Simple Video Templates Without The Compromise

Thanks to the on-line revolution many things can be quickly created using either free or purchased templates to help improve your on-line marketing strategies. The upside being it’s quick and it’s cheap. The Downside is, it doesn’t matter how hard you look, finding that template that exactly fits your needs is time consuming and challenging.

IS IT REALLY YOU?

“Yeah I Iike that bit, but I’m not sure about this here”. When looking for that perfect template how many times have you said this to yourself? How much time did you spend looking for the template and then once found, how much time or money did you spend editing it to make it your own? Whether it be a website, press ad or video, these templates were designed by people and then uploaded to the mass audience in  a bid to make digital media affordable and easy to use, but is it the best option? Lets use a video template as an example. Once you have decided that you are going to produce some video content yourself you need to ask yourself the following questions.

1. Am I completely happy with the template I have chosen?
2. Do I have access to the software required to create this video?
3. How much time did I spend looking for this template?
4. How much time did I spend producing this video?
5. Could I have spent this time more effectively earning income from my business?
6. Is the end product unique?
7. Does my production portray the image I want my customers to see?

If you have answered yes to most of the above then congratulations on a job well done. If not then read on. By going through the process of creating a video template I’m hoping to demonstrate that by spending a few extra dollars and a lot less time you can come up with a video production and be totally satisfied with the end result without spending thousands of dollars. The trick being, using an experienced professional who considers both your brand and your budget requirements as a  priority.

HOW I CREATED MY OWN VIDEO TEMPLATE.

Today I am going to run you through the process of building a video template. This is a template that I have created from the ground up.

When I am first approached by a client to create their project I ask a lot of questions to ensure that I have a sound knowledge of what my customer is looking for. Today I am my own client and the brief I have given myself is to create a template that I can modify on a regular basis to promote the photographs that I take at my chosen events. I really do like the “Grunge” look and I also like the inkdrop wipe effects that I have seen on other productions. My concerns are by using these techniques the style may look a little “old”, so I’d like some sort of glass screen effect added to this to make it look more “today”.

Wow that’s some brief!

From this brief I already know that the stars of this promotion are going to be my photos, so I would like them to be in the foreground of something that essentially is going to be multi layered and complex. For all of this I will need to create a background. This will be my grunge element. Now I’ve always loved the texture you get on the paperback tree so I decided to use that as the beginnings of my background.

Original treebark photograph

After the Grunge treatment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using Photoshop and Lightroom, I made some adjustments to create my grunge look. The problem I then had was that this was meant to be a background for my photos … my stars … so I did not want it to detract from that, also it was not in keeping with my corporate look. Once again in photoshop I added a colour filter to create a background that I knew would not be too overbearing and stayed within the parameters of my brief.

The final background

With the first stage complete I find myself with something that is unique, simple and visually appealing. Now comes the ink drop effect. Without boring you with the technicalities this effect is created by a process called a matte key effect. The shape itself was created by filming food colouring being dropped onto tissue paper. With imagination and thought an individual shape can be created from almost anything. Using Photoshop After Effects the ink drop effect was created keying one of my photos into the shape like so …..

I then repeated this process many times to create an animated background for which to overlay my photo examples. The final part of the promotion involved adding some text and the foreground layer of my photos as I wanted, to appear is if they were on a glass screen. At the end of the promotion I added some animation that I created a few months previously, which once again is stored on an editable template on it’s own. But with these templates now created you can modify and update in a matter of hours using your own personally designed template. The original build may have cost a few extra dollars but updates made after this time can be made quickly and economically.

Now with this template created and fully functional I can update and change this after every event I go out to photograph. Here is another version it was modified in a matter of hours.

So why compromise when you have access to someone local, experienced and affordable who can give you exactly you want. Something unique that perfectly represents your brand.

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