline of your message?
Here is a simple script outline. No matter if you are making a promotional video or if you are creating an internal HR video the outline is the same.
1. What is your viewer’s problem? State this as quickly as possible.
2. What is the solution? (usually your company, your product, or your message). State this as quickly as possible.
3. Break out a few points about why your product is the solution. We’re the solution because of A, B, and C

4. The Call to Action - Usually your .com address or your phone number.
If you need a scriptwriter there are thousands of talented writers out there and their value is way beyond what they charge. Our studio hires them.

Now a good script hooks the viewer. You want viewers to ask “what will happen next?” The question of “what will happen next?” is built into Whiteboard Videos. When an artist is building an image the viewer asks “what are they drawing?” and viewers are hooked from the beginning to the end when the final image is drawn.

2. How long should the message be?
90 seconds to 2 minutes. When a whiteboard video is done right, a lot of things can be shared in a short span of time. Our studio can condense what you need to say into a 90 second to 2 minute window. (A little fact: 130 words can be comfortably spoken in a minute)

The majority of our viewers watch a full two minutes of our work. Why? Because our whiteboard videos take the viewer on a journey. A simple through-line that is easy to follow and asks the dramatic question “what will happen next?”

Two minutes also applies because video advertising is far more targeted today, and the ad space is far cheaper than it was ten years ago. Advertising is crafted for a very specific audience. Going longer than two minutes is fine if your audience is a captive audience or if they have incentive to watch your video. Going for 30 seconds is good if your video has a sizeable ad-spend on television or the internet. The majority of us do not fall into that category. That leads us to:

3. The Animation process and schedule
Our studio can animate in as little as a week, but the majority of our animations take 5-6 weeks.

Week 1 - Script review with Creative Director
Week 2 – The team develops a side-by-side
Week 3 - Style frames are created to determine style – This involves an art director and an illustrator
Week 4 - Full storyboards and audio – We hire a New York City actor to voice your project. We also find the right music to match
Week 5 - Deliver a work in progress
Week 6 - Final Animation
4. Distribution

There are lots of ways to share and use a video today. Such as… Your website, YouTube, Facebook, Google, Eblasts, LinkedIN, Twitter, Cable, Radio, Conferences, Sales presentations, or even at the airport or on a bus. So, do you have a distribution plan?
https://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=sales%20bonus%20sow

5. Doing it yourself in three ways

The first thing to note is doing it yourself is not free. Writing and animating will take a lot of your time and a poor video is often a waste of your time, energy, and money. But, if you have no other option here is what you can do. Get A High resolution video camera. - A tripod - A whiteboard – a projector, and Bright global lighting (from all sides) and video editing software. Then you can either trace, erase, or use software:
1. Trace - Trace the image lightly with pencil. Film yourself drawing on top of the image. Take the video into a video editor and increase the contrast just a bit to make the pencil marks go away. Voila! magic.
2. Erase - Draw the image first. Get it perfect then erase it. Put it into your video software and reverse the footage frames. Again, voila! magic.
3. Software - use an animation program like Video Scribe or AfterEffects to create the animation. If you Google these programs the number one thing that comes up is tutorials. So be ready for the real cost to be your time and that leads us to….

6. Degrees of cost
Here is a link where we break cost down. For a decade we have been on the first page of Google for “How much does animation cost?” Because our website provides the market rate along with videos that correspond to that rate. The cost goes up the more detail you add, the more color, and the more motion. The cost veries depending on how professional you want to look.

7. Why hire a studio?
The goal of your message is worth much more than the cost of your video. You wouldn’t hire the cheapest CEO to run your business. In the same way you don’t want the cheapest video to reach thousands or millions of viewers. You should hire a studio because you want professionals, someone with a proven track record and decades worth of experience. The same is true for animation. A good test of a studio’s worth is watching a video and seeing what you remember when the video is over. Remember it’s not about how many things they flash in your face. It’s about being effectiveness that produces change. Does the video work.

To learn more about whiteboard videos or full cartoons and 3D animation call us at 646-801-3496 or visit our website whiteboardanimation.com


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