An animated video can be a great way to showcase your ideas and services. Whether you’re looking to create a professional explainer video for your website or an entertaining cartoon for social media, animated videos are an engaging and dynamic medium.

If this is your first time creating an animated video, don’t worry. This guide demystifies all about making an animated video; you should be ready to make one yourself in no time.

Dig in!

What to Begin With

Creating an animated video can be fun and rewarding, but it takes some work to do it right. Before you start making your animated video, it’s essential to take some time to plan and set your goals.

Decide on Your Goals

Before you begin creating your animation, setting some goals you would like to achieve with the video is vital.

Ask yourself: What message am I trying to convey? What kind of response do I want from my viewers? Am I trying to educate or entertain?

When setting your goals for the video, think about your target audience and what you want them to learn or take away from the video. Setting clear goals will help you stay focused on your project and ensure that the final product is aligned with what you had in mind.

This will also help you make decisions throughout the production process, such as the length of the video, the format and style, and the type of animation used.

Once you have decided on your goals, you can start planning how to create the animation that will best meet those goals.

Instructional Animated Video

These videos demonstrate how to use a product, service, or technique. Instructional animated videos typically involve step-by-step guidance narrated by a voiceover or on-screen text.

The use of animations also allows for the explanation of ideas in a more engaging way than traditional methods. Instructional Animated Videos are perfect for businesses that want to provide customers with an easy and entertaining way to learn about their products.

Education Animated Video

Education Animated Videos are often used to teach students in a fun and engaging way. They can help teach a wide range of topics, from science and technology to history and mathematics.

These are great for teaching complex concepts because they can easily illustrate complicated topics with visuals. They can also be used to create interactive games for students to learn from. Animation can make learning more enjoyable and help the concepts stick in students’ minds more effectively.

Explainer Animated Video

These videos are a great way to explain complex ideas or products quickly. They focus on the key points and entertainingly simplify them, helping your audience understand what you’re offering. This makes them great for introducing a new product, explaining a concept, or demonstrating features.

Because of their shorter length, they tend to be more engaging and can be easily shared across multiple platforms. They also work well for lead generation as they can direct viewers to a landing page or sales page. Here’s how to choose the best animation style for your explainer video.

Animated Advertisement for Your Business

 

Redbull has probably maxed out on this with their famous “Redbull gives you wings.” By using creative visuals and audio, businesses can engage viewers and convey their message entertainingly and memorably.

Animated ads can showcase products, promote services, and explain complex topics in an engaging and digestible format. Whether using hand-drawn animation, motion graphics, or 3D animation, these videos will captivate your audience.

Entertaining Animation

This type of animation uses various cartoon styles, characters, and visual elements to entertain viewers. These can often include slapstick humor, satire, and parodies.

Animations like these can also highlight your brand’s personality and create a more engaging content experience. Additionally, entertainer animation can effectively create a fantastic video or series of videos, a key aspect in maintaining brand relevance.

Choose Your Video Style

There are several different animation styles to choose from, and the right one depends on the type of message you want to convey and the audience you are trying to reach.

Each style has advantages and disadvantages and can be used differently. Here are some of the popular video styles:

Typography Animated Videos

This is a unique take on animated videos where instead of typical visual characters, the content creator employs various techniques to achieve what is known as moving text. To start, select a visually appealing font that is easy to read.

Incorporate different animation techniques like zoom, fade, rotate, and scale to make your text move and stand out. Use color to emphasize your message and draw the viewer’s attention. Consider using both stationary and dynamic typography to animate the text. You can also use audio effects like soundwaves or beats to accompany the text animation.

2D Animated Videos

2D animation is the classic cartoon style. It is usually done by hand-drawing each frame and then playing them in sequence. It gives a more traditional look and feel but takes more time and money than other animation styles.

Stop Motion

This animation involves photographing objects or models one frame at a time and then playing the images together to create the illusion of motion. It is most commonly used to create short, often humorous videos or commercials.

Stop motion can be a great way to make a professional-looking video with a small budget. It also allows for greater creative freedom, as objects and environments can be crafted to tell a story rather than relying on digital or drawn elements.

Stop motion provides an opportunity to work with physical materials and can be used to add tactile appeal and unique textures to your animation.

Whiteboard Videos

Whiteboard videos are ideal for educational videos, especially those where it’s important to highlight every step of the process.

These typically look like hand-drawn animations, and compared to regular PowerPoint, it’s more interactive and yields better results regarding content retention and concentration.

Make a Scenario

Creating a storyboard or scenario for your animated video is essential to ensure that you have a clear and coherent plan for the whole animation process. The storyboard/scenario should include key visuals and ideas, character designs, dialogue, music, and sound effects. It should also contain a timeline of the events in your video, detailing each scene and how they progress in time.

Once you have a basic storyboard, thoroughly review it and revise it as necessary. As the animation progresses, the storyboard will guide you to stay on track and complete the video successfully.

You can create a storyboard either by hand or on the computer. If you are making it on the computer, several tools can help you with this task. Wave.video allows you to create a storyboard directly from your video footage. This way, you can easily edit and revise it as needed.

The storyboard should be simple yet clear and concise.

Once you have it ready, it’s time to move on to creating your characters, backgrounds, and other visuals for your animation.

Find a Reliable Animation Maker

Creating an animated video can be a daunting task. With so many animation makers and tools available, choosing the right one for your project can be difficult. Before you search for animation software, decide which features are most important for your project.

Here are some questions to consider before making a decision:

• What type of animation do you need to create?
• How complex is the animation?
• Does the animation maker have any pre-made templates or characters?
• Is the animation tool compatible with other software?
• Does it come with any tutorials?
• Is there customer support if you have questions?
• Does the animation maker have additional features like text animations, effects, and audio?
• What is the cost of the animation tool?

The animation maker/tool you choose will depend on your budget, timeline, and project needs. Take your time to explore different options until you find the best one for you.

How to Use Wave.video to Make an Animated Video

It takes no effort to create animated videos on Wave.video. Here’s how to go about it:

• Open Wave.video on your browser, sign in or sign up for an account.
• Once you are on the homepage, hover your cursor over the Create video button. You can begin with a blank video or browse available templates.

• Next, choose an appropriate video format.

• Select a color background, Wave.video template, or media from your library or device storage.

• Click the + sign at the bottom to add more frames to your animated video.

• The next step is to let your creativity shine. Add stickers, frame transitions, stickers, and layouts. Try out these animated text effects on your project.
• Once the visual part is done, add audio to your animation video. Depending on the purpose, you can use stock music or custom audio for instructional or educational animation videos.

• Scroll down the submenu on your left and select Storyboard to plan how to execute the whole thing. This is optional but recommended to get the best results.
• Once everything looks good, hit Publish and choose Video from the dropdown menu.
• Choose an appropriate resolution and quality for your animated video, then click Render. Finally, click the download button to export the animated video to your local storage or share it directly from Wave.video platform to a preferred social media.

If you still need more help creating an animated video, look at these basic principles of animation.

Tips to Make a Perfect Animated Video

Ever wondered what the “wow” factor behind all those awesome animated videos is? There’s no secret. As you’ll discover soon enough, these tips should yield unbelievably great results no matter the audience or purpose:

Make It Short and Engaging

The key is to make it short, engaging, and memorable. It should be at most two minutes, as viewers’ attention can start to wander. A strong storyline that delivers your message quickly is the most effective way to captivate your audience.

Ensure your visuals are also captivating by adding animation, exciting graphics, and fun characters.

Use Stickers, Animated Texts, and Other Attention-Grabbing Tools

Stickers can be used to add a touch of fun to your video, while animated texts can be used to emphasize an important message. Additionally, you can use elements such as emojis and GIFs to give your video some extra personality.

Right Music and Voiceovers

Finding the perfect music and voiceovers for your animated video can be the difference between an average and a great video. When picking the music, choose something that not only fits the overall theme of the video but also brings out the story’s emotion.

Music should be used to enhance the visuals, not overpower them. When it comes to voiceovers, pick voices that are clear and easy to understand. Ensure the actors enthusiastically deliver their lines to draw in viewers’ attention.

Call to Action

Include a solid call to action at the end of your animated video. Your CTA should be clear, concise, and persuasive. Provide viewers with specific instructions about what you want them to do next.

Whether signing up for your email list, subscribing to your channel, or visiting your website, ensure the desired action is obvious. Additionally, provide incentives for viewers to complete the action – this could be a discount code or a free resource. With a good CTA, you can turn your viewers into leads and drive more conversions.

FAQs

How to make an animated GIF from a video clip?

Creating an animated GIF from a video clip can quickly turn short clips into fun, shareable content. Several tools are available to create an animated GIF from any video file. Here are the steps for creating an animated GIF from a video clip:

1. Open Wave.video on your browser.
2. Click on My Projects then Upload Video. Select the video from your device and hit Open to finalize the upload.
3. Edit the video, if necessary, add a layout, sticker, or frame transition
4. Once it looks good, hit the Publish button and select GIF from the dropdown menu options.
5. Adjust the start and end time for the GIF or the FPS setting. Click Generate and select Download to export the new GIF file to your device.

With Wave.video, there’s no need to have bulky or sometimes equipment software. Make the perfect animation videos without installing anything on your device; it’s all safe and guarantees unmatched output quality.

How long does it take to create a simple short cartoon video?

Creating a simple short cartoon video can take anywhere from a few hours to several weeks, depending on the complexity of the animation. Typically, producing a professional animated video with quality visuals, an engaging storyline, and sound effects takes a couple of days to several weeks.

It is also essential to consider that creating an animated video involves multiple steps. First, you must decide on a script and concept, create a storyboard, create the animation, and add sound effects and music.

It’s ideal to start the planning process as soon as possible so you can plan accordingly and make sure the project is completed within the timeline you set out.

How much does it cost to make a commercial animated video?

The cost of making a commercial animated video can vary greatly depending on various factors. The complexity of the animation, the quality of the graphics, the length of the video, and other related costs, such as voiceover work and music rights, can all impact the overall cost. On average, producing an animated commercial video typically costs between $3,000 and $15,000.

Consider the project’s scope when deciding how much to budget for your commercial animated video. Do you need a full-length video, or can you get away with a shorter clip? Are there any special effects or 3D elements that will increase the cost? Will you need to pay for actors or other professionals to provide their services? These questions will help you determine the budget you should allocate for your video.

In addition to the base cost of making the video, other factors may increase the overall cost. For example, these services will require additional payments if you need extra help from voiceover artists or further editing assistance. You may also need to purchase music licenses or other rights to use specific elements in your video. Though with Wave.video, you can minimize the project cost by using our voiceover tool with different neural voices, text-to-speech converters, etc.

The cost of making a commercial animated video will depend on many factors. However, by researching and planning, you can ensure you create a high-quality video that fits your budget.

Final Thoughts

Animated videos are an increasingly popular way to communicate your message or tell your story entertainingly and engagingly. When done right, they can make a significant impact on your audience.

As you create an animated video, it is essential to remember your project’s goals and what kind of style you want to achieve. From there, you can decide on the storyboard and scenarios, find a reliable animation maker/tool, and create your video.

This is also possible if you want to make a GIF from a video clip, but it will require extra steps. The time and cost of making an animated video depend mainly on the complexity and length of the video you want to create. Ultimately, animated videos can be a great way to communicate your message or brand creatively.