One of the BEST (simple) animation programs I've ever used, incredibly robust
Rating: 8 out of 10
IncentivizedUse Cases and Deployment Scope
VideoScribe was a software program I saw colleagues at my former company use to make quick "animations" in a style that was pleasing and didn't require the same time, technical knowhow or expense of traditional animation through more specialized programs like Adobe Premiere or the like. When asked to update our PowerPoint pitch deck, I knew everyone was tired of PowerPoint and wanted something more immersive to be able to show, but that still wouldn't take the days, weeks that traditional keyed animation would which I also have a background in. Since redoing the initial pitch deck, we've had no less than 5 or 6 new business clients come on (over $300k in revenue) that exclusively pointed out they did so because of the information in the digital pitch I created in VideoScribe which was all of 4 minutes long.
Pros
- It's fast and customizable! You can import your own vector graphics and PNGs to utilize or take advantage of their huge library of resources, from graphics to icons and sound
- You don't have to have a background in animation or graphics (though it doesn't hurt) to utilize the program, really expanding who in your company can take advantage of it
- The support and resource documentation is amazing. From multiple series of videos to text-based help and I believe if i remember correctly even emails when I first signed up, it's hard to feel frustrated or lost with how to start with all the support available
Cons
- Some of the vector rendering for imported pieces could still use work, I've discovered a workaround for adding a stroke to images to help smooth the edge but this can be tiring
- The PNG rendering often seems to be under a super heavy compression and can pixellate even higher-res images that are brought in. I utilize almost exclusively custom created graphics to use in this program so seeing that fixed would be great
- It would be nice if there was a super-basic audio editor in the program, even something that didn't do much but let you edit the start and end of clips
Likelihood to Recommend
If you need to spice up your presentations but don't have the money/budget/team for full video production or animation, this software is for you. In skilled hands it can also look as good if not better than productions that would cost 5-6x more, including turnaround time. I think the basics of video still apply here, you want to have a story, a narrative, some storyboarding and an idea of where you want to go, but the tools this software provides will help you achieve that (and edit it later) quickly and efficiently.
Vetted Review
2 years of experience