The Process of Planning an Animated Infographic

The funny thing about creative projects is it’s very easy to do one of two tings: Jump right into creating something or feel overwhelmed by the blank page in front of you. The problem with both of these scenarios is there is no planning involved. And as we learned in our Pre-Production class, lack of planning costs more time, money and includes more roadblocks.

That’s why when I sat down to work on my latest Post-Production assignment, an animated infographic, I decided I was going to invest in the pre-production process before jumping into creating it. And it really made things go smoothly, and I’m very pleased with the outcome.

Everyone has a different process, but I thought I’d share what I’ve learned about the planning process through completing my assignments.

Step 1: Understand the concept and choose a topic

We were given an assignment to create an animated infographic based on a topic we chose. An infographic is a visual way to represent information. I began planning for my project by watching several animated infographics to get a better understanding of what they were and get some ideas. I chose to create a self-promotional infographic. I thought it would serve a dual purpose of showing future employers I could make a video like this and also present information about myself.

Step 2: Gather, Group and Organize the Facts

Now that I knew what an animated infographic was and had a topic to pursue, it was time to gather the facts. I tried to quantify facts about myself since much of the infographics I saw included lots of statistics. I wrote down how many blogs I’ve written, how many social media accounts I’ve managed, years of experience I had in certain fields and more. I then took my long list of facts and grouped them into categories and put those categories into an order that seemed logical to me. In the margins I made a few notes and thumbnail drawings of the images and animations I thought I might use.

Step 3: Storyboard the video and choose a visual theme

At this point I was feeling very good about the project. Ideas were coming to me, and I could see it staring to form in my head. I drew a storyboard in my notebook of the different panels I would create. I jotted notes on the animations I would use to move from panel to panel. I chose a color scheme and the fonts for the video.

Step 4: Create the Graphics

Based on the storyboard, I knew what graphics I was going to create. Some of my graphics I was going to need to create in Photoshop before working in After Effects, where the video would be put together. This step was very helpful. If I had jumped right into working in After Effects, I would have been jumping between After Effects and Photoshop, creating the graphic once I got to that part in the video. While this would have worked just fine I assume, the workflow went much smoother.

I should also mention that this is when I created a folder specifically for this project. All my files went into this folder. That way, I wouldn’t have trouble finding where my files were and if I needed to move the project to another computer or storage device, it would be very simple to do so.

Step 5: Create the Video

When I opened a new project in After Effects, I imported the graphics I made in Photoshop. I followed the storyboard I made earlier. I made a few changes as I began to put it together, but there really wasn’t much trial and error like you have when you jump right into making something without planning.

Even though this project was complicated, by researching and planning I didn’t feel overwhelmed. There was no staring at a blank project, getting stuck part way through making the video or starting over because I didn’t like what I made. I think I ended up with a video that is well thought out and has a consistent look. I’m glad I invested in the planning process.



How do you plan creative projects? Please share your tips and thoughts in the comments.

My Video Demo Reel - Capturing and Editing Video/Audio

Note: Please change the settings of the YouTube player to HD for best quality.

Since I shared some of my work from my Motion/Visual Graphics class in a previous blog, I thought you may also like to see some of the footage I filmed and edited for my other classes: Video Camera/Lighting Techniques and Video/Sound Editing. It's only a sample of my work, not the full videos, so I'm amazed I have  a full four minutes worth of footage in this demo reel. It didn't seem like it at the time, but I've already made quite a lot of videos in a relatively short amount of time. I've got two more classes to take, which are Pre Production and Post Production, and then I will have completed the Audio/Video certificate-- and I'll have a whole bunch of new projects to include in another demo reel!

Digital Switchers and Summer Plans

Digital switcher with multiple camera views

Well, another semester is over and it’s summer for MPTC students. I had a pretty memorable classes for our last week. We filmed a mock multi-camera live production in my Video-Sound Editing class using a digital switcher. The event was tabletop paper football game played by the students in my class. We even had a designated commentator giving play-by-plays. We used three cameras to capture the action from different angles. I took a turn at the digital switcher. It’s a device that lets you view all three cameras and choose which shot will be used. You can edit footage on the fly as you’re filming. It’s like those behind-the-scenes of live TV you may have seen (but on a much smaller scale).

Later on, we learned how to edit footage from multiple cameras on our computers. This is another way you can edit multi-camera footage. We had to sync the footage together. Much like the digital switcher, we could play all the videos at once and edit on the fly by choosing what shot we wanted to use.

Also during the last class we watched everybody’s green screen productions. They were great and really fun to watch. One group “teleported” themselves to different places. They even figured out how to create an effect that made them look like the zapped out of the space they were standing in. After class, my group and I celebrated a job well done by going out for ice cream. I will miss seeing them every week while we are on summer break.

Speaking of summer break, I’m really not getting a break this summer. I’ll be working overtime at my job. I’m also working on some side projects. I’ll be making videos for a gaming community that raises money for children’s hospitals. I’m in the process of making a video for them now using kinetic typography in Adobe After Effects. It’s a challenge, but it’s one of the coolest things I’ve made on my own so far.

How will you be spending your summer break?