Client: Laudspeaker.
This is a project for a tech start up called Laudspeaker. Their product is a customer Journey Builder. In simpler terms, a customer journey builder is a way to automate how you communicate with your users.
Challenge:
“Create a tutorial for our Journey Builder. Describe the features and explain them. ”.
The Goal
After my previous video for Laudspeaker, they managed to get a decent number of new users to their software. However! The users needed a bit of guidance. They knew what Laudspeaker can do, but they didn’t know how to get it done. So they asked me to create a tutorial for them that explains the components of their software.
So I offered them a video that would hit both those points in one go. The video I proposed to them (as visible above) would be a video that has an explainer segment at the beginning that explains the components. Then the second half of the video would be a demonstration of me using the software.
They wanted a tutorial that looked and felt like the Webflow video tutorials. Something a little tongue-in-cheek but ultimately informative.
Right up my alley.
The Process
Write Script
Record VO and Screen Capture
Animation Set Up
Animate!
Ok! Let’s get it done!
Write Script
Maybe you don’t know this about me but when I’m not making pretty shapes move around, I’m actually a comedian. I’ve been performing for 10 years now and I’ve loved every minute of it. That experience has helped so much with writing and pacing for Motion Design. I’ve written enough jokes that haven’t landed and (barely) enough that have to understand tone of voice. So I need to figure out who my audience is and write in a little quip that gets a cheap chuckle.
After speaking with the team, I’m told my audience is tech-savvy young people. As they say, comedy whether it’s about punching up or punching down is always about punching. So who would be my target? None other than the one and only Elon Musk. He was just in the news for buying out Twitter. The perfect choice. The only choice.
2. Record VO and Screen Capture
Now that I have a script - I need to record the Voiceover! I tried a few different takes and sent them into the Laudspeaker team. Now I’m no professional VO artist but I can do a basic voiceover. The trick was again to do with tone of voice. My first few takes were just too wacky or too deadpan. After a few attempts, I had figured out a nice healthy middle that didn’t seem too up or too down.
Once I had that all finished, I recorded myself using the software following the instructions of the Voice Over. This might ruin the magic for some of you, but when you’re watching a tutorial, the voiceover may have been made separately from what you’re seeing on the screen. It’s almost like performing but you’re just clicking buttons at the right time. Pretending to use the software.
I’ve included a copy of this video here for transparency’s sake. It’s Pre-Animation but it shows the process.
Pre-Animation Voiceover and Tutorial
3. Animation Set Up
The Voice Over is complete and now I need to bring my intro to life through animation. I used a similar process in my previous video with them to prepare this animation to be as smooth as possible!
I started with a tree design to visualise how a Journey would work in a real life case. This example was about how you would describe the journey of someone joining a software service and upgrading to a pro subscription and then getting banned .
The icons, which I had sourced from Envato Elements, came with fun little sparkles so I just incorporated that into the animation. I added a little pill with the word “PRO” on it and coloured the rim in gold so it would look all flashy and premium
After that I started preparing the other frames. They wanted me to explain the concept of Steps, Triggers and Messages. I went with a clean minimalist look. I used just black text on a white background with the blue accent that they used in their UI.
4. Animate!
I took all those elements and put them together - animated each of the curves to give it a really fluid feel. I wanted each frame to flow into the next. By the end I had a pretty clean animation which I sent out to the team. They were happy with it!