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So you wanna’ jump on that mobile app bandwagon. Maybe you want to expand your brand image, or you have a cool new idea for a mobile-based service. Whatever your intentions are with developing an app, the one thing that’s absolutely vital to understand is your user experience design. Yeah, it can feel a little pretentious to start whipping around terms like ‘UX Design’, but the crux of the idea is to create an overall beneficial experience for anyone using your app.

This leads us to the question: what design choices make an app more intuitively useful? And how can we best take advantage of existing animation techniques to give the best user value? Today we’re looking at five ways animation is commonly used in mobile apps to enhance user experience.

The association between animation and kids is strong. Many of us grow up watching cartoons for entertainment, and some of us were sat in front of the TV as youngsters for the mildly reviled ‘educational cartoons’. But the uses of animation for education are far more wide-reaching and a lot more entertaining than many realise, finding modern applications within work, hobbies, and new technologies, while still holding the power to teach much younger audiences the basics of life.

I mean, it’s a fair question to ask yourself. It’s not like money grows on trees. Perhaps you’ve searched for ‘free explainer video software’ or ‘free explainer video maker’ in the hopes that an app maker has developed the perfect program for you: click a button, put in some details about your brand and boom, pixels appear on screen with a bouncy tune to boot, effectively and engagingly explaining what your company does.

Maybe you remember the days of clipart fondly and are looking for a click-and-drag style animation program, where icons slide on screen while you pay a voice actor a sweet five bucks to narrate copy about your company. And perhaps, like many, you’ve looked at sites like Fiverr, Airtasker, and PeoplePerHour where a smorgasbord of specialty freelancers bid for projects and wondered, “Can I really get an explainer video made that cheaply?”

Here are some things to keep in mind when considering if you should get your explainer video made through a freelance bidding website or a professional production company:

In such an oversaturated job market it can be tempting for companies to ask: Do we really need a recruitment campaign at all? The biggest flaw with this thinking is assuming that the best-suited employees will not only magically find your job ad, but that they will automatically want to work for a company they know nothing about. Good recruitment videos offer fast and effective company awareness specifically aimed at people within, or looking to get into, the field of work. So how do you go about crafting a video strong enough to nab your dream employees?

Ah yes, the corporate training video. More ridiculed than the recruitment video, and only slightly less reviled than the school project video. But little do most people know it doesn’t have to be this way. Indeed, your training videos can be eye-catching, funny, or even – dare I say – interesting. Don’t believe it? Check out our eight tips for making great animated training videos and decide for yourself.

Whether you’re looking to fit your brand video in with the most successful explainers of late, or you’re looking to find out what’s popular so you can buck the trend, it’s important to know what’s out there, what’s popular, and what’s cliché to the point of staleness. Today we’re looking at just a few of the current trends in explainer animation within the visuals, the music, and the scriptwriting.

Ahh, Sydney. Home of Luna Park, AC/DC, that one revolving restaurant we all deny having dropped a few hundred bucks to eat at, and 42 Wallaby Way. Well, maybe not the last one.

With so many recognisable landmarks Sydney is not only the tourism capital of Australia, but also sits among the top-fifteen most visited cities in the world. But what if we want to discover the residents who choose to make their permanent home in the harbour city?

Trying to pin down the best way to present your brand a localised audience can be tricky amongst a transient tourist city. That’s why today we’re taking a look at three aspects of Sydneysider culture to help mould your brand message, and how to best present that message through animation.

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard if you’re considering taking up a new hobby is to Google, “Things I wish I’d known before trying [hobby]”. This is a quick way to scope out potential downsides you may not have previously considered. Likewise before undertaking a new project, whether creative or corporate, it’s wise to consider what questions you need to ask yourself to be prepared for the oncoming production.

Today we’re looking at six questions to ask yourself when considering getting an explainer video made for your brand, and why you need to be asking them.

Whether it’s dodging the crowds at the night noodle markets, putting your hand on the water wall at the art gallery, or practicing your contained look of disgust for next time you have to travel to Sydney, there are a whole host of cultural phenomena that draw Melbourne-dwellers together. (Melbournians? Melbournites? Melbunnies? Yeah… let’s go with Melbournites.)

If you’re looking to create video content for your brand and you want to target a Melbourne audience, you’ll need to dive deep into the lifestyle and aesthetic of your viewership. After all, being one of the most liveable cities in the world, the sporting capital of the world, and the second-most fun city in the world (who knew, right?) takes a strong sense of ideals and standards.

Today we’ve got just the thing to get you started: we’re looking at three of the major social factors in the Melbournite way of life, and how we can use these things to better communicate with a Melbourne audience using animated video.

Trying to find useful content on a topic you’re new to can be like finding a needle in a haystack. And when that topic is something as over-saturated as online video, suddenly the haystack becomes an overgrown hedge maze and the needle is a contact lens you lost three years ago which may or may not be entirely a figment of your imagination.

If you’ve ever considered getting an explainer video made for your brand you might find the amount of information available overwhelming. Luckily we’ve done the hard work already and compiled a handy list of seven video resources in three categories to get you started on your explainer video journey. You’re welcome!