The urge for food for on-line video content material is rising. In a single research, 83% of respondents stated they like to entry informational or educational content material by way of video somewhat than textual content or audio. With surging demand comes elevated alternatives for creatives to serve purchasers with video manufacturing wants.
In my greater than 25 years as a visible and movement designer, I’ve made promotional movies for quite a few industries and massive manufacturers, together with AT&T, Intel, Microsoft, and Verizon. Throughout that point, I’ve discovered find out how to weave technical, conceptual, and inventive parts into cohesive and compelling messages that differentiate my purchasers from their rivals. Right here, I share three codecs you should use for nearly any promo video venture—together with my prime ideas for making a promo video that connects with viewers and attracts high-profile purchasers.
A promo video showcases a services or products to encourage viewers to take motion. These movies are direct, with quick bursts of simply understood info. Whereas there isn’t a excellent size, a normal guideline is to maintain these movies below 120 seconds as a result of viewers’ consideration spans are restricted. The problem for creatives is to squeeze our concepts, graphics, audio, and animation into this restricted time.
One sort of promo, a product demo video, demonstrates how a services or products works by specializing in particular options. One instance is a demo I not too long ago created for the Stanhope AI advertising and marketing marketing campaign. On this video, I tried to convey a way of the corporate’s mission: to construct the subsequent evolution of AI expertise for navy and business environments.
One other sort of promo, an explainer video, focuses on describing an organization’s services or products and may be helpful for showcasing a sophisticated expertise and delivering quick narratives. For many explainer movies, I exploit the next course of:
- Visually current the issue.
- Supply an answer to that downside.
- Current numerous outcomes because of the answer.
I used this format once I created an explainer video with movement graphics and character animations as a part of a branding bundle for the digital well being firm Prescryptive Well being.
Demo reels, or teaser promo movies, are collections or collection of your finest movies and are an important element of your portfolio. The problem in placing collectively a demo reel is chopping longer tasks into quick video clips of just some seconds. Demo reels are an amazing alternative to implement a less-is-more method to creating promo movies.
Promo movies embody many parts, together with colour, tone or worth, lighting, shapes, area, texture, typography, timing, and sound. Making a compelling one entails combining these parts successfully to boost the supposed message. The next ideas will make it easier to do exactly that.
1. Restrict your venture’s colour palette. To paraphrase American design legend Ivan Chermayeff, utilizing an excessive amount of colour is as dangerous as utilizing no colour. Leveraging colour nicely may be particularly difficult in case your content material focuses on complicated subjects, reminiscent of scientific info. In such instances, I usually make use of a restricted palette.
For example, once I created an explainer video for SandboxAQ, the subject material—cryptology—was sophisticated. I knew that an elaborate colour palette may distract viewers and make them much less prone to comply with the narrative. My technique was to focus intently on the messaging as a substitute of lavishly coloured animations. To restrict the variety of colours launched, I centered on the model’s major colours—orange and black. I additionally used easy iconography to maintain viewers’ consideration on the subject.
2. Deal with life like results. Designers have an array of highly effective instruments, reminiscent of Adobe After Results and Cinema 4D, which allow us to use wonderful results to movies. The problem is selecting the suitable results for the job.
I goal to decide on results that replicate what we expertise in on a regular basis life. Right here’s an instance: About 5 seconds into the Stanhope AI video, you’ll see a black, square-shaped laptop chip with the letters “AI” printed on it. The chip splits into two components, revealing spider-web-like strands which might be highlighted with tiny droplets of sunshine—harking back to spider silk with dew on it, one thing we’ve got all seen in actual life. To present this animation a extra natural high quality, I used a visible impact recognized to skilled photographers: a shallow depth of area impact, which blurred a lot of the strands and droplets. Such blurring helps the attention concentrate on an important visible parts within the body, on this case the strands. I discover this system works nicely with product renderings.
Drawing inspiration from the actual world doesn’t solely apply to visible results: It additionally works for audio and sound. For example, about 25 seconds into the Stanhope AI video, you hear components of the drone becoming a member of collectively, utilizing numerous clicking sounds. This can be a refined use of sound design that reinforces the believability of the animation. The click sound accompanies the clip of the drone and precisely displays how a drone being assembled would sound. When video animation is supported by good sound design and audio, it makes the venture far more credible.
3. Produce distinctive textures. Very similar to colour, supplies and textures can evoke sure feelings. Whether or not you select a metallic materials with excessive specularity for a shiny look or a matte end for a softer really feel, the secret’s to align your design with the model’s tone and language.
Pc-generated textures and supplies can usually seem chilly or plastic. However including noise or grain to supplies and textures creates a refined imperfection that mimics how our eyes interpret mild in the actual world. You possibly can see this therapy within the product demo video for my ModBand venture. Right here, the merchandise have a rubbery, graphite look which suggests to viewers that the band is smooth and comfy.
4. Experiment with typography. Usually, essentially the most logical selection of font for video textual content is a sans-serif typeface, which is simple to learn. However, for a lot of tasks I work on, I attempt to pair the typography with the video’s tone.
Take into account my Aware Planet venture, which entails a number of complicated layers of animation, together with clouds and a birds-eye view of a panorama. Within the animation, you zoom by way of the clouds right down to the extent of the timber (which features a view of the underground root system). There’s additionally a further layer for an animation of a gridlike sample, which represents the NFT digital element. With a lot occurring visually, utilizing a sans-serif typeface was important to make the messaging readable.
5. Use timing and tone to attach viewers to your video’s messaging. The timing or tempo of a video could make or break a venture. For example, take into account how lengthy a topic is on display screen. The period of time a selected topic seems in a video means that you can emphasize or diminish its significance. And relating to particular person animations, the precise timing of every animation is essential as a result of it supplies an general rhythm that helps the venture’s supposed messaging.
In my Prescryptive Well being explainer video, I divided the venture in two. The primary half of the video visually presents the “downside”: that customers lack selection relating to prescription medicines. The second half focuses on how Prescryptive Well being supplies customers with extra choices for prescription medicines. I used two key parts—timing and tone—to boost the composition’s emotional influence.
Within the first half, the actions of particular person animations are slower. For example, the lady (who seems 25 seconds into the video) walks slowly and appears down on the floor. I added numerous darkish grey topics to boost this gloomy environment, together with a cloud above the lady, shadows, greenback symbols, and a big, ominous determine.
When it was time to disclose the answer (simply after 00:50), I subtly modified the timing and tone of a few of the animations. For example, the video quickly zooms previous workers. Moreover, I changed the darkish grey with white, transitioning to a vibrant and upbeat setting. It’s not a dramatic change, but it surely helps the viewer emotionally join with the message we wished to convey.
6. Discover a construction and composition that amplify your message. An instance of that is my 2022 demo reel, which mixes many parts I’ve been speaking about, together with timing, animation, texture, typography, composition, and construction.
The important thing a part of this demo reel is its construction, which is split into three components: The center is a portfolio of my most necessary tasks. The start and finish are a video wrapper of my model, Duro, composed of a number of 3D animation segments. Initially, I generate some intrigue and suspense by displaying clips that kind one or two of the model identify’s letters (“D” or “U”). The thriller is solved on the finish of the video with 3D animations that reveal the model’s full identify.
7. Take a look at your video. How have you learnt in case your promo video is excessive caliber? One of the best ways to check the standard of your video is by hitting the “pause” button in order that your display screen shows a single body. A well-crafted video will replicate the integrity of your general venture at any given level. I recommend doing this at a number of factors throughout the video because it performs for the very best outcomes. As you’re taking a look at these frames, ask your self:
- Does this body assist present a transparent and concise message that prospects can relate to?
- Does the inventive method resonate with the model language?
Then, replay the complete video and ask your self:
- Can this video be simply reformatted to suit totally different mediums, reminiscent of a touchdown web page and social media platforms?
- Does the video embody a name to motion that can assist drive conversion charges?
In case your work meets these necessities, you’re heading in the right direction.
Promotional movies are a novel mix of formal design parts, storytelling, and advertising and marketing ideas that encourage viewers to take motion. These movies generate gross sales for the services or products they promote and enhance model consciousness.
Profitable promo movies are concise: They don’t burden viewers with detailed buying info. In addition they current viewers with an end result they will join with personally. Viewers have wants, and essentially the most convincing movies present how these wants are met. Use the following pointers in your subsequent venture to create a promo video that can ship your shopper’s model hovering.
