Timeline: October 2019
Role: Product Designer, Video Editor
Tools: Adobe After Effects, Pages
Field: IT Infrastructure, Compute Virtualization, Enterprise Cloud, Marketing

时间：2019 年 10 月
角色：产品设计师、影片制作员
工具：Adobe After Effects、Pages
领域：IT 基础架构、计算虚拟化、企业云、市场宣传

From planning videos, writing narration and shooting scripts, to collaborating with dubbing specialists and making videos, I always put the viewer’s feelings first and kept close cooperation with the team during the process. The team for this project includes a Marketing & BD Director as well as a dubbing specialist.

从规划视频、撰写旁白和分镜头脚本，到与配音员协作产出旁白、制作视频，我始终将观看者的感受放在第一位，并在过程中与团队保持密切协作。这个项目的团队包括 1 名 Marketing & BD Director，和 1 名配音员。

Project Background
项目背景

Providing Introductory Videos for a Software Product Release

为产品的发布准备介绍视频

After completing the software design for VM Migration Tool, our company decides to make a video that introduces the product to corporate customers during the product release.

在完成 VM Migration Tool 的软件设计后，公司希望在产品发布过程中能有一支向企业客户介绍产品的视频。

As a designer of this product and an experienced video producer, I am very interested in this project. In the collaboration with my colleagues of the marketing department, I participated in the design and production of the video as a major contributor.

作为此产品的设计者，和影视制作方面的经验人士，我对这个项目很感兴趣。在和市场部门同事的协作中，我作为主要贡献者，参与了视频的设计与制作。

Measuring Success
衡量成功

Facilitating Users’ Understanding of the Products Through Videos That Deliver Brand Reliability

透过传递品牌可靠性的视频让用户轻松了解产品

Our goal is to let users know about this migration tool through videos. The video is expected to bridge us with the users, extend our brand style and deliver reliability.

我们的目标是让用户通过视频了解这一迁移工具。作为和用户的接触点，视频应当延续品牌风格，并传递可靠性。

  1. Introduce the commercial value that the products can bring to corporate customers;
  2. Introduce the “happy pass” for the product’s usage;
  3. Designed and optimized for viewing in mobile devices, ensuring better user impression when viewed through our WeChat official account.
  1. 介绍产品能给企业用户带去的商业价值；
  2. 介绍产品使用方法的 happy pass；
  3. 针对移动设备的观看效果而设计，以便用户在微信公众号中观看时感觉良好。
Planning and Design
规划与设计

Sorting out the Best Plot Script

梳理最佳叙事脚本

Through my talks with the Marketing Director, I sorted out the narration for the video, then wrote the narration scripts, drew the shooting scripts, and compiled the narration scripts into a document for the dubbing specialist.

通过与市场部门的 Director 沟通，我梳理了视频的叙事方式，然后撰写旁白脚本、绘制分镜头脚本，并将旁白脚本整理成一份面向配音员的文档。

Writing the Narration

撰写旁白

I discussed with my colleagues in the marketing and R&D departments through an online collaboration platform to ensure that the design of the framework structure and the presentation of technical details are appropriate and accurate.

我以在线协作的方式，和市场部门、研发部门的同事讨论，确保上至框架结构的设计、下至技术细节的讲述，都是恰当和准确的。

In terms of the narrative framework, we decided to use the following plan because it facilitates the user’s understanding on the product.

在叙事框架方面，我们决定使用如下方案。因为这样能帮助用户轻松理解产品。

  1. Introduction: function, reason for selecting the product, commercial value;
  2. Usage:
    1. Deployment preparation: environmental and material preparation;
    2. Operating steps: log in, add site, create task (4 steps), manage task life cycle, view history;
  3. Summarize commercial value and flow diversion.
  1. 介绍：功能、使用理由、商业价值；
  2. 使用方式：
    1. 部署准备：环境和材料准备；
    2. 操作步骤：登录、添加站点、创建任务（4 个步骤）、管理任务生命周期、查看历史记录；
  3. 总结商业价值和导流。

Drawing the shooting script

绘制分镜头脚本

The scene for each part is designed according to the sorted narration framework and detailed narration content.

根据梳理好的叙事框架，和详细的旁白内容，设计每个部分的视频画面内容。

This method helps us quickly correct the inappropriate forms of presentation. For example, when we want to present “the only 4 steps you need” in A2, the original plan displays not only the steps but also the interface preview of each step. However, the audience still has a very limited attention span. They will be focusing on the steps themselves, while providing a software interface increases the cost of cognition and increases the understanding difficulty in a short time. Therefore, we decided to get rid of the latter, so as to properly allocate the viewers’ focus and improve the efficiency of information transmission. The discussion and modification at this stage can avoid modifications at later stages.

这种方式可以帮助我们快速修正不恰当的表现形式。举个例子，A2 中希望表达“只需要 4 个步骤”时，原本的方案除了显示步骤，还显示了每步的界面预览。但是，观看者的注意力是有限的，他们此刻关注的是步骤本身，而提供软件界面则会增加认知的成本，且难以在短时间内被理解。于是我们决定去除后者，以节约观看者的注意力，提升信息传递的效率。在此时进行讨论和修改，可以避免许多后期的修改。

Providing the Dubbing Specialist with the Narration Documents

提供面向配音员的旁白文档

I added some additional contextual information to the document, such as the structure of the video content, the pronunciation and explanation of proper nouns and phrases, etc., which can help the dubbing specialist to understand the whole narration and demonstrate the best of his ability.

我在文档中补充了一些额外的上下文信息，例如影片内容结构、专有名词和词组的发音及解释等，这可以帮助配音员理解整个旁白内容，以发挥最佳水准。

Audio and video Production
音视频制作

Using After Effects to Create Videos

使用 After Effects 制作影片

I created the video synthesis for each part separately and produced in its own syntheses according to the planned framework. Eventually, these syntheses will be pieced together into the aggregate synthesis. This tree structure enables the users to control the extent of influence of each part.

我根据规划好的框架，为每个部分分别建立合成，并在各自的合成内进行制作。最终，这些合成将拼合进一个总合成。这种树状组织结构，可以控制每个部分的影响范围。

In the process of producing the video, I summarized and followed some important guidelines, as follows.

在制作影片的过程中，我总结并遵循了一些重要准则，如下。

Use animated production instead of screen recording for the software’s pictures.

软件画面使用动画制作，而非屏幕录制

Screen recording has many disadvantages, such as:

屏幕录制有许多缺点，例如：

  1. It is difficult to match the size and resolution of the screen with the specifications required for the video;
  2. The manually controlled mouse motion trajectory is not efficient enough;
  3. It makes the picture looks bad when it is enlarged, making the pixel blocks very visible;
  4. The rendering effect of the browser for dynamic effects may jitter;
  5. It is difficult to adjust the interface text (such as the names of various resources) in the software environment to the polish state;
  6. The cost for re-modification is high.
  1. 屏幕的画面尺寸与分辨率，和影片所需的规格难以匹配；
  2. 手动操控的鼠标运动轨迹不够高效；
  3. 对画面放大不友好，容易看见像素点；
  4. 浏览器针对动效的渲染效果可能发生抖动；
  5. 软件环境里的界面文字（如一众资源名称）难以调整到 polish 的状态；
  6. 修改的成本高。

However, if the basic picture is produced from the design draft of the software product, and the animation effect is produced by combining the After Effects function, the above problems will be solved.

而如果从软件产品的设计稿中产出基本画面，再结合 After Effects 功能来制作动画效果，上述问题则会被迎刃而解。

This production method also creates additional requirements. For example, Motion Blur method must be adopted when elements move to make the motion look smoother, while such concepts is not applicable in when screen recording is used.

这种制作方式也带来了额外的要求，例如在元素运动时，必须采用 Motion Blur 的方法使运动看起来更顺滑，而屏幕录制的方法则没有这些概念。

The design of animation forms should be done to serve the purpose of expression

动画形式要为表达的意图而设计

It is important to make sure that every animation is reasonable and meaningful. It should also be ensured that the usage and intended meaning are consistent with each other.

确保每个动画都是合理且有意义的。要使用和表达的意思相契合的特征。

For example, when trying to express “mounting”, “cloning”, “operation error” and “risk reduction”, I have respectively matched them with the animations of upside down text, text repetition, simulated crashed screen and particle dissipation. Abstract concepts are visualized using expression forms that conform to the characteristics of the concepts to improve the efficiency of information transmission. In short, form serves expression.

例如，提到“挂载”“克隆”“操作出错”“降低风险”时，我分别制作了文字倒挂、文字重复、模拟花屏、粒子消散的动画。以符合概念特征的表现形式，来形象化抽象概念，可以提升信息传递的效率。总而言之，形式为表达而服务。

Optimize performance for small-screened mobile devices

为小屏幕移动设备的表现最佳化

In order to improve the transmission efficiency and readability of video on mobile devices, I used the following methods.

为了提升视频在移动设备上的传递效率和可读性，我使用了如下方法。

Use zooming and magnifying glass effects

使用缩放和放大镜效果

Use key area highlighting effect for complex images

为复杂画面使用重点区域高亮的效果

Control the content of the screen and adjust the size of the text and graphics occupying the proportion of the screen

控制画面的内容量，调整文字图形的尺寸占据画面的比例

Symbols: extend the continuity between software and videos

符号：在软件和影片之间保持延续性

For example, the icon of the “In Progress” page in a software product uses a timer icon. The video adopts the same timer icon to present the simulated fast-forward effect during data transmission, but it is “animated” through the video, and its pointer is dynamically rotated in the video. The consistency of basic concepts, combined with the characteristics of various media, constitutes the icon continuation.

例如，软件产品中“任务队列”页面的图标，采用的是计时器符号。而影片在描述数据传输时模拟的快进效果，使用了相同的计时器符号，但发挥了视频的“动画”特质，其指针在影片中是动态旋转的。基本概念的一致，结合各个媒介的特质，构成了符号延续。

Add High-quality Sound Effects

搭配高质量的声音效果

In order for the viewer to accurately and naturally perceive the time point of each mouse click, I designed the sound effect (instead of picture feedback) for the mouse click. For this reason, I compared various click sound effects on envato.com website, and finally chose the click sound effect of Apple Magic Mouse, which has higher vibration frequency as well as a clearer and pleasing timbre, making it easily recognizable in videos with background music.

为了让观看者准确而自然地感知每次鼠标点击的时间点，我为鼠标点击搭配了音效（而不是画面反馈）。为此，我在 envato 网站对比了多种点击音效，最终选择了 Apple Magic Mouse 的点按音效，它的振动频率更高，音色更加清脆悦耳，在有背景音乐的视频中可以很容易被听觉识别。

In addition, I have added sound effects to several scenes to help users understanding. For example, the fast forward rotation of timer mentioned above is designed with quick tick of the clock. When the progress bar of data transmission travels from left to right, it comes with the sound effect of the plane flying over, and the sound source also shifts from the left channel to the right channel, which is consistent with the performance of the progress bar in the picture.

此外，我还为多处场景添加了音效以辅助理解。例如上面提到的计时器快进旋转，搭配了快速的钟表滴答声；数据传输的进度条从左至右行进时，搭配了飞机飞过的音效，并且声音是从左声道过渡至右声道的，与画面的进度条表现相吻合。

Look for Narration Timbre That Conforms with the Brand Characteristic

寻找与品牌特质相契合的旁白音色

After communication, the dubbing specialist first provided several different styles of timbre. I found that among his various timbres, there is one thing about his timbres that fits the brand characteristic that we want to convey, that is, professional and reliable, yet full of vitality, rather than being overly rigid. In the end I picked one of them. During the dubbing inspection, I discussed the parts that need improvement to ensure that the dubbing effect matches the rhythm of the picture.

经过沟通，配音员首先提供了几种不同风格的音色。我发现他富于变化的多种音色中，有一种十分契合我们希望传递的品牌特质，即专业可靠，同时又充满生命力，而不显刻板。最终我选定了其中一种。在配音检查的过程中，我针对需要改进的地方进行探讨，确保配音效果契合画面节奏。

The above criteria are based on the consideration and judgment on product characteristics, displaying scene characteristics and other aspects in the planning and production process, in combination with professional knowledge of video production, to deliver the best video viewing experience.

上述准则是在规划和制作的过程中，在产品特质、播放场景特征等方面进行思考和判断，并结合影视制作的专业知识而得出的，可以确保影片拥有最佳观看体验。

Video Output
影片输出

Submit the Video as a Part of the Product Release

提交影片并作为产品发布的一个环节

You can select the required language of subtitles through the player.

你可以通过播放器选取所需语言的字幕。