How to Create Animated Graphics That Stand Out
Back in the ’90s, Toy Story’s screenwriter Andrew Stanton shared that he and his partners had to fight to get their animated motion picture idea approved so they could “prove that you could tell stories completely different in animation.”
It’s amazing how far we’ve come in the last 20 years, where creating animated graphics for your business is now a major topic of conversation.
You can see a variety of animated graphics all across the web, from social media graphics to blog graphics and more.
But here’s the catch: creating clean and compelling animations on your own can be time-consuming and challenging.
And if you hire a professional, animation can be expensive. In fact, most design studies choose to stay mum about the costs.
In general, you’ll find costs for 2D animations ranging between USD 3,000–50,000. And costs for 3D animations starting from USD 10,000 and going on to USD 200,000. Plus, this is proof that animation is complex stuff.
Yikes.
But before you jump into panic mode, here’s some good news (drum roll, please) — you can use Visme to create animated illustrations. See! Dreams do come true.
In today’s post, we’ll concentrate on how you can use Visme to create animated graphics. But in addition to that, you’ll learn why your marketing plan needs them and creative ways to use them.
So, without further ado, let’s hit it.
Why You Should Use Animated Graphics in Your Marketing
Before we jump into the process of creating animated graphics, it’s important to understand why you need them in the first place.
Ready to learn the magic of animated graphics for your marketing? Hold on to your seats.
1. Animated graphics tell stories.
Our brains love stories . It’s been like this since the cavemen era.
Animated illustrations are the modern, digital versions of gathering a group of people around the fire to tell stories. These employ cinematic effects to help narrate your story and add life to your message.
Put simply, animation is a brilliant choice for emotionally connecting with your audience by telling them a narrative that’s relevant to them.
We also mirror the emotions that the visual on the screen depicts, perfectly explaining why we experience fear in a horror movie or even feel sad for the character going through a rough breakup.
Similarly, animated graphics move and with that capture an emotion and convey it to us. In turn, we mirror that emotion and connect.
2. Animation simplifies concepts.
Animated graphics are wonderful at explaining concepts. Look at this graphic, for example:
Customize this animated graphic template for your own needs. Edit and download here.
By not only showing recycling bins, but the process of placing different items into each bin, this graphic is visualizing much more than a basic static graphic could.
This also means good news for your ROI. Sites like Crazy Egg have seen an uptick in conversion rates by 64% and generated an extra income of $21,000 per month, all thanks to an animated explainer video . Sweeet.
3. Animated graphics hold attention.
The key here is to hold attention. Not just catch attention.
Take a look at this animated graphic:
Customize this animated graphic template and make it your own. Edit and download here.
Didn’t you watch until all of the animated elements appeared? Of course you did, because animation is awesome! And didn’t it spark your interest just a bit more about what this new SEO tool was? A plain, static graphic could’ve never done this.
That’s engagement on a whole new level, which also makes your graphics (and message) more memorable.
4. Animation persuades your viewers to take action.
Here’s another plus — animated graphics encourage people to take the step you want them to, like making a purchase.
In a (scientific) duel between verbal presentation and verbal plus visual presentation, the latter persuaded more than half of the audience (67%), while a pure verbal presentation persuaded only 50% of the audience.
Plus, people are 323% more likely to follow instructions given when they see text + illustrations than when they have to digest text alone. Think explaining how to open a can or take medicine.
An animated call-to-action graphic like the one below can lead to even more clicks and conversions than a static version.
Customize this animated graphic template and make it your own! Edit and download here.
How to Create Animated Graphics That Stand Out
So we’ve covered six serious benefits to using animated graphics for your business. Onto the next order of business — learning how to create these awesome graphics!
Pre-Design Principles to Keep in Mind
Before you start, imprint the following in your mind: you’ll need to be your most creative self when creating animated graphics.
Because it’s easy to end up designing a headache-inducing animation if you’re not paying attention. Plus, you need to focus on the details.
Look at this Google Doodle as a case in point:
See how the teacher’s mouth in the animation is moving to depict that she’s reading to the students, not just leading them.
Not so surprisingly, this is what is making this animated illustration superb. So, take out your notepad and jot this down: beauty is in the details.
One other thing to note from this example — it’s clutter-free.
It contains only what’s needed. Nothing extra.
Again, this helps put the focus on finer details and removes unnecessary elements from your graphic so it’s visually appealing, not visually distracting.
The takeaway? Create clutter-free designs that give real-life touches.
3. Steps to Creating Animated Graphics
When you’re ready to create your own animated graphics, follow these three quick steps to create stunning animations right here in Visme.
Step 1: Start with a template.
All good designs start with a plan. If you’ve a complete picture in your mind, you can always open a blank canvas and start creating, but we recommend exploring our animated template options to find one you can customize to fit your brand and your content.
You can tell which templates are animated by the lightning bolt in the corner of the preview.
Find the perfect template for your next animated graphic! Browse Now
Step 2: Add elements of your choice.
With Visme, you can add elements both to your blank sheet as well as a template.
The best part is all templates can be tailored to meet your needs. You can change their colors. Add new shapes and design elements such as lines, buttons, arrows, and more.
Add these by going to the Graphics option on the left of your Visme dashboard. Clicking Graphics will give you a pool of options to choose from.
You can also find Diagrams under Basics above Graphics.
From here you can easily create animated flowcharts where each instruction pops into the picture after the other, making an interactive flowchart instead of a boring, static one.
Bonus: add from the new Illustrations, Characters and Gestures that Visme Unleashed has brought to you.
Be sure to fully customize your fonts, colors and more in order to brand your content and ensure it matches your campaign objectives.
Step 3: Download and share.
Once you’ve fully customized your animated graphic, you’re ready to download and share. Visme gives you several options to share animations with your audience.
First, you can download as a GIF or video to upload onto social media or within blog posts.
Second, you can generate a shareable link (either public or private) to send to your audience.
Third, you can embed within a blog post or webpage to keep all animated or interactive content perfectly intact.
Design Tips to Create Amazing Animated Graphics
Before you settle in to start designing, read these tips for creating graphics that’ll impress your audience.
1. Stick to your branding.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or beginning with a template, it’s crucial you make on-brand designs. Use your brand colors and create animated illustrations that go with your brand voice.
2. Be subtle.
The best effects to add to an animated graphic are those that nobody notices. For instance, subtly change colors. If you add a filter all of a sudden, things will be too obvious. And meh.
However, if you slowly darken the shades in your design, you’d introduce change slowly to make it subtle and, therefore, effective.
3. Remove everything unnecessary.
A leading design principle to always keep in mind is creating harmony between all the elements in your design. Anything that’s extra leaves you at risk of disturbing the harmony.
4. Be creative with color.
Color can improve willingness to read by 80%. Use this to your benefit. Rely on proven color combinations. Or dig full-on into learning how to elicit emotions with colors.
5. Be unique.
Use little known shapes. Stay away from using overused design elements like silhouettes and shapes such as wings and bulbs.
Additionally, make your design easy to understand. The goal is to make your story flow, without pushing viewers to put the effort into understanding it.
To play it safe here, go through these graphic design mistakes to avoid before you get to creating animated graphics.
Creative Ways to Use Animated Graphics in Marketing
Now that you know just how to create awesome animated graphics for your business, let’s go over some creative ways to incorporate these graphics into your marketing strategy.
Create an animated video or slideshow.
We’ve already seen the results Crazy Egg is driving home with the help of an animated explainer video. Mint uses a similar approach:
In general, animated explainer videos can increase conversion rates by up to 20%.
Using Visme, you can easily duplicate this approach by putting together animated slideshows or presentations and exporting them as a video.
Take your reports and infographics to a whole new level.
You can also animate reports, like your annual growth report. Do the same with your infographics. It’s an excellent way to fight infographic fatigue.
We’ve got a detailed guide on animating your infographics so you can create a similar infographic for your business.
And while you’re at designing animated infographics, don’t forget to check out design rules for infographics that every marketer should know.
Use character animations.
This is particularly helpful if you’ve a brand mascot. And, it’s a wonderful way to further your storytelling game.
Check out our own brand mascot here at Visme in our animated explainer video below.
You can even use Visme’s own characters and mascots as your own brand mascot or animated representative.
Add animated illustrations.
You can also create animated illustrations to explain your point. For instance, you can use them in your blog posts or blog featured images. Visme gives you 500+ customizable characters, gestures, and illustrations.
Use animated graphics as part of your social media marketing.
An average user views a social post no longer than 3 seconds. But you can always get more user attention. How? Use animation.
GIFs, and animation type, for instance, can increase engagement by 55%.
You can also share a “new blog post” or “discount/sale alert” in an animated graphic, like in the example below. Or try out more of these social content ideas.
Customize this animated graphic template and make it your own. Edit and download here.
Here’s a walk through the process of creating social media graphics.
Or, rather, watch the process instead:
Ready to Crush It with Animated Graphics?
Creating animated graphics isn’t rocket science. And you definitely don’t need to outsource it. Instead, do it yourself! Simply, sign up for a Visme account and animate away.
So who’s ready to create epic animated illustrations?!
The original version of this post first appeared on Visme’s Visual Learning Center.
