The Secret Sauce of Animated Video Production

Blending talent, time, and teamwork into a tantalizing treat.

High-quality animated video isn’t just playing around with the latest software. And it certainly isn’t feeding prompts into an AI-powered video generator.

Behind every “quick” video is what you don’t see: time. It’s planning. Scripting. Sound design (that doesn’t sound like it was recorded in your pantry). Revisions. It’s hours upon hours of animating and editing. More than all that, it’s people who spend years honing skills to create something that looks and sounds amazing. And it’s coffee. Lots of coffee.

If you’re aiming for fast food, you’ll get fast food.

Quick reels have given the false impression that videos practically make themselves. Influencers record quick clips, add some fun stickers and upbeat music, and rack up millions of views before lunch. In reality, high-quality animated videos are a completely different dish; one is like a burger joint combo, while the other is like a four-course meal from a five-star restaurant. While they both satisfy, they serve completely different purposes.

If you’re aiming for fast food, you’ll get fast food. But if you want something viewers will savor… that’s where we come in.

Define the Goal

The first step is answering the question: What’s the goal? Just like cooking: with no recipe you may end up with something edible, but it may not be a dish that satisfies.

The goal may include building trust, driving engagement, and making a lasting positive impression. It could be to answer questions, explain a process, or clarify something. It could be converting interest into action or turning a complex concept into something universally understood.

Conduct Research

Before you begin writing, you have one job: learn the thing.

You may need to interview a subject matter expert (SME) to help you figure out how to explain what you’re trying to explain. They eat, sleep, and breathe what you’re learning, so that’s a great place to start. You can also do extensive research on the subject. Consume everything: articles, videos, white papers… whatever you find. Discard what you don’t need later.

Write the Script

Once you understand it, you can begin writing. Surprisingly, this step often takes the longest.

You’ll write the first draft. Then you’ll edit. Rewrite. Edit again. And again. And again… until your story is clear, engaging, and polished to perfection. Don’t discount the value of turning it over to your SMEs at this stage and asking them to suggest edits. The worst thing that could happen is you get all the way to the end of the process and realize you’ve misunderstood something, misrepresented a key fact, or left out an important detail. A quick review now is so much better than a total rewrite later. Nothing kills your momentum like realizing you need to start over from scratch. Ask me how I know.

Collaborate on Storyboard Sketches

If you’re a writer like me, with a super-talented designer to collaborate with, you’ve won the creative lottery. Collaboration is the secret sauce: much like a chef transforms ingredients into a delectable meal, mixing your craft with theirs transforms a good script into a memorable video. Work with your designer on design notes, sit back, and watch them work their magic.

First, the designer will use the script to create a mood board exploring different artistic nuances. Different style choices are like choosing the main ingredients for a dish: they dramatically impact the final flavor and level of effort (LOE). A simple, 2D style with minimal movement has a smaller LOE to produce than a fully illustrated character animation or a complex 3D style. Every decision you make, from using stock or custom elements, to background details, to how many animated characters you use, can make or break the timeline.

Sketch out how the video will play out, scene by scene. Keep in mind this isn’t an audiobook. The narrator doesn’t need to describe everything the viewer will see. Let your animator do what they do best: visually tell the story.

It’s a good idea to get storyboard approval from your SME at this point. They’re your final taste-tester, ensuring the recipe is worthy of going on the menu. The most collaborative part of the process, this is where the SME, author, and animator work together to add their unique flavors and discuss potential problems with the script or design.

Illustrate the Story

Next, your animator will transform the storyboards into more high-fidelity illustrations and graphics. Rough sketches become polished visuals and icons are adapted to fit the client’s branding. Here, visuals may change based on how they function during a scene. Sometimes what looks great as a static image doesn’t animate smoothly once it’s in motion, and the animator must be ready to pivot.

Setup and organization is a critical step that can save hours down the road. This allows graphics to display and move correctly once they’re imported into the software. Depending on how the asset will animate (will it bounce, spin, or appear on cue?), a single line of text could be one layer or it could be ten. Conversely, background elements may need to be broken up into different layers so they can move independently of each other. Picture a chef as the focal point of the story. In the background, kitchen staff are chopping chives and simmering soup while in the foreground the chef completes another action: plating their masterpiece.

Record Narration and Music

The voiceover artist must compliment the video’s tone. If your story is serious, you need a narrator that sounds authoritative. If your story is playful and fun, the narration should match that. Imagine Darth Vader reading Green Eggs and Ham, or The Muppets’ Swedish Chef announcing, “Luke, I am your father.” It won’t work.

The narrator will record and send the narration to the animator, usually as an mp3 file.

Edit the Final Product

Once the audio is done, it’s time to work on presentation. The animator will make small adjustments to the audio to set the pace, provide balance, and insert pauses where needed, so key moments have room to breathe. The animator will meticulously animate the graphics to sync every visual to the words spoken.

They will tweak elements, making sure text appears at the exact moment it’s mentioned, graphics move with the narration, and nothing feels rushed, awkward, or too slow. Fine tuning the audio and visuals can be a challenge, and is an incredibly time-consuming part of the process since motion changes everything.

Transitions are barely noticeable when done well, and yet they’re one of the most important elements to keeping viewers engaged. Think of them as the invisible glue binding the whole story together. Varying transitions keeps the video from feeling like a presentation, and each one becomes the animator’s creative decision: Will this fade in or fade out? Should it slide left, right, up or down? Can we use scene elements to lead the viewer to the next scene? Each variation chosen and crafted adds time to the editing process. Multiply that by every scene, and the hours stack up really fast.

Perform Quality Assurance

It’s finally ready for finishing touches.

Watch the entire video, listening closely to the narration, making sure every word is spoken that should be spoken, and all words are pronounced correctly – especially names and locations. Make sure the narrator pauses when they should and stresses the correct words.

Then listen again, focusing on the graphics to be sure onscreen text is spelled correctly and visuals make sense with the narration.

And… that’s it!

If you’ve done it right, you’ll have a polished piece that’s like a perfectly plated gourmet meal: it looks effortless but is the result of carefully layered flavors, precise technique, and time-honed skill. Collaboration is the secret sauce that binds it all together, blending simple elements into something unforgettable that lingers long after the experience is over.

Check out Cook Up a Craveable Message to see what the Digital Wave eLearning team created for the Department of Defense.