Marketing Video – Instructions (GD&M)

Overview

Marketing, educational, and how-to/explainer videos are excellent ways to share knowledge, information, and your story with your customers or audience. These videos grab your viewer’s attention, hold it, and deliver a message.

You’ll be creating your video in After Effects and then exporting it in Adobe Media Encoder.

Video Grading Checklist

  • Choose your own topic. Focus your video on a product, service, educational topic, how-to, self-help, or value.
  • Simplify your message’s text so you have 3–5 facts that you can use as headlines.
  • Size: (1080 x 1080) or (1920 x 1080) pixels
  • 30 frames per second
  • Use the storyboard sheet below to layout your ideas (optional)
  • Comp in Illustrator or Photoshop as needed (optional)
  • Animate in After Effects and render in Adobe Media Encoder
  • Find photos and illustrations from unsplash.com, pexels.com, or pixabay.com
  • Find stock videos from pexels.com or pixabay.com
  • Find stock sounds and music from bensound.com
  • You may also use AI it generate videos, photos, or illustrations. (try Microsoft’s Copilot)
  • Find new typefaces on fontsquirrel.com
  • Participate in class critiques
  • Present your final .mp4 video to the class
  • Upload your final .mp4 video to the OneDrive link in Blackboard > Assignments

What AI-generator to use?

You may use Adobe Firefly to create your AI art assets (https://firefly.adobe.com/), and ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com/) for your body copy (text). Feel free to explore other AI-generating websites too. Some require you to create an account, others require payment. I’ve used OpenAI’s DALL•E (https://openai.com/dall-e-3)(account required).

Another option is Microsoft’s AI generator, Copilot (https://copilot.microsoft.com). You have to sign in to generate images. I was able to sign in with my Western email/account.

Gencraft.com is another option to create AI-generated images. You need to create an account and you get 10 free prompts/images.

VideoGen.io is an option for creating AI-generated videos. You need to create an account, and you get 5000 free text-to-speech credits.

Your animated video can promote your message in many places

Example Video

Here’s an example of a thirty-second video to show what a marketing video looks like.

Here’s the same video—but the last three photos have been replaced with video clips. The videos are optional, but they make it look more engaging and developed.

This is how it looks when posted to Facebook. Notice how Facebook enlarges the video to fit the width of the status column.

Marketing Videos – Best Practices

  • Use a 1080×1080 or 1920×1080 size ratio for your video
  • 30-seconds or less
  • Always tell a story
  • Highlight one topic or subject only
  • Use large headlines to grab attention
  • One large photo or graphic per scene to grab attention
  • Brand your design with your client’s logo, typography, colors, layout, and repeatable design elements
  • Don’t overdo the zooming and flying. Keep your message legible, professional, and calming

Use a 1:1 Video aspect ratio

Storyboard your 30-second animated video

Download and print the storyboard template below to sketch your ideas.

Concepting-and-Storyboard-Sheet.pdfDownload