If you missed Part I and Part II of this series, be sure to check them out! 

Part I: How Much Does An Animated Explainer Video Cost? 

Part II: What To Look For in An Animated Video Producer

So you’ve signed on to make an explainer video that tells a great story and makes your brand shine. What exactly goes on once you’ve signed that contract? What follows is a high-level overview of the animated video production process.

Research & Kickoff

At this point, the video production house will dig into your resources – website, sales deck, personal expertise, etc. – to gain a deep understanding of your business. With that deep understanding in mind, they’ll work with you to develop a direction for your video.

Script Writing

This is easily the most important part of the process. If you don’t have a solid script, you don’t have a solid story. And without a solid story, your audience won’t connect with your video – no matter how high the production quality is.

Storyboards & Styleframes

Once the script is finalized and your messaging is set in stone, the video producer will create storyboards, sketching out your video scene by scene. A designer will also create a couple of style frames for your video – still shots of what your video will look like once animated. This is the time to make sure that you love your visuals! Make sure they’re on brand.

Voiceover

Audio is every bit as important as your project’s visual quality! Any video producer worth their salt will find a high-quality narrator that perfectly matches your story and your brand. Whether they’ve got in-house voiceover talent, or they sift through hundreds of submitted auditions, a great explainer video company won’t compromise on quality here.

Design & Animation

Once you’ve approved your style frames, the designer will style out the rest of your storyboard for an animator. The animator will execute animation with painstaking detail, making sure to match each piece of animation to the voice over recording.

Sound Design

You’ve got animation and a solid voice over. What more could your video need? You need a great music track and sound effects to really flesh out your video and give it the texture and depth it needs.

Finishing

Your producer will take the full mixdown of your project’s music and audio, combine them with your video, and render the whole package as a high-quality video in a downloadable format.

And there you go! Your video is ready for use on your landing page, in social media, and at pitch meetings. We’ll teach you more about how to promote your online video in Part IV of this series!