Animating simple network concepts video
April 8, 2016 8:44 AM Subscribe
I have a very simple, one-off animation task, which is to illustrate some basic network concepts through a two-to-three minute Youtube video. I have some scripting experience for videos, but no particular graphical chops: what software should i use?
I want to be able to place simple graphics representing network components on the page, animate the connections between them by lines/arrows, replicate and group them, and zoom in and out to show how clusters of components interact. I'll need to show stuff at individual, city, state and world scales. I want to represent changing states of the components and interconnections by changes in colour. The look will be very clean and uncluttered, and I'll be illustrating three or four basic ideas.
What's the best software package for this? I've looked at a few, like Pencil2D, but general animation packages are too general and don't seem to have the object-oriented tools for my specific needs. After Effects would be overkill (I used to work at a place with video editors/animators who could have dashed this off for me in an hour in Adobe: alas, no more). And I loath PowerPoint - should I go down that path nevertheless?
I want to be able to place simple graphics representing network components on the page, animate the connections between them by lines/arrows, replicate and group them, and zoom in and out to show how clusters of components interact. I'll need to show stuff at individual, city, state and world scales. I want to represent changing states of the components and interconnections by changes in colour. The look will be very clean and uncluttered, and I'll be illustrating three or four basic ideas.
What's the best software package for this? I've looked at a few, like Pencil2D, but general animation packages are too general and don't seem to have the object-oriented tools for my specific needs. After Effects would be overkill (I used to work at a place with video editors/animators who could have dashed this off for me in an hour in Adobe: alas, no more). And I loath PowerPoint - should I go down that path nevertheless?
This sounds like a job for Flash or its open source variant Synfig. Their tutorials are as step by step as it gets.
posted by KMB at 9:16 AM on April 8, 2016
posted by KMB at 9:16 AM on April 8, 2016
If you have a Mac, Keynote is surprisingly versatile. It can also handle video inserts or simple soundtracks. Don't try to coordinate commentary and images very closely though. I've just spent an entire day doing it for various reasons, and it's infuriating.
Other than that, totally recommend it for basic animations
posted by finisterre at 3:22 PM on April 8, 2016
Other than that, totally recommend it for basic animations
posted by finisterre at 3:22 PM on April 8, 2016
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posted by Jairus at 9:14 AM on April 8, 2016