Questions about creating animated videos
 

Ok, so as most of you know, I sell Electronic Message Centers(LED Displays, video screens, however you like to call them). One thing that is included when we sell a display is a set of standard video clips. I am starting to receive questions from customers about what software they should purchase to create their own clips similar to these. As long as it will output in .avi, .wmv, or .mpeg4 my software can handle converting it and uploading it to the display.

I know our internal group uses Adobe Aftereffects in amongst other things to do the clips such as these.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/k_Pvkx5UYJI?list=UUDVxCzgLhOfNj5rwiNpzRlA&amp;hl=e n_US" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

That is a promo reel for some of our indoor content. The clips I use are similar, but mostly less than 10secs in length, and without audio.

So what would be the easiest to use and or cheapest option for someone to do stuff similar to that? And are there any training resources available online?

Thanks guys! I'll buy the first round if I ever make it to your town! ;)

You're going to kill some poor epileptic kid with that video.

Sid, I can only guess your corporate office is using some expensive top shelf software on a very powerful computer. Something most end users will never want to spend. Something like Adobe Premiere Pro CS6. I have never used it but I suspect it is a user friendly to a beginner as PhotoShop CS6, and just as expensive.

It will be interesting to see if you can find any inexpensive consumer level software to do that.

That is only a guess, but an informed guess.

There are so many ways to tackle this it's not funny.

The correct way is to start with a good video editing suite, either Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut or Avid. None cheap. Sony Vegas can work and is cheaper.

Next for effects and transitions you need Adobe After Effects or Apples Motion. There are others like Boris.

But you still need to create content so now you are looking at needing an image editor, Photochop or The Gimp and a vector editor, Adobe Illustrator.

For some of the higher end objects a 3d modeler, 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema 4d, Blender.

To do things quickly you'll also want a library of textures, particles and background templates commonly referred to as jump backs.

In your reference video I see a mix of stock elements/effects/transitions and one off custom stuff.

Depending on the complexity of what needs to be rendered a high end machine with additional dedicated cards to offload processing from the CPU. This is an area where you simply can't spend too much money, or put another way you can go broke building it.

I've got a couple of high end machines, 8 cores/16 gb's of ram/10 TB raid 5 and sometimes they just don't cut it. Between the software and hardware they are North of $15k to build.

The old adage cheap, fast or good, pick 2, applies here.

And even if you have all of that the final product comes down to the talent/creativity of the operator.

Good creative is not a product of technology, it's a product of people with good aesthetic sense.

Thanks for the info Scott. I was a little afraid that you would reply something along those lines. I think for this customer in particular, they are better off to pay someone.