By Koby Leff
What the Text is About: In this final part of the series, we explore how graphics and animations can serve not just to up the entertainment value of our videos and save us the trouble of recording ourselves, but also help our students grasp complex concepts. Animated videos like these often make their way even into synchronous, in-person classes because their capabilities have no chalkboard parallel.
The first two parts of this series showcased videos with visible presenters, either to demonstrate their knowledge as an expert, personality as a human, or both. While there are many affordances to displaying the educator behind the camera, there are also times when it’s best to hide ourselves and focus on images and graphics instead (and not because we’re just camera shy).
Video has the unique power to show moving pictures, zoom in and out on charts and graphics, and show the passage of time in ways we could never do in the classroom—a chart, slide, or screen capture can be such a visual feast on its own that putting our faces next to them might only detract from both. And while eye contact helps us form a connection with the narrator, sometimes an intentionally impersonal video can help us form a stronger connection to the content under analysis, persuading and educating us without feeling like we are just defaulting to agree with a charismatic filmmaker.
Note: Most of these videos are made by full-time content creators with budgets for animators and illustrators, not by educators with dual teaching and research responsibilities. While high-quality animations do a lot to elevate the impact and pedagogy of our videos (hence why I am working with a few UMass faculty to produce polished animations in our Animate Your Lesson initiative), the way we use graphics as rhetorical tools matters much more than their artistic design quality.
Anyone who can make a simple video can be a rudimentary animator: sometimes that looks like creating a narrated slide deck of static images, using the timing of when we switch from one slide to another to imply dynamic change, or even cutting from a large image to a close-up of one component of it. At a slightly more complex level, if you know how to use PowerPoint transitions, you can screen record them and—poof!—you are an animator.
Is it Better to Walk or Run in the Rain?
Minute Physics — 2:01 — 2012
Like Vsauce, Minute Physics is a video essay innovator that has been around since early YouTube (and has gotten more complex than relevant to us in recent years). As its title implies, it answers short physics questions in brief, poppy bites, predominantly through hand-drawn illustrations.
The Marvel Symphonic Universe
Every Frame a Painting — 13:34 — 2016
Every Frame a Painting is a film analysis channel that greatly expanded the millennial generation’s film literacy, helping viewers to recognize cinematic tropes so that they can decide when to employ them and when to break the rules.
How This Chair Conquered The World
Neo — 7:31 — 2020
Neo is a skilled 3D artist whose videos often feature complex architectural renderings or vast landscapes. This video is simpler and more similar to what educators might create in their classes. After watching it, you may never look at the ubiquitous “monoblock” chair the same way again. Some of Neo’s videos show the presenter’s face, but this one is another example of how compelling visuals and enthusiastic narration can render eye contact unnecessary.
Final Note
IDEAS Media Production is here to help you as you embark on your journey as a video creator. Check out some of our current initiatives:
- Video Production Workshops: Attend video writing, recording, and editing workshops to learn to make high quality videos as simply as possible.
- Studio Recording Sessions: IDEAS has a basic video studio for faculty use on the sixth floor of the library, equipped with a lightboard and teleprompter. Book a session with us above.
- Animate Your Lesson: Collaborate with me to develop a high quality video about your course content or research to be used as an Open Educational Resource. I’ll do the production and animation!
- Instructional Video Creators Network: Join our community of practice to share strategies and resources with some of UMass Amherst’s most enthusiastic developing educational video producers.
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UMass instructors, sign up for an IDEAS video workshop series to learn how to start crafting course videos and putting these techniques into practice. No prior experience necessary.