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.

 

So here’s what you missed on Glee… erm, I mean on The Screencaster.

First off, I’d be remiss in telling you that this is the final day for you to take advantage of the utterly screentacular 40% discount off the retail price of Camtasia Studio 7: The Definitive Guide I brought up last week. The price goes back up at midnight tonight (Pacific time), and it ain’t coming up again, ever. Think I’m fibbing? If you see it listed on our site for less than the $49 retail price ever again, just send me a quick e-mail and call me on it, and I’ll give you a copy for FREE.

[button link=”http://www.dappertext.com/camtasia-studio-the-definitive-guide/” style=”green”]CHECK IT OUT[/button]
And a quick favor I’d like to ask of those who have bought the book, both recently and in the past. If you would be so kind as to drop in to my dinky little shop and post a review, I’d be eternally grateful.

[button link=”https://www.dappertext-shop.com/review.asp?action=newReview&catalogid=8″ style=”blue”]Review the book[/button]
A million thanks to those stalwart souls who took the time to give me feedback on how what kind of content they’d prefer to see in future Screencaster broadcasts. It seems we have more trainers than marketers in the house, and those trainers are hungry for some tutorial screencasts. I’ll do my best to oblige.

It also told me that perhaps you’d like to hear from me a bit more often, even if I’m only offering an item or two of content at a time. Again, your wish is my command. Don’t worry, you still won’t hear from me more than once a week or so, and it’ll probably be more like once a month.

Finally, a piece of errata for you. Shortly after posting my Screenflow vs. Camtasia Mac, my good buddy Paul Middlin (who also happens to be the lead developer of Camtasia Mac) touched base to correct a slight mistatement on my part. The Flash output in Camtasia Mac actually does already have HTML5 fallback. My mistake. I would say it’ll never happen again, but given the increasing complexity of these amazing products, being the all-knowing guru gets more challenging with each passing year, so no promises.

That’s all for now. I’ll be back for a more substantial brain dropping next month…

Daniel Park