Add Character to Your Course
By Justin Lawrence |
When creating a course, you want to make sure that the learner can easily grasp the concept. Crafting perfect learning outcomes that align with the course content often takes precedence over content such as graphics, film, or animation. However, you need to be sure to look at all the aspects and how they work together. Animation is a great way to help with the learning process and is a more interesting way to communicate complex information.
Content Is King
It is important to make sure that the content is well written and simple to learn, and it needs to be written with a broader perspective. Engage with the various teams involved and make sure that it works across each process of creating a course. Content is very important as everything stems from here and if it is well written, translating it into different forms of learning becomes less of a challenge. Also, ensure that the way the learner will grasp the content is part of the thought process. A great video is only as good as the written content, and adding visuals enhances what is already there.
The word “ANIMATE” comes from the Latin verb “ANIMARE,” meaning to make alive or to fill with breath.
Why Character Animation
If you think about your favorite stories, what do you remember? What is it about the interaction between the characters that strikes you? It’s natural to feel empathy when seeing a hero overcome his/her challenge or go through a difficult time. There’s something about seeing this that allows us to relate and understand what the character is going through. This is what the learner sees and experiences when going through an online course.
Character animation allows the learner to be more engaged and understand more complex concepts that are difficult to explain. Learning by seeing how someone does something is more effective, and it allows for a lighter and more fun approach to what is often quite boring content. You can also avoid being limited by reality or the realistic way things work, allowing for creative approaches and new ways to explain the content.
Tell Stories
Animation is all about storytelling and usually has a lesson or moral to the story. You can use these two concepts when thinking about how to enhance online learning. On this journey of education, there are various checkpoints along the way to the end goal. Instead of thinking of learning as a straight line, it’s more of a winding road, and you should approach crafting the learner’s journey this way.
It is simply more interesting to read a story filled with ups and downs than to read a synopsis of what happened. You might already know how the story ends, but still enjoy discovering how to get to the ending. Finding ways to tell a story that the learner can follow will allow the course to be captivating, helping with the learning process.
How Long Does It Take?
Time is the deciding factor in most cases. Character animation indeed takes more time, but the advantages outweigh the time spent. You can communicate without being limited by language barriers and don’t have to worry about misinterpretation. That being said, there is a particular skill set that is required to achieve this.
There are various processes involved in creating a story through animation, like character design, rigging, and character performance. Be mindful of these processes when deciding to use this learning approach and avoid overloading videos with too much content.
To sum up, character animation is a great way to transform your content into a story that the learner can stay engaged with throughout the course. However, it is important to be mindful of the time and budget required to achieve this. There are endless possibilities and ways you can create interesting videos; the only limitation is your imagination.
AUTHOR
Animator at Construct