My friend Luetta Newman sent me the funniest birthday video on Facebook back in December that stood out among all the other pokes, wall posts, and messages. I have been studying scripting, camera angles, and animations effects and fell in love with XtraNormal.
XtraNormal is a free software that lets you create your own videos from text. In other words if you can type a script then you can make your own animation video. It is both fun to create and hysterical to see the final product. If you are looking to make your next REALTOR Association event go viral on the web this is a marketing piece that will stand out among the rest.
Please note the steps that it takes to make your own.
1. Create an account for FREE
It takes two minutes. All you need is an email, username, a password and a pulse.
2. Write the script
Open up a fresh Microsoft Word document to type out the script before you type it into XtraNormal. Type the person’s name who is talking and then their lines of what your characters are going to say. If you choose to add effects or animations to the script be sure to add it in parenthesis so you know when to add actions explained in numbers 3 & 4.
3. Make Movies
Once you have created an account on XtraNormal and you have logged in with your username and password choose Make Movies on top of the menu.
Underneath the word script there will be a scrolling window that includes the timeline of the script, character highlighted, and space to paste the word from the Word document created.
If you want to add more dialogue click the + sign at the bottom right of the dialogue box. If you want to erase and start again choose the X at the top right.
4. Add Actions
- Cameras. Choose up to 10 different camera angles to show focus on individual characters and actionable sound bites. In other words when someone mentions a website to register make sure you choose a camera angle that zooms on the face directly with the camera.
- Animations. Give your characters more life by adding animations that reflect what the characters are thinking at the moment. The more animation the more entertaining however it can be overused if not managed properly.
- Expressions. These will tell the viewer whether the person is happy, sad, or in danger.
- Looks. These are hilarious. Just take a look at a couple.
- Points. Have your character point up to share they have an idea or point down to demonstrate that a point is trying to be made.
- Pauses. If the character is telling a joke be sure to add a pause for effect.
- Sounds. I like the cowboy sound the best.
6. Publish
Once you are comfortable with the script, effects, and animations click “Its a Wrap” to finish. Xtranormal automatically gives each video a hyperlink and code to embed into a website or blog.
7. More marketing ideas
Copy YouTube video URL and paste to Twitter
- Copy YouTube video URL and paste into email marketing
- Embed video into your blog or website using the code from YouTube
See an example of a video I created using XtraNormal to help promote an event.
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