After Effects 2023 - NEW FEATURES October 2022 release (version 23.0)

The October 2022 (23.0) release presents new features and user-requested workflow improvements that enable you to work more efficiently in After Effects and design even the finest details without compromising your creative vision. 

The release includes Selectable Track Matte Layers, encoding H.264 in the Render Queue, refreshed presets for composition settings, new animation presets, and enhanced keyframe navigation. Also, installing Cinema 4D by Maxon is now optional.

Select Track Matte Layers

Choose any layer as a track matte using a new drop-down menu in the Modes column. Position the matte layer anywhere in the timeline stack and reuse it for multiple other layers making compositions simpler and more flexible to create.

Native H.264 Encoding

Export your projects quickly with hardware-accelerated output and direct rendering of H.264 files from within the Render Queue, giving you the flexibility of choice to natively import out of After Effects or with Adobe Media Encoder.

Composition Presets

Find the most commonly used presets quickly in the Composition Settings with the revamped Composition Presets list. Plus, the composition presets now include sizes for a variety of social platforms.

New Animation Presets

Get over 50 new animation presets created by our After Effects community. Designed for modern motion design workflows, these presets save you time on the techniques you use most, so you can create quick animations and don't have to start from scratch.

Faster timeline navigation

Add Shift to the J and K hotkeys to quickly jump between keyframes and markers of selected layers and properties.

Cinema 4D optional installer

Choose when to download Cinema 4D with the new Add-ons option during After Effects installation. Install it using the Creative Cloud application when required, or skip it altogether.

Currently in Beta

The October 2022 (23.0) release also includes 3D Model Import (Beta), Properties Panel for Shape layers (Beta), and OpenColorIO and ACES color management (Beta).

3D Model Import

You can now use After Effects to create motion graphics that include 3D models. Import 3D models into your composition without additional plugins and composite them in the same 3D space as other After Effects 3D layers.

Properties Panel

Use the Properties Panel to quickly access important properties of selected Shapes in the timeline without the need to twirl open multiple layer hierarchies or a different panel. 

OpenColorIO and ACES color management

Monitor colors accurately in your project using OpenColorIO color management, including Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) workflows.

Previous releases of After Effects

• Feature Summary | After Effects | April, May, and August 2022 releases

• Feature Summary | After Effects | December 2021 release

• Features Summary | After Effects | October 2021 release

New in After Effects: native Apple M1 support, integrated reviews and Scene Edit Detection

Now up to 3x faster on Apple M1 Macs, After Effects gives today’s motion designers the tools they need to do great work and the speed to finish sooner. Along with support for Apple silicon, the latest release of After Effects offers built in review and approval tools with Frame.io for Creative Cloud, Scene Edit Detection, powered by Adobe Sensei and improvements for 3D workflows.

The latest versions of After Effects and Premiere Pro will be available in a phased release, starting on April 12. Over the following days, the new versions will roll out to all users via the Creative Cloud Desktop application. Adobe will be at NAB 2022 April 24 – 27 at Booth N3404 in North Hall and for the first time ever in Central Hall Booth C9520 to present the latest release and welcome Frame.io to the Adobe family.

Speed up creative decisions with Frame.io for Creative Cloud

Now built-in to After Effects, Frame.io improves efficiency by connecting collaborators and other stakeholders to the creative process with real-time reviews during post-production. Motion designers can now send work in progress for review and collect feedback, all without leaving After Effects. For more information, check out our blog post.

Create up to 3x faster with native Apple M1 support

With native support for Apple silicon, After Effects now runs twice as fast on M1 computers and up to three times faster on M1 Ultra Macs compared to previous generation systems. Adobe Sensei machine learning features, like Roto Brush 2 and new Scene Edit Detection are faster. and playback is also smoother: for example, EXR decoding is two times faster and ProRes decoding is up to four times faster on new M1 Ultra Macs versus previous high-end models.

Faster rendering enhances the creative process: it makes it easy for motion designers to explore ideas and iterate more quickly on their compositions. Last year After Effects performance was improved across the board with Multi-Frame Rendering, with users seeing speed gains of up to 4x on the same hardware. Native support for Apple silicon only builds on these gains. With two significant speed boosts in just 6 months, After Effects has never gotten faster so fast.

Get started faster with edited video: Scene Edit Detection. powered by Adobe Sensei

Scene Edit Detection uses machine learning powered by Adobe Sensei to identify cut points in rendered sequences, helping motion designers work more efficiently with edited content. Users can add markers to these edits or split them into layers for faster project setup.

Adobe Sensei uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to accelerate the time-consuming aspects of creative tasks without sacrificing creative control over the results. Along with Scene Edit Detection, Adobe Sensei features in After Effects include Content Aware Fill and Roto Brush 2.

Work more easily in 3D with Extended Viewer and Binning Indicators

The Extended Viewer makes it easier for motion designers to navigate 3D space and move 3D layers by showing 2D and 3D layers located outside a frame’s edge when using the Draft 3D engine. Users can hide or dim the areas outside the frame to see what the final result will look like.

Binning Indicators for 3D Layers helps users keep their 3D compositions organized by showing which 3D layers render together in the same 3D space.

Learn more about the latest release of After Effects.

Visit Adobe at NAB 2022, April 24-27 at booth N3404 and booth C9520

Original post from Michelle Gallina from Adobe

6 Tips For Mastering Video Presentations

Video is an amazing tool that allows us to connect with people wherever they are, but like any tool it must be used well in order to have the desired effect. Regardless of whether you are selling a product, demonstrating a breakthrough idea, conducting training, or delivering some other type of persuasive content, there are universal principles you can employ to make your video presentation one that people remember for all the right reasons. Below, we’ve gathered six video presentation tips that will not only help you create an engaging presentation, but deliver it well via video.

Video Presentation Tips

#1: Go to Your Room

Before you develop your video presentation, take a moment and consider the room in which you will present. If it’s on-site at your company, visit it to determine if there are any issues with the room that need to be addressed beforehand, such as poor lighting, noise, or other minor items that can create major distractions on the day you desire everyone’s undivided attention. If you are a road warrior and regularly give presentations from unknown conference rooms, call ahead and talk to the person who is coordinating your visit and ask to see pictures of the room’s layout. You will also want to know the tech set-up of the room. For example, do they have a universally easy-to-use, HD video conferencing system, like Highfive, or is it a complex legacy system that requires an equipment reservation and assistance from IT to ensure everything operates correctly. Lastly, if you are working remotely and giving the presentation from home or your hotel room, seek a quiet space with a tidy background that will help viewers keep their focus on you.

#2: Break the Fourth Wall

Hollywood directors have long used a trick called “breaking the fourth wall” to engage audiences and make them feel like they are a part of the story. It’s simple to do and occurs when an actor looks into the camera and speaks directly to the audience. If you are new to giving video presentations, then make a point of training yourself to look into the camera as much as possible. In the world of video conferencing, this is how you develop eye contact, which is crucial to connecting people with your message. If members of the audience are in the room with you while giving the presentation, think of them and the video camera as two sides of a room and make a point of spending an equal amount of time looking at both. Of course, when members of your remote audience interact with you during the presentation, be sure to look at the screen so you can view their facial expressions and body language before looking back to the camera to respond to them.

Download Video Presentation Opener Template

🔥 🔥 🔥

Download Video Presentation Opener Template 🔥 🔥 🔥

#3: Tell a Story

Jimm Fox, the President of OMM, a marketing company that produces scripted corporate videos, maintains that good storytelling is as essential to video presentations as it is to movies. “Stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. They make us think. They make us feel. If told well, they inspire us. At the heart of any good story is an emotional appeal – it may be subtle or it may be dramatic, but without that emotional connection, the story is quickly forgotten,” said Fox. Experts at Harvard Business Review agree with this approach, and recommend beginning the story in your presentation by sharing a compelling fact, asking a provocative question, or relating to your audience through a personal anecdote.

#4: Visuale It

Video is a wonderfully visual medium that allows you to both show and tell, so make sure you capitalize on this advantage by supporting your presentation with images and slides that offer a feast for the eyes. To ensure you use visuals well, we recommend you follow four simple rules:

• Use a well-designed template that creates a cohesive backdrop for visuals.

• If available, solicit design help/review from a marketing professional.

• Slides are like billboards, most people are done with them in eight seconds, so keep moving.

• Words on a slide should be minimal, legible, spell-checked, and never ever read aloud.

#5: Command Attention Through Confidence

Confidence is enticing. People are drawn to others who are confident, and will both listen to and respect them even if they disagree with what they are saying. So how do you become confident giving video presentations? You practice. Once you have developed your presentation, solicit the help of a friend or colleague, who you can trust to provide honest feedback. Then, have that person watch your presentation via video conference, so they experience it exactly the way your audience will. Afterwards, incorporate their advice into your presentation and practice daily until the big day arrives. For the technically challenged, practicing with the actual video conferencing equipment is critical to developing presentation confidence. Video-conferencing devices, like Highfive, are usable by anyone right out of the box, and can add much to a presenter’s confidence.

#6: Dress For Success

Whereas the sky’s the limit on what people wear to the office these days, what you wear to a video presentation is bit more limited. Newscasters, TV hosts, and other video regulars know that stripes, busy patterns and neon colors can create a blurred effect on video that makes you appear fuzzy to viewers. To avoid hurting the eyes of the very people you want looking at you, choose tailored clothes in solid colors that flatter your skin tone. It’s also a good idea to take Coco Chanel’s advice and keep accessories to a tasteful minimum.

Just like in-person presentations, video presentations can be a bit nerve-racking the first few times, but with a bit of preparation, you can set yourself up for success. As you gain experience, you’ll become more comfortable with video presentations, and you’ll be mastering them in no time!

Article posted by Sara Moseley on HighFive

Amazon Product Video: The One-Stop Guide

The perfect Amazon listing consists of several components – from product images, feature bullets, and product descriptions to the right title. For many sellers, however, the biggest challenge is creating high-quality Amazon product videos. After all, your product listings are incomplete without incorporating the number one content type that marketers use to boost demand for their products. A whopping 73% of visitors who view video content is likely to buy the product which is why 92% of marketers say that video content is an indispensable part of their marketing strategy. 

In this one-stop guide, we’ll dive deeper into Amazon product videos, why you need them, and also highlight best practices related to different types of product videos.

What are the Benefits of Using Video in Amazon Product Listings?

Download and use this Amazon Product Video Promo template

Product videos are one of the key elements of an optimized listing. Adding a product video to your listing will not only improve your metrics but also capture the attention of shoppers. Customers prefer video over other marketing content because it clearly communicates the benefits and features of a product. 

Moreover, video is an integral part of the eCommerce customer experience because it is the closest that shoppers can get to ‘experiencing’ the product without being able to touch it. A visually engaging and well-crafted Amazon product video builds shoppers’ confidence, drives purchase decisions, boosts brand awareness, and enhances customer engagement. 

The bottom line – product videos can set your listings apart from competitors and lead to profitable growth.

Am I Eligible to Add Amazon Product Videos?

You need to meet certain eligibility requirements to use product videos in your Amazon listings. You must have an Amazon seller account and own a brand that is registered in Amazon’s Brand Registry. Vendors can leverage the benefits of video by using A+ content through Vendor Central. 

Can I Add Amazon Product Videos for Free?

Adding a product video is free for marketplace sellers that are brand-registered. However, for vendors, there is a cost associated with using this feature (approximately $1500 per page to access the premium module).

Many sellers settle for static images to promote their products due to the high costs associated with video production. Luckily, we have the perfect solution to help address your needs for high-quality Amazon video content. 

With Trellis Video Creatives, you can create compelling videos for Amazon products and Sponsored Brands video ads, in minutes. Explore the feature for free and supercharge your conversion and click-through rate on Amazon.

What are the Dos and Don’ts of Amazon Product Videos?

Ensure compliance with the following Amazon guidelines for product videos when uploading and creating content. These guidelines are explained further in Amazon’s Video Content Policy. 

Here are some examples of guidelines you should comply with:

• Make sure that the video file format is 3GP, AAC, AVI, FLV, MOV, MP4, or MPEG-2

• Ensure that the thumbnail is in a JPEG or PNG file format in a 16:9 aspect ratio and a minimum of 1280 x 720 pixels (1920 x 1080 is preferred)

• Comply with Amazon’s Video Content Policy related to conduct, intellectual property, use of minors in ads, health claims, and controversial topics

Make sure your product video does not include the following:

• Inaccurate or false claims related to the product

• Demeaning content directed toward competitors

• Time-sensitive information such as seller promotions or discounts

• Customer reviews containing inaccurate or misleading product information or edited reviews

• Calls to action and external web links that can direct the visitor away from Amazon

• Politically, culturally, and socially sensitive or controversial information

As you can see, Amazon’s Video Content Policy is comprehensive and contains specific instructions for sellers and businesses. Make sure you and your team thoroughly read this policy before devising a video marketing strategy and developing product videos. 

What are the Different Types of Amazon Product Videos?

Before conceptualizing and storyboarding your Amazon product video, it is important to consider the message that you want to convey to your audience. Consider the following questions:

• Should the video communicate product features?

• Should the video present a comparison between your product and the competitor’s offering?

• Will the video highlight customer experiences of using your product?

• Will the video showcase an explanation of how it can solve customer pain points?

Once you have decided on the core premise of your product video, you can narrow down the type of content you want to produce. Broadly speaking, there are four types of product videos that you can execute, these include:

Product Features Videos

“Comes with a lightweight carbon frame, includes easy gear shifters, excellent for commuting around the city with an adjustable and comfy seat.”

This type of script is presented in a product features video. As the name suggests, product features videos highlight the specifications of the product and help shoppers understand how they will benefit them. This narrative can work with technical products or products that have unique features which can immediately grab a customer’s attention.

Customer Testimonial Videos

“With X, I can easily and quickly charge my phone. No more extra wires needed!”

Customer testimonial videos present social proof and are similar to how word of mouth works. Customers are likely to become convinced about making a buying decision if they directly hear about the benefits of a product. It is easier for shoppers to relate to human experiences rather than listening to the company speak about what its product can do for them.

Explainer Videos

“State-of-the-art QLED technology to bring big moments to life on your TV screen.”

This type of video is like an elevator pitch for your product. They include features, product highlights, and benefits all packaged in one to immediately connect customers to the product. The key to an effective explainer video is a compelling script that keeps shoppers interested. 

Comparison Videos

“Our durable and lightweight material lasts 3 times longer than your average shower cap.”

Comparison videos are designed to resonate with consumers by speaking to their pain points and helping them understand why they need the product in their life. If your product has an edge over competitors either through its features or benefits, a comparison video is a perfect solution to build a compelling case for your product. 

Can Brands that are not Registered Still Add Product Videos on Amazon?

While brands that are not registered in the Amazon Brand Registry cannot use product videos, they can still leverage the potential of customer review videos. 

With a well-optimized product listing, you can increase your chances of receiving review videos that showcase your product for other customers to see. Be wary of using any external services that make claims of getting you review videos. Using such services can have negative consequences for your business and even lead to a permanent suspension on Amazon.

You should explore legitimate ways of getting reviews on Amazon instead and drive effective demand.

Closing Thoughts on Amazon Product Videos

Videos are the new king of content and are here to stay. Incorporating video is an instrumental part of a successful marketing strategy on Amazon. Whether it is through A+ Content, Sponsored Brands Video ads, or Amazon product videos, harness the potential of video on Amazon now to build brand awareness and develop long-term customer relationships.

Source: Gotrellis

The State of B2B Video Marketing in 2022

B2B video marketing has been on the rise for the past few years, and everything so far indicates that 2022 will continue the same trend. Modern marketing delivery systems – websites, email, social networks, mobile apps, messaging apps, etc. – all support video content to some capacity. As a result, B2B marketers increasingly rely on video as their marketing tool of choice.

If you’re new to using video marketing in a B2B context, you might be wondering how other businesses are utilizing video for better B2B outcomes. To help you understand the state of the B2B marketing landscape in 2022, read our short guide on the topic in the paragraphs below.

What is B2B Video Marketing?

B2B video marketing is the practice of using video to attract business clients. B2B video marketing is not new – companies have been using video for decades for advertising, branding, events, etc. However, the cost and logistics of producing video content were typically such that only big companies with well-funded marketing departments could afford to use B2B marketing video.

That all changed with the rise of digital marketing. Affordable, web-based digital marketing tools made it possible to create B2B video marketing content on any budget. As a result, video is now a B2B marketing staple.

Why do Businesses use B2B Video Marketing?

So why do B2B companies use video marketing in the first place? It boils down to 4 factors:

• Engagement

• Versatility

• Information

• Value

Video is more engaging than other media formats such as text or images. What video offers and other formats don’t is a complete experience. It affects all our senses at the same time, which compels people to keep watching.

Video is extremely versatile. There are a variety of types to choose from, multiple distribution channels, different use case scenarios, and countless ways to customize it for your business needs.

Video is a multi-media product, which means it can embed a lot of information. Images, graphs, animation, text, sounds, music, and speech are potential vehicles for information. They can work together to stress important points, contrast to highlight differences, transition into each to represent change, and synchronize in other ways.

Video provides great value to clients, and it provides great ROI for businesses. You can give away videos for free, place them behind a subscription paywall, sell them them individually or as a series,  and reuse them across different distribution channels.

B2B Video Marketing Stats

According to a recent study by HubSpot, video marketing is a top priority for B2B businesses. Their findings are as follows:

• 86% of businesses use video as a part of their marketing strategy.

• 87% of video marketers claim that video offers a positive ROI.

• 86% of video marketers argue that video is an effective way to generate leads.

• 81% of marketers believe that video has a positive impact on sales.

• 79% of businesses report that they’re planning to use video in 2022.

• 94% of marketers claim that video helps clients better understand their product or service.

• 88% of video marketers use YouTube as their main marketing platform.

• 54% of viewers report they want to see more videos from businesses they follow.

• 96% of viewers report watching explainer videos to learn more about products and services.

• 78% of viewers say they’ve been convinced to purchase software based on a video.

From this we see a clear indication that video is gaining ground in B2B marketing. We can expect these trends to continue in the near future.

B2B Marketing Video Types

B2B marketing videos come in a variety of types. Each type plays a different role and offers some unique benefits. Here are the 5 most common B2B marketing video types:

1. Case Study Video

Business case studies are typically summaries of real-life business scenarios or imaginary accounts of a business situation or problem. Case study videos go to great lengths in analyzing the causes and effects of such scenarios. Case studies are used to illustrate a particular business theory and show how such a theory can be applied. Their role is to provide evidence for your B2B marketing claims. Case study videos benefit from a neutral tone, tactical use of visual elements, and high information content. Case studies are a great way to improve the authority of your brand.

2. Thought Leadership Video

Thought leadership is philosophy in a business context. It involves speculation about ongoing and upcoming industry trends, practices, technologies, and theories. Thought leadership videos are an effective way to establish a business as an authority in a particular industry niche. Thought leadership videos offer an effective way to engage businesses in your community while making your company stand out as an industry leader.

3. Testimonial Video

Using testimonial videos in your B2B marketing campaigns is a good way to leverage positive experiences from satisfied clients to help you convert additional ones. Business professionals tend to rely on the word of other professionals from their industry because they don’t risk wasting time and money on lackluster products and services. Honesty is key for a good testimonial video. Make sure that clients providing testimonials do so without pressure, lest you come off as doing paid testimonials.

4. Product Launch Video

Product Launch Teaser - Brand Awareness Video

Product launch videos are used by businesses to showcase their offerings to potential clients. They tend to strike a balance between information and hype in order to appeal to reason and feelings equally. A good product video always directs attention to how the product will improve your client’s business. There’s no single right way to do product videos – humor, exciting visuals, narrative, testimonies, etc. can all help get your message across.

5. Event Recap Video

Event recap videos are released after successful business events. They’re typically structured as highlight reels of all the inspiring moments, speakers, and activities that took place during the event. Their purpose is to drive home the idea that the event was a success and to generate interest for upcoming ones. Event recap videos don’t need to have high production values. Audiences tend to respond more favorably to footage that contains a human element.

Conclusion

B2B marketing video is a great way to unpack difficult concepts, help potential clients learn more about your business, and create content that can be reused across different marketing channels. It is one of the most effective marketing strategies you have at your disposal as a B2B enterprise.

Article Source: Binumi

How To Utilize Amazon Product Videos To Boost Your Listings

If you want to optimize your Amazon listing, Amazon Product Videos are one of the most foolproof ways. These videos promote your products in creative, enticing, and exciting ways. There is less room for misunderstanding.

You also have a chance to build a personal relationship with the customer by making personalized videos. Good videos showcase products and their features, uses, benefits, and utility.

The written description may be a little misleading or the customer may get the wrong impression. You have a chance to make everything clearer and demonstrative in your videos.

3 Types Of Amazon Product Videos

There are 3 types in which the Amazon product videos are displayed on the product page.

1. Image Block of Amazon Product Listing

Image blocks are the first visual representation of your product that pops up on the product detail page. An Amazon listing is useless without the Image Block.

The image block must contain images that are clear and high-quality Poor and weak images impact listing negatively. You may upload videos in the image block as well.

However, if there are more than 6 images in the Image Block there is a high chance that the video won’t show in the image block.

The images in the image bock must adhere to the guidelines set by Amazon.

2. Videos for this product

These videos are the videos that the seller uploads to describe their product better. They appear on the left side of the product page.

You can upload some videos to showcase your products or select some videos that are uploaded from customers’ reviews.

A single video is more informative than the 9 images Amazon allows you to upload in the image block.

3. Videos for the related product

These videos are competitors’ products that are displayed as you scroll down the product page, right at the end.

If there are no videos uploaded for your product, Amazon will display some videos from similar competitors and those videos may take the customer away from your product page.

These videos are displayed to give the customer more options for purchase and enhance their Amazon experience.

What Are The Benefits Of Product Videos on Amazon?

Product videos increase the visibility of products and boost sales. They are displayed on the main search list and make customers stop scrolling.

The average time engagement goes by 20 seconds when there are product videos present. In the world of the internet, this is phenomenal.

Engagement is gold! 

There are millions of sellers on Amazon with over 60,000 brands, and you can make your product stand out amidst your competitors with careful planning and deliberation.

Beat the fierce competition by giving your products an edge.

Careful studies of consumer behaviors have indicated that customers find product videos very helpful in deciding what to purchase.

Furthermore, with the advent of videos, customers have admitted to looking for videos to choose a product.

They said it is easier to understand the mechanics and the specification of the product through videos. 96% of consumers have polled that videos are more helpful when making purchasing decisions. 79% of shoppers find the visual experience much more valuable than reading small text.

Amazon product videos are a game-changer for Amazon sellers, and the right videos and marketing can set one apart from other sellers and distributors.

They are informative, a visual experience, and saves the buyer from scrolling down into the product specifics.

The written specifics can often be misconstrued. Videos can negate negative reviews by being clear about the product and its specifications so buyers buy exactly what they need and not what they construe the product to be.

Currently, product videos aren’t available to everyone. Only two groups may upload product videos.

Brand Sellers

Marketplace sellers who own brands and have registered them in the Amazon Brand registry can upload product videos. The video is available on the A+ Content within the Seller Central portal of Amazon.

Vendors

Vendors who own brands and manufacture brands specifically can upload product videos on Amazon. These vendors may sell wholesale products. Vendors may access video through the A+ Content nested within Vendor Central in the seller portal of Amazon.

Those who have unregistered brands are restricted to customer review videos only.

How To Upload Product Videos To Amazon?

While uploading videos to Amazon is an easy task there may be some remuneration to be paid.

Marketplace sellers who have their brands registered may add product videos and listings free of cost.

Vendors, on the other hand, need to pay some amount to add a product video. It is a new feature and Amazon charges for vendors to upload their videos. It costs them around $1500 per page, which covers one ASIN.

Guidelines Of Product Videos

 Amazon has very strict guidelines for the amazon product videos in place.

• The videos must not be in any language other than English.

• The facts in the videos must be supported by evidence.

• The products in the video must be branded and the brand must belong to you.

• There must not be any defamatory or derogatory comments in the video.

• The videos can’t contain prices, they are strictly informational.

• There may be no health claims

• There can not be any controversial, sensitive information in the videos

• The videos can’t direct the customer away from Amazon

• A customer review video must strictly have only reviews with accurate product information.

• The customer review must be no longer than a year old.

Technical guidelines for uploading Amazon Product Videos

• The video must be 480 p or higher with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

• The file must not exceed 5GB in size.

• It must be in .mo4 or .mov file format.

How To Make High-Conversion Videos

Making high conversion videos is imperative to boost sales. The question is how to structure the video to make it more enticing to the customers.

A video is the best way to capture interest and discuss product benefits.

Videos are much more effective than product descriptions and blogs. There is also a higher possibility of making a lasting impact.

Customers may even share the video with others and make a lasting impact on your product sales.

The first thing to keep in mind while making high conversion videos is to set a clear goal.

The intent of the video, the specifications to be highlighted, the message that the video gets across to the viewers; while keeping all this in mind, the best amazon product videos have the best visuals and creatives.

A video can showcase the product in creative ways and make it look appealing. A simple explanation of the product and how-to video could work wonders too.

 The video must be short and sweet. A lengthy Amazon Product video will make you lose customers rather than hold their interest.

A video has the first 9 seconds to capture the viewer’s attention. The best high conversion videos have a length of 30 to 45 seconds.

A video must be as true to the product as possible to avoid elevating customer’s expectations too much. The idea of a video is to establish trust, and reassure the customer that the product is of utility to them.

How to upload product videos

The process to add videos to Amazon products is very simple and doesn’t need much time. There may only be a waiting period to get the video approved.

Here’s how to upload a video on your product listings.

Upload via Seller Central

1. Navigate to your seller account.

2. Open your inventory.

3. There will be a dropdown. Click on upload and manage videos.

4. Click on the upload video button and select your file to be uploaded.

5. Enter the title and ASIN for the video in question.

6. Upload a thumbnail for the video. This is in jpeg format.

7. Click on submit and send the video to Amazon for approval.

The reviewing process may take up to a week or longer. When the video is approved it appears on the product page within 2 days.

Take care that you do not have more than 6 images uploaded on your product page, else your video will not show on the product page.

Request video reviews from customers

As everyone knows, Amazon requests feedback from customers after their purchase, but the request is very generic.

You have the option of sending personalized requests to customers to review your products after their purchase, in a message that has a step by step instructions on how to upload videos.

Hire a video production service

There are two options to create videos for the Amazon Product Page. Either create the video in-house or sign a contract with an individual or agency that specializes in Amazon Videos.

The company chosen will depend on a variety of factors like budget, time, in-house expertise, agency expertise, product, and the production company.

It is important to keep in mind that since the product is best known to the seller, there has to be a lot of involvement during the inception of the video.  

It is best to invest in professionals to make the Amazon video. It is a one-time effort and cost.

A substandard video not only defeats the purpose of uploading a video on Amazon, but it also is a waste of funds and time.

How to avoid showing competitors’ product videos?

When a customer scrolls down on the Amazon product listing page there is a section for related videos.

These product videos will be of competitors if you do not have enough videos on your product page.

Up to 5 videos are visible on the first page on the horizontal tab. As a seller, it is advised to upload more than 5 videos to avoid competitors’ videos on the product page.

Amazon will show related products to enhance customer experience. As a seller, avoid competitors showing on your product listing, create more utility for the customers.

The advisable thing to do is upload at least 5 videos to avoid competitors’ videos showing on your product page. Or to upload 10 is the best.

Conclusion

Amazon marketplace is a very competitive place and one needs to be vigilant all the time to keep atop the game. Amazon provides enough tools to vendors and sellers to be able to sell their products efficiently and effectively.

However, it is quite a challenge to make all the factors work in tandem. It’s not impossible, though. It’ll take a little patience and perseverance to be able to become a top seller. The video feature has been under beta testing since 2017 and it has been quite successful.

It has boosted sales and proved increasingly easy to make and upload. Amazon Product Video feature is yet to be completely explored and the potential is enormous.

This article is a re-post from AMZFinder

The Ultimate Guide to Amazon Product Videos [+ 5 types that work best]

Can we let you in on a little secret? Amazon product videos can change your life. literally. sure— that might not be an actual secret. but think about this: are you getting the most from your Amazon product videos?

here’s the catch: making killer Amazon product videos isn’t always easy and it’s not always clear what it takes to get the job done. it can be tough to know where to start. plus – there are Amazon guidelines you’ll need to follow in order to get your product videos uploaded successfully.

there is good news: you’re in luck. we put together this ultimate guide to Amazon product videos so you can spend less time creating video content and more time watching those Amazon sales flourish.

Data supports using videos in your Amazon listings

think product videos are just a waste of your time? think again. studies have shown (time and time again) that incorporating videos into your Amazon product listings is an easy way to help boost sales. some studies suggest that video can boost ecommerce conversion rates by up to 144%. that far outweighs the 84% of people that review a social media account before purchasing!

let’s face it: customers love video content. 

that’s because it can help build confidence in your product and create that irresistible hype factor. they can help demonstrate the features and benefits of your products. and they can even help you distinguish yourself from your competitors in comparison videos.

videos also contribute to your storytelling adventure. that story is what will ultimately inspire your customers to commit to the purchase. 

video storytelling takes advantage of two of the five senses: sight and sound. and while it can’t *technically* let your customers touch (or smell or taste) your products – you can create compelling videos that come pretty close. 

who doesn’t imagine the smell or taste of that gooey slice of pizza when you’re watching that video commercial? exactly! that’s the magic of video 🧙

long story short: it’s not enough to simply have a killer hero image for your Amazon products (although there’s a trick to mastering hero images on their own). you’ve gotta commit to the video content if you want to see your sales soar.

Who can post product videos?

it’s easy to see how adding video content to your Amazon product listings can help boost your ecommerce sales. but here’s the downside – you might not meet Amazon’s criteria for who can post videos. here’s how to know if you’ll have the permissions to post videos within the Amazon ecommerce space.

AMAZON PRODUCT VIDEOS NOT AVAILABLE TO ALL SELLERS

Amazon restricts who can post videos to product listings to two primary categories: marketplace sellers and vendors.

marketplace sellers who own a registered brand (according to Amazon’s Brand Registry) can post video content to their product listings through A+ content. you might otherwise know this as EBC and it can be found via Seller Central.

vendors who sell wholesale to Amazon can also use the A+ content within the Vendor Central interface.

💡 don’t qualify for the last two? there’s one more option: registered brands who aren’t marketplace sellers. you can also use video through the Amazon Storefront.

marketplace sellers with unregistered brands (or no brand at all) are out of luck. Amazon only gives video privileges to its most trustworthy sellers. they consider sellers outside of their registry as more of a business liability in terms of customer service. this means they give trusted brands the most effective selling features (i.e. – video) to help build customer loyalty and maximize sales.

THE PRICING DIFFERENCE

adding videos to your product listings varies in cost according to which seller category you fall into. 

it’s free for brand-registered marketplace sellers. you can add product videos to your listings without having to pay any extra fees.

the story’s completely different for vendors. Amazon knows the value of video for your listing. it’ll cost a bit more to incorporate videos on your product pages since that trust factor is missing. around $1500 more. this price only covers one ASIN variation family. we still think it’s worth the investment because of the massive impact that video has on driving ecommerce sales.

Things to consider before creating a product video for Amazon

Knowing where to start can be the biggest challenge you face. there are a few things you should consider before you dive head-first into the world of Amazon product video production.

the first decision you’ll need to make is who will create your video content. there are two options. you can do it in-house OR you can outsource it to a production company. 

the good news is that video content is getting cheaper to produce. that means this decision will ultimately come down to whether or not you want to invest the time into creating video. that part remains unchanged: creating great content takes time!

the second thing you’ll need to think about is all the pre-production questions that’ll set your video content up for success. here are a few questions you should ask yourself:

• how will you position your brand? remember that brand storytelling is EVERYTHING! it’s what will create repeat and lifelong customers for your ecommerce business

• what pain point does your product address? at the root of every sale is a single thought: what’s in it for me? answer this question for your target customers and you’ll nab the sale with ease

• how will you present your goods in a way that makes them easily understandable and relatable? one of the main barriers to purchase is when your customers can’t envision their lives with your products. demonstrate your products in a way where they can imagine it as part of their daily lives.

• can you use your video to answer commonly asked questions? whether that’s how to use it or what it’s good for – video can help clear up any confusion your customers might have.

• do you have product variations? ecommerce product videos are a fast and easy way to highlight multiple variations without making the user click through a long list of photos.

• what’s your goal for your product video? are you trying to educate? inspire? persuade? this goal should guide all of your decisions along the way.

you should also consider the setup: visuals. backgrounds. props. music. etc. they all play integral roles in making sure your product video is brand cohesive and visually irresistible. play around with it! your product videos should be anything but bland and boring. the sky’s the limit!

5 Amazon product video types that are most effective

Ready to get started? now all that’s left to do is to decide on what type of product video you’re going for. they all serve different purposes – so it’s important to keep your primary goal in mind. 

here are five examples of the most effective types of product videos for your product listing.

1. PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS VIDEOS

product highlight videos are one of the most common forms of Amazon product videos. they’re fairly straightforward and simple – but don’t let that fool you into thinking that your product page doesn’t need them.

the best product highlight videos are clean and focus solely on the product. try it with a crisp background to let your product be the star of the show. need some inspiration? 360 videos are perfect for highlighting all that your product has to offer.

2. PRODUCT COMPARISON VIDEOS

Product comparison videos can be one of the most compelling types of ecommerce videos that you can add to your Amazon product page. there’s nothing quite like a comparison video to really highlight what sets you apart from the crowd.

there are a couple of different ways you can set up your comparison videos. you can compare your product to a competing product. and you can also do a sort of before & after where you compare your customer’s life before they own your product to after they own your product.

just keep in mind that Amazon has some fairly clear-cut guidelines on what you can and can’t say in a comparison video. you’ll need to keep it strictly factual and avoid defamation and derogatory statements.

3. LIFESTYLE PRODUCT VIDEOS

Lifestyle product videos are kind of like a mashup between influence marketing and product video. lifestyle videos create a compelling brand story that sells more than just a product – it sells all those aspirational feels ✨ 

customers can sometimes struggle to imagine what their life would be like once they buy your product. clever use of props and professional models can create an alternate reality that lets them envision what their life could be like.

4. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE VIDEOS

Customer experience videos are another aspirational type of video. they can help boost brand authenticity and build trust with prospective customers.

a great example of this type of video is product reviews or customer testimonial videos. you can talk about your product until you’re blue in the face and some customers will always be skeptical of just how awesome it is. but once they hear others talking about how it changed their life – they won’t be able to resist!

5. EXPLAINER VIDEOS

Does it seem like customers always seem to be asking the same questions? then an explainer video might be just what your Amazon product page is missing. This is your moment to really showcase the how of your product. 

get into those nitty-gritty details. show your customers exactly how your product works and how they can use it. sure – you might send instructions with your product. but why wait to demonstrate its usefulness until after the sale? help your customers push pash any hesitation to purchase by using explainer videos demonstrating your product’s ease of use.

FAQs about Amazon product videos

still a little fuzzy on the details? here are the answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about Amazon product videos.

HOW DO YOU UPLOAD A VIDEO TO AMAZON?

the answer to this largely depends on which seller category you fall into. 

brand registered? just head to Seller Central and upload there. Amazon vendors can upload their videos via Vendor Central.

WHAT ARE AMAZON’S TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR PRODUCT VIDEOS?

again – Amazon is pretty specific here. there are a few different allowed file formats for uploading:

• 3GP

• AAC

• AVI

• FLV

• MOV

• MP4

• MPEG-2

you should export your file on the highest quality setting that you have available on your video editing software. you’ll also need to upload a thumbnail image as a cover. JPEG or PNG works. shoot for a 16:9 aspect ratio with a minimum resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. even better if you can get it exported at 1920 x 1080 pixels.

IS THERE A LIMIT TO HOW LONG A PRODUCT VIDEO CAN BE?

There’s no technical limit on how long your video can be. Amazon simply restricts your upload size to 5GB. but that doesn’t mean you need to use it all.

✨ here’s the scoop: short and sweet is better. cater to that brief human attention span and keep your videos brief. 

15 – 30 seconds is perfect for keeping attention and getting to the point. remember that you’ve only got a few seconds to capture the attention of your audience. so the first few seconds of your video are the most precious. use them wisely!

This article is a re-post from Soona

How to End Your Video with Action: Strong CTA Examples

Directing your viewers to a clear next step is the key to strategic video marketing. Learn how to choose the best CTA and see some strong call to action examples for your next video.

One of the last (and most important) steps to include in any video is the call to action (CTA). This is where you close the deal, so to speak, and prompt your viewer to actually do something. It’s the virtual handshake with the viewer.

If they’ve watched your video to completion, they’ve demonstrated clear interest (or they would’ve bounced ten seconds into the video). So now, you need to prompt “the ask” or call to action.

What is a Video CTA?

A CTA is an action you want a viewer to take after watching your video. The goal of the CTA is ultimately to have site visitors give you contact information or convert to a marketing qualified lead by engaging with more of your content–driving up their lead score.

So What Kind of CTA Should You Use?

When deciding what kind of call to action you should use in your video, first figure out what the point of your video is. Ask yourself a few questions:

• Do I want the viewer to go to my landing page?

• Do I want the viewer to book a meeting with me?

• Do I want the viewer to go to my products page?

• Do I want the viewer to watch more of my videos?

Your answer will depend on where the viewer is in on their buying journey. Here are three main points to consider when thinking about your in-video call to action:

#1: Your viewer’s ideal next step. Do you want to encourage them to consume more content? Identify themselves to you through a form? Initiate an opportunity? Consider the stage of your videos and how you can nudge your viewers closer to the next stage—or closer to a purchasing decision.

#2: The nature of your content and #3: The kinds of video CTAs that drive the best outcomes. Let’s break down these two factors by the stage of the funnel:

1. Awareness Stage (Top of Funnel) Videos

The nature of your content: Videos in the awareness stage are designed to generate just that—awareness. Think of things like company overview videos, thought leadership content, or any kind of short “info bite”-style videos.

The CTAs that drive the best outcomes: You want to focus on softer CTAs that will encourage your viewer to explore more of your content and product offerings. Some examples might be links to other pieces of content, newsletter subscription forms, or links to learn more about your products.

2. Consideration Stage (Middle of Funnel) Videos

The nature of your content: Videos in the consideration stage can be a little more in-depth. Here’s where product overview videos can come into play, as well as how-to videos and solution-based webinars.

The CTAs that drive the best outcomes: You can start using more in-depth lead capture forms to profile your buyer. Here you can also use multiple links on a “choose-your-own-adventure” CTA to allow buyers to identify their intention or persona.

3. Decision Stage (Bottom of Funnel) Videos

The nature of your content: Videos in the decision stage help your buyer take the final leap and make a purchase. These can include things like customer testimonial videos, along with in-depth product demos.

The CTAs that drive the best outcomes: You want to encourage your viewer to initiate an opportunity—so make it easy for them! Here’s where you can use forms that allow them to reach out to you. Think demo requests, links to pricing information, or CTAs that allow them to book a meeting with an expert on your team.

The Best Kind of CTA for Virtual Selling

If you are in sales and are using video for prospecting and virtual sales, then a CTA is a very important part of the video. You don’t want to go through all the effort of making a video, sending it through email or LinkedIn and then not close the deal because the viewer didn’t get a prompt to book a meeting with you. Putting a CTA in your video helps the buyer on their journey, so don’t miss this opportunity.

Consider these CTA’s for your video:

• Book a meeting – Prompt the viewer to book a meeting with you right away. Make it easy for them and create a custom CTA that links directly to your calendar.

• Get a custom demo – If a prospect has watched your entire video, that means they are interested in what you have to say. Use this moment to get them to sign up for a custom demo of your product, just for them.

• Free trial – Do you offer a subscription-based service? Let the viewer have a free trial to take your service for a test drive.

• Sign up for a webinar – If you frequently give webinars to highlight key features of your product or service, asking a viewer to sign up for the next webinar is a great CTA to include at the end of your video.

The Best Kind of CTA If Your Video Is on YouTube

If a viewer is watching your video on YouTube, the ask is simple—include a customized link to a landing page on your website that is dedicated to getting that viewer the supplemental information they’re looking for and, consequentially, into your sales process. The main goal of YouTube is to get the viewer to your website. There are way too many shiny things and cat videos to distract audiences on YouTube, so get them to your playground where you control the experience and the flow of content they consume.

The Best Kind of CTA If Your Video Is on a Landing Page

Once you get your audience to your website, or if they came to your website to begin with, great! They have already expressed interest in what you do! Please don’t blow a perfectly good opportunity by telling them at the end of your video to “visit your website for more information.” That is a waste of a potential next step you could ask them to take. They’re already on your website; give them the next step, don’t make them go find it on your website.

Here’s an example of a video my company animated for HCRI:

As you can tell, HCRI is unique in that they only specialize in recruiting for the healthcare industries, so the explainer video itself focused on differentiating them from generalist recruiters. Once we illustrated (pun intended) how they were different, we wanted to make sure we closed with asking the viewer to fill out the form. The video was on a custom landing page with a contact form directly to the right of the video.

So it was clear what the viewer’s next step was. If you were someone in HR for a company that regularly needed healthcare talent, you’d likely already be filling out the form knowing the difficulties you’ve probably had dealing with sourcing the right talent.

So this was one example of a landing page that makes the call to action and next step as simple as possible for the viewer. Of course, the call to action is different for every company based on its sales process, product or service, and a multitude of other factors. So you have to choose the right call to action based on your audience and what you’re asking of them. With video platform technology you can now include pop-out calls to action or embed contact forms directly in your video that push contact information into your marketing automation platform.

You’ll want to get creative too. Your CTA doesn’t have to be a benign “Call us or email for more information”. While that may work for some, it may also be too generic for others. Here are a few more creative ideas to consider:

• Ask a question – then invite viewers to “join the conversation” with your brand’s social channels or a dedicated hashtag.

• Enter to win – As simple as it is, a structured giveaway on a dedicated landing page of your website or on a social channel is an easy way to generate response and interaction with your brand.

• Bring out the vote! – Ask viewers to vote on something they care about in a simple poll on your website.

• Fill out a short form – This is very direct and I know we already covered it in the HCRI example, but if the person is interested they will. Restrict the number of form fields to only those that matter so people won’t neglect the form for fear of a lengthy process.

• Watch another video – After the viewer watches your short overview video, invite them to take a deeper dive with more directed snackable content about your product or service. What can this be? Well, maybe there are different versions of what you do? Maybe there are specific technical aspects that would be interesting to the IT guy who uses the product, but not to the CEO who just wants to know it works? Drive folks through the buying process with strategic videos lined up in a content journey.

These are just a few video CTA examples to get you started, but ultimately you will need to develop and test a simple step that is practical, yet relative to your business.

The most important thing to remember is that your customers are people. Unless you make dog food, but people still need to buy dog food for dogs. If people are searching for you they just want to know that what you do is going to help them. If it does, make it as easy as possible for them to either learn more or take the next step. The CTA is your virtual handshake with them to say hello.

This post was originally published on July 11, 2018. It was updated on May 21, 2021 by Eric Guerin on Vidyard

How to Use Video Effectively to Sell Courses Online

Many universities, colleges and training providers have embraced the transition to the digital world. The internet has enabled educators to reach people on a global scale and market their institutions in a way that wasn’t available in the past.

Course promotion and sales is one key area that has benefitted immensely from the online behaviors of customers. Whether the course itself is in-person or virtual, smart marketers have been able to engage their target audience and fill up courses like never before. And as online marketing continues to evolve and grow, video has emerged as an effective tool to sell courses online.

Using video offers your institution benefits that won’t be easily executed using other methods, but it's essential to follow some proven strategies to make the most of your efforts to engage with students - current and future.

Why Use Video to Sell Courses?

Before getting into the ‘how,' it's important to explore the ‘why,' to have a firm grasp of all the reasons to use video to sell courses.

In today's marketplace, videos are searchable and are indexed and ranked the same way web pages are. Keywords and detailed descriptions can be used to describe videos so that they can be found just as easily as regular web pages or blog posts. Video is also becoming the trendy way to advertise, which means you run the risk of being left behind by your competition if you don’t follow suit.

Another reason is that people love video is that it has the potential to make a more profound psychological connection with students. When messaging is brought to life through a compelling video, it adds another dimension and makes your institution seem more 'real.' Videos can educate and inform, and they can also entertain in a way that written messages can't.

Perhaps the most compelling reason to use video to sell your courses online from a business perspective is that it works. YouTube alone has over 30 million visitors per day, and more than 5 billion videos are watched on a daily basis. As the move to video continues to grow, it just makes sense to be part of that movement.

Types of Videos that Get Great Results

Like any other form of selling, it's not effective to post a video pitching your course and expect to get positive results. There are a handful of different types of videos that you can create to sell your courses online, and each one will appeal to different people.

The Classic Sales Video

It’s easy to argue that they are all sales videos since the ultimate goal is to make a sale, but this type of video uses classic sales tactics to appeal to emotions like fear and desire. In a sales video, your institution can describe the course, let people know the benefits from studying, and let them know what they will miss out on if they don’t take advantage of the opportunity. It should also include a definitive call to action at the end, so there is no doubt about what you want them to do next.

The News and Commentary Video

With this type of video, you want to show that you are a thought leader in your industry by relaying news or providing commentary on recent events that have taken place. You can also review a product or service and give your opinion to let your prospects know you are on their side and want what's best for them. News and commentary videos help to build trust and establish your institution as an authority in your industry, increasing the likelihood of students purchasing your course.

'Tips and Tricks' Video

If you show prospects a tip or trick related to your subject matter, you will be seen as an expert in the field, which will help lead them down the road to making a purchase. If your course deals with science, then give tips and teasers on how to solve issues related to your industry. If you are selling a plumbing course, then introduce a few common issues and show tips on how to solve them. Remember to tie any tips or tricks back to your course, so they know that’s the real place to find the answers.

Behind the Scenes

You may not want to try and sell your course directly through videos, and if this is the case, a “behind the scenes” format may work. Going behind the scenes to show what you or your university or college does on a daily basis will make people relate to your institution better. It gives you a chance to showcase personality and give insight into the values and beliefs. This approach won’t be effective for every type of course, but it works wonderfully for many.

Testimonial Videos

Featuring testimonials from people who have successfully completed the course can go a long way toward securing a sale. Everyone loves social proof when making a purchase, and even if the course is well known, seeing real people speak highly of it makes a difference. Make sure you don't use actors for this type of video; it's vital that everything seems genuine and the people have actually taken the course.

Useful Tips and Tactics

Create Personas

Creating detailed personas is a common exercise for inbound marketers, and should be created before making any videos to sell your courses online. A buyer's persona is essentially your ideal customer and should include information like gender, age, profession, salary, family details, hobbies, goals, and so on. When you have a persona to work with, it will be easier to choose the type of video to use and the type of language and information that will yield the best results.

Be Genuine

In the world of modern online marketing, people want transparency and want to purchase from people and organizations that seem genuine. Try not to come off too "salesy" and speak as you do in real life, so your prospects can relate and will feel comfortable. Many educators and program directors choose to be in the videos themselves, and even if you’re not interested, be sure whoever is in the video is as genuine as possible.

Start Your Own Channel

Having a place that acts as a depository for videos will help boost sales and brand awareness. Start a YouTube channel and add videos selling your courses as well as any other videos about your school or company, education trends, job openings, or anything else you think is valuable.

Look the Part

It should go without saying, but as you are trying to sell courses directly or indirectly through your videos, it is essential to make them look as professional as possible. That doesn't mean you need to spend a fortune making them, but it's crucial to enusre that both the video and sound quality are good, there is an appropriate backdrop, and keep the overall feel and look consistent.

Different Ways to Increase Engagement

You can use your videos as part of some cross-channel marketing to increase the audience for your courses even more. Try promoting videos through these channels for even greater engagement:

Social Media

Adding your video to all of your social media platforms will help increase exposure and the likelihood of people sharing it with their networks. You can also include the video as part of paid ads for Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter.

Email Campaigns

Consider sending your video to your email list to help increase conversions. The fact that they have already opted in means that you have their attention, so promote your courses via video to them as part of your email campaigns.

Blogging

Add videos to existing blogs that are based on a similar subject matter or make them stand-alone video blogs.

There's no reason why your college, university or training provider shouldn't use video to sell courses online and see impressive results. Follow the tips and information in this article to drive engagement and enrollments.

Top 10 Graphic Design Trends to Inspire Your Work in 2022

There can never be enough emphasis on the role that graphic design plays in our daily lives. Good design enhances the identity of our favorite brands and extends far beyond the appearance of an entity. We use it to provide information, convey messaging, or convince our audience through combinations of images, shades, and shapes.

Because there are so many players and influences in the field, it can be hard to keep up with the changes in the world of graphic design. As a designer, it’s beneficial to keep up with the latest graphic design trends and choose which ones work in your design portfolio.

To lighten your mind, this article will explain, and more importantly, show you, the top ten graphic design trends and creative styles you’ll start to notice more in 2022, some of which will last for several years.

Trend #1 — Combining 2D x 3D

There has been an upward trend in 3D design for many years, and it continues to evolve and establish itself further. It gives designers unlimited room for creativity since it provides an almost endless array of options.

The most popular work we’re seeing in this arena ranges from highly realistic 3D visuals that blur the line between digital and physical elements to mashups that incorporate 2D graphics and paper cutouts.

2022 will be the year of a significant cross-over between 2D and 3D.

Row 1: Sally Yang, 14islands, tubik.arts.

Trend #2 — Nostalgia (90s)

Pretty recently, popular media like Netflix’s Cobra Kai & Stranger Things (among countless others) brought back 80s nostalgia and ushered in an era of vaporwave landscapes, neon colors, and Gothic serifs. And retro comebacks are finally hitting the 90s in 2022!

We can see the 90s making a comeback in many of the trends on this list. Yet, the nostalgia trend reflects a longing for the past through rose-colored glasses.

Toward that end, we are reliving the 90s through simple emojis, primitive internet frames, geometric shapes, and sketchy illustrations. The dripping slime and bright color blocks of childhood are still kings.

In your next design project, channel the 90s for a retro vibe.

Row 1: Diana Hlevnjak, Roberto Perrino, Salmorejo Studio.

Trend #3 — Twisted Typography

This trend involves anything “offbeat” that breaks your order, whether one letter is upside down, in a larger or smaller font, or entirely left out.

A portion of your lettering in a smaller text could be arranged so that they reveal a different message from the rest. This trend is a great way to make a point and draw someone’s attention to a specific area of the design.

Also, if you’re thinking of the Squid Game intro, you’re not alone.

Row 1: Hrvoje Grubisic, Anton Aheichanka for InVision, Hrvoje Grubisic.

Trend #4 — Ukiyo-e style design

Japanese ukiyo-e is a form of art that flourished from the 17th to the 19th century. They depicted female beauties, kabuki actors, sumo wrestlers, scenes from history and folk tales, travel scenes, landscapes, and flora and fauna. The term ukiyo-e is Japanese for “pictures of floating worlds.”

Vector designers are familiar with bold outlines, flat colors, and limited perspective techniques found in this type of art. In today’s creative world, similar designs are being used to give ordinary flat vector scenes that extra edge.

Row 1: Elina Cecilia Giglio, Gabrielle Widjaja, Jacek macha Machowski.

Trend #5 — Candy Colored Vibes

Standing out from the clutter of online content creation nowadays is a job in itself. As a result, graphic designers have started finding creative ways to use color to capture our attention while scrolling.

A trend of vibrant candy-colored scenes is sprouting up all over the internet.

Hint: it’s easier to create these fairy-floss themes if you know and can implement some color theory to create your tasty digital creations.

Row 1: Ryan Hammond for Herefor Studio, Meg Lewis, brenton_clarke.

Trend #6 — The rise of the anti-designer

An anti-design is what it sounds like: rejecting traditional design principles and aesthetics.

Our senses are challenged by asymmetry, color clashes, bare interfaces, and busy patterns in this trend. The style has been criticized for appearing ugly just for ugliness’ sake. However, to its supporters, it results in projects liberated from the beauty standards constructed by conventional designers.

The anti-designers plan to break the rules entirely in 2022.

Row 1: ilham yoga for Omnicreativora, Sara Aube for Rogue Studio, Mariela Mezquita.

Trend #7 — 3D Characters (think NFTs!)

Nintendo 64 fans, rejoice! Our favorite 3D-style characters have invaded the graphic design space once again in a big way for many apps, websites, and animations.

The characters can be created as 2D designs, holographic designs, candy color designs, or anything we’re talking about in this article. We can all enjoy the 3D character trend, as shown in the following examples.

Row 1: VAGO, Tran Mau Tri Tam ✪ for UI8, Nguyen Nhut.

Trend #8 — Parametric patterns

A parametric pattern consists of geometric structures whose lines morph depending on their relative positions. Graphs of parametric equations inspire the style.

As part of the designs of 2022, parametric patterns represent the complexity of the subjects they represent, from communication to identity.

The graphic design industry relies heavily on patterns. These decorative elements add visual interest to backgrounds and break up solid colors. With parametric geometry, in 2022, designers will put statement patterns front and center.

Row 1: Paul Rover, Carlos de Toro, Agustin Cristofano.

Trend #9 — Holographic design

With its mixture of high-gloss multidimensional pastel highlights, holographic design is undoubtedly high-tech and futuristic. Even in static images, these highlights give the impression of movement. 3D motion designers especially have been loving this trend for its mesmerizing effects.

The holographic trend has recently appeared in other areas of our lives like fashion (remember those 90s see-through holographic bags and jelly shoes?), stationary, and so on. As a result, it is no surprise that this trend has also reached the animation and web realms. Apps and logos are also no exception.

Trend #10 — Extreme “high school” bubble design

A graphic designer’s work is not complete without some fun. Since circles lack corners, they convey a friendly and lighthearted vibe, undeniably positive. As we could all use positivity in our lives, designing rounded graphics and lettering styles will be a popular trend for 2022.

The 2022 trend is exaggerated through elongated forms and psychedelic colors instead of the typical bubble fonts and shapes found on children’s products. The result is an inflatable design that feels grown-up while still retaining that vital spark of childlike fun.

Row 1: Mr.Mockup™, 𝚕𝚞𝚕𝚊, Meg Lewis.

Add these graphic design trends to your portfolio in 2022

As a whole, 2022’s graphic design trends may seem quite random. From anti-design and parametric patterns to candy colors and extreme bubble doodles, what they all have in common is a giant 90s flashback. There is no denying that these unique design trends will highlight the upcoming year in design.

It will be exciting to see how this global community of designers will come together in 2022 to create incredible designs (just don’t try to master them all at once!). 

This article was originally posted by Olivia Hoskin on Dribbble

Video Advertising Tips: How to Create Engaging Video Ads in 2022

Want to know how to create eye-catching video ads to reel in customers? Here’s a guide for how to create engaging video ads in 2022.

Most experts predict that video advertising will continue to boom in 2022. However, the ever-changing realities fueled by multiple factors – including the global pandemic – are shifting audience perception of video ads in terms of what content they want to consume. Brands that want to stay relevant need to keep up with these trends.

Want to know how to drive results through video advertising? Here’s our guide to creating engaging video ads in 2022… 

1. Quality Storytelling is Still Key 

The value of quality storytelling still remains crucial in 2022. While telling an authentic story through professional video production was a privilege previously reserved for top-tier brands with substantial marketing budgets, online audiences are now moving away from the hyper-polished ad in favor of more authentic, relatable content. 

This means one thing: authenticity is now key for businesses wishing to engage new and loyal customers via digital video ads in 2022. 

Unlike premium brands, small and mid-sized businesses can leverage less expensive yet equally effective alternatives. You can tell a unique story by wrapping it in authentic messaging, using existing branded video content, and even including stock video footage to reduce costs. Another tactic is collaborating with micro influencers on TikTok or Instagram, which enables you to reach more specific market niches.

Another consideration for video advertising in 2022 is the growing importance of putting purpose over profit. Simply put, a company’s impact on society’s well-being has evolved from being a nice bonus to a crucial characteristic. Strong values and social awareness is now indispensable, and will directly affect customers’ perception of your brand.

Even though actions speak louder than words, effectively communicating your company’s stance on important societal issues will be a core aspect of a successful digital marketing strategy in 2022. 

While video advertising is a powerful aspect of any brand awareness campaign, combining the skills of video influencers with other types of digital ads on social media, digital media outlets or your website will undoubtedly have more impact. 

2. Trial New Video Trends, Formats & Features

With the continual exponential growth of technology, online video advertising in 2022 will have a strong focus innovation. The sharp increase of interest in VR and AR ad capabilities will undoubtedly be fueled by the virality of the metaverse and its potential benefits for the digital video advertising industry. 

Whereas in 2021 everyone was talking about metaverse, in 2022, many will be trying out metaverse’s advertising capabilities for themselves. While the worldwide adoption of 5G has been slowed down due to supply chain shortages in the past 12 months, things are likely to bounce back which will spawn a new array of immersive video ad formats to be experimented with, and not just in the gaming arena. 

A great way to get started with immersive ads is to explore existing web XR tech solutions on the market, trial a demo video ad campaign, then expand based on the achieved results. In addition, launching limited in-game promo campaigns could be an effective advertising strategy for brands or businesses in the entertainment industry. 

Another trend we expect to take off in 2022 is short-form video content. Mostly streamed as TV (also CTV) specials, these will give way to short catchy clips on web and mobile apps. Given that viewers are being more conscious of their time spent online and also the volume of advertising content they consume, video ads should be short, visually stimulating, and feature lightning-fast loading times on all platforms and devices.

An efficient way to reduce video ad loading speed is by integrating video ads into AMP properties (e.g. AMP video ad tech by AdPlayer.Pro), whereas a more universal approach to a non-disruptive online video ad experience may require the use of outstream formats.

3. Be Aware of Contextual Relevance

As the deprecation of third-party cookies looms on the horizon, 2022 is the time for brands to harness the power of targeting and contextual relevance with their video ads. 

This not only means delivering video ads in their most contextually-relevant environment, but also keeping addressability and discoverability in mind. The latter happens to be especially important in the CTV advertising niche, where the issues of hyper targeting and overmatching are still rather frequent. 

Contextual targeting will definitely play a huge role in digital advertising in 2022. Therefore, brands need to take advantage of relevant tech solutions to test out themed-matched campaigns in editorial environments, and emotive matching capabilities in conventional in-stream segments. 

Guest Author: Anton Liaskovskyi

Anton Liaskovskyi is CEO of AdPlayer.Pro, a global provider of outstream video advertising solutions. He’s a young entrepreneur and tech enthusiast, with over 10 years of career experience in PaaS and SaaS tech development. 

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8 Motion Graphics Trends for 2022: From Animated Collage to Kinetic Typography

Ready to put your creativity into into motion? From retro to glitch, here are the top motion graphics trends we predict for 2022.

The world of motion graphics has experienced a big boost over the last few years. While in-person events took a hit throughout the global pandemic, video creators turned to stock footage, animation, and began experimenting with motion graphics to come up with fresh ways of delivering content.

Now, motion graphics are dominating across all industries. From subtle in-app animations to full promotional videos, the versatility and innovation of motion graphics cannot be matched. And, as a creative discipline directly linked to the development of technology, it’s no surprise that motion graphic trends are constantly shifting and evolving.

In previous years, motion graphics trends have consisted of eye-catching color palettes, dynamic animations, simplistic design, and retro elements. But what will 2022 bring? From kinetic typography to liquid motion, here are the top 8 motion graphics trends that we’re predicting will move us over the next year ahead… 

1. Animated Collage

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A post shared by Andreea Robescu (@andreea.robescu)

Animated collage consists of everything from illustrations and photos to animations and digital footage, combined to create a crafty look and feel. The result is a curated collection of visuals that work together to tell a story.

For example, this experimental motion collage by graphic designer Andreea Robescu uses a black-and-white image of a woman as a starting point, before layering swirling colors, video clips of speeding trains, and torn-paper textures. The effect is chaotic, energetic and constantly moving, while ensuring the eye is anchored to the central image.

Animated collages are perfect for those who seek inspiration from a range of sources. Get started by checking out the Mixed Media Collection in the Envato Elements Library, which is filled with assets designed to create eye-catching animated collages.

2. Kinetic Typography

Text and fonts are major components of motion graphics, and kinetic typography takes these design elements to the next level. Perfect for capturing attention and telling a story, the head-turning effect of kinetic typography make it perfect for advertisements, websites, music videos and title sequences for movies and TV shows.

This trend can be seen in this collection of Voting Art, designed to encourage people to engage with politics. While some animations emphasise each letter individually, others make the whole word pop as it expands and contracts or twists and turns to fill the screen. 

“There’s something strangely satisfying about seeing animated text,” says Marco P. Korreli, Envato Video Producer. “Whether it’s just a word or a complete sentence, we often ignore how motion enhances, complements or even modifies the meaning of a text. 

As technology became available (and more affordable) for standard users, the motion graphics era exploded into a fascinating landscape of styles, trends and truly interesting techniques. So much so that you’ll hardly find a piece of media without some basic moving text today.”

Give life to your words and add visual interest to logos with this Kinetic Typography Pack from Envato Elements, which features 19 ready-to-use scenes and 30 titles, all of which can be fully customised in order to convey your message. Simply pick a color scheme, adjust the video length and cut and paste your message to get started.

3. Glitch

Glitch effects give video creators permission to introduce imperfections they’d usually try to avoid at all costs. A trend that embraces disruption, distortion and digital noise, glitches are great for creating a raw, edgy DIY aesthetic that pays tribute to analogue printing presses and hand-drawn animations. 

Take this teaser video from K-pop girl group Aespa, which flickers and blurs between real-life action and anime illustrations. 

Start creating your own glitchy motion graphics by adding grain, grit and grunge to your videos with this pack of glitch transitions from Envato Elements.  Featuring flickering static, distorted colors and neon-green binary code, they can be combined with music and text to add an edge to explainer videos, a YouTube channel opener or a website homepage.

4. Isometric Shapes 

While originally used in technical drawing,  isometric shapes are also being used by motion designers looking to introduce a 3D feel into their 2D animations, or give a unique perspective to their 3D renders.

This is in contrast to one-point projections, which instead make objects feel smaller the further away they are from the viewer. Take for example this video opener for OFFF, a Barcelona-based design festival. Displaying a perfect example of two dimensional isometric motion graphics, it shows that isometric shapes can be injected with playfulness and personality to add extra depth and perspective.

“In my opinion, the work of a motion graphics designer is an easy one with this trend,” says Marco. “Since Isometric design is all about simplicity and accurate representation, you’ll most likely receive a pack of illustrations that need to be deconstructed into layers and reformed in some animated fashion. You pretty much know where everything is going to end.” 

On the flip side, this example from Spotify Premium, is a great display of isometric angles in a 3D environment. It shows animated characters listening to music in a variety of pop-up settings and situations, transitioning from studying to exercising.

If you want to immerse viewers in a thrilling 3D environment, look no further than these isometric loops that can be added to video openers to give a fluid look and feel. Or, add dimension to any design with these isometric icons from HolyPix. From science labs to law courts and classrooms to the corporate world, a range of everyday scenarios and associated objects are vividly rendered and just waiting to be included in your next project.

5. Retro 

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A post shared by 𝕾𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖆 𝕾𝖆𝖊𝖙𝖌𝖆𝖗 (@saidamagic)

Some design styles become so popular that they come to define an entire era – like the iconic yellow smiley face of the 1970s or 1950s-style hand-lettered logos. The retro motion graphics trend uses these styles, images or motifs which have become eternally embedded in popular culture to evoke a sense of nostalgia. 

“The fun thing about retro is – it’s trending!” says Marco. “But what makes something ‘Retro’? For example, whenever we look for retro fonts we usually have to be rather precise when choosing. Is it the one from the 1968 Mexico Olympics? Is it that slim art deco one from the Great Gatsby? It’s all about knowing what constitutes the feel of an era and letting your imagination do the rest. It’s your job as a motion graphics designer to understand why something looks old but feels modern. Because just like fashion, you never know when that weird thing your folks used to like is making a comeback.” 

This 80s-inspired example instantly channels some of the most recognizable retro TV shows, movies and album covers of the era with its tropical palm trees, sunset pastels and neon cityscapes.

Thanks to the addition of a moving grid, shooting lasers and lens flare, this animated background is a celebration of space exploration and reality-bending science fiction. From Star Wars to Tron, it’s impossible not to think of the 80s when you see this purple-pink creation from Envato artist VictoryBox. 

6. Grain Effects & Texture

Similar to glitch, this next trend focuses on adding character using imperfections such as grain effects and texture – the kind of design ‘noise’ that can be seen in this example from design collective Reverse Charades. With its images of humans and household objects, as well as symmetrical shapes and squiggles, this montage not only highlights the grain effect, but is also a great example of mixed media in motion graphics.

To bring an analogue aesthetic to your work, try out this Risograph Grain Effect pack from Envato Elements. Drawing on inspiration from screen printing to come up with three grain intensity options, five grain textures, and 50 pre-made gradients that will transform your motion graphic designs. 

7. Morphing

As the name suggests, this trend refers to a special effect which morphs animations together through seamless transitions. The effect is smooth, streamlined and completely transportative.

Combining busy city streets and sparkling skylines with the Eiffel Tower and Champs-Élysées, this morphing display of motion graphics brings Paris to life in vivid motion. Presenting several locations in just a few seconds, it offers a fast-paced and compelling view of the City of Lights.

In contrast, this Wacom video which advertises the brand’s modern stylus draws on abstract objects that morph and merge. Here we see shapes, materials and textures transform and change in the blink of an eye, keeping the audience constantly guessing as to what’s coming next. It also has an element of our next trend, Liquid Motion.

8. Liquid Motion

Our final trend for this motion graphics round-up is liquid motion. This technique creates movements rendered to have a water-like quality and consistency. Ebbing and flowing from ripples to waves, these animations resemble 1960-style psychedelic art with a modern twist. Combined with swirly typography, this trend mirrors moving liquid. 

For example, this video from Dutch marketing agency Alfred achevies a fast-paced feel using liquid motion animation that morphs studio footage, illustration and a speedy demonstration of how the app actually works. 

Add movement and motion to your next project with this Liquid Opener template from Envato Elements, which features five unique transitions that splash and spray across the screen in a kaleidoscope of color.

And that does it for our top Motion Graphics Trends for 2022! For more trend predictions, check out our Graphic Design Trends for 2022 and these top 5 Social Video Trends: From Going Live to YouTube Shorts.

Posted By Kelsie Rimmer

Animation Video Marketing Statistics We Can Learn For 2022

Looking at the important statistics to do with Animation Video Marketing in 2021

What is animation marketing?

Animation marketing is the process of incorporating animated video into a wider marketing campaign, to promote your business and engage your target audience. Animated videos are an increasingly popular marketing tool, and one that is only set to be used more in 2021.

In this article, we take a closer look at the benefits of animation video marketing, and share some insightful animation video marketing statistics that will really get you thinking. 

What are the benefits of animation marketing?

Clear and concise

One of the reasons animated marketing videos are so effective, and so suited to modern media consumption trends, is that animation is a great way to get information across in an entertaining and concise way. This is because an animated video can utilize a voiceover, custom visual aids and visual metaphors simultaneously. An animated video can also easily depict complicated scenarios because there are no constraints of having to film the scene physically happening, which leaves a huge scope for creativity when it comes to the content of the video.

Reflect your brand easily 

Another benefit to animation is that you can incorporate your brand's personality into an animated video in a way that just isn’t achievable with other types of marketing. You can personalize animation to a very high degree using your brand’s colour scheme, aesthetic style and logo, and even create unique animated characters which can become synonymous with your brand (like Duracell did with the Duracell Bunny). This type of fun, emotive marketing is ideal for creating and maintaining a loyal customer base and can be achieved very effectively through animation.

Less expensive / less resources 

Animated videos are in a lot of ways simpler to produce than live-action videos. There are usually a lot of people, resources and equipment that come with creating a live-action video, however when it comes to animation, your animator can design and create the world you’ve envisioned without constraint. This means that not only do you have more time to focus on the content of your marketing video because there are fewer aspects to consider, but the content of your video is far less limited. 

Another thing to consider is that most production studios will offer a round of post-production edits for free if you’re not totally happy with your animated video. Small edits which can make a big difference, like the facial expression of a character or the positioning of the sun in the background, are usually easily fixable in an animated video, but could be expensive and time consuming to alter in other marketing formats.

Evoke a sense of nostalgia 

Another reason for animated marketing videos being so appealing is that rather than associating this type of marketing video with adverts, we associate them with cartoons. Nostalgia can be a very powerful marketing tool; Kellogg’s originally designed Tony the Tiger to appeal to children, but it has since proved to be just as effective with adults because the cartoon tiger on every box means we get to relive our childhood every time we buy the product.

Types of animation videos

There are many different types of animated videos, and the kind which will be most effective for your business depends on who you’re trying to target, and the message you want to get across. 

Animated explainer videos 

Animated explainer videos, for example, are short videos (usually under a minute long) which are designed to explain a product or service quickly and in a creative way. This type of animation is popular with B2B companies who may need to explain complex business ideas or demonstrate new services. 2D and 3D animated adverts are another type of animated video, which tend to be more popular with B2C companies because they lend themselves to fun, accessible advertising and work well on social media. Creative animated adverts, particularly ones featuring people or characters, can be highly emotive which makes them ideal for nurturing customer engagement and loyalty.

Live action / animation mix 

Videos which feature a mix of live-action and animation are the marketing version of augmented reality. These videos are so effective because they combine the familiarity of live action with the imagination of animated characters and add-ins; they have all the benefits of both types of video marketing. 

White board animation 

Whiteboard animation videos are a style of animation which became even more popular in 2020. The reason for the popularity of this type of animation is that complicated concepts can be drawn out step by step in a very clear way and can easily incorporate words and diagrams. A hand drawing on a whiteboard is a universally familiar image which makes taking in a lot of information much easier for your target audience, and also means that this type of animation appeals to a huge range of people.

Animated video marketing Statistics 2021

There has been an 800% increase globally in ad-supported videos in the past year alone (customerthink), with 64% of consumers making a purchase after watching branded videos on social media (Tubular Insights).

When it comes to B2B videos, short is better. B2B videos that are shorter than 60 seconds are on average watched all the way through 68% of the time. In comparison, videos that are much longer (around 20 minutes) are on average only watched all the way through around 25% of the time (vidyard).This is why animated explainer videos are so effective; they can get across a lot of information in a short video.

It has been estimated that on average, people spend at least 100 minutes every day watching online videos (Marketing Charts) and by 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic (Cisco).

Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to just 10% when reading it in text (Invisia). This explains why animated explainer videos are so popular! 59% of marketers now use animated explainer videos to sell their products and services (Crackitt).

Websites which include video are 53 times more likely to be found on search engines, and the average time a person will stay on a website increases from 8 seconds to 2 minutes if the website has video on it (animationexplainers.com).

85% of consumers want to see more video content from brands (HubSpot), which is a testament to the popularity of video marketing campaigns and how effective they really are for maintaining customer interest and loyalty.

Popular examples of animation video marketing

Animated videos are extremely appealing to consumers, particularly when they include characters. It is essential for your brand to set a tone that resonates with your target audience – using language which is familiar to your target audience and having a unique company ‘persona’ is what draws people to a brand; taking this concept one step further by having an animated character to embody this persona is a proven marketing strategy. 

Compare The Meerkat (Compare the Market)

An example of this strategy working is the Compare the Market meerkats. This marketing campaign is an animated phenomenon, which has brought in celebrity collaborations, merchandise and a massive amount of business for the company behind it; Compare the Market is now a multi-million-pound business, and it attributes 70% of its growth in the UK to their animated meerkat campaign (branding.news).

Dropbox

An example of just how effective animation marketing can be is the animated explainer video used to describe Dropbox. The service Dropbox offers is presented in the animation as being a magic storage container which, in a fun and clear way, explained the concept of cloud storage. 

The release of this animated explainer video drove 10% more conversion and earned Dropbox an extra forty-eight million dollars! (Crackitt.com). 

This perfectly demonstrates the fact that if your target audience understands how your product works and why it would benefit them, and it’s presented to them in an appealing way, they’ll want it. Animated video marketing is ideal for hitting both these criteria.

Red bull

Another long-running animated marketing campaign is the Red Bull cartoons, which bring to life their world-famous slogan ‘Red Bull gives you wings’. This marketing campaign is an example of how animated videos are appealing to consumers because they don’t feel like adverts. They use humour and simplicity, which make a marketing campaign instantly likeable; they’re entertaining and memorable and are therefore the perfect way to maintain a long-standing connection with consumers. As Red Bull’s Marketing Director himself puts it, “advertising Red Bull is not just about glorifying the product but connecting with consumers with an entertaining story that’s a bit of fun” (economictimes.indiatimes.com). 

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To find out more about how animation can help you promote your business or your services, get in touch with RAW Pictures to find out more and chat to one of our expert team.

Source: https://www.rawpictures.co.uk/

Benefits Of Motion Graphics

With the data explosion, getting your business message out is much harder. While lots of great animations published on social media, there is far less cool motion in apps or web-based platforms. You as a stakeholder should consider introducing great motion design in the first place. Animations can be used for whatever point you want to make and break through overproduced content in a split-second.

In this article, OpenGeeksLab has shared ideas on why animations matter for apps and web platforms. You will read about what cool motion graphics is, and how to use it effectively so that your business can gain benefits from it.

What Is Motion Graphics?

In simple words, motion graphics as a great source of storytelling combines animation and graphic design. As animation design uses not only simple visual elements such as text, shapes, or images but also engages auditory receptors to communicate ideas, it is more memorable for viewers than just static pictures.

The magic of cool motion graphics animation for brand apps and web platforms is that it showcases complex pictures, ideas, concepts, and a great deal of data in a short, simple, visually appealing video. As a result, it helps convey a message in the fastest way, easily grab and hold the viewer’s attention. Great animation design can be used in whatever areas you want—business, marketing, IT solutions, motion picture industry, education, healthcare, social networks, or entertainment.

Benefits of Applying Animation Design

Applying animation design helps you raise brand awareness, increase people curiosity in what you’re doing and why, cause the urge to buy apps, products, or services, prompt to take actions. Videos can be used on any platforms at your fingertips—promo items, online ads, tutorials, titles trailers, news teasers, web, and mobile devices, business presentations, or any other creative ideas. Let’s go step by step.

Benefits of cool motion graphics:

• It is cost and time effective. With great animation design, you need far less time, money, and efforts to create eye-catching motion pictures.

• It raises brand recognition. Viewers easily comprehend complex pictures, ideas, and stats if they are presented in simple terms and engaging way. People retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video in comparison with 10% when reading it in a text.

• It makes brand content shareable across social networks. People share social video 1200% more than simple text and static pictures combined. Facebook videos, in turn, have approximately 8 billion views daily.

• It drives people to comment and discuss content. 85% of consumers are eager to see more branded video. Real-time feedback as a great communication channel allows figuring out ideas of what should be improved and updated in your app, product or services.

• It allows an app or a web-based platform to come up high in Google search. A website is 53 times more likely to be shown on Google’s first page if it includes motion.

• It increases sales via a better return on investment (ROI). Animated content drives 300% more traffic generating more leads.

• It helps your brand stand out among competitors as well as set cool trends. People spend approximately 2.6x more time browsing pages with videos than without. As forecasted, videos are expected to reach 82% of internet traffic by 2021.

How to Use Animation Design Effectively?

For effective use of animation design, figure out what business objectives you want to achieve, and for how long. Before adopting animation ideas, ask yourself some simple questions:

• Who is my target audience? What are my clients’ values and pain points? How can my product solve customers’ problems?

• What business message or concept do I want to convey? How can I do it?

• What are the main ideas the audience should remember?

• What business objectives do I want to achieve?

• What benefits will I gain from applying animation design?

After you have answered all the questions, choose the relevant type of video that will showcase your main concept in the best way. Let’s dig deeper into the main ones.

Animated storytelling gives you an opportunity to tell people about your brand vision highlighting the most vital factors, points, ideas.

A promotional video, if it is done thoughtfully and attention-grabbing, compares favorably to typical business ads. It lasts from 30 to 60 seconds. You need to strictly follow the length requirements to attract the viewers immediately to showcase your app or web platform's strengths and benefits.

With educational videos, your brand shows customers how to solve their problems either with your product or other tools. Each animated video contains a complete step-by-step guide. An educational video is longer than a promo. The point is that it drives an entirely different volume for viewers.

An explainer video, in turn, is the best choice if you want to reveal the insights on your product or services simply and engagingly from one perspective. Such animated short film creates eye-catching in-app or website content thus earning viewers’ loyalty and trust.

A testimonial video helps you build trustful relationships with your customers before deciding why to purchase your product. The more natural and simple your customer’s review on positive experience in cooperation with your company is, the more credible it will be.

If you have a complex product or service, then it is difficult to explain it in simple terms. This is exactly where a live-action video comes in. It will demonstrate rather than explain how your product or service works, its features as well as what benefits your customers can gain by using it.

So Why Does Your Business Need Great Motion Design?

Cool animation design proved to be the golden mean between overproduced videos, trends, and simple static content. If done correctly with the accurate use of visual and audio effects, it conveys your message effectively. It’s simple —the more people watch, read, engage with your content, the more they trust your firm, your product, or services. As a result, you become an advisor people want to rely on and follow, not just a company that tries only to sell them some brand stuff.

We at OpenGeeksLab know how to translate complex data into a simple language with animation design best solutions—from research, script development to storyboard design and motion release.

Source: OpenGeeksLab

What Do U.S. Consumers Think About Mobile Advertising?

Brands have long used advertising to get the word out among consumers. And with consumers flocking to mobile, advertisers have followed suit. 

Today, brands have many different options for reaching consumers, including through social media, influencers, television advertising, and so many more channels. With so many options to choose from, should mobile advertising be part of the mix? 

To help brands answer this question, we commissioned a survey using InMobi Pulse, InMobi’s mobile market research solution. In 2021, we asked over 2,000 Americans what they really thought about mobile advertising. 

Here’s what we uncovered. 

TL;DR Version 

• 55% agree or strongly agree with the following statement: I prefer that mobile apps have ads, rather than having to pay to download apps.

• 21% said they enjoy seeing ads in apps.

• One in four say they notice ads for products that interest them in gaming apps.

• One in three say they visit a brand’s website after seeing an ad for a product that interests them.

American Attitudes To Mobile Advertising In 2021 

Overall, most Americans understand the value exchange that comes with advertising: namely, by viewing ads they can avoid having to pay for content. Among those surveyed, 55% said they prefer apps with ads as opposed to having to pay for them.  

But do consumers actually enjoy seeing mobile ads? Over one in five (21%) said yes. Among survey respondents between 18 and 34 years old, that figure jumps to 29%. 

When asked about their ad preferences, 18% said they prefer video ads while the same share said they prefer banner ads. But when asked about which ads they notice, 36% said they notice videos while 25% notice banners. Further, just over one in five said they notice native ads and interstitials. 

Where are consumers seeing these ads? Top answers include gaming apps (25%), social apps (23%), streaming apps (15%), mobile webpages (15%) and news apps (14%).  

After seeing and interacting with an ad for a product that interests them, what action do Americans usually take? The top response was visit a brand’s website (32%), followed by open or download the brand’s app (16%).  

How Does Our Data Compare To Other Research? 

We also wanted to see our numbers compare to what eMarketer has reported. Here’s a small snippet of what they have found: 

• 74% of iOS device users would rather opt in to receiving targeted advertising if it meant not having to pay for features or content that is currently free. 

• 51% of mobile gamers in the U.S. said they’d prefer to watch ads and play for free as opposed to making in-app payments. 

• Among mobile gamers in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Germany and France, 35%  said they like banner ads – much higher than what our research uncovered. But for rewarded ads, likeability rises to 50% or more. 

• 20% of adults in the U.S. most disliked seeing ads for products they don’t need. 

• Among smartphone owners in the U.S., 31% said they’d allow tracking to all apps rather than pay to subscribe. 
  
  

About the Author      

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. 

This article was originally published by Matt Kaplan, Content Strategist on www.inmobi.com

What Is Motion Blur in Video Editing? Why You Should Use It

Without motion blur, edited videos can look unnatural or choppy. We're going to discuss why video editors need to use this effect.

We've all seen those animation or transition video edits where something doesn't quite look right; the movement looks unnatural or the playback will be choppy. Usually, this is because it was edited without using a motion blur effect.

We're going to discuss what motion blur is, why you should use it, and give some examples so you can see for yourself that we're not lying; video edits without motion blur just look ugly. If you're a video editor, we highly recommend sticking around for this one.

What Is Motion Blur in Video Editing?

Motion blur is a common term in photography and videography. And while the end result of this recording function is pretty similar to what we're discussing here, it's not quite the same.

We're talking about the motion blur effect in video editing. The examples we're going to give here all happen after the fact; nobody is using a camera or recording anything. This is about editors who have their clips imported and ready to edit with motion, looking for a way to make their edits look natural and easily digestible for viewers.

The motion blur effect (or just...motion blur) was designed to aid the way we observe movement in videos, making it a pleasant experience. An overly-simplistic way of describing motion blur: it adds blur to video footage. But there's so much more to it; stick around and you'll see.

Why You Should Use Motion Blur in Your Edits

Remember, video editing is digital, so the way a program or computer processes things is far from how our organic minds do. This includes sensory processing such as sight. Natural-looking movement will always involve a degree of blur, at least to the human eye—cats can apparently observe movement without blur up to 100fps!

When we observe movement without blur, such as that produced by a computer, we can instantly tell that it's unnatural, and it will be mechanical-looking to us. This is was happens when you don't add motion blur to clips that have been edited with motion; PowerPoint-presentation vibes, yuck.

Aside from it looking unnatural, video clips without motion blur can also look choppy; this is a big no-no for video editors, we want our work to be up to standard. Whether the footage was shot with camera settings that didn't involve motion blur, or if the quality of the video clips is just bad for whichever reason, a motion blur effect can smooth out that stutter.

Working With Motion Blur in Video Editing

Most video editing programs feature motion blur—desktop software and mobile editing apps alike, at least the more comprehensive ones. The motion blur effect can usually be found among all the other effects, or it will be listed separately as a tool, depending on what you're editing on. Either way, it's the same thing.

Below is where the Motion Blur tool is located in After Effects. A motion blur effect icon will usually have some sort of repeated shape or animation, like these little circles.

Sometimes, motion blur will have a different name or different applications. For example, in the Video Star mobile editing app, motion blur is referred to as "tracking blur". While the actual Motion Blur effect in the app acts more like optical flow, which is used for slow-motion editing. More on that later.

Editing With Motion

Motion blur should be applied to any video clips that are being edited with movement; we can also refer to this as animation or motion editing in this case. It includes:

• Zooming in or out.

• Rotating.

• Panning in any direction, or simply changing the position of the frame.

• Moving text.

• Moving 2D and 3D objects.

Keep in mind that when we talk about videos with movement, this doesn't refer to the video footage that already features movement, like people walking around. Motion blur will have no effect on that.

Motion blur will only work with video clips that are being edited with motion techniques inside the editing program. For example, if you perform a zoom transition effect from one clip to another and the screen starts zooming in on the frame, that zoom effect is what the motion blur effect will attach itself to.

How Does Motion Blur Work?

What does motion blur look like? Wouldn't it just blur the whole frame when applied? Nope, editing programs are smarter than that.

When motion blur is applied to a clip that's been edited with movement (motion effect), it's an automated process from there on, and some programs will let you modify the settings too.

Motion blur will auto-detect motion, meaning it detects the editing techniques you've used to make stuff move around on the screen. When motion blur is enabled and it detects these motions, the effect kicks into gear.

The intensity of the motion blur and how it makes the clip look will depend on the way you've edited it, and a lot of it comes down to the keyframe interpolation; bear with us...

When the editing technique has linear interpolation, it means the motion effect will move at the same velocity until it stops. For example, if you add a zoom effect to a clip with linear interpolation, it will zoom in or out at a steady pace. In this case, the motion blur will be the same across the entire duration of the zoom.

But if the editing technique uses Bezier interpolation, the velocity of the motion effect will change throughout. For example, a zoom effect with Bezier interpolation can start zooming in or out slowly and get exponentially faster as it reaches the end. In this case, the motion blur effect will increase respectively too.

Basically, the faster and more hardcore the editing technique (motion effect), the more blur you'll get from motion blur, and vice versa.

Let's show you what it looks like. We've edited a clip with a zoom motion effect and Bezier interpolation, and below is a comparison of the clip with and without motion blur.

With Motion Blur:

Without Motion Blur:

See what we mean? The blur doesn't kick into gear until the zoom effect really starts picking up, which is near the end of the clip thanks to the Bezier interpolation. And a clip without any motion blur will look sharp and unblurred throughout playback, resulting in that mechanical-looking movement.

Is Motion Blur the Same as Optical Flow?

It depends on who you ask. Optical flow is a feature specifically designed to combat choppiness in videos that have been edited with slow-motion.

When footage gets slowed down, it "stretches out" its frames, and when the fps isn't very high, there won't be enough frames to create a smooth playback, it will essentially "jump" from one frame to the next.

Optical flow will guess what the missing frames in between would have looked like and generate new ones to fill in the gaps, and during playback, it'll be smooth sailing.

So where does motion blur come in? Sometimes optical flow will be labeled as motion blur, such as with the Video Star mobile editing app shown below. And sometimes, motion blur itself can also aid in this "stretched out frames" dilemma in slow-motion editing, depending on how the program has designed its motion blur to function.

Don't be alarmed when you see the terms "optical flow" and "motion blur" being used interchangeably, because it will depend on the program and how the developers design its effects.

Create Natural-Looking Movement With Motion Blur

It seems like there are a million things to keep track of when editing videos, but this is one you'll want to remember. Motion blur is essential for producing edits with natural-looking movement. Take a mental note of enabling this effect next time you perform motion effects, the program will take care of the rest for you.

This article was originally published by NOLEN JONKER on Makeuseof

50 Motion Design Resources That Creatives Actually Use

The web is full of free resources that can help motion designers, from free plugins to informative podcasts. But there's a lot of rubbish out there, and you don't want to waste your time. So we decided to ask real-world motion designers for their recommendations.

Whether you're a beginner at motion design or a seasoned professional, you'll find 50 great resources here to help you. Some are paid-for, most are free, but they've all been road-tested by people working in the industry and lived up to their promise.

To prepare this article, we teamed up with an expert in the field. Created is an online academy whose hands-on motion design courses are delivered in partnership with some of the biggest and best names in the industry. On their Motion Design Pro and Motion Design Foundation courses, you'll develop all the skills you need to succeed, not to mention an interview-ready portfolio. (Created also offers UI and UX Design courses, if that's your jam.)

Some of the best resources for motion design can be found on the Created website itself, which is packed with useful tips on everything from how to get an internship in motion design studio to how to bag a job as a motion designer or how to even become a motion designer, not to mention 5 unexpected jobs for motion designers. Check it out today! In the meantime, here are 49 more resources you might find useful.

Free models for motion designers

There are lots of free 2D models available online. But as Created mentor Tom Kilburn, a freelance animator and illustrator based in Tokyo and London, explains: "Generally, 2D models are the type of assets that animators, illustrators or designers would be creating themselves." However, 3D models can be a great timesaver for motion designers, helping you get started and saving you from having to reinvent the wheel, time after time.

“Turbosquid, CGTrader and 3DmodelHaven are all great resources for finding free 3D models,” says Tom. "The first two are predominantly for purchasable assets, but there is still a wealth of content on the sites." Meanwhile, Created graduate Joe Blaxland, a creative director at Crazy Paving, recommends Three D Scan and Sketchfab as good places to find 3D models for free.

Free plugins for motion designers

There are lots of free plugins available for motion design software, but don't go overboard, cautions Tom. "Most plugins that are robust and useful generally have a relatively small price tag attached," he cautions. This can be difficult to justify when you're just starting out learning or animating as a hobby, but as a professional, the time-saving qualities of most plugins justify the price within a few hours! Paid-for plugins I wouldn't want to live without include the following:

• Timelord, which provides workflow enhancements between After Effects and Photoshop / Animate;

• Overlord, which provides workflow enhancements between After Effects and Illustrator;

• Motion: the most helpful extension for motion designers using Adobe After Effects;

• Joysticks' n Sliders: a pose-based rigging system for After Effects; and

• Penpal: which provides "path-editing enhancements".

That said, some free plugins are definitely worth a try. Joe offers four recommendations from his personal toolkit. "In After Effects, I use Text Evo for quick text animation and Duik for character rigging, and much else besides: the animation kleaner is superb," he says. "I've also used Bodymovin and Lotte for one project, and I am keen to use it more as the results are amazing." Meanwhile, Created mentor Maurizia Carrera, a freelance motion designer based in London, makes great use of Video Copilot's FX Console, a quick After Effects search tool, and Saber, which helps you create energy beams, lightsabers, lasers and more.

Timelord Plugin

Tools for motion designers

Plugins are not the only free tools that can be useful to motion designers. Maurizia uses Notion, an all-in-one workspace app, to keep all her resources organised. She also uses five free apps for colour inspiration, namely the colour wheel tools Adobe Color and Color Supplyyy; Coolors, a fast colour scheme generator; the palette inspiration platform Color Hunt, and Instant Eyedropper, a colour detection tool for the web.

Also, have you considered Pinterest for organising your sources of inspiration? "I'm a big Pinterest fan," says Tom. "It's really useful to be able to create mood boards on a project-to-project basis, and it replicates the exploratory nature of old bookmarking sites like the now-defunct ffffound.com."

Created graduate Laura Sybre, a freelance 2D motion designer at WeAreSeventeen also uses Pinterest, as well as Evernote and Are.na, to save and organise her visual research.

Laura explains: "It's very important to my work to save beautiful or meaningful pieces of content, words, thoughts, pics, like placing them in a bucket. Then I'll bring them out, like a rabbit from a hat, to help me visualise what I'm trying to develop from my own imagination. This happens mostly when I need to come up with creative direction and art direction solutions, such as the stage where the idea is still in exploration: not well defined, but broad."

Color Hunt

Podcasts for motion designers

Podcasts are a great way to keep in touch with the latest animation and motion design trends, and one of the most popular is Motion Hatch, a bi-weekly show hosted by Hayley Akins. "I've listened to quite a few of the episodes and have found those useful for improving my process, both in terms of my professional practice and how I manage my business," says Joe.

Maurizia suggests also checking out Greyscalegorilla, which covers motion design, 3D rendering, Cinema 4D and the business of motion design; and Animalators, which offers "curious conversations from the world of animation".

Greyscalegorilla

Tutorial videos for motion designers

Need to learn new techniques or refresh your existing skills? YouTube is packed with great tutorials. "My two After Effects go-to's are the YouTube channels of Ben Marriott and EC Abrams," says Joe. "For Blender, meanwhile, I watch Andrew Price, aka Blender Guru; I'd also recommend his newsletter, which has lots of useful information."

Maurizia, meanwhile, highlights the self-explanatory Maxon C4D Quick Tips, Hellolux for VFX and motion graphics, Division05 for design and motion graphics, and Mt. Mograph, The Rusted Pixel and Ukramedia for motion design tutorials.

That said, remember that YouTube is not the only place to find motion design tutorials. As well as YouTube channel Eyedesyn, Tom recommends Greyscalegorilla for Cinema 4D tutorials, while Created graduate Laura Sybre is a big fan of Domestika 's courses. "YouTube is great as it provides free tutorials for specific things, but I like Domestika because it has very specific and single-topic courses that are very affordable," she explains.

Never Not Working

Websites for motion design inspiration

We've covered how to organise your sources of visual inspiration, but where do you find them in the first place?

"I find Vimeo staff picks very useful, as well as Instagram, Linkedin and Behance," says Laura. Tom recommends Wine After Coffee and Never Not Working: "two great blogs hosting a wealth of fantastic animation."

Finally, Maurizia Carrera endorses the motion design blog Motionographer, the Art of the Title for beautiful credits sequences, Animation Screencaps for colour palette inspiration and composition, and Screen Movie Caps for movie title design.

This article was originally posted by TOM MAY on Creative Boom

10 Animation and Motion Design Trends 2021

Animation and motion graphics have become powerful tools for creative advertising and marketing. They continually fuel various types of business promotion and shape a whole new way to present products and services in the modern digital space.

From the slightly visible in-app animation to full promotional videos, motion graphics penetrate marketing across all industries and types of businesses. Even organizations that have been expected to look more traditional opt for being injected by a dose of creativity manifested in inspirational animated videos and other kinds of fun motion design. To follow animation trends means to have good taste. That’s why many companies get involved in the new wave of marketing styles.

The animation is sensitive to global design and technology trends, and it is fast-evolving this year too. In this article, we are going to outline the top ten most fantastic animation and motion graphics trends that deploy their power and impact in design for business this year.

You can notice that motion design trends 2021 lean-to minimalism and have some retro undertones in the color palettes and the overall style. These animation trends of 2021 also intersect with fashion and media tendencies.

Restricted Color Palette

Animation by Aslan Almukhambetov

The poetry lives in laconism, and you may say a lot with a few simple words. We can say the same about colors. Today’s trend is telling a visual story using only a few primary colors instead of a rich palette with many semi-tones. It has also become one of the hottest digital illustration trends.

Animation by Aslan Almukhambetov

Animation with the restricted color specter looks straightforward and sophisticated at the same time. It is a kind of challenge for an artist to use only several colors to reveal the mood and character of the illustration. Despite the limited palette, the masterfully made animation may look very appealing and outstanding. Such animations often shine out with a slight feeling of retro and nostalgia.

Thin Lines

Lines perform many functions in the video. They give a direction, define shapes, and even dictate a mood. However, this year, thin lines play a particularly interesting role. Making them super-thin yet extra-distinctive, artists try to create animations that look like real hand-drawn pictures. It adds a unique style to the videos.

The effect of linear art in animated videos has become one of the most adorable trends in 2021. Many businesses have already tried to reveal the power of this trend in their promotional and explainer videos. An excellent example is an animated video created by Explain Ninja.

Mixing 2D and 3D

Animation by Julia Simas

2D and 3D are still often combined in videos this year. Many motion designers mix them, saying that they add a particular sense of style to a video and make it even more enjoyable for customers. The most widely spread example of this trend is integrating 2D and 3D animation as well as inserting 2D overlayers with movement.

You can consider this technique not only in big-budget advertisement videos but also in small-scaled digital ads.

Kinetic Typography

Animation by Jeroen Krielaars

Commonly, artists are afraid of dare experimenting with fonts and typefaces due to the high likelihood of reduced readability. Although, in 2021, they take up new challenges in typography, break traditional rules, and bring surprisingly great results.

It seems that the kinetic typography literally claims for going beyond the limits of traditional typography and encourages stretching, twisting, and distorting letters. And guess what! People like it. ECommerce websites and mobile apps with the kinetic typography in animated videos draw more attention to a brand, make it memorable, and demonstrate high performance.

Morphing

Animation by Aslan Almukhambetov

Morphing gains its momentum in 2021 too. It is an effect in motion pictures and animations that changes (or morphs) one image or shape into another through a seamless transition. The concept of morphing characters, logos, images, and other objects in a video is becoming even more widely spread today.

It works as a visual magnet that sticks attention and makes us watch the effect until it ends. This technique is particularly useful in website animation since it helps to keep the web visitor’s eyes on the page and increases the time spent on a website. Consequently, it is good for search engine optimization, because Google boosts those sites, which are so engaging that they need more user’s time to interact with than on average.

Animated Logos

Animated Logo for SlingShot by Anastasiia Andriichuk

In the struggle for the brilliant and unforgettable online presence, businesses try to incorporate animation in different branding materials. Animated logos have already become one of the most significant trends in brand identity design.

Elsa Animated Logo by David Kovalev

Motion graphics breathe life into static typography and icons, making a brand more attractive and dynamic-looking for customers. Animated logos, due to their unexpected movements and twists, are often associated with the brand’s tendency to innovate and deliver something unique to its customers.

Grain

Illustration by Dmitrij

The grain is a tool, which artists use to add a more authentic look to the images. It creates an effect of texture in the vector imagery and breathes life into illustrations. The visuals look a bit rough, more natural, and closer to the real-world surfaces and textures.

The animated videos with the grain effect stand out from others and help brands deliver eye-catching visuals to customers. Such animation shows that a company stands for home-made quality and creativity.

Vertical animations

The number of mobile users is around 6 billion people worldwide. This number only continues to grow. This amount of people having vertically inclined devices definitely impacts how we perceive our media every day.

We can call vertical animations one of the most significant motion graphic trends in 2021. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook – all have one thing in common – we consume our media products vertically. Only rare users bother to turn their phones or tablets horizontally to see a video or a photo. It led to the rising popularity of vertical videos for Instagram stories, TikTok, and Facebook ads.

Hybrid techniques

One of the other video design trends in 2021 is using hybrid techniques in one video. Most of the videos with hybrid techniques combine 2D animation with 3D elements and sometimes live-motion videos. The best of motion graphics 2021 manage to fit different art mediums seamlessly in one product, and we can contemplate how one kind of animation complements another in fun and creative ways.

Self-drawing lines

2021 motion graphics trends cater to all tastes, and if you are looking for something more serious and calm, a video with self-drawing lines can be the best choice. With a style like this, you can see a thin line forming different figures, logos, words, and other concepts simply and clearly. It can be one of the best motion design trends for presentations of a new product, explainer videos, or presentations for business meetings of college classes.

To Wrap It Up

2021 is the year of significant beginnings and breakthroughs in various fields of life and global industries. Animation and motion design trends have also been affected by these positive changes in the human perception of the surrounding world and the beauty in it. Video design trends don’t stop their evolution. They are very responsive to the changes in society and reflect them. Here we have considered the top ten most prominent 2021 motion design trends. Hopefully, they will also inspire you to deploy design innovation in videos and animation created to skyrocket the success and popularity of your company. What is your favorite motion graphic trend 2021?

This article was originally published by Explain Ninja

New: What’s New in After Effects 2022 – Oct 2021 Release

The After Effects 2022 release, aka the October 2021 update. includes Multi-Frame Rendering (MFR), which accelerates After Effects up to 4x with the CPU. In addition, they’ve added a Composition Profiler, which shows the CPU usage of each layer in the timeline. Finally, After Effects notifies you about renders!

What’s New in After Effects 2022 – October 2021 release

The following is from the Adobe Help Documents, which you can find here.

Faster Previews and Renders with Multi-Frame Rendering

Accelerate your creative process by taking advantage of the full power of your system’s CPU cores when previewing and rendering. After Effects automatically adjusts resource usage to render your compositions as fast as possible on your machine.

Reimagined Render Queue with Remote Notifications

The Render Queue, also taking advantage of Multi-Frame Rendering, highlights the most important information such as your rendering progress. The reimagined Render Queue highlights information such as, what’s rendering, how much time is remaining, rendering progress, and how it’s using your system. Get notifications even on your smartwatch, when renders are complete via the Creative Cloud desktop or mobile app.

Composition Profiler

Sometimes complex projects in After Effects can produce bottlenecks in rendering performance. This feature enables you to make different decisions to optimize your system resources. Know which layers are less performant while previewing, enabling you to streamline complex projects and reduce rendering bottlenecks.

Learn which layers and effects in your composition are taking the most time to render in relation to other layers and effects. The layer profiler highlights which areas of the composition impact your processing time and enable you to optimize your project for faster rendering as you iterate.

Speculative previews

Work faster even when you’re not working. After Effects renders your composition when it has been idle for a set amount of time, so your composition is ready to preview when you are. Render frames while idle for an improved preview experience. After Effects renders in the background, enabling you to playback or scrub compositions quickly.

Export Faster with Adobe Media Encoder

With Multi-Frame Rendering, export your compositions up to 4x faster using the full power of your system and without upgrading your hardware. Render while you work on your compositions while Adobe Media Encoder renders faster in the background. This update maximizes the full power of your system and enables you to continue working in After Effects while Adobe Media Encoder renders your compositions in the background.

Improved playback for 10-bit  HEVC

New hardware-accelerated decoding for 10-bit HEVC 422 provides improved playback and editing on Intel Windows systems.

Enable LUT Interpolation method selection

Enables you to select the LUT Interpolation method from the dropdown under Project Settings. Currently, After Effects only supports Trilinear or Tetrahedral interpolation.

Unified version numbers

With this major release, all the Adobe video and audio applications will align on version number 22.0, making it easier to ensure compatibility across the applications.

Currently in Beta

Scene Edit Detection

Powered by Adobe Sensei, automatically detect scene changes in an edited clip and place scenes as layers for a faster project setup. Scene Edit Detection makes it much quicker and easier to reuse part of an edited video clip.

9 Best Motion Graphics Software Apps to Use in 2021

In the modern world, motion graphics software are widely used in advertising, social networks, education and science, reference materials and entertainment. The reasons are obvious: motion graphics let users convey the main idea briefly, clearly and effectively.

Users can make their apps or websites bright and interesting with informative or entertaining videos and all types of animated graphics: animated characters, symbols, infographics and effects.

Top 9 Best Motion Graphics Software

1. Adobe After Effects - The best motion graphics and animation software

2. Cinema 4D - Choice of designers and local studios

3. Adobe Premiere Pro - For professional video and sound co-editing

4. Mocha Pro - Robust planar tracking tool for VFX and post-production

5. Adobe Photoshop - For video groups/transitions creation

6. Adobe Illustrator - The industry-standard vector graphics software

7. Maya - Intermediate 3D motion graphics software

8. Nuke - For creating professional pixel-perfect visual effects

9. Blender - Free open-source 2D/3D creation suite

The cycle of creating a moving animation involves several production processes - from simply drawing a sketch to combining three-dimensional models in a complex dynamic scene. Because of the capacity of some intermediate processes (sometimes they aren’t the required ones, for instance, a video clip may not contain visual special effects), a special motion graphic program is responsible for each separate or several processes, so their complex use is suitable for difficult tasks.

1. Adobe After Effects - Our Choice

Graphics for video projects, animation

• 3D Compositing, VFX

• Simulation effects

• Slideshow design

• UX/UI/Web design mockups

• Kinetic typography

Verdict: This motion graphics software is based on layers and works as a hybrid of a video editor and Photoshop. Adobe lets users seamlessly take advantage of AE in the Creative Cloud ecosystem. It works well with other non-linear editing systems, such as Avid Media Composer and Final Cut Pro X. Besides, it integrates flexibly with 3D applications like 3ds Max, Maya and Cinema 4D.

The extension helps transfer animated graphics and produce qualitative visual effects, create and manage animated graphic works, create effects for 2D animation, layout and compositing, track movements, delete objects, model and particle effects, create templates, perform color correction and editing.

It also works with 3D elements through a variety of integrated and third-party plugins, such as the effects browser, timeline and composition panel. They enable users to bring animation art to the screen.

After Effects is the primary Adobe video editor used for animating and combining animated graphics after developing storyboards and elements in Photoshop and Illustrator. When you finish animating the After Effects project, you can export the final video to video editing software.

2. Cinema 4D

3D animation/modeling tools

• Volume builder, fields

• Node-based shaders

• UV unwrapping

• Enhanced CAD importer

• Alembic baking

• The cost of a standalone application

• Modeling workflow requires several updates

Verdict: For anyone with a graphic skill in After Effects, Cinema 4D should be a simple intermediate transition to 3D. Animation artists prefer Cinema 4D to other 3D tools for its convenience, ease of use and flexibility when integrating into After Effects. The software offers an intuitive non-destructive workflow so users can quickly edit and duplicate various parameters.

Cinema 4D contains unique features and compatibility with several different GPU-accelerated rendering engines, which help users quickly display top-quality 3D models on the PC screen. The most popular engine in Cinema 4D is the third-party Octane and such rendering mechanisms as Redshift, V-Ray, etc.

Cinema 4D is quite widespread in the world of animated graphics for modeling, texturing, rendering, animation and simulation effects. C4D is more commonly used for working with industrial-level visual effects. If you wish to integrate 3D elements into a project, it will be difficult to find better graphic animation software.

3. Adobe Premiere Pro

Synchronizes audio/video automatically

• Simultaneous projects

• Motion graphics templates

• VR Editing/rotate sphere

• Effects, transitions, labels

• Video titling and graphics

• Demanding on performance

• Small, sometimes hidden buttons

Verdict: Adobe has made great strides in integrating After Effects and Premiere together, making Premiere more important for both motion designers and video editors. One of its notable features is the ability to create dynamic links between itself and After Effects. In this way, users can make final adjustments to compositions and images without having to render them first.

Adobe Premiere Pro is an application for editing videos based on a timeline. The motion designer uses it to bring video and audio together. But the number of features and formats included lets such programs as Final Cut Pro, Sony Vegas and Avid Media Composer use it to create a final video upon completion.

Premiere Pro is the place where motion designers will edit their videos together and add finishing touches, such as music, sound effects, add transitions, as well as possibly cut animation snippets to enhance the flow and synchronization of the entire video.

4. Mocha Pro

Tracking and splines

• Advanced modules: stabilization, lens calibration, 3D camera solver

• GPU accelerated tracking, object removal

• Sophisticated masking with edge-snapping

• Stereo 360/VR support

• Export data to industry-standard systems

• The cost of a standalone application

• Requires development and availability of Adobe products

Verdict: This planar-based tracking system tracks movement outside of a cluster of pixels – an ideal tool for animated graphics artists interested in performing screen replacement. This may be difficult at the initial stage. But after using spline-based workflow, it will be easy to track almost any movement.

This makes Mocha an extremely robust tool for animation artists who are interested in replacing the screen, removing objects or rotoscoping. This tool is also useful for commercial projects. You should try it, for instance, when creating an animated graphic fragment in the portfolio.

Mocha Pro can act as a plug-in in After Effects or Premiere Pro. It means that you can easily begin with After Effects to track a shot in Mocha, and then go back to After Effects with the tracked camera data. These capabilities make Mocha AE one of the best tools for motion graphics among motion designers.

5. Adobe Photoshop

Timeline video creation

• GIF-animation, rotoscope

• Paintings creation, texture editing

• Design boards

• Ability to stitch images together

• Layout cell animations

• Paid subscription

• Bit-map based application

Verdict: While Photoshop edits pixel-based bitmaps, the moving graphics artist uses whiteboards for design, edits storyboards, creates GIF animations, and more. Adobe Photoshop is as versatile as it is useful. This tool is mandatory for any animated graphics designer or motion artist when it comes to creating textures or manipulating images.

Experience in Photoshop helps users create new design elements for animated graphics projects. For a designer of animated graphics, practical knowledge of Photoshop functions is key: resize images that are too large, cut images from photos, create new designs using various filters and a sophisticated toolset.

Another feature is creating storyboards. Some people prefer to do it manually with pen and paper. But Photoshop is an excellent motion design software for quick sketches and compositions. The most beneficial advantage of using it is the fact that it integrates well with the entire Adobe Creative Cloud. Users can effortlessly import Photoshop files directly into After Effects and vice versa.

6. Adobe Illustrator

Real-time rendering

• Live shapes, snap to pixel capabilities

• Integrated templates and presets

• Free transform, path segment reshaping capabilities

• Perspective drawing/anchor point enhancements

• Shapebuilder freeform mode

• The cost of a monthly subscription

• Vector graphics only

Verdict: Here is another well-known tool in the design and animation industry. It resembles Photoshop, but the main difference is that Adobe Illustrator is a vector image editing program (a file that can be infinitely scaled without pixelation).

An animated graphic artist uses this animation software to draw such resources as characters, objects, environments, logos and more. In addition, a vector image is a significant part of the animated graphics workflow when creating logos, shaped objects and vector backgrounds.

Users can effortlessly import Illustrator files (.AI) imported into After Effects for animation without losing quality and then go back to Illustrator. If you decide to change the appearance of the image, you can save the file in Illustrator and it will be automatically updated in AE since they are both Adobe applications and seamlessly integrate with each other. Any effects or animations that you might have applied earlier will remain.

7. Maya

Pin to geometry and physics

• Dynamics and effects, ready-to-use graphs

• Adaptive liquid simulation

• Cached playback, animation bookmarks/tools

• Shape authoring/matrix drive workflows

• Proximity wrap deformer

• The cost of a yearly subscription

• Not for novices

Verdict: It is a well-known industry software for 3D modeling/animation and rendering. You can use only Cinema 4D, but Maya is a tool that all the best and Hollywood studios use for modeling and animation. It lets users write scripts that extend functionality beyond what would only be possible with integrated tools.

Maya is a full-featured application for developing 3D resources for movies, television and video games. But it can be successfully applied in animated graphics as well. For years, it has been the dominant 3D graphics software, and now Cinema 4D has real competition.

Its ability to process high-quality 3D renderings and animations made him one of the most prominent motion software. However, Maya’s interface may seem a bit complicated for those who haven’t dealt with 3D before. Although this software is used in the entertainment industry, the learning curve is quite steep.

8. Nuke

Compositing, editorial and review tools

• Over 200 creative nodes

• Model builder, VR corrections

• Point cloud and depth generation

• 3D camera tracker/particle system

• Integrated 3D-environment/workspace

• Incredibly expensive

• Requires equipment and skills

Verdict: Nuke and After Effects can be easily used in similar compositing projects. But Nuke is specifically designed to meet the needs of proficient users. It is a robust professional node-based digital compositing software used at the highest level in the field of motion design to combine three-dimensional elements and video. This system is very effective when working on large collaborative projects.

Nuke is used worldwide in post-production for major films and television. It is also popular with leading manufacturers of professional animation graphics due to its impressive list of 2D and 3D capabilities. These are sophisticated retiming and warping, deep image composing, stereoscopic workflow, rotoscoping and many others.

This reliable motion graphics software enables the use of the node system when configuring compositions, whereas After Effects uses a multi-level system. That’s why Nuke is mostly used by studios or high-end MoGraph artists. For your information, some plugins created by the Foundry for Nuke are also available for After Effects.

9. Blender

Cycles render engine

• Rendering, modeling, sculpting

• Animation and rigging

• Grease pencil

• VFX, simulation

• Video editing, scripting

• Requires installation and configuration skills

• Not for novices
  

Verdict: Blender is one of the best free VFX software, and open-source 3d modeling package for creating 3d images. It is used by many artists in the video game industry. the software supports the entire 3d pipeline-modeling, snap-in, animation, simulation, rendering, composition and motion tracking, video editing, as well as the 2d animation pipeline.

Like Maya, Blender has a pretty steep learning curve. If an artist can get through this, then setting up an open-source Blender can open up a whole cosmos of possibilities: CPU/GPU/VR rendering, PBR shaders, HDR lighting support, 3D painting with textured brushes and masking and more.

Whether you are modeling new worlds, creating new characters or captivating effects, Blender is the perfect free motion graphics software to add to your skills.

This article was originally posted by By Eva William from Fixthephoto