Because it’s my first post on the blog, I will choose to talk about one of my favorite subjects and that is how you can prepare a video from a mentally point of view. This article is intended to all the beginners, the ones who would like to create promotional videos but they don’t know anyone that can help them with different kind of tasks, like creating illustrations, graphics, music or sound effects.This is my story from my first year of work with clients and it looks like a marathon runners’ story.
Running a marathon is a tough job and it’s clearly not for everyone. First of all, each marathon runner visualizes mentally his course, he sees himself defeating those muscular cramps and the weather conditions and he creates his own belief that all the hard work deserves the satisfaction to pass the finish line.Same principle is applied also in digital animation. Not many have the luck to make collaborations with artists that come hand in hand with his skills. My main skill is animation, but unfortunately I didn’t knew anyone who was able to help me to create the illustrations, a professional storyboard or the videos’ music. Not to mention the fact that I didn’t afford to hire someone to help me.So, I was ready for a long race, in which I had to take each phase of the video creation step by step. For those who don’t know, these phases are:1. Creation of the script (even if it’s not always applied, and most of the times the clients will have a script already made by a experimented copywriter)2. Creation of the storyboard3. Creation of the illustrations and graphics4. Find the perfect person to record the voice5. Find the perfect music to match the animation6. Creation of the animation7. Find the best sound effects and add them to the animation8. And not lastly, talk with your client and keep him updated with all of the latest news.All this process can last from 1 to 4 weeks depending on how complicated is the animation.
The thing that motivates the marathon runner to keep going despite all the terrible muscular cramps is the visualization of all the satisfaction feelings, pride and the award that he will receive at the finish line. During the marathon, he’s struggling against his negative thoughts like giving up, take a short brake, lack of motivation and in these conditions only a strong mind can help you overcome them.I also had negative thoughts. Creating a video can take many weeks, and my concentration can be for a short period of time; there are so many things that can distract me from my race into delivering the perfect video to my client. It’s very important to make all of your necessary things before sitting on your desk chair. These necessary things can include: eating, take your pills or supplements, take out the garbage, walk your dog, check your emails, your Facebook, Twitter and so on.When you sit at your computer you have to concentrate only on the things you have to do. For a long period of time, my schedule was: I was hard working for a whole hour, and then I was taking a short 5 minute break in order to rest my eyes. For each period of time I was doing the same thing. Once at 3 hours, I was taking a lunch break for 30 minutes. In this way your eyes and stomach will not get hurt.Another negative thought that I was facing (and I still do) is the negative feedback that was coming from my clients. It’s impossible to create from the first time the perfect draft (weather is about storyboard, animation or graphics). The client will always want small changes or, in some cases, huge changes.This thing doesn't have to break you down because it’s a part from your artist job. You always have to be willing to take it all over with a new version, again and again until everything goes out perfectly. When you feel discouraged, you only have to think about the fact that the effort is worth it, you will have a happy client, you will also receive money and you will be able to attach this video to your portfolio. It’s a certain thing that other persons will see your video and they will contact you to make them a similar one.
The race is almost over; the marathon runner gives the best out of him to win more seconds. There are left only 50 meters, he gets closer and … he passes the finish line! The crowd is going crazy, the marathon runner is filled up with their energy, he fills accomplished and proud of himself knowing that not many people is capable of doing what he did. He’s lucky and this is the most beautiful feeling in the whole world.Getting closer to the finishing line, when the animation is almost done, it happened many times to be too anxious to deliver the video to my clients, and I almost forgot that I have to add sound effects, or worst, not putting to much effort creating a more attractive CTA (call to action). In the runners’ world, this is similar to the fact of taking it easy in the end, or even quitting.There were several situations when I’ve felt that I’ve abandoned the projects when they were almost done. I couldn't control my anxiousness to deliver the project much sooner and to be happy to receive the most waited congrats.With mentally thoughts very well prepared, I knew that the race wasn’t over yet, and I’ve learn that I need at least one more working day to deliver the perfect project. So, when you lose your patience the wiser thing is to stop working, take a break (a couple of hours or maybe an entire day) and you go back with your mind refreshed to finish the project.The client is happy that his promotional video is perfect and he’s going to be willing to collaborate with you once again for his next project or he can recommend you to some other persons.This metaphor applies not only in the case of producing a video, but is also applies in everyday life. Building your own habit of not giving up, remaining focused only on the things that really matter, the final reward will be priceless. Go for it!
s'UP suppers? Looking to spark up your website with a nice video but you don't have any money right now? Here is a list of some projects we have for you, hopefully one of them will work for now, helping you to get your message cross your audience and maybe lead to some conversions. Later on you can order a custom video which will match exactly the essence of your business :)
This After Effects Template works perfectly for your mobile app. The template contains both an iPhone and an Android device ( a Samsung phone). Also it has a lot of pre-made screen animations like Install the App from Play/App Store; Open the App and many more.
This template is just for iOS apps. It works in a similar way like the one above, you get all the Screen Pre-made animations but you can't change the color of the phone.Download link here
Looking to promote your next meeting or event? Look no further. This small project will make the deal.
A nice and simple presentation. Works nice if you want to present to someone what your Class is about, or how it was in the last trip with the kids or something. You can add pictures and even videos into the placeholders.
Are you looking for the perfect video template to promote your business? Well you found it. We’re very happy to present you our Businessman Animation AE template that can grow your sales.
A cool and fresh intro for a Serial or something similar. If you work on a school project, this could work nice as an intro.
This is an abstract logo reveal formed from a lot of shapes. It is made in After Effects CS5, it has no plugins and the project comes with a very deep help file
I have spent 1 hour (or maybe a bit more) searching stuff about Video SEO on Google – this article is a summary of the things I found interesting and these should be a good starting point for everyone who has a video.
Like any other things in business, you need to grab someone’s attention. With an intriguing name for your video you may have a chance that someone will watch yours. YouTube is full of videos and chances are that your video will never be watched by someone if you have a boring title. Make sure that the title for your video is compelling.Before naming your video you may want to read this interesting comparison between Buzzfeed’s YouTube videos and Facebook’s videos. Link: http://www.reelseo.com/buzzfeed-video-titles/
Ok, you want a video for your Home Page that describes what your product does and how it can help others. But the reality is that it’s not enough for you to get to the people unless you are already a well-known brand with a built audience. So the solution is to constantly create content (video content) that can solve problems. You know your business like no other so you should know what people need from you. Don’t keep the secrets to yourself. Make videos explaining how to resolve certain problems people have: be generous, offer tips and free stuff – this will help you build your audience and sell your product in the future. They will see you as an authority and they will trust you.
Google Video Sitemaps provide Google with metadata about video content on a website. The video site operated by Google is the largest video search entity on the Web. With a Video Sitemap, site owners can inform Google of the category, title, description, running time, and intended audience for each video contained on the site. This helps Google know about all the rich video content on the site, which should improve the listing of the site on video search results. (source: www.xml-sitemaps.com)Here’s a nice explanation about Video Sitemaps:
Rich Snippets is definitely something it should be on your to-do lists. The good part is that it works with pictures and videos too. But what is a Rich Snippet?Simply said is that picture or video that Google shows when you’re looking for your favorite cheese pie recipe.
A more complex explanation of a Rich Snippet can be found at Google Developers page. We will cover how to create a Video Rich Snippet in a future article.
The best tip I could give to a prospect regarding VIDEO SEO is to actually put everything ‘humanly’ possible into it to make the best presentation possible. Ok, we do all these video optimization and technical stuff but if the video is not worth watching, not worth sharing then all the above means NADA. You have the chance to ‘pimp’ your business’s imagine with the video so make sure you add all of the following to your video:Humor – the truth is that is more probably that you will share a funny video with your friends rather than an informative video about something. Even if you have a serious brand you can still incorporate a sense of humor to it, people will like you more.Brevity – consider doing no introduction about who you are. Go directly to the problem and the solution. Get to the point as quick as possible and try to keep your video under less than 2 minutes. If you have more to say, do another video.Storyline – people relate more with stories. If your product allows you, try to add some characters that people can relate with. Present the problem through their eyes, tell the problems they confront and present the solution.Talk directly to your audience – a video presentation is considered something personal, even intimate because is just you and the video. That’s why consider to talk directly with your viewers, use first person and try to maintain their curiosity and attention during the whole video. Use questions, verbal hooks and add the Surprise element into the story.
Richard van den Boogaard from ReelSEO wrote an in-depth analysis where he examined what’s best for your video marketing campaign: should the video be Hosted (on your own site) or Posted on video platforms like YouTube?The article, written 5 years ago, was relevant for what was going at the time, and his conclusion was that it is more advantageous to post your video on sites like YouTube and embed it on your site (embedding means simply copying the HTML code YouTube automatically generates so visitors will see the YouTube video on your site). The criterias that he used to reach his conclusion were:
But that was 5 years ago when analyzing the performance of your video was a complicated job due to lack of in-depth analytics. Luckily, these days we have a few companies to choose from; companies that offer free and paid hosting solutions, in-depth analytics, in-depth viewer’s behavior (like heatmaps), SEO strategies and enough disk space for all your needs.So whatever business you may have, you really need just 2 things: Youtube and a Professional Hosting Platform. Unless you are a Learning Platform (like Lynda or Udemy) who may need a special video platform - this article is for you.
Because it’s the largest video platform in the world and it’s owned by Google. Google is the king of Online, Youtube is the king of Videos. You need to be in the same Kingdom. By doing a great job on Youtube chances are that you’ll get in top searches on Google for your specific keyword.Google often like to display Youtube videos on the first page results but I rarely see a Dailymotion or Vimeo video. It’s crazy that even the competition has an account on YouTube!
Because you need to see how good your video actually is! A professional hosting platform allows you to see exactly what ‘X’ viewer from ‘X’ country actually did when he watched your video! This is possible through heatmaps. If 6 from 10 viewers close your video after 20 seconds, you are able to see this and you can start immediately to take action (improve your video, change something in the script and so on…)
More than that, they come with marketing tools that will make your life easier: Email Collectors and Call to Actions.We did our research and we found only 2 good hosting platforms: Wistia and Sprout Video. We actually use Wistia and we can say that’s the best you can get but definitely check Sprout Video for a head to head comparison.From now on, we’ll take the role of educating you. The first step is to make you aware about the best places for your video and we really think that regardless of your business you need YouTube; you somehow need to attract that massive traffic to your website.Inside your website you have to control everything, that’s why you need a professional hosting platform and other tools that can help you track everything. Then you need to analyze the results and constantly update your presentations. By presentations I understand everything that’s on your website: the videos, the headlines, the content, the pictures, the buttons and even YOUR PRODUCT!A great video is never enough if everything else is not working right.Stay tuned for more!
It happens from time to time to be so busy that we need an extra hand so we thought that a Freelancer may be the best solution rather than hiring new guys. In the following lines I am going to tell you my experiences with the freelancers I have hired and why it is really hard to find a good one.This story is for Freelancers and Clients in the same time. Read this as a guide of how to choose the best freelancers rather than considering that Freelancers are bad. I am also a Freelancer, basically s’UP Production is the extended version of myself – the freelancer.In the last month I needed more than ever to outsource some of my work to other people because of some factors that I don’t want to bother you about – mostly medical stuff. We had 4 projects in the pipeline and we were looking for an animator to help us a bit. We are active for a long time now on oDesk ( now it is called UpWork) and this is our main source of scouting for talents. So the logical way is to look on Upwork for help!
You know that kind of guy that asks tons of questions before actually buying anything? I am that kind of person! This behavior reflects also in the entrepreneurial life. Before deciding who will work on the projects I put a lot of questions. Surprisingly, most of the freelancers could do anything I have asked – “that’s just amazing” I said, the budgets were good, the timelines also good. After I made my choices and finally started the projects I was very enthusiastic to see what they will come up with. I don’t know why, maybe I am really bad at HR and I don’t know how to choose people but they ALL did a job that ”only a mother can love” – get it?You can’t tell for sure how talented someone is until you test him. But most of the freelancers refuse to be tested without any compensations. So how do you hire someone knowing for sure they will make great work? You can propose to work at a sample draft without any money but if they do a good job they will get the project and also a small bonus for their willingness of doing the demo.My advise for freelancers: never ever lie your clients! A client will appreciate who you are at that specific moment and believe it or not, you actually have a chance to be hired for your honesty.My advise for clients: don’t trust every word the freelancer says. Ask questions about their skills, ask them again. Then ask them to create a short sample from the work. If they do a great job motivate them with a small bonus at the end of the project.
This is the most hated part of freelancing (from client’s perspective). You hire this guy and then he starts to work on your project…............A week has past......You send a messageSend another one............Finally he responds saying that he had some problems with his laptop. Seriously?? And during this period you haven’t worked on my project? How come your laptop broke down exactly these days? There’s no internet outside your house to send a poor email saying that you have problems? Really?Unfortunately sooner or later you’ll find this kind of guys. As a client you want to be informed at least once at 2 days about your project. You want to be active, to send feedback and check if everything is OK. Then why the freelancer doesn't think the same? For few reasons ( I was there and I learnt my lesson):– they are working so slowly that they don’t have anything to show.– they are not working on your project in the first few days.– they simply want to show you the entire project so you can ask for as little changes as possible.– they went to vacation for a few days and forgot to tell you.– their dog has eaten their project – just kiddin' …The sad part is that you don’t have something particularly to do about this, you can’t predict how good the communication’s skills of the freelancer you hire will be.My advice for freelancers - Give updates every day or at least once at 2 days. You’ll keep your client happy and they will work with you on other projects (if they are happy with the project of course)My advice for clients - Never work again with freelancers that don’t respond to your messages. Period.
I must admit I was a foolish when I did this – no, I wasn’t the one who ran with the money – I was the robbed client…This time it was a local freelancer from Romania. This guy sent us an email telling that he wants to be hired in our studio. I must admit he has a very nice portfolio with animated videos similar to what we do. I have scheduled an appointment with him in the studio and I told him that we need an animation done in 1 week – we had all the illustrations ready. After I have explained what the project’s about he was very delighted and more than happy to work on this project. The budget for this task was way too generous for the amount of work he was about to do but because I wanted this project ready in a week, I thought this is the best way to have it done – with a big budget.He requested an upfront which I agreed. We also ask for upfront, it’s normal in this industry. In the same day I paid 30% from the agreed quote.Then the silence ….. I have been asking him if everything is OK and if he wants anything from us. He said everything is OK and he will deliver the project on time.One week has been past, the deadline is near and I start again to ask for some updates, some previews, some something. He wasn’t ready yet.. he wants one more day to be able to finish everything. The next day he wanted another day. In the third day he never answered again to my phone calls. I got some text messages from him telling me that he feels sorry because he let me down, he couldn’t handle the stress and he wasn’t able to finish the project. The sad part is that he barely touched the project.Now here’s the problem. I come from a world where people pay me to do my job – and I do it. They TRUST me and they don’t ask for contracts or identification paper for the upfront payment. Now this is the big problem. I thought every decent freelancer knows these rules and they all are nice guys. I trusted this freelancer because his portfolio was great and he worked in my way before. As a consequence now I can’t do anything about my lost money because I don’t know anything about this guy.My advice for freelancers - if you want to be a rockstar freelancer, as stupid as it sounds, never run with the upfront!My advice for clients - never ever give money to someone without a sort of security that you can get your money back. Make a contract or work through freelance platforms like Upwork or Freelancer.
This is what we call Amazing Video Content!I have discovered this Youtube channel last night and I already have the urge to spread the word to everyone! This guy calls himself “Fight Mediocrity” and he basically reads books about self-development and tries to explain them in a simplistic way: through whiteboard animation. I am amazed how many subscribers and views he has – this is marketing well done through very informative content that really HELPS other people.
We love this way of marketing that's why you should have a look and consider doing something similar for your business: think how you can help your audience/clients by giving free valuable information. Make short videos and post them on YouTube and other Social Media platforms. In the end everyone will win!
Generally speaking, an animated video is still an impersonal way of showing to the people who you or your business really are. And it's a known fact that people resonate with people, and very rarely with objects/things.You have to add personality to your company by showing your human side more often. If you're willing to go on a lung run, besides the animated videos that you will constantly put there on YouTube you must show to your subscribers that you are also a human. Amazingly, after reading some of the comments from this video I noticed the people subscribed because they liked this guy's personality - they feel him so 'real'.
What we've learned from this guy? Make things better or different (but still better). Find your topic and think at a creative way of doing what you love. This guy loves to read self improvement books and he wanted to be a Motivational Speaker but he was young, without experience. These factors led to the decision of doing something different - so he started explaining the books he read through simple animations. We say that this is the best decision he could make!
Richard van den Boogaard from ReelSEO wrote an in-depth analysis where he examined what’s best for your video marketing campaign: should the video behosted (on your own site) or posted on video platforms like YouTube?The article, written in 2009 was relevant for what was going on at the time, and his conclusion was that it is more advantageous to post your video on sites like YouTube and embed it on your site (embedding means simply copying the HTML code YouTube automatically generates so visitors will see the YouTube video on your site). The criteria that he used to reach his conclusion were:
But that was years ago when analyzing the performance of your video was a complicated job due to lack of in-depth analytics. Luckily, these days we have a few companies to choose from; companies that offers free and paid hosting solutions, in depth analytics, in depth viewer’s behavior (like heatmaps), SEO strategies and enough disk space for all your needs.So whatever business you may have you really need just 2 things: Youtube and a Professional Hosting Platform. Unless you are a Learning business (like Lynda or Udemy) who may need a special video platform – this article is for you.
Because it’s the largest video platform in the world and it’s owned by Google. Google is the king of the online, Youtube is the king of the videos. You need to be in the same kingdom. By doing a great job on Youtube chances are that you’ll get in top searches on Google for your specific keyword.Google often like to display Youtube videos on the first page results but I rarely saw a Dailymotion or Vimeo video. It’s crazy that even the competition has a Youtube Account
Because you need to see how good your video actually is! A professional hosting platform allows you to see exactly what ‘X’ viewer from ‘X’ country actually did when he watched your video! This is possible through heatmaps. If 6 from 10 viewers close your video after 20 seconds, you are able to see this and you can start immediately to take action (improve your video, change something in the script and so on…)More than that, they come with marketing tools that will make your life easier: Email Collectors and Call to Actions.We did our research and we found only 2 good hosting platforms: Wistia and Sprout Video. We actually use Wistia and we can say that that’s the best you can get but definitely check Sprout for a head to head comparison.From now on, we’ll take the role of educating you. The first step is to make you aware about the best places for your video and we really think that regardless of your business you need YouTube; you somehow need to attract that massive traffic to your website.Inside your website you have to control everything, that’s why you need a professional hosting platform and other tools that can help you to track everything. Then you need to analyze the results and constantly update your presentations. By presentations I understand everything that’s on your website: the videos, the headlines, the content, the pictures, the buttons and even YOUR PRODUCT!A great video is never enough if everything else is not working right.
Chances are that when the studio finishes your video, they will send it to you with a weird name like “Final Video” or “Final Draft” or something similar. Let’s take the example of a video we did for one of our clients – SpotGyde. Their app helps people who travel to discover cities and places through the eyes of locals (the Gydes). You will learn more about a city from a local than a Map. The Gyde can show you some hidden secrets that only a local knows.So this is how we have sent the video, for preview purposes and if they loved it they could download and upload it on YouTube or anywhere else.
1. The very first thing you should do with your video is to rename it by adding your Business name and your primary keywords. They renamed it to: SpotGyde – Thousands of people, thousands of places
2. But this is not enough. If you Right Click on the video and go to Properties – Details you see the Description tab. Go ahead and complete these fields:Title: SpotGyde – Thousands of people, thousands of placesSubtitle: Mobile and Desktop App that helps travellers to connect with Locals to be the guide in their citiesTags: mobile app; spotgyde; local; travel; tourists; thousands of people; thousands of places;Comments: here you can write something more detailed about your business. It’s up to you.3. Next go to Origin tab and complete it:Promotion URL: http://spotgyde.com/Author URL: http://spotgyde.com/Media Created: add the date when your video was createdContent Provider: SpotGyde – Thousands of people, thousands of placesPublisher: SpotGyde – Thousands of people, thousands of places
Now your video is ready to be uploaded to YouTube and other websites.
Chances are that when the studio finishes your video, they will send it to you with a weird name like “Final Video” or “Final Draft” or something similar. Let’s take the example of a video we did for one of our clients – SpotGyde. Their app helps people who travel to discover cities and places through the eyes of locals (the Gydes). You will learn more about a city from a local than a Map. The Gyde can show you some hidden secrets that only a local knows.So this is how we have sent the video, for preview purposes and if they loved it they could download and upload it on YouTube or anywhere else.
1. The very first thing you should do with your video is to rename it by adding your Business name and your primary keywords. They renamed it to: SpotGyde – Thousands of people, thousands of places
2. But this is not enough. If you Right Click on the video and go to Properties – Details you see the Description tab. Go ahead and complete these fields:Title: SpotGyde – Thousands of people, thousands of placesSubtitle: Mobile and Desktop App that helps travellers to connect with Locals to be the guide in their citiesTags: mobile app; spotgyde; local; travel; tourists; thousands of people; thousands of places;Comments: here you can write something more detailed about your business. It’s up to you.3. Next go to Origin tab and complete it:Promotion URL: http://spotgyde.com/Author URL: http://spotgyde.com/Media Created: add the date when your video was createdContent Provider: SpotGyde – Thousands of people, thousands of placesPublisher: SpotGyde – Thousands of people, thousands of places
Now your video is ready to be uploaded to YouTube and other websites.
Richard van den Boogaard from ReelSEO wrote an in-depth analysis where he examined what’s best for your video marketing campaign: should the video behosted (on your own site) or posted on video platforms like YouTube?The article, written in 2009 was relevant for what was going on at the time, and his conclusion was that it is more advantageous to post your video on sites like YouTube and embed it on your site (embedding means simply copying the HTML code YouTube automatically generates so visitors will see the YouTube video on your site). The criteria that he used to reach his conclusion were:
But that was years ago when analyzing the performance of your video was a complicated job due to lack of in-depth analytics. Luckily, these days we have a few companies to choose from; companies that offers free and paid hosting solutions, in depth analytics, in depth viewer’s behavior (like heatmaps), SEO strategies and enough disk space for all your needs.So whatever business you may have you really need just 2 things: Youtube and a Professional Hosting Platform. Unless you are a Learning business (like Lynda or Udemy) who may need a special video platform – this article is for you.
Because it’s the largest video platform in the world and it’s owned by Google. Google is the king of the online, Youtube is the king of the videos. You need to be in the same kingdom. By doing a great job on Youtube chances are that you’ll get in top searches on Google for your specific keyword.Google often like to display Youtube videos on the first page results but I rarely saw a Dailymotion or Vimeo video. It’s crazy that even the competition has a Youtube Account
Because you need to see how good your video actually is! A professional hosting platform allows you to see exactly what ‘X’ viewer from ‘X’ country actually did when he watched your video! This is possible through heatmaps. If 6 from 10 viewers close your video after 20 seconds, you are able to see this and you can start immediately to take action (improve your video, change something in the script and so on…)More than that, they come with marketing tools that will make your life easier: Email Collectors and Call to Actions.We did our research and we found only 2 good hosting platforms: Wistia and Sprout Video. We actually use Wistia and we can say that that’s the best you can get but definitely check Sprout for a head to head comparison.From now on, we’ll take the role of educating you. The first step is to make you aware about the best places for your video and we really think that regardless of your business you need YouTube; you somehow need to attract that massive traffic to your website.Inside your website you have to control everything, that’s why you need a professional hosting platform and other tools that can help you to track everything. Then you need to analyze the results and constantly update your presentations. By presentations I understand everything that’s on your website: the videos, the headlines, the content, the pictures, the buttons and even YOUR PRODUCT!A great video is never enough if everything else is not working right.
Because it’s my first post on the blog, I will choose to talk about one of my favorite subjects and that is how you can prepare a video from a mentally point of view. This article is intended to all the beginners, the ones who would like to create promotional videos but they don’t know anyone that can help them with different kind of tasks, like creating illustrations, graphics, music or sound effects.This is my story from my first year of work with clients and it looks like a marathon runners’ story.
Running a marathon is a tough job and it’s clearly not for everyone. First of all, each marathon runner visualizes mentally his course, he sees himself defeating those muscular cramps and the weather conditions and he creates his own belief that all the hard work deserves the satisfaction to pass the finish line.Same principle is applied also in digital animation. Not many have the luck to make collaborations with artists that come hand in hand with his skills. My main skill is animation, but unfortunately I didn’t knew anyone who was able to help me to create the illustrations, a professional storyboard or the videos’ music. Not to mention the fact that I didn’t afford to hire someone to help me.So, I was ready for a long race, in which I had to take each phase of the video creation step by step. For those who don’t know, these phases are:1. Creation of the script (even if it’s not always applied, and most of the times the clients will have a script already made by a experimented copywriter)2. Creation of the storyboard3. Creation of the illustrations and graphics4. Find the perfect person to record the voice5. Find the perfect music to match the animation6. Creation of the animation7. Find the best sound effects and add them to the animation8. And not lastly, talk with your client and keep him updated with all of the latest news.All this process can last from 1 to 4 weeks depending on how complicated is the animation.
The thing that motivates the marathon runner to keep going despite all the terrible muscular cramps is the visualization of all the satisfaction feelings, pride and the award that he will receive at the finish line. During the marathon, he’s struggling against his negative thoughts like giving up, take a short brake, lack of motivation and in these conditions only a strong mind can help you overcome them.I also had negative thoughts. Creating a video can take many weeks, and my concentration can be for a short period of time; there are so many things that can distract me from my race into delivering the perfect video to my client. It’s very important to make all of your necessary things before sitting on your desk chair. These necessary things can include: eating, take your pills or supplements, take out the garbage, walk your dog, check your emails, your Facebook, Twitter and so on.When you sit at your computer you have to concentrate only on the things you have to do. For a long period of time, my schedule was: I was hard working for a whole hour, and then I was taking a short 5 minute break in order to rest my eyes. For each period of time I was doing the same thing. Once at 3 hours, I was taking a lunch break for 30 minutes. In this way your eyes and stomach will not get hurt.Another negative thought that I was facing (and I still do) is the negative feedback that was coming from my clients. It’s impossible to create from the first time the perfect draft (weather is about storyboard, animation or graphics). The client will always want small changes or, in some cases, huge changes.This thing doesn't have to break you down because it’s a part from your artist job. You always have to be willing to take it all over with a new version, again and again until everything goes out perfectly. When you feel discouraged, you only have to think about the fact that the effort is worth it, you will have a happy client, you will also receive money and you will be able to attach this video to your portfolio. It’s a certain thing that other persons will see your video and they will contact you to make them a similar one.
The race is almost over; the marathon runner gives the best out of him to win more seconds. There are left only 50 meters, he gets closer and … he passes the finish line! The crowd is going crazy, the marathon runner is filled up with their energy, he fills accomplished and proud of himself knowing that not many people is capable of doing what he did. He’s lucky and this is the most beautiful feeling in the whole world.Getting closer to the finishing line, when the animation is almost done, it happened many times to be too anxious to deliver the video to my clients, and I almost forgot that I have to add sound effects, or worst, not putting to much effort creating a more attractive CTA (call to action). In the runners’ world, this is similar to the fact of taking it easy in the end, or even quitting.There were several situations when I’ve felt that I’ve abandoned the projects when they were almost done. I couldn't control my anxiousness to deliver the project much sooner and to be happy to receive the most waited congrats.With mentally thoughts very well prepared, I knew that the race wasn’t over yet, and I’ve learn that I need at least one more working day to deliver the perfect project. So, when you lose your patience the wiser thing is to stop working, take a break (a couple of hours or maybe an entire day) and you go back with your mind refreshed to finish the project.The client is happy that his promotional video is perfect and he’s going to be willing to collaborate with you once again for his next project or he can recommend you to some other persons.This metaphor applies not only in the case of producing a video, but is also applies in everyday life. Building your own habit of not giving up, remaining focused only on the things that really matter, the final reward will be priceless. Go for it!
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This is what we call Amazing Video Content!I have discovered this Youtube channel last night and I already have the urge to spread the word to everyone! This guy calls himself “Fight Mediocrity” and he basically reads books about self-development and tries to explain them in a simplistic way: through whiteboard animation. I am amazed how many subscribers and views he has – this is marketing well done through very informative content that really HELPS other people.
We love this way of marketing that's why you should have a look and consider doing something similar for your business: think how you can help your audience/clients by giving free valuable information. Make short videos and post them on YouTube and other Social Media platforms. In the end everyone will win!
Generally speaking, an animated video is still an impersonal way of showing to the people who you or your business really are. And it's a known fact that people resonate with people, and very rarely with objects/things.You have to add personality to your company by showing your human side more often. If you're willing to go on a lung run, besides the animated videos that you will constantly put there on YouTube you must show to your subscribers that you are also a human. Amazingly, after reading some of the comments from this video I noticed the people subscribed because they liked this guy's personality - they feel him so 'real'.
What we've learned from this guy? Make things better or different (but still better). Find your topic and think at a creative way of doing what you love. This guy loves to read self improvement books and he wanted to be a Motivational Speaker but he was young, without experience. These factors led to the decision of doing something different - so he started explaining the books he read through simple animations. We say that this is the best decision he could make!
It happens from time to time to be so busy that we need an extra hand so we thought that a Freelancer may be the best solution rather than hiring new guys. In the following lines I am going to tell you my experiences with the freelancers I have hired and why it is really hard to find a good one.This story is for Freelancers and Clients in the same time. Read this as a guide of how to choose the best freelancers rather than considering that Freelancers are bad. I am also a Freelancer, basically s’UP Production is the extended version of myself – the freelancer.In the last month I needed more than ever to outsource some of my work to other people because of some factors that I don’t want to bother you about – mostly medical stuff. We had 4 projects in the pipeline and we were looking for an animator to help us a bit. We are active for a long time now on oDesk ( now it is called UpWork) and this is our main source of scouting for talents. So the logical way is to look on Upwork for help!
You know that kind of guy that asks tons of questions before actually buying anything? I am that kind of person! This behavior reflects also in the entrepreneurial life. Before deciding who will work on the projects I put a lot of questions. Surprisingly, most of the freelancers could do anything I have asked – “that’s just amazing” I said, the budgets were good, the timelines also good. After I made my choices and finally started the projects I was very enthusiastic to see what they will come up with. I don’t know why, maybe I am really bad at HR and I don’t know how to choose people but they ALL did a job that ”only a mother can love” – get it?You can’t tell for sure how talented someone is until you test him. But most of the freelancers refuse to be tested without any compensations. So how do you hire someone knowing for sure they will make great work? You can propose to work at a sample draft without any money but if they do a good job they will get the project and also a small bonus for their willingness of doing the demo.My advise for freelancers: never ever lie your clients! A client will appreciate who you are at that specific moment and believe it or not, you actually have a chance to be hired for your honesty.My advise for clients: don’t trust every word the freelancer says. Ask questions about their skills, ask them again. Then ask them to create a short sample from the work. If they do a great job motivate them with a small bonus at the end of the project.
This is the most hated part of freelancing (from client’s perspective). You hire this guy and then he starts to work on your project…............A week has past......You send a messageSend another one............Finally he responds saying that he had some problems with his laptop. Seriously?? And during this period you haven’t worked on my project? How come your laptop broke down exactly these days? There’s no internet outside your house to send a poor email saying that you have problems? Really?Unfortunately sooner or later you’ll find this kind of guys. As a client you want to be informed at least once at 2 days about your project. You want to be active, to send feedback and check if everything is OK. Then why the freelancer doesn't think the same? For few reasons ( I was there and I learnt my lesson):– they are working so slowly that they don’t have anything to show.– they are not working on your project in the first few days.– they simply want to show you the entire project so you can ask for as little changes as possible.– they went to vacation for a few days and forgot to tell you.– their dog has eaten their project – just kiddin' …The sad part is that you don’t have something particularly to do about this, you can’t predict how good the communication’s skills of the freelancer you hire will be.My advice for freelancers - Give updates every day or at least once at 2 days. You’ll keep your client happy and they will work with you on other projects (if they are happy with the project of course)My advice for clients - Never work again with freelancers that don’t respond to your messages. Period.
I must admit I was a foolish when I did this – no, I wasn’t the one who ran with the money – I was the robbed client…This time it was a local freelancer from Romania. This guy sent us an email telling that he wants to be hired in our studio. I must admit he has a very nice portfolio with animated videos similar to what we do. I have scheduled an appointment with him in the studio and I told him that we need an animation done in 1 week – we had all the illustrations ready. After I have explained what the project’s about he was very delighted and more than happy to work on this project. The budget for this task was way too generous for the amount of work he was about to do but because I wanted this project ready in a week, I thought this is the best way to have it done – with a big budget.He requested an upfront which I agreed. We also ask for upfront, it’s normal in this industry. In the same day I paid 30% from the agreed quote.Then the silence ….. I have been asking him if everything is OK and if he wants anything from us. He said everything is OK and he will deliver the project on time.One week has been past, the deadline is near and I start again to ask for some updates, some previews, some something. He wasn’t ready yet.. he wants one more day to be able to finish everything. The next day he wanted another day. In the third day he never answered again to my phone calls. I got some text messages from him telling me that he feels sorry because he let me down, he couldn’t handle the stress and he wasn’t able to finish the project. The sad part is that he barely touched the project.Now here’s the problem. I come from a world where people pay me to do my job – and I do it. They TRUST me and they don’t ask for contracts or identification paper for the upfront payment. Now this is the big problem. I thought every decent freelancer knows these rules and they all are nice guys. I trusted this freelancer because his portfolio was great and he worked in my way before. As a consequence now I can’t do anything about my lost money because I don’t know anything about this guy.My advice for freelancers - if you want to be a rockstar freelancer, as stupid as it sounds, never run with the upfront!My advice for clients - never ever give money to someone without a sort of security that you can get your money back. Make a contract or work through freelance platforms like Upwork or Freelancer.
Richard van den Boogaard from ReelSEO wrote an in-depth analysis where he examined what’s best for your video marketing campaign: should the video be Hosted (on your own site) or Posted on video platforms like YouTube?The article, written 5 years ago, was relevant for what was going at the time, and his conclusion was that it is more advantageous to post your video on sites like YouTube and embed it on your site (embedding means simply copying the HTML code YouTube automatically generates so visitors will see the YouTube video on your site). The criterias that he used to reach his conclusion were:
But that was 5 years ago when analyzing the performance of your video was a complicated job due to lack of in-depth analytics. Luckily, these days we have a few companies to choose from; companies that offer free and paid hosting solutions, in-depth analytics, in-depth viewer’s behavior (like heatmaps), SEO strategies and enough disk space for all your needs.So whatever business you may have, you really need just 2 things: Youtube and a Professional Hosting Platform. Unless you are a Learning Platform (like Lynda or Udemy) who may need a special video platform - this article is for you.
Because it’s the largest video platform in the world and it’s owned by Google. Google is the king of Online, Youtube is the king of Videos. You need to be in the same Kingdom. By doing a great job on Youtube chances are that you’ll get in top searches on Google for your specific keyword.Google often like to display Youtube videos on the first page results but I rarely see a Dailymotion or Vimeo video. It’s crazy that even the competition has an account on YouTube!
Because you need to see how good your video actually is! A professional hosting platform allows you to see exactly what ‘X’ viewer from ‘X’ country actually did when he watched your video! This is possible through heatmaps. If 6 from 10 viewers close your video after 20 seconds, you are able to see this and you can start immediately to take action (improve your video, change something in the script and so on…)
More than that, they come with marketing tools that will make your life easier: Email Collectors and Call to Actions.We did our research and we found only 2 good hosting platforms: Wistia and Sprout Video. We actually use Wistia and we can say that’s the best you can get but definitely check Sprout Video for a head to head comparison.From now on, we’ll take the role of educating you. The first step is to make you aware about the best places for your video and we really think that regardless of your business you need YouTube; you somehow need to attract that massive traffic to your website.Inside your website you have to control everything, that’s why you need a professional hosting platform and other tools that can help you track everything. Then you need to analyze the results and constantly update your presentations. By presentations I understand everything that’s on your website: the videos, the headlines, the content, the pictures, the buttons and even YOUR PRODUCT!A great video is never enough if everything else is not working right.Stay tuned for more!
I have spent 1 hour (or maybe a bit more) searching stuff about Video SEO on Google – this article is a summary of the things I found interesting and these should be a good starting point for everyone who has a video.
Like any other things in business, you need to grab someone’s attention. With an intriguing name for your video you may have a chance that someone will watch yours. YouTube is full of videos and chances are that your video will never be watched by someone if you have a boring title. Make sure that the title for your video is compelling.Before naming your video you may want to read this interesting comparison between Buzzfeed’s YouTube videos and Facebook’s videos. Link: http://www.reelseo.com/buzzfeed-video-titles/
Ok, you want a video for your Home Page that describes what your product does and how it can help others. But the reality is that it’s not enough for you to get to the people unless you are already a well-known brand with a built audience. So the solution is to constantly create content (video content) that can solve problems. You know your business like no other so you should know what people need from you. Don’t keep the secrets to yourself. Make videos explaining how to resolve certain problems people have: be generous, offer tips and free stuff – this will help you build your audience and sell your product in the future. They will see you as an authority and they will trust you.
Google Video Sitemaps provide Google with metadata about video content on a website. The video site operated by Google is the largest video search entity on the Web. With a Video Sitemap, site owners can inform Google of the category, title, description, running time, and intended audience for each video contained on the site. This helps Google know about all the rich video content on the site, which should improve the listing of the site on video search results. (source: www.xml-sitemaps.com)Here’s a nice explanation about Video Sitemaps:
Rich Snippets is definitely something it should be on your to-do lists. The good part is that it works with pictures and videos too. But what is a Rich Snippet?Simply said is that picture or video that Google shows when you’re looking for your favorite cheese pie recipe.
A more complex explanation of a Rich Snippet can be found at Google Developers page. We will cover how to create a Video Rich Snippet in a future article.
The best tip I could give to a prospect regarding VIDEO SEO is to actually put everything ‘humanly’ possible into it to make the best presentation possible. Ok, we do all these video optimization and technical stuff but if the video is not worth watching, not worth sharing then all the above means NADA. You have the chance to ‘pimp’ your business’s imagine with the video so make sure you add all of the following to your video:Humor – the truth is that is more probably that you will share a funny video with your friends rather than an informative video about something. Even if you have a serious brand you can still incorporate a sense of humor to it, people will like you more.Brevity – consider doing no introduction about who you are. Go directly to the problem and the solution. Get to the point as quick as possible and try to keep your video under less than 2 minutes. If you have more to say, do another video.Storyline – people relate more with stories. If your product allows you, try to add some characters that people can relate with. Present the problem through their eyes, tell the problems they confront and present the solution.Talk directly to your audience – a video presentation is considered something personal, even intimate because is just you and the video. That’s why consider to talk directly with your viewers, use first person and try to maintain their curiosity and attention during the whole video. Use questions, verbal hooks and add the Surprise element into the story.
s'UP suppers? Looking to spark up your website with a nice video but you don't have any money right now? Here is a list of some projects we have for you, hopefully one of them will work for now, helping you to get your message cross your audience and maybe lead to some conversions. Later on you can order a custom video which will match exactly the essence of your business :)
This After Effects Template works perfectly for your mobile app. The template contains both an iPhone and an Android device ( a Samsung phone). Also it has a lot of pre-made screen animations like Install the App from Play/App Store; Open the App and many more.
This template is just for iOS apps. It works in a similar way like the one above, you get all the Screen Pre-made animations but you can't change the color of the phone.
Looking to promote your next meeting or event? Look no further. This small project will make the deal.
A nice and simple presentation. Works nice if you want to present to someone what your Class is about, or how it was in the last trip with the kids or something. You can add pictures and even videos into the placeholders.
Are you looking for the perfect video template to promote your business? Well you found it. We’re very happy to present you our Businessman Animation AE template that can grow your sales.
A cool and fresh intro for a Serial or something similar. If you work on a school project, this could work nice as an intro.
This is an abstract logo reveal formed from a lot of shapes. It is made in After Effects CS5, it has no plugins and the project comes with a very deep help file