Animations and Screencasting:
The Perfect Marriage of Form & Function

In just 10 minutes, you can learn not only how to sex up your videos, but also to become a generally more productive human being.

I know that’s a pretty tall order for ten minutes of your time, but I’m absolutely serious.

You see, I had a problem on one my recent projects. We had just wrapped a series of videos on a productivity system called The Secret Weapon. But now we needed to top it with a quick introduction that not only provided a bird’s eye view of the system, but had just enough razzamatazz to compel the good folks to actually watch. The overview needed something, but it took a while for me to figure out what it was. Then it hit me:

Ninjas.

We merged traditional screencasting and ninja-tastic cartoon animation in touting The Secret Weapon.  It shows just how effectively animation can work in “framing” your screencast material. Check out the video and see if you agree:

[jwplayer config=”ninja” mediaid=”1027″]

 

And there’s a side-benefit to tuning in. TSW is something you should be learning about, anyway. It’s a powerfully simple productivity workflow based on David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology that can help you become more relaxed and efficient in your work than you ever thought possible. TSW uses your e-mail client and the free (and awesome) Evernote software to collect, organize, and accomplish everything you need to get done.

I use it myself. And I don’t make any money at all by suggesting you do so as well.

Adopting this process is simple, free, and altogether wonderful. Over the years, I tried to implement the Getting Things Done system at least three or four times, and this is the first time it actually “stuck.” It has transformed my entire professional workflow, and it can do the same for you. At no charge.

But this is only the first of an entire video series about TSW, all of which you can check out here: http://www.thesecretweapon.org/

As I said, this information is 100% free. They don’t even ask you for an e-mail signup.

At any rate, let’s get back to the animatin’…

So why complicate your screencasting with animation? Because it gets results. Human beings (and other animals) are genetically conditioned to pay attention to motion. It has helped us over milennia to track both predators and prey, and therefore keep us alive. Animated segments are much more likely to penetrate the skulls of your audience than are static images. Motion helps them retain that information.

Plus, animation is sexy as all get-out, and thus also more likely to get viewed in the first place.

But what if I can’t draw or animate to save my life?

Doesn’t matter. I can’t draw, either. But the world is bursting with starving artists who can, and whose talents can be had on the cheap. Peruse one of the freelancer sites like Fiverr.com or ODesk, or better yet, contact the art department of your local college or university. Artists are increasingly leveraging tech skills as a way to make money with their art.

Even if you don’t necessarily want to populate your video with the silent deadliness of the ninja, you can now animate content directly in the major screencasting tools, without having to turn to more complicated softwares like After Effects or Motion. Camtasia Studio or Screenflow will work just fine, even if you’re just working with a series of still images. If you look at some of the other TSW videos we did, you can see that we utilized these slideshow-style animation effects to very good effect. Just get yourself some stock photos, and you zoom, pan, slide, and spin content to your heart’s content.