Power Up Your PowToon Studio Project

Table of Contents

Power Up Your PowToon Studio Project

Credits

Foreword

About the Author

About the Reviewers

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Why subscribe?

Free access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Structure of a PowToon Studio Project

Why do animations work?

When could I use a PowToon?

The renaissance of storytelling

Structure of a PowToon

Features and the balance of simplicity

The magic formula for mixing the elements

Cognitive overload

Adding the power of surprises and laughter to the mix

PowToon licenses

What is the perfect length for a PowToon?

Scripting

Summary

2. Getting the Best from Color in PowToon

PowToon and the color wheel

Ways of combining colors

Analogous color schemes

Monochromatic color schemes

Triad color schemes

Complementary color schemes

Split-complementary color schemes

Why is all this important?

Colors in culture

Color blindness

Summary

3. The Dashboard

Creating an account, logging in, and the dashboard

Navigating the dashboard

The great big CREATE button!

Editing an existing PowToon

Playing an existing PowToon

Deleting and duplicating a PowToon

Searching/filtering based on project names

Renaming a PowToon

Changing the project description and tagging your PowToon

Publishing your PowToon Studio project

Downloading to a local .mp4 file

Sharing PowToons

The transcript option

Summary

4. Getting Started

So let's begin!

The PowToon Studio screen

The timeline

The play options

Slide navigation area

The working area

Creating your PowToon!

Another way to edit

Summary

5. Storyboarding and Scripting

What is a storyboard?

Why is it so important to create a storyboard?

The five-step model for storytelling

Telling a story

Make sure that you actually have a story to tell!

Focus on the story – everything else is unwanted filler

Remember that the story has to engage your audience and not you!

What do you write?

The commercial example

The social example

The personal example

Rapid prototyping in PowToon

Summary

6. Backgrounds, Characters, and Props

Backgrounds

The Edge feature

Keep it simple

Changing the perspective with backgrounds – cropping and magnifying

Building your own background from the existing PowToon assets

Mixing and matching backgrounds

Changing a background for emphasis

Characters

Character size and perspective

Character orientation

Custom characters

Using the character as a prop

Parody

Props

Manipulating props

Adding your own props

Image holders, markers, and shapes

Image holders

Markers

Shapes

Manipulating characters and props on the stage

Prop and character orientation

The Grid feature

The Swap feature

The Split feature

Moving characters and props around the stage

The right-click options

How to construct and compose your overall image

The Golden Ratio

The rule of thirds

Remember your audience

More information on images

The .swf files

Deleting images

The Media Search option

Summary

7. Animations, Animating, and Transitions

Animating objects

The Hand option

Scrubbing a slide to view the animation

Animated objects

Using animations to enhance the meaning of the content

Transitions (animations between slides)

Summary

8. Text

A tiny bit of theory – serif versus sans serif

How to insert text

Using the animated text options

Text placement

Text size

Creative use of text

Speech and thought bubbles

Text angling

Style strings

Mixing text sizes and styles in leading characters

Moving the text in and out of a PowToon Studio slide

Top text tip

Summary

9. Voiceover and Music

Getting started

The Sound Manager options

Voiceover

Import File

Record

Inserting music tracks

Muting and deleting sound

Important considerations with music and voiceover

Volume and relative levels

Choosing your music

Do you actually need a voiceover?

Creating a voiceover that you do not keep!

Voiceover recording tips

Summary

10. Sharing and Enhancing Your Project

Exporting your project

What can you do with your PowToon now?

Summary

A. The Latest Features

Action buttons

Preview and Publish buttons

Undo and Redo

Index

Power Up Your PowToon Studio Project

Power Up Your PowToon Studio Project

Copyright © 2015 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: February 2015

Production reference: 1130215

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78439-280-2

www.packtpub.com

Credits

Author

Bruce Graham

Reviewers

Eric Curts

Rachna Ghiya

Whitney Kinyua

Bruno Marello

Commissioning Editor

Usha Iyer

Acquisition Editor

Joanne Fitzpatrick

Content Development Editor

Natasha Dsouza

Technical Editor

Shashank Desai

Copy Editor

Sarang Chari

Project Coordinator

Akash Poojary

Proofreaders

Simran Bhogal

Maria Gould

Ameesha Green

Paul Hindle

Indexer

Hemangini Bari

Graphics

Disha Haria

Abhinash Sahu

Production Coordinator

Aparna Bhagat

Cover Work

Aparna Bhagat

Foreword

PowToon – capturing imagination in a 90-second-attention-span world!

We live in an age of information overload! The constant bombardment of advertisements, newsletters, and offers leaves us overwhelmed to the point of exhaustion. As a result, it has become a serious challenge to pay attention to things that could actually matter to our lives.

So, how do we cut through all the clutter and filter out the meaningful and important messages? What's more, how do we convince someone—be it a colleague, student, or client—to focus on us while everything else competes for their attention?

These are the very questions that led to the creation of PowToon.

Why cartoons are so powerful

Have you ever found yourself watching a cartoon where mice talk, elephants fly, or penguins build airplanes and say to yourself, That's ridiculous! Where did they come up with such nonsense?.

The likelihood is you've never been bothered by how implausible a cartoon was. Why? It's because something magical happens when you watch a cartoon. Psychologists call it the Suspension of Disbelief. It's the special sauce that stops you from asking critical questions such as Can this actually happen? and Does this make any sense?".

Conditioned since childhood to love cartoons

Most of us watched cartoons as children and still, to this day, associate them with childish, nonbusiness, and (more importantly) non-sales-related matters.

Basically, we've been conditioned to accept cartoons as a nonthreatening form of communication, and we absorb their messages in a very different way compared to the jaded keep your guard up attitude that we typically adopt. A cartoon encourages you to lower your guard and stop asking grownup questions, such as Do I like this packaging?, Am I familiar with this brand?, and Do I have any prior experience with this vendor?.

This is where cartoons become such a powerful tool. By eliminating the criticizing instinct, for even just a few moments, we open ourselves up to new messages.

PowToon – a tool to harness the psychology of engagement

PowToon's renegade scientists harnessed the Power of Toon to build a simple and revolutionary tool that delivers professional results, allowing people to drive their message home, all the while making their audiences sit up and take notice.

Millions of users and fans all over the world have used PowToon to grow their businesses, market their products, recruit and train employees, teach their students, and impress their teachers.

I sincerely hope that this book will help you to utilize the awesome power of PowToon and teach you about the opportunities to harness the psychology of engagement for you, both personally and professionally. All you have to do is create a PowToon!

Stay awesome!

Ilya Spitalnik

Chief Renegade Scientist – PowToon

About the Author

Bruce Graham has been creating online content for over 15 years. He was responsible for EMEA staff and partner online learning at Oracle Corporation for 5 years before becoming the Global Sales Training Manager at Amdocs for 4 years. For the last 7 years, he has been a UK-based freelance instructional designer who constantly uses PowToon as a component within modules of corporate e-learning when a change of pace is required or a specific point needs to be highlighted.

He also uses PowToon to create marketing and tutorial videos for a variety of companies around the world in a large number of sectors, such as real estate, healthcare, IT, commercial cleaning, sanitation and hygiene, and retail organizations. To know more, visit http://www.animatedcourses.guru/.

About the Reviewers

Eric Curts has been in K–12 education for over 20 years and is currently serving as the technology integration specialist for the Stark Portage Area Computer Consortium in Northeast Ohio, where he oversees Google Apps for education implementation, training, and support as well as online learning and other technology integration initiatives. He is an authorized Google Education Trainer, a Google Certified Teacher, and a co-leader of the Ohio Google Educator Group (GEG) at https://plus.google.com/communities/111226787425825790142. He runs the Google Apps User Group website at http://www.appsusergroup.org/ and is a co-host of The State of Tech ed-tech podcast at http://www.thestateoftech.org/. Eric is married and has four children. More information can be found on his personal website at http://www.ericcurts.com/.

Rachna Ghiya specializes in creating awesome animated videos and presentations using PowToon. She started her career as a part-time assistant to an Internet marketer while pursuing her degree in science. She later completed her master's degree in business administration from IBS, Hyderabad. Rachna lived her interest in online marketing and joined a renowned IT company as an online marketing executive, where she was further promoted as a brand and marketing manager. During her 3-year stint with the organization, she worked on challenging projects and multiple facets of online marketing. Rachna's creative talents tempted her to start her own venture in order to live life on her own terms and break the monotony of a regular 9-to-5 job; that's how PowtoonPRO came into existence.

Besides creating PowToon videos, Rachna is an avid reader and is equally fond of listening to music, experimenting with the latest software, and learning about modern trends in online marketing. Her favorite author is Dr. Brian Weiss; she is partial to a few other authors too.

Whitney Kinyua is a small-town, Midwestern woman who enjoys new and updated technologies. She is an educator who tries to use these technologies in the classroom in fun and innovative ways. Prior to becoming an educator, she was a clinician who never imagined using any type of technology to reach audiences.

Bruno Marello is a graduate in information technology from the University of Turin. Bruno started as a software programmer. He then worked as a consultant for some of the most important Italian companies. Then, he moved to presales consultancy, working many years for Oracle, Italy. His main competence is in human resource management systems. Bruno is currently working with new communication tools and social media.

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