Syncing Voiceover to Text
One of the first instincts for beginner doodlers is to sync their voiceover with the text on the canvas. Syncing the text is not completely wrong in all situations but I urge you to take a few of the examples from people that do advertisements for a living and find only 1 that keeps your attention that syncs all the text and voiceover together throughout the advertisement.
When is it bad to sync my audio to the text on the canvas?
When you are:
- Creating an advertisement. Watch any advertisement on Facebook, Hulu, YouTube or Cable. Do they say in the voiceover exactly word for word what is being displayed on the screen?
- Already have subtitles or closed captions. There is no sense in repeating what has already on the screen.
- You want to keep someone’s attention. Watching what is being spoken becomes monotonous very quickly.
- The doodle is longer than 10 seconds.
- A doodle is only text with almost no images.
When is it okay to sync my voiceover to text on the canvas?
When you are:
- Creating closed captions.
- Using Stress Words. These are words that you want a special effect around because the viewer should remember them. These can be call to actions or words that you really want the viewer to remember when you are trying to market to them and are typically 2 words maximum.
- Developing a personal doodle to impress your friends or family.
- Creating a music video where having the words on the screen makes sense.
Example:
What Makes Computer Fast
Here is a video I created specifically to test this hypothesis when I was learning Doodly. This uses a combination of images, text and is within 30 seconds because Google business only allows 30 second videos.
What makes your computer fast
Suggestions:
Some things to keep in mind when designing a doodle:
- As a video designer, we have 2 to 5 seconds to catch someone’s attention and then we must keep their attention throughout the entire doodle.
- Some examples of stress words are: Sale! Buy Now! Don’t Forget! Ends Soon!
- Remember, images sell, text describes and audio enhances.
- Use images to your advantage. If you want people to know about a product or service then provide them an image to know about a product or service. People are inherently lazy. People want to be entertained. They want to see what comes next. They don’t want to read what comes next. If you are expecting people to stay for your advertisement, then use the K.I.S.S. method (Keep It Simple Stupid).
Feel free to comment if I missed any examples or if you agree or disagree.
