Grains in Animated Videos: How to Enhance Videos with Texture and Detail

It’s no longer a question of whether to choose static images or animated videos, especially when it comes to winning a wider audience or enjoying better conversions. On average, an animated film, a pre-recorded or live video, or even GIFs trigger higher user engagement rather than a still image (let alone plain text). 

After the boom of Facebook and Twitter, followed by Instagram and TikTok, audiences diverted from reading to watching. And now, motion graphics are shared 1200% more than pictures or articles.

Visual Storytelling Statistics

When the same information is put on a picture and featured in a video, people who checked both formats will retain 10% of what was read versus 95% of what was watched. This number solely explains why it’s better to make animated videos for a business or personal blog. 

Here are some more numbers for you to understand how animated videos work in 2023:

• 500 million Facebook users are watching videos on this platform daily
• 7 out of 10 social media platform users watch videos rather than read news
• In 2022, videos constituted over 80% of Internet traffic
• 77% of social platform users watch videos every day
• 75% of all videos are played on smartphones

There’s a common belief that Instagram brought videos (in general) and digital animation (in particular) to a new level via Stories & Reels. Instagram is an example of a delivery mix: videos and pictures working together perfectly. And though there is a debate right now regarding what the platform sponsors more, recent studies show that Instagram videos generate the lion’s share of engagement.

After Instagram, TikTok revolutionized how content is presented. With over 1 billion monthly users, it offers short-form videos that have become a goldmine for personal brand and business advertising. Plus, the platform’s algorithms are built to organically increase the brand’s reach. 

With this in mind, many companies now focus on regular and animated videos for business. Let’s figure out why and how animation techniques can be applied.

Animated Marketing Videos: The Power of Storytelling

Marketing departments are not foreign to creating animated business videos to establish contact and create a powerful emotional bond between a brand and its audience. Animated film aesthetics offer several benefits, including:

• Flexibility of scenarios, words, and characters
• Emotional connection to animated characters that regularly appear in a series of animated sequences
• Visual charm through animations, colors, and illustrations
• Ease of perception thanks to the ability of a video to deliver complex products and ideas in an understandable and easy way
• Shareability across different social platforms

Moreover, measurable engagement metrics such as comments, likes, shares, view counts, conversion rates, audience feedback, and ROI help to understand the profit gained from this investment.

You can check out the best animated videos in the marketing industry if you’re searching for good ideas for your new cinematography route. 

Animated Explainer Videos: What Types Are There?

In film production, these are short videos typically applied for marketing & sales purposes to draw attention to a business’s services, goods, or new ideas. Such videos are posted on Facebook or Home Pages to engage more users.

2D techniques are a traditional way of how to do animated videos. This type allows a business to build storylines, storyboards, and backgrounds. However, being more affordable than 3-dimensional, it lacks the instruments required for top-notch explainer videos.

3D animation is irreplaceable when one needs to create animated videos where objects are moved in a three-dimensional space. The method is very powerful in advertising projects whose nature is hard to explain in words or static pictures. 

Motion graphic videos deliver cinematic techniques like visual effects. Unlike others, these do not necessarily include a storyline or characters but include logos, abstract shapes, and texturing in animation for video enhancement. 

Whiteboard videos transmit a story through a whiteboard. This is done using artwork resembling hand-drawn stitches. And though this type may lack sophisticated beauty, it uses high-profile characters and well-thought scripts. Often, this method is applied in animated music videos. 

Live-action videos are people-oriented. They feature real people explaining business goods or services. They are chosen to reach a higher level of emotional connection. 

Here are the best animated explainer videos featuring the types described in this section. 

How to Make Animated Videos Enhanced via Grains

NOTE: Before you dive deep into the effects, work on the script. There are five W-questions that a script should answer: What’s the name of the service or product? Who is its target audience? What problems can this service or product deal with? What exactly does it do to deal with the issue (here, details are a must-have)? What’s the first step to begin with?

In this section, we have gathered popular video production effects that you’ll find helpful when assembling animated videos. In some cases, people hire an animated video company to complete such videos, as the scope and complexity of the work can seem frightening.

The market offers animation software for those wondering how to make short animated videos. Before making a final choice, you should test at least a couple of options. Luckily, most offer free trials:

• VideoScibe
• Powtoon
• Vyond
• Synfig
• Motionbuilder
• After Effects
• GoAnimate
• Moho
• 3ds Max
• Dragonframe
• Adobe (Character Animator, Animate)
• Pivot Animator
• Toon Boom
• CrazyTalk
• Mango Animate
• Doratoon
• VistaCreate

But do not create overly complex visuals. Keep things simple to illustrate a straightforward message. One notable point for success is adherence to grains in animation. 

Grain effects are a supplement added to picture layers available through plugins, presets, or tailor-made filters. Via special software tools, a user can adjust the animation’s noise and grain (meaning the way grains will change with motion), size (meaning how big the grains will be), color (meaning how they will affect the overall light), amount (meaning the intensity of grains in the picture), or distribution (meaning how randomly the particles will be spread).

Depending on the product, service, or topic being delivered through special effects in animation, it is essential to decide on the style. Widely chosen options are talking head, real action, whiteboard drawing, or screencast videos.

With grains, it’s easy to carry out a cinematic or realistic style through fine-grained noise resembling the tone and color pallet of a picture. For delivering a retro style, apply a coarse-grained one and change the image’s brightness. For pixel art, go with limited colors or monochrome. A dark look requires a lot of fine-grained noise when the shades are darker than the original picture.

Grain works well for detail enhancement, especially video texture. In film editing, you can apply the noise & grain technique to add more image depth or realism, including drama or contrast, fuse layers, and even conceal image imperfections. The grain technique is perfect for flat-looking, gritty, matte, or computer-generated imagery (CGI) or low-resolution scenes.

 

Check out inspiring examples of how noise and grain added details and texture to videos. 

Wrapping Up

We love images, but we love animated videos more. Perhaps it’s because we can easily relate to the characters or stories depicted and experience the sad or happy emotions that these short videos evoke. No still image can do the same, and that is what makes filmography such an effective instrument.