Tuesday 28 April 2015

The Double-Whammy – Combining Storytelling and Animation

One of the things that define us as human beings is our affinity for stories. In every culture across the world, from childhood right into old age, from ancient cave art to the latest in animated media, storytelling is an integral part of human communication, record-keeping, instruction, and artistic expression. A story gets a message across in a way that hard facts and dry arguments simply cannot.

Facts and logical arguments can come later – in fact, you’ll never have the chance to flaunt them unless you grab your audience now. And the best way to do that is with a great story. A story forges an immediate emotional connection with your audience; it conveys a simple, concise message; and it engages your audience like nothing else can, eliciting immediate trust and action. It’s a lot more memorable than any other form of communication, and also a lot more subtle than a heavy-handed, overt message that will almost always be met with skepticism and resistance.

Bringing your story to life
Of course, having a great story isn’t enough – so much depends on the telling of your story. And in today’s online world, with the ocean of noise that everyone has to deal with, with the flood of distractions, with the millions of stories competing for attention, the best chance you have is to bring your story to life with animation. Text – and even the static image – doesn’t have the ability to immediately grab viewers and keep them till the end that video has, especially animated video.

Using an animated video to tell your story maximizes the impact of your story. Similarly, using storytelling in your animated video maximizes the impact of your video. You can have the best whiteboard animation services in Los Angeles at your disposal, but if all your animation does is resent a bunch of dry data, you’re losing out on the impact you could have had.

A few tips
Needless to say, a superficial, perfunctory combination on storytelling and animation won’t get you very far. If you’re doing it, you have to do it well. Here are a few things you should consider:
Know your audience and your message. Understand what they want and need, and formulate a message that’s true but will also resonate with your audience.

Know your story – every story must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Make sure yours has them too, and then strip your story down so that it gets to the point quickly and clearly.Remember you’re making an online video, not The Lion King.

Identify the right format and the right animated video services for the job. There’s a plethora of options in animated video today – traditional animation, digital 3D, stop-motion, whiteboard animation, and several sub-types and experimental types. There are also hordes of companies providing animated video services today. Not every company does a great job, and not every one is the right fit for your company, your product, your animation video, and your story.

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