A writer’s experiments with video and animation

I’ve been watching a webinar with Katie Davis, a writer and illustrator of kids books who also teaches other writers… various things, such as how to use videos to promote their writing. It seems like a very valid point – that video is now what websites were 10 – 15 years ago: on their way to being mandatory. Katie even says that if people don’t get on board with the video program, they will become obsolete… like the dinosaurs, yes. Whether that is going to happen or not is debatable but the main point remains: video is an important part of communicating with people.

So I was thinking… why not create very short animations of my cartoons on Bugburbia.com? They are perfect for that sort of thing – and I quite enjoy doing it (animating, that is)… if the process is easy.

I’ve been playing with this online tool called Powtoon, that allows you to create animated videos and presentations very, very easily. I quite like it, actually. But I think I will not stick to them as a long-term solution for several reasons:

- their free version gives you only 20 seconds

- after your 20 seconds they add an obnoxious sound-bite that can jolt you out of the deepest sleep that simply says “Created using Powtoon”

- they make it super easy to post the videos on Facebook, Tweeter and the other social channels. The problem is…. their self-promotion trumps yours. As in… everything starts with “Powtoon”…

It is a good first experiment though. I see lots of videos in my future.

Are you using videos to promote your materials? Care to share any of the technical details?