5 Creative video effects you can achieve with VideoScribe

If you've mastered the basics of VideoScribe animation then you might be wondering, what's next? This is an awesome question to be asking because it means you're ready to take your animation game up a level, and in this blog we're going to show you how.

We're walking you through five of the super eye-catching but lesser known effects you can create in VideoScribe. Each effect is designed to add extra intrigue, excitement and professionalism to your animations and the best part is they're all super easy to achieve! Read on to learn more and see them in action.

To experiment with these effects for yourself, log in to VideoScribe or start a free 7-day trial by clicking the button below.

1. Make images appear to move

Creating the illusion that your images are moving around the screen not only looks very impressive but it can keep your audience engaged for longer and enhance your message.

Whether you want to make it look like a car is moving along the road, a balloon is being blown up, or even that a car is turning into a helicopter, you can achieve it in VideoScribe. Just take a look at our example video. To create each of these effects you can use the 'morph' animation option.

Morph will allow you to easily create lots of different effects but it's particularly good for:

Turning one image into another - like a moon turning into a sun to show the change from night to day.
Changing the size of an image - like a firework growing and expanding as it explodes in the sky.
Moving or rotating an image - like a ball rolling across the screen.
Creating stop motion effects - like plotting the rotation of the moon around Earth.

You can find tutorials on creating each of these effects here.

2. Adjust your graphic filters to blur, enhance or add shadow to images

A really quick and effective way to give your animations a different look and feel is to make full use of the 'Graphic Filters' tools. You can find these by opening the properties of an image and then picking the filters tab using the options at the top. As you can see from here you have lots of editing features including blurring, adding a glow, adjusting the image brightness, saturation or contrast, as well as adding shadows. So let's look at exactly how you could use these...

Blurring VideoScribe images

Blurring is great for a couple of reasons. Firstly, blurring background images can give your videos an extra dimension and make it really feel like your background images are in the distance. Using blurring in this way can also help your audience focus on the main foreground action without getting distracted. You can see an example of this in our #ShadesDay animation below.

Secondly, blurring helps you create gradients. If you've ever wondered how we create dreamy sunset scenes in VideoScribe, the secret is blurring! To create this effect simply add two or more shapes images to your canvas, set them to the complementary colors you want and then blur both images and move them closer to each other until you're happy with the gradient. You can see how we've used this effect in our coronavirus back to work advice template.

Adding shadows to VideoScribe images

Shadows in your videos have lots of benefits including:

Creating depth - as you can see in our sticky note video template, adding a shadow to the notes makes it look a lot more 3D. So much so it looks like there are notes actually stuck on a piece of paper that you could touch.
Adding definition - shadows can also help your text stand out against more detailed backgrounds. This is particularly true for lighter colored text that you want to really pop from the screen.
Enhancing scenes - if you're creating a scene in a video where there would be light from a candle, the sun, a lamp etc. then adding shadows in the right places and angles can often be the finishing touch. You'll be surprised at the difference shadows make!

3. Import photos and GIFs for limitless video designs

Did you know you can import your own photos and GIFs into VideoScribe? This functionality gives you the power to create even more unique and striking animations.

You could choose to add a photo as a background like we've done in this example video, or you could add photos of people, places or things that support your animation as it progresses. Don't forget about layering too! You can add photos over the top of our laptop, TV and mobile phone images to bring them to life.

Similarly, if you have small sections of video you'd like to include in your animation then convert them into GIFs and upload them into VideoScribe. We love using GIFs in our videos to announce the launch of new VideoScribe images. You can see this in action below.

4. Change image transparency

Want to tone your background down so your text stands out more? Or perhaps you want to give your images a more modern twist? Simply adjusting the transparency of your images will help you do both. With just a couple of clicks you can create colored filters to add over your images to give them a different tint, lighten them or create new designs.

You can get a feel for this in our example video below. To adjust the transparency of your images click on the element properties and use the buttons to increase or decrease accordingly.

5. Layer animations over live action video

Lastly, don't forget that you can use your VideoScribe animations alongside other types of video like live action. This can be a really powerful way to enhance talking heads videos and make the information more memorable and digestible. You can see this in action in the example from Project Caritas below. The animations layered over the interview video help us understand the journey the founder of this bike brand has been through.

You can learn how to layer your animations over live action videos in our full blog here.