How I made Near-Life’s Valentine’s Day interactive video 2023 - Near-Life
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How I made Near-Life’s Valentine’s Day interactive video 2023

Team member, Ellie, explains how she used Near-Life to make a fun, interactive guide to picking the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for your partner, which can be embedded on a website or shared directly. 

  

I used Canva to make our Valentine’s Day video last year. So this year, I thought I’d use VYOND instead and make the most of its awesome animation capabilities.

Planning 

I started off by creating a plan. I listed out ideas for different presents and thought of questions that would split them into separate categories. 

I also wanted to include an option that wasn’t in our last one: handmade. I’d seen loads of posts on TikTok in the weeks before about different handmade gifts for Valentine’s Day, and it seemed like a nice idea to give people some inspiration for a more personal touch. 

I planned out what type of interaction I wanted to use, opting for hotspots throughout the whole video instead of buttons. This meant I would create buttons on the media before putting it into Near-Life, where I would then use a hotspot to cover the area. 

This is easy with VYOND, as they give you countless options for creating buttons with various shapes to choose from.

Storyboarding with Near-Life

Once I had a rough plan, I went onto the Near-Life platform and used the nodes to make a storyboard. A storyboard on Near-Life resembles a flowchart, and simplifies the process of making the video. When you’re happy with the layout you can simply add the media in and refine the interactions.

Creating media with VYOND

Once the storyboard was made, I went onto VYOND to create the media. This included an introductory scene with a start button, all of the questions that would be asked, and scenes for each of the gift ideas we would be offering. 

I picked a theme for the colours throughout so it would look visually appealing and made use of VYOND’s actions and motions where it seemed appropriate. A piece of advice I would give to someone attempting their first interactive video with VYOND is to keep it pretty simple. It’s hard not to get swept up in all the cool things you can do on the platform, but you have to bear in mind your goals. You don’t want to overwhelm the end-user with visuals. Sometimes just picking one simple idea for each scene is the best way to go. 

VYOND and Near-Life – a perfect combination!

Having made the media, I went back on to the Near-Life platform. I uploaded all the media and put it into the right place. I then went on to each scene and added a hotspot rectangle over the media where I had placed each button and made sure it was directed to the right node – corresponding with the original storyboard. 

After I was happy with each of the interactions, I clicked the preview button and went through the video to double-check that everything was looking and acting as I wanted. I then shared it with the team to get their feedback. 

Want to create your own interactive videos?

Click here to learn more about how Vyond and Near-Life work well together, or book a demo to speak with one of our team.

Or, if you’re already confident it’s right for you, you can get started right away with a free trial.

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