Build the Process, Trust the Process
Designers, like many other specialized career people, have a natural talent for prattling on about process. We spend eight hours a day (if not more) solving problems creatively, and during that time we pride ourselves on building new processes, discovering new efficiencies, and codifying our learnings so that our fellow designers and creative problem solvers don’t have to stumble on the same problems we did.
Building out these procedures is often itself a process that comes with a learning curve and stumbling blocks. For the past six or seven years, I’ve been rather proud of carving out my specific video workflow. This has come with a lot of trial and error, a lot of triumph, a lot of tedium, and maybe even a little heartbreak. Today, I’d like to outline this specific process and highlight how my failure to adhere to a critical part of this process led to a lot more work for me. Make no mistake, this is not a tale of glory. This is me being hoist by my own petard.
First, the process.
This refers to the process of producing an animated ‘explainer’ or ‘marketing’ video. I’ve produced these for everyone from tech companies to tutoring firms, and this is the process that I’ve ironed out that allows me to produce videos in a timely manner while accounting for the feedback and creative direction of the stakeholders.
Script
I either write or assist in the writing of a script. In some cases, I am entrusted to write the script myself, when I’m a subject matter expert. Other times I’m given anything between a rough outline to a nearly finished script, and I’m given the ability to polish up. This is important because in most cases I’m the person recording my own voice for the voiceover. My involvement in the process ensures in a degree of editorial control (so that the content is something I feel comfortable reading). Here I also control for length, so that the number of words in the script actually reflect the target length of the end product.
We iterate on this process until everyone has signed off. At this point, the script can still endure small changes, but sign-off means that people agree with the broad strokes of the script.
Storyboard
Here, I produce a visual storyboard (usually in pdf form). At the bottom left corner of each page, I highlight in deep pink (or any other non-brand color) the parts of the text that I will be reading while this part of the finished product is animating on the screen. I will also put notes on the screen in deep pink to describe the type of animation that goes on, to convey some sense of the motion.
Audio Production
Once everyone has agreed on the storyboard, I then record the voiceover. I stand up in my closet (where the fabrics are as good a soundproofing as I have with my budget and space), set up my microphone, and try to nail the delivery as best as I can. I read multiple takes of each line in a few ways, and I am conscious of the storyboard I created while I read, so that I can imagine the relative times I need to hit to make the end product sync.
Then I edit together the best takes and most sensible inflections together, and process it for noise/room tone/reverb reduction. The end product here is a finished, clean-sounding .wav file of just my voice, set roughly to the timing I need for final production.
Animatic
This part of the process literally takes less than an hour. I export each frame of the storyboard as a PNG, and create a ‘slideshow’ of the storyboard accompanied by my VoiceOver and some music I’ve selected.
Once this has been signed off on, the most tedious part of the process begins. So I ensure everyone knows that signoff here means that there will be no more script changes.
Video Production
This is the fun part. I export all the video assets into After Effects, produce all the scenes, and then cut it together. This is very time-consuming work. It involves timing transitions and keyframes to exact moments in my VoiceOver and the music to produce an exciting and appropriately timed final product.
Final Approval / Delivery
Once everyone has agreed on the final product, I can export the video and circulate it to the necessary parties for use in whatever channel the stakeholder deems appropriate. At this point, things can be re-paced if necessary, but the VoiceOver should not change.
The Story (Failure to Adhere)
I recently produced a video entitled “What is RocketReach” for our company. The video had passed the script, storyboard, and audio production stages, with sign-off at every level in-between. As I was in a rush, I decided to skip the animatic portion. I ended up producing the video and spending all the hours that took before getting animatic approval, and the end result was that there was a script error that everyone missed (including myself). If there is a process that is more time-consuming than video production itself, it is re-timing every keyframe after having to re-record the audio. By not letting everyone else hear that final cut of the audio, I gave myself a lot more work.
I hope this outline of my process is helpful to my fellow video producers. In a sense, I’m actually rather fortunate to be able to do it all myself. Other video producers may have to rely on external VoiceOver talent, which means additional financial costs and turnaround times.
I also hope this encourages my fellow professional creatives to build, stress-test, refine, and stick to their own processes. At the very least, I hope you don’t end up with a story like mine. :)
