How to create your very own animations for free

November 11, 2021
Contents

What are animations? Animations can be seen as a way of putting graphics, drawings, or models together, giving them life by making them move in certain ways. These days, with the help of technology, animators are making use of online softwares or digital tools to help manipulate their animations, making transitions smoother and smoother.

In today’s world, most companies make use of animations to either help sell a product or service. It is one of the most effective ways to storytell and reach out to their potential customers.

Creating animations for free
Photo by Startup Stock Photos from Pexels

Why should I use animations?

Animations are easy for consumers to digest, they are able to convey messages/information effectively through a set of animated objects and it is engaging, easy to understand and very shareable.

This would help companies greatly especially for those who are promoting products that require education and explanation. Using animations in your advertisements would help you save your costs greatly if you are a startup. With shooting a commercial, you would need hours and hours of manpower, revisions, location scouting, talent scouting, retakes after retakes etc. Imagine how long that will take you just to get a commercial out for your product.

But with animations, you can either do it yourself or get someone in your team to do it. Depending on the complexity of it, it can be churned out within days. Not only is it fun and entertaining, it is also a good marketing tool for you to showcase your brand personality and it allows you to create a memorable experience for those who have watched your advertisement and get them talking. This would allow them to next time associate a certain type of animated ad to your brand.

Step by step guide to creating animations

Storytelling
Photo by Thought Catalog from UnsplashStep 1: Storytelling

Step 1: Storytelling

Brainstorm and plan out exactly how the animation should look like, what should be static, what should be animated. What objects or characters do you want to include in your animation. What should the flow of animation be like? If need be, draw it out on a whiteboard or a piece of paper for better clarity. This way, you are able to see clearer during the process of creating your own animations.

Photo by Offeo

Step 2: Work with a robust online animation maker platform

A robust animation maker platform should have the necessary tools that you should need to see through your animation. It should be user-friendly and intuitive enough so that the learning curve will not be that steep. Certain things you can look out for would be a drag and drop interface, library of royalty free assets such as sound effects, transitions, animations, motion graphics, stock images to use, ready-made templates for you to start working on immediately or customize from there.

There are many animation makers available but choosing the right one would make or break if you are working on a timeline. Because you don’t have the luxury of testing each and every animation maker platform there is online just to find the perfect one for your project.

Offeo Animation
Photo by Offeo

Step 3: Start animating

Begin animating your work. Once you have confirmed the sequence of the animation, make sure to shift and place your graphics where it should be, when should it appear or disappear, what object to move along the way, which object to have which animation/transition? Align your transitions and make sure your animations are moving the way you envisioned it to be.

Customize Audio
Photo by Offeo

Step 4: Consider adding a sound effects or BGM

Adding a background music would help evoke emotions from your audience. If it is a scary animation, it should have spooky or creepy sound effects. Make sure to align your sound effects or the background music to start whenever you want it to. Then again, only add sound effects or background music only if it is necessary. If your animation does not need any at all, do not add it for the sake of adding as it might sometimes backfire and annoy the audience’s experience, which would result in them clicking away.

Offeo Export
Photo by Offeo

Step 5: Finalize, check, test and publish!

After finalizing your animation, make sure to play it again right from the start. It should be seamless. Try to spot for any errors and you can make immediate changes right away. Save it, export it and make sure it is the right format to whichever platform or channel you wish to upload it to.

Upload it to your specific channel and there should typically be a preview mode for you to watch how your animation would look like. Happy with your animation already? Start publishing your animation or share it on your social media and there you have it!

Best practices for marketers when creating an animation

Here are some tips and tricks to take note of before you start creating those engaging animations.

  • Selecting the right format and working on the right dimensions is important as it will save you a lot of time before finding out that you have just worked on a wrong dimension, and you have to start from scratch again. Do your homework by finding out if there are any specific guidelines you have to follow, such as how many seconds video should you create, what format should it be in, is there any height, length, width restrictions you should take note of?

  • Cater your animations to the specific platform and your target audience. This means that if you are creating animations for Instagram stories, make sure it should be a couple of seconds short, instead of a long animation.

  • Maintain just a few objects that you wish to animate to avoid confusion. For example, if you are trying to promote a smartphone that is placed on a workstation, do not animate the computer, the mouse, the computer screen, the cup of coffee, etc. You should focus and place emphasis on the product that you are selling, which is the smartphone.

  • Try to minimize the number of animations or transitions to a few and it should not be all over the screen. Know that you do not want to distract your audience’s attention by animating something at corners of the screen as well. It should either be focusing on the product or have a focal point to draw all the attention to.

Which Animation Software to Use?

Which Animation software to use?
Photo by Bermix Studio from Unsplash

There is no secret when it comes to picking an online animation software. Just go through their product page, it should give you a gist of what their platform is providing. From there on, you should roughly get a good sense if this software fits what you are looking for. Try out their free/trial version if they have one to see if you are comfortable working with it as well.

But if you do not want to go through the time to filter and qualify which animation maker to use, here’s one we would highly recommend to you. Offeo animation maker, a highly interactive and easy to use online animation software that is free.  

Work with the Most Robust Animation Maker

Photo by Offeo

Introducing Offeo, a free online animation maker. Not only is it intuitive and simple enough to use, you don’t have animation experience or coding knowledge to use the platform. With it’s drag and drop interface, dozens of templates to cater various social media platforms, a library of stock graphics and royalty free music or BGM to choose from and collections of animations and transitions for you to add to your work to bring them to life!

Creating your very own animation should not be too complicated, dry, and hard to learn. This platform simplifies steps even for animators and it provides all the necessary tools that are needed for an animation to happen. Animate faster, better, today without compromising the quality of your animation after exporting.

Hesitate no more. Start creating your very own animation with the help of Offeo animation maker for free today! All you have to have is an idea and you can start by choosing a ready-made template and customize from there.

Written By
OFFEO Team

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