Insight

How to Make Your Own Animated Explainer Video

My name is Callum Donaldson, I’ve been studying Digital Film Production at SAE Glasgow for the past 2 years now. I took the opportunity to finish my degree after being let go from my job as a result of the pandemic.

For my course, I created a short promotional film for BOOMscout, a company set up by two of my friends during the pandemic. The company uses factual based data and statistics to hire the best players for any subscribing football club. This would wipe out old fashioned scouting methods which are often inaccurate and steeped in subjective opinion.

The video was targeted at potential customers and aims to convey what the company does. My inspiration was a series of explainer videos by other companies, I was mainly interested in the way a lot of videos use transitions as a way to move from one point to another.

If you want to go about creating a video like this, the easiest way to think about it is by breaking up the whole project into smaller, more manageable subsections. The overall project being on the top, trickling down into scenes, compositions, pre-compositions and moving images. The biggest challenge was sticking to a time plan, a lot of it was trial and error meaning there was a lot of time spent which didn’t go into the final video. However, the most rewarding aspect was getting lost in the complexity of the project and of course seeing it all come together at the end. The clients BOOMscout were also very happy with it and had very few amendments which was a bonus.

I chose to study film was I already had an HND in TV production which I’d obtained in 2014. I then went on to travel and work in other sectors for around 6 years until the pandemic brought everything to halt. I felt like it was the right time to complete my unfinished studies. I chose to come to SAE because it looked different to all the other options, plus it was the one university that offered a degree within 2 years.

My favourite part about SAE is the fact that it is quite practical based, I enjoyed trying out different genres of film and figuring out which route to take after my studies. I got a lot out of the knowledge that to break into the industry it’s about being self-sufficient, the course has shown me how to get there without having to hold my hand. The staff are all really helpful with varying fields of expertise, I didn’t ever feel like I asked a question that no one could answer and felt very well supported throughout. SAE is great if you want to get a fast degree, just be prepared to cram a lot in 2 years!

How to Make Your Own Animated Explainer Video

Do you want to create amazing content like Callum? Check out our content creation and online marketing course

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