Animation is not required - but captioning is required.
Adding animation to your video tutorial provides visual appeal and entertainment for your users - but it shouldn't be the crux of your video. For one, relying on animation does a disservice to your users with low or no vision. While audio elements can be captioned, the visual elements stand on their own.
The video tutorials on this module were curated to help you accomplish what you might need with animation. Otherwise, below are some tips to consider when adding animation:
- Avoid too much "eye candy." Don't include animations unless they're important to your message, audience, learning objectives, etc.
- Don't rely on "I'll fix it in post." Camtasia animations can fix a lot of errors - like awkward cursor movements - but if your errors are frequent, you will add a lot more time in post-production fixes.
- We're not professionals. Well, we are professionals, but we're not video editing professionals. Your video does not need to be perfect or flashy. Use the editing tools and techniques to your ability. Later, you can add more fancy techniques as you continue to learn this medium.