Copyright: Christopher Hall/123RF
Ever since I saw the Story of Stuff and Socialnomics videos I have been fascinated with whiteboard videos. They are fact-filled, fast-paced and entertaining – what’s not to love? Well, as a marketer, I can only think of one thing – the creation process.
Fortunately, the increased popularity of whiteboard videos has led to an abundance of new tools for creating the videos. All the whiteboard video websites claim to offer the fastest and easiest technology for creating videos, but which one really does? Which company offers a tool that makes creating whiteboard videos easy enough for even a video newbie?
Review: Top whiteboard video tools
Videoscribe
What I used: The free 7-day trial
Videoscribe is provided by Sparkol, an animation company based in the UK. It is simply described as a fast whiteboard video maker. As a first time user, I was impressed. I honestly felt like I could create amazing videos for personal and work purposes using this tool today.
Best part:
You have a huge selection of images to choose from and have control over where the images are placed, what size they are, what angle you want them to be at and how fast you want the image to be drawn. You can also add text or graphs to be drawn.
The downside:
There are no templates. You need to come up with all the scenes on your own, which can be difficult for those of us new to the game.
Tawe
What I used: Free version
Tawe is another tool provided by Sparkol. It would not be classified as a whiteboard video creator, but it is similar because it transforms images into video. You upload an infographic, brochure or photo gallery and zoom in, zoom out and narrate your way through the image(s).
Best part:
This is an amazing way to re-purpose content. After you put all that work into creating infographics or brochures, you want to be able to get as much use out of them as possible, but sometimes just posting them on your website or social channels is not enough to get people’s attention. By turning these designs into moving pictures, you will certainly catch more people’s attention.
The downside:
Despite the fact that this program is owned by the same company as VideoScribe, the user interface is painful. If I wanted to create a video worth publishing, I would need to dive into the tutorials.
Raw Shorts
What I used: Free version
Unlike the two tools above, you can use the Raw Shorts video tool online instead of downloading it to your computer. Like VideoScribe, Raw Shorts allows you to make standard whiteboard videos.
Best part:
Raw Shorts has templates to help you create videos without having to do so much planning. The free version of the tool has pretty basic templates, but their premium templates will let you easily create detailed videos.
The downside:
To have third party transfer rights, you need to purchase the more expensive subscription plan.
After spending time exploring different video options, I have to admit I am surprised. I was really expecting there to be more downsides to each tool (especially with the free versions), but I would recommend any and all of the tools above for beginners. VideoScribe is for those with a big imagination and a smaller budget, Tawe is for anyone willing to watch a few tutorial videos and Raw Shorts is for those with a bigger budget who want to just mostly copy and paste.
Have you used whiteboard video tools in your content marketing? What programs would you recommend? Share in our comments, below!
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