How to create an interactive storyboard for a flip book?

Those of you who are looking to make a career in Instructional Designing, we would like to give you a snapshot of how well you can draft an idea/ brief storyboard for various devices and formats (book, online material, television shows). Below is an example for an interactive storybook.

Background: Danger Mouse is a British children's animated television series which was produced by Cosgrove Hall Films for Thames Television. The project objective is to create an interactive flip book for the character. What is the big idea?

Research: To create an interactive book, one must include activities. Please do note – Interactivity is a two-way communication process. The best way a book can interact with the reader is by providing activities. However, before constructing an activity, the designer must include an introduction, the body text, images and activities.

Solution: The best solution that one of our colleagues in Solly Labs could come up to build an interactive book is as below. This was presented to the marketing team to understand how best the idea could work. The brief

Objective of the interactive book

An Interactive book for Children

}  Danger Mouse – A plush version of their favorite character (Danger Mouse) who is going to wink, smile and talk to them.

}  Avatar - They can adorn the costume of the Danger Mouse (with the eye patch) and walk through all the crime scenes.

The Big Idea

 

 Chapter 1 – Introduction

}  Colonel K informs Danger Mouse and Penfold that Greenback has conquered the moon and is trying to jam all the communication. So, the heroes pack their weightless boots and jump into the Spacehopper to head for the moon. (Source: The TV Archaeologsit)

   

Chapter 2 – The Story

}  On their journey to the moon,….

Note: The entire story can be narrated. This is the body of the document.

Chapter 3 – Explore the setting

}  This is the avatar setting option.(interactivity).

}  User can upload their picture and explore the setting of the story.

 

     Chapter 4 – Activity

}  Jigsaw Puzzle - Help Danger Mouse and other characters to put them back together

This is a sample of an interactive flip book. While building the idea, one must also place an eye for the controls that each of the chapters/ sections can demonstrate. And, they must also place an emphasis on the various devices that the flip book can be played on – iPAD, mobile phones, PCs and notebooks. An instructional designer must always stay grounded on these basic pre-requisites and build a creative idea (as mentioned above).

Intuitive humorous videos will always remain popular!

It was time to go back to the humor related videos. It is a best therapy to thrive on humor related videos that can add a soothing effect to the weeklong efforts. Solly Labs brings to you two such videos that probably will cheer you up. The learning from humor related videos is to add joy and build a ease around you. As a storyboard writer can you take tips from these short humorous videos – yes you can! Read the article further to know about the key take-away.

  

Charlie bit my finger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnRVheEpJG4

Baby humorous videos:

One of the famous set of videos that have been trending viral is the set of baby videos. When the actor is a baby, everyone wants to find out more. They are curious. One such video is as above. It is extremely funny to watch the big brother voluntarily put his finger into his baby brother’s mouth and shout out – “Charlie bit my finger!” Even funnier is the little baby laughing at his brother’s scream.

Key take-away:

1.       Each of us who are trying to market our video or make money out of it is looking for a creative idea. Among the real-life picture videos, this one is clearly the winner.

2.       The video does not trend for long – it does not spoil the curiosity of the viewer.

 Evolution of dance.

 

Happy and amazing videos!

Another content that viewers would always like to pick, watch or read is – Happy and amazing videos! Every time we come across a video, for example, that talks about a guy making change to this world – most of us have watched the video completely. We have, for the moment, been happy, amazed and drawn inspiration of the video to our lives. Below is one such video that brings a nostalgic moment to all its viewers – the comedian Jud Laipply does a six minute dance of a robot, chicken and Macarena. His moves are smooth and take us to different eras in a seamless way. The video has more than 138 million views which explains the reason why the video is popular.

Key take-away

1.       This is best example of a video that has not been great in terms of clarity but has happy and amazing content. The comedian is talented and hence the job of the video is simple!

2.       The video content as mentioned is a good piece, however the video links were posted on various popular blog sites which could be one of the substitute reason as to why the video went so popular.

Creative ideas are always a clear winner. Videos that are intuitive are the ones that are popular.

Are you doing the biggest mistake in creating explainer videos

When the objective of the ad is precision: There is task for us as video makers to accomplish. The article describes how best we do it.
We at Solly Labs, often face this challenge to deliver ads those talks mostly about precision:

1.       The pictures and motion video must relay the objective. It is easy to express precision with a voice-over but the challenge is to pass the ‘good word’through images.

2.       The storyboard must be outlined in a way that – we do not overdo precision. And, at the same time, we do not under play it.

3.       To limit voice-overs. It is easy to say ‘precision’ while doing a voice-over but the challenge is to limit voice-overs in ads that picture precision.

Below is one of the advertisements that increasingly talk about precision. According to some of us at Solly Labs, the ad could have been bettered and here is what we have to tell you:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWysHOjl95E

This is an advertisement of Sony digital. The company is marketing their full HD smartphone. They are increasingly talking of the product’s engineering capabilities. And, the objective is precision.

Firstly, the some of the motion pictures in the ads are portrayed very well, (Like the image above). However, with such great pictures the ad lacks the X factor to hit that ‘spot-on’ button.

Secondly, as mentioned earlier, the voice-overs do most of the talking. There is no chance given to the video to explain all about precision. For example, it takes the voice-over to stress on the HDR (High Definition Resolution) camera to talk about the quality of the picture in low light.

Finally, the ad covers all the features of the product in this spot. While it is good to tell the customers about all the advantages, it is not so good to overload the customer with information.

How Solly Labs would have built this ad differently?

As talked before, the pictures used in this advertisement are of high quality and we would use the same. But, we would have extensively talked about quality of Sony Digital

Firstly, we would limit the voice-overs. The product is of such great quality that it does not need a dominant voice-over.

We would break the ads into the following – real life images with high picture quality and providing value-added features such as connecting the phone to a television, seamless reflective surfaces (design) and dust control. Xpperia is the first phone to have launched HDR video. This would be exclusive 30-40 sec coverage to emphasize the idea.

Finally, we would not have many frames and fast movements (of frames) to describe the features. We would limit it to fewer frames or a gradual movement of frames. It is soothing for the viewers’ eyes.

Below is one other ad that we use as an ideal example to talk about precision. This is the second best example we use. Read our next article on ‘Best Advertisements on Precision’ to know the first best example that we use. It is ad that the companies have rated as ‘precision-best’. 

 

  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktIhuJA_92I