Improving our online video capabilities//

Each year, everyone in the agency has to clock up 24 full, juicy hours of CPD (Continuous Professional Development) time. This time for personal and professional development can involve anything from keeping up with the various technical updates in the programs we use every day, to picking up a new program or skill and learning it from scratch.

As a mainstay of the current ‘content’ led generation, online video appears to be becoming more and more essential, and, as a result, an increased amount of video work is coming into the creative department. We do already have Art Directors and Creatives with a range of skills across a a number of video programs from Cinema 4D to Captivate, After Effects and Premiere Pro. However, with the sheer quantity of video work, and our desire to keep as much work in-house – to maintain our own style, quality and consistency – we decided that it would be a good idea for the whole creative team to be brought up to speed in Adobe After Effects – a digital visual effects, motion graphics and compositing program.

We approached local multimedia expert, Nick Tallents, who organised a bespoke course for us, tailored to suit our varied range of skill levels. The course covered an introduction to motion graphics and an overview of industry standards. He also covered compositions, importing imagery and footage, layers, animation, effects, 3D, and finally rendering and exporting.

As someone who had never before stepped inside After Effects, I finished the course feeling that I could tackle a motion graphic task with confidence – I’ve already had ideas about how I can enhance current infographics and presentations… plus I’ve managed to clock up a hefty 10 CPD hours towards my 24-hour target for this year!

We didn’t need to wait long before we were asked to put our new skills to the test: here’s a little clip of a movigraphic (our self-titled term for a multimedia moving infographic) Donna’s been working on for our client Wavin.