Here is a whole Animated Story from start to finish. Plan about ten minutes for a short story, plus the time your computer takes for voices and lip sync.
Where to find it:
Open Create Video, choose New VSL in Open a VSL, then click Animated Story at the top.
Check the set up:
If the box at the top of the panel says Get set up first, follow the steps it lists. When it reads Everything is set up, you are ready.
Your cast:
Tick one character for a talk to camera video, or two to four for a conversation. See Your Cast: Characters, Looks, Voices And Your Own Photo.
What is it about?
- The topic box: what the video is about, for example how solo ads work, and why the list you build is the real asset.
- Where they are: the place, for example a bright yoga studio with big windows and plants, early morning light. If your topic names a place, the writer uses it.
- Look: the style for the whole video.
- Length: 30 seconds, 45 seconds, 1 minute, 1.5 minutes, 2 minutes or 3 minutes.
- Title card on the first scene: tick it and type the title. It shows as a bar in the lower third for the first seconds, clear of faces.
- Captions: shows each line on screen.
- Pictures by, Picture quality and Movement: see Animated Story Costs And Free Practice.
- Lip sync: Best (about 1 to 2 minutes a scene) or Fast draft.
Then click Write the conversation (or Write the script for one character). It usually takes 15 to 60 seconds. If you already have scenes, it asks first, because a new conversation replaces them. You can also click + Add a scene by hand.
Your scenes:
Every line becomes a scene. Each scene shows its picture or number, the speaker, badges for Picture, Voice (with its length), Moving (when Movement is on) and Lip sync, and these controls.
- The speaker menu: who says the line.
- The line: change any word. A changed line gets a new voice.
- The camera shot: for example close-up of Priya smiling, explaining with one hand.
- Make picture or New picture, and Use my own picture.
- Make it move, when Movement is set to a Veo option.
- Make voice or New voice.
- Lip sync or Redo lip sync, once the scene has a picture and a voice.
- The arrows move a scene and the cross deletes it.
Click a scene's picture to show it in the Preview.
Make everything:
Click Make everything. If the run costs 25 cents or more, the price shows first. Then it draws the room, the characters and every scene, records every voice, makes moving clips if you chose them, and lip syncs each scene when lip sync is ready. A popup shows each step, the count and how long is left. Keep the tab open while it works.
Music and Voice Polish:
Below the panel, Voice Polish and, with PRO, Background Music work just as they do for slide videos. The music plays under the voices.
Preview and export:
Click Preview VSL to watch it with the voices, then Export MP4. Animated Story exports at a higher bitrate, so it stays sharp after Facebook or YouTube compress it. You can also put it on a page with the [results_video] shortcode, like any other video.
A real example:
For Your First Class With Priya, Yoursite Studio ticks Leo and Priya, types A nervous beginner asks the teacher what the first yoga class at Yoursite Studio is like, and books one, sets Where they are to a bright yoga studio with big windows and plants, early morning light, picks 45 seconds, and ticks the title card Your First Class. Write the conversation returns six lines, starting with Priya, I have never done yoga. Is the first class going to be hard? She uses her own studio illustration on scenes 1 and 6 with Use my own picture, then clicks Make everything for the rest.
Writing a good topic:
- Say who wants what: a nervous beginner asks what the first class is like.
- Say how it ends: and books one.
- Name your business if you want it said: at Yoursite Studio.
- Keep the place in Where they are, and the time of day if it matters.
Tips:
- Read the scenes before Make everything. Fixing a word now costs nothing.
- Make the camera shots specific: who, doing what, and how close.
- After the first run, Make everything only makes what is missing, so it is safe to click again.