Design and visuals of a video
Every rule is taken from the lessons of past videos; the source is in square brackets (legend at the bottom). Where the sources disagree, both pieces of advice are given, with a note on which case each applies to.
Short rules
- In the final state of a frame, a line does not pass through a block, text or another line. [Visual] Connector lines are straight and go around blocks. [Video]
- Every term gets an applied example: a scene with a participant, an action and a number. One idea per slide. [Visual]
- Count the display time of a slide, do not assign it; do not set the length of the video before the text has been counted. [Visual] The hold norms differ between sources — see
pacing-and-transitions.md. - One transition for the whole video, a dissolve by default; no scaling at the joins. [Video] [Visual] [Popsci]
- Shared elements of neighboring frames stand at the same coordinates and of the same size; the next shot starts from the final state of the previous one. [Visual]
- Captions do not jitter and do not disappear before they have been read. [Video]
- Figures in the frame — only those verified by the team, worded as what was actually verified. [Visual]
- On-screen text and the narrator's text — from one source. [Video]
- First static frames "before → action → after", their independent check, then the video from the same frames. [Visual]
- Do not draw interface mockups instead of recordings [Video] — but in the stylized popular-science video the interface was redrawn in every frame [Popsci]. Both cases are in the
video-ui-captureskill. - Popular-science stylization: a restrained palette, period detail, a camera without shake, without flicker and scratches. [Popsci]
Details
lines-and-layout.md— lines on diagrams, titles, figures, captions, how to check intersections.explanations.md— term + applied example, numbers, translation.pacing-and-transitions.md— how long to hold a slide, transitions, causes of jumps at the join, camera.retro-style.md— flat picture in the style of popular science and filmstrips, film effects.process.md— order of work and checking frames before delivery.
Sources
- [Audio] — archive lessons on sound and voiceover of promo videos and presentations.
- [Video] — archive lessons on video: interface recordings, pace, transitions.
- [Visual] — archive lessons on the visuals of promo videos made of schematic frames (HTML frames → frame-by-frame render).
- [3D] — lessons of a three-dimensional first-person video in the browser (three.js → frame-by-frame render).
- [Popsci] — lessons of a video in the style of Soviet popular science and early-70s filmstrips.