At Common Craft, we’ve learned a few things about stop motion video over the years. It’s how we make all of our videos. Yesterday I downloaded the new (and free) Vine app by Twitter, which allows you to capture and share up to 6 seconds of video at a time using an iPhone or iPod Touch.
I noticed that people were using Vine with stop motion effects and I soon discovered how to do it myself. The instructions below cover the basics:
To “record” video in the Vine app, press your finger onto the screen and a green bar at the top shows that it’s recording. You can record a couple of seconds, release your finger to stop, then record something else by pressing again.
Here’s the SECRET to doing stop-motion: You can simply tap the screen to capture a very short bit of video. A tap will cause the green bar to grow by a tiny bit. This is the same as capturing stop-motion photos. Tap - tap - tap.
Here’s how you can create a Common Craft style animation on Vine:
You’ll need to keep the camera phone still while you record - this can be a challenge when you tap the screen. I taped my phone to a cigar box pointed down onto the whiteboard.
Then, it’s a simple matter of moving the object a tiny bit and tapping the app screen to record a tiny bit of video. Move - Tap - Move - Tap - Move - Tap.
Once you finish, you’ll see that the video shows the object animating across the screen. You can see one of my first tries by clicking here:
I'm "leelefever" on Vine. Look me up!
Or, if you're viewing this on an iPhone, click here for my profile.
Step 1. Forget about your audience’s needs. Their needs don’t matter. Your job isn’t to help them, it’s to make yourself look smart. This is all about you.
Step 2. Make tons of assumptions. Assume everyone in the room knows exactly what you know or more. Find ways to save time by skipping the big picture and context. Head straight for the details.
Step 3. Use lots of jargon and unfamiliar words. Since everyone in the room knows what you know, you can feel free to be loquacious in your articulations and not be concerned with eschewing obfuscation.
Step 4. Speak directly to the experts. Remember that the only way to look good is to impress the experts in the room. If other people can’t keep up, it’s probably because they’re not very bright.
Step 5. Focus on one question: “how?” No one cares about why an idea makes sense or why they should care - they only want to know how it works. Be as detailed as possible.
Step 6. Don’t use analogies or metaphors. These are shortcuts for dolts that only serve to remove technical accuracy. You’re better than that. Get real!
Step 7. Skip the stories. Are you sitting around a campfire? Are people holding hands? If not, then you can forget about story time. No one wants to hear about some fictional character who solves a problem. You might as well do interpretive dance.
Step 8. Bullet points, lots of bullet points. Your slides don’t matter. If the audience needs a visual aid they can close their eyes and dream of rainbows and unicorns. Your words are what matters, so use a lot of them. Extra points for big ones (see step 3).
Step 9. Never draw anything ever. Cartoons are for kids. You’re an expert not a preschool teacher.
Step 10. Focus on speed. You have a lot to say and you’ll never get it all in unless you go very quickly. Talk fast, move fast, be efficient. If they can’t keep up, that’s their problem.
NOTE: If you're interested in learning in-depth about the skill of explanation and how to make Common Craft Style videos, check out our online courses at the Explainer Academy.
When I was a wee lad, I remember seeing these little animated tv shows that seemed to be mixed in with my Saturday morning cartoons. They were only a few minutes long and were focused on a single subject. But these little shows were unlike anything else on TV. I learned something real. I remembered. I knew, at a very young age, how a bill becomes a law. It was Schoolhouse Rock! and as of January 13th, it turned 40 years old.
Speider Schneider is a family friend of David McCall, the creator of the series, and wrote an excellent article about the people and events that made the series happen. From the article:
While it began as a commercial advertising venture by McCall in reaction to his son’s needs and witness to the very solution based in music, when a print workbook version fell through, McCall’s company decided to produce their own animated versions of the songs, which they then sold to ABC (which was already the advertising company’s biggest account) based on a demo animation of the original “Three Is A Magic Number” for its Saturday morning lineup. They pitched their idea to Michael Eisner, then vice-president of ABC’s children’s programming division.
Schneider continues:
Although McCall had a leg up on introducing this innovative idea, it reminds all creatives that a great idea can start with a small spark, sometimes noticed in one’s everyday life and it can grow to greatness. After 40 years, the popularity of Schoolhouse Rock! continues to be enjoyed by generations and holds together, never looking dated or losing its impact.
35 years later, I’m making little shows of my own and credit Schoolhouse Rock! for paving the way. And while the need for this kind of learning and explanation is the same, the environment is different in fundamental ways.
First, McCall’s work could only have been experienced by me and my peers with the help of a TV network and expensive animation tools. The network provided the platform and he happened to have the connections to bring his visions to life. Today we have the Web and comparatively cheap tools for building animations and sharing them with the world. The power of the network is now in our hands.
Second, the animation format was much less cross-generational. In the days of Schoolhouse Rock, cartoons were for kids. I doubt any TV executive could imagine adults being the audience for an animated feature. Today, The Simpsons, South Park and many other shows have proven that adults are a viable market for animated shows. On the web, we see animations becoming one of the most effective explanations and marketing tools for startups.
But some things are remarkably similar.
Schoolhouse Rock shows were all about three minutes long. This length is now a rule-of-thumb duration for many animated explanations. This length is enough to relate valuable information but not so long that people tune out. Also, you know, three IS a magic number:
Also, for the most part, they are purely educational. They were not about Cheerios or Barbie Dolls but grammar, civics and history. From our work at Common Craft to RSA Animate to Minute Physics, these kinds of educational videos endure.
Further, the use of music is a big part of Schoolhouse Rock and something that continues to make learning effective. I recently wrote about an number of awesome examples of this today.
My point here is to say that we live in world where a thousand Schoolhouse Rocks can bloom. We have the tools, the platforms, the audience and know-how to carry the torch, to continue making animated media that educates and enlightens. Let’s build on the work of Mr. McCall and inspire a new generation to see ideas from a more fun and engaging perspective. Here's to 40 more years!
Sachi and I are heading to Hawaii soon and we're planning to host a little event in Honolulu. As you may know, Sachi is from Hawaii and we thought it would be fun to meet some good folks. Come enjoy a low key gathering with drinks and pupus.
Email has evolved over the years. It used to live on our computers, but it now lives on servers and this evolution has changed how we think about email. This video highlights what these changes mean for the average email user. It teaches:
•Basic email infrastructure: servers and email boxes
•Why email is often safe, even when a computer is ruined
This video is part of our Technology series and is designed for helping educators explain the basic functions of the Internet. Check out the complete Common Craft video library.
QR codes often get a bad rap these days. The ugly little boxes appear everywhere and to many, they seem to be a waste of time and space. But the reality of QR codes is like any tool - the value is determined by how it’s used. When used effectively, QR codes bridge online and offline worlds by making it easier to use a mobile phone to visit a webpage, for example.
QR Codes in Books - Why?
My book The Art of Explanation recently hit the shelves. It is based on our work at Common Craft and throughout it I reference specific Common Craft videos as examples. The question became: how do we make it easy to watch the video instead of just reading about it in the paperback version? Our answer: QR Codes. By including QR codes along with references to videos, we could give readers an option to point their mobile phone at a printed page and watch a video on the Common Craft website within seconds.
Priority on Mobile
A couple of things made this work. First, the Common Craft website has a “responsive” design. This means that it automatically reacts to different screen sizes and makes for a more usable experience on a mobile phone. Second, our videos are designed to play reliably on mobile devices. Getting this right was key - the mobile experience had to work well.
Did it work?
Yes, readers are using the QR codes. Over the last three months (Oct. 6th - Jan 6th) we’ve seen over 600 unique visitors, 1200 total visits and 1900 pageviews via QR codes. I don’t know what we should expect, but I’m happy with the results so far (more data below).
How Do We Know?
A problem with QR codes is that they make it difficult to collect data. When someone visits our website from a phone, Google Analytics can track that a phone was used - but it doesn’t know what actions the user took to make that happen. We don’t know if they typed a URL or scanned a code. QR code use is hidden.
Thankfully there is a workaround that involves creating trackable URLs, which I detailed in this post. The idea is to assign the QR code a URL that gives Google Analytics data it can can use. Here’s an example with the "source" indicator highlighted:
Because I used these URLs, I can simply filter Google Analytics by the “book” source and see data on visitors from QR codes. Here’s a summary of what we know, again Oct 6 - Jan 6th:
Traffic:
Total Pageviews: 1,900+
Total Visits: 1,200+
Total Unique Visitors: 600+
Top 5 Devices in visits (iPhone wins by a mile):
iPhone: 800 visits
iPad: 68 visits
(not set): 35 visits
Samsung Galaxy Note: 28 visits
Motorola Droid: 20 visits
Visit Duration by Devices (iPhone users stick around):
iPhone: 09:54:06
iPad: 03:23:13
(not set): 00:27:45
Samsung Galaxy Note: 00:48:18
Motorola Droid: 00:23:44
Top 5 Videos in page views (Generally follows order in the book):
QR Codes 426
Plagiarism 174
Twitter 133
Dropbox 100
Stock Markets 72
Unfortunately my data are limited to visits and not actual video views - I don’t know who came from the book and clicked “play”. However, I do think it’s valuable to know that people are indeed using the QR codes and visiting the Common Craft website. In the end, that’s what we wanted - to create a useful experience for the reader and give them a reason to visit our site.
A Final Note: We also have an “enhanced” ebook that has the videos embedded directly in the book. Both the enhanced ebook and QR codes are fairly new to publishers and there are some wrinkles. For instance - how do you account for a normal (e-ink) Kindle book that's not able to play videos? It seems strange to have QR codes in an e-reader, but the fact is that many of the e-readers can't handle multimedia - yet. I proposed making the QR codes clickable image files so the option was there to click-through, but it didn't work out. While QR codes are great for now, what has me really excited is the future of enhanced ebooks - more on that later.
When I was a wee lad, I remember seeing these little animated tv shows that seemed to be mixed in with my Saturday morning cartoons. They were only a few minutes long and were focused on a single subject. But these little shows were unlike anything else on TV. I learned something real. I remembered. I knew, at a very young age, how a bill becomes a law. It was 
