The Telly Awards are one of the video industry’s most esteemed honors. Founded in 1979, the Telly Awards recognize outstanding achievements in video content production within a wide range of industries, including film and television production, online video, advertising, and more.

It’s an honor to be recognized alongside so many renowned brands, studios, and agencies in the industry. Some of our fellow Telly winners include Cut + Run, Netflix Disney Parks, Media.Monks, Paramount, National Geographic Society, Sesame Workshop, and many others.

All our award-winning videos were created using the Vyond platform. And three of these winning videos are available as templates you can use to create your own videos. Vyond empowers anyone, regardless of their level of expertise, to produce captivating and award-worthy videos.

Here’s a quick recap of the videos that received recognition at the 2023 Telly Awards:

Vyond Producers Hub Promo (Get to Know the Producers):

Silver Telly Winner in Branded Content – Promotional

• Video Producer: Prakriti Rai, Vyond
• Sr. Manager, Creative & Brand: Shahrzade Ehya, Vyond

Explore the Producers Hub

Spotting Ageism in the Workplace

Bronze Telly Winner in Branded Content – D&I

• Video Producer: Sofala Knapton, Vyond
• Sr. Manager, Creative & Brand: Shahrzade Ehya, Vyond

Use this template

Speech Enhancer

Silver Telly Winner in Branded Content – How-To/DIY

• Director of Design & Video Lab: Emily Chau, Vyond
• Video Producer: Kevin Kartono, Vyond
• Senior Copywriter and Voiceover: Isobel McKenzie, Vyond
• Voiceover: Michelle Pardini

Color Contrast for Web Accessibility

Bronze Telly Winner in Non-Broadcast – Diversity & Inclusion

• Video Producer: Prakriti Rai, Vyond
• Voiceover: Kyle Doan, Vyond
• Sr. Manager, Creative & Brand: Shahrzade Ehya, Vyond

Use this template

Taylor Tinkers

Silver Telly Winner in Social Video – Series: Products & Services

• Video Producer: Taylor Morgan (Independent Filmmaker)
• Sr. Manager, Creative & Brand: Shahrzade Ehya, Vyond

Black History Month (2022)

Silver Telly Winner in Social Video – Education & Discovery

• Video Producer: Sofala Knapton, Vyond
• Sr. Manager, Creative & Brand: Shahrzade Ehya, Vyond

Use this template

Accessible and powerful award-winning video creation

With the Vyond platform, anyone can create captivating media—no video production experience required. Vyond’s intuitive and user-friendly interface empowers you to bring your ideas to life and tell compelling stories through animated video.

Try Vyond for yourself with a free trial: you’ll get two weeks to explore Vyond’s full range of features and unleash your creativity. Start my 14-day free trial

Try Vyond for Free

Last week, the Vyond team took the ATD23 conference by storm in San Diego. We joined a diverse community of over 13,000 e-learning professionals and gave visitors a preview of our new spring release features, including our soon-to-be-released AI-based script and video creator, Vyond Go. More than 9,500 professionals from 80+ countries rely on ATD’s annual conference to learn about trends and best practices, discover new tools and solutions at the largest EXPO for training and development practitioners, and share ideas with peers who are committed to helping create a world that works better. 

Keynote speakers included Organizational Psychologist Adam Grant; Vyond’s sponsored speaker, the strategic advisor Priya Parker; and Tony and Grammy Award winning artist Leslie Odom Jr. 

During her keynote, Ms. Parker hosted a dynamic event grounded in concepts about meaningful group experiences found in her book, The Art of Gathering. In this insightful, highly interactive event, Priya Parker broke down the anatomy of what makes for transformative gatherings and encouraged attendees to use some of her strategies to connect with others in real time during the session. 

Vyond highlights

CEO Gary Lipowitz talks about Applied AI for the Enterprise

Gary Lipkowitz, Vyond’s CEO, took to the ATD23 stage to deliver a presentation called Applied AI for the Enterprise: Relevance, Brand Compliance, and Safety that explained how companies can use AI to create content that’s relevant, brand compliant, and secure.

Vyond unveils its Spring 2023 Release, including Vyond Go

Thousands of attendees stopped by our booth to see what’s new with Vyond, and get a glimpse of our new AI-based script and video creator, Vyond Go in action. The response was enthusiastic, to say the least—and got us even more excited to officially launch Vyond Go at the end of June. 

Beyond Vyond Go, we showed off new Spring Release features like Global Search, new industry-specific content, Bulk Audio Edit, Closed Captioning, Instant Preview, and more.

Good times at Petco Park

Vyond team members joined conference attendees on the field at the Padres stadium Petco Park, where they enjoyed hot dogs and 80s classics from Los Angeles arena rock band, Wayward Sons.

VIP Cocktail Reception

On Monday night, over 100 guests enjoyed Vyond’s invite-only VIP Cocktail Reception, complete with live music and custom cocktails.

After some heartfelt words of thanks to our customers, we toasted Vyond’s latest AI capabilities. And congratulations to our raffle winner – enjoy the iPad Pro. Can’t wait to see everyone in New Orleans for ATD24!

G2 compares the best business software and services based on user ratings and social data, and utilizes collective, authentic knowledge – incorporating peer-to-peer, customer-driven reviews – to help buyers find the right solutions for their business needs. Users rated Vyond highly across numerous categories as part of G2’s Winter 2023 awards, bestowing us with the following honors:

• #1 in Results, Implementation, and Usability – the top spot in three Animation categories and awards for “Best Results,” “Best Usability,” “Most Implementable,” “Fastest Implementation,” and “Users Most Likely to Recommend”
• Five (5) Enterprise category awards – including “Leader” awards, as well as “Best Support” and “High Performer” honors
• Ten (10) Overall “Leader” awards – including the “Leader” award for Animation, Content Creation, Video Editing, and Presentation; as well as “Momentum Leader” for Animation, Presentation, and Video Editing

Vyond was also an overall winner in the “Users Love Us” category. Our CEO Gary Lipkowitz said, “These latest G2 awards illustrate how our relentless focus on customer success makes Vyond even more relevant and compelling in today’s economic climate. We’ve done well because Vyond helps customers meet their learning and development objectives with AI-powered video that engages and educates while remaining cost-efficient. Our team is absolutely thrilled with these latest awards from G2 because they’re real customer rankings. I want to thank our customers and partners for their support as we continue to define the video-based learning sector.”

More details on our recent G2 awards can be found on our awards web page. 

At Vyond, we offer more than 200 fully-scripted animated video templates (and counting) to help L&D, HR, and Internal Comms teams not only solve this problem but have fun doing it. 

So if you’re looking for a more effective way to deliver your most critical employee messaging in the coming year, consider signing up for Vyond and using this collection of the 10 video templates for employee communications our customers downloaded the most in 2022. 

#1. The Employee Benefits Overview

During onboarding and open enrollment, share the highlights of (and changes to) your full benefits package in a fresh, entertaining way. 

• Features a diverse group of representative employees
• Includes sections that explain PTO, medical, dental, 401k, stock options, and a variety of other benefits
• As with all our videos, it’s useful as is–or a good starting point for creating something new

#2.  The Quiz Game Show 

Want to make your next video more interactive and effective? Almost 1,500 customers did just that by using this engaging quiz show video template for a variety of training purposes.

• Create any content categories you want
• Includes sections for both right and wrong answers
• Easy to customize with your company branding

#3.  Introducing Your Team

Introduce your team to a new hire, a newly acquired department, or an external vendor with this upbeat video template. 

• Features a clever approach to describing your team members’ responsibilities and personalities
• Includes a script for members of a creative agency as an example (account manager, photographer, writer, graphic designer, marketing manager, and accountant), but you can modify the roles and characters as needed

#4.  Impact Report End of Year Video / Annual Report 

This upbeat, highly-visual video template is a great way to succinctly summarize your organization’s most meaningful achievements over the past year, without the need for a narrator. Use it on its own, or as a teaser for a more in-depth version of your annual report. 

• Created with a combination of our whiteboard style and animated photographic elements
• Features a mix of animated stats and graphs, and multiple options for transitions between sections 

#5.  Season’s Greetings (from a Distance)

Wish your remote employees or your company partners and vendors a happy holiday season with this short, slightly irreverent video. And if you’d like to send something more targeted at this time of year, also consider using: 

Our Happy New Year template
Our Happy Chrismukkah template
Or our Noche Buena template

#6. Video to Replace PowerPoint Presentations 

Need to internally sell an idea or make a business case to your leadership team? Surprise your audience by creating an engaging video pitch instead of the PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation they’re accustomed to.  

• Built as a sales pitch deck, but you can use this structure as the basis for all variety of presentations
• Includes animated elements that compare features, demonstrate ROI, and engagingly present bonus features

#7. Ping, Ring, or Email 

Considering the growing number of remote workers, and the varying communication preferences of different generations of workers, it’s wise to establish some company protocols for when to use email, a collaboration tool like Slack, or pick up your smartphone and make a call. 

This video offers up some best practices in a light, approachable way. 

#8.  Equality vs. Equity Explainer 

Our customers used this very short video last year to help explain the important differences between equality and equity, and explain concepts like allyship. 

• Uses a powerful visual metaphor to make the point
• Perfect for including in a longer presentation related to DEIB principles

#9.  What is Intersectionality? 

HR and L&D pros in particular found this short video explainer useful in their diversity training initiatives. 

• Includes audio of a female narrator reading a short, well-researched script on the subject, which you can adjust or re-record if you’d prefer someone from your company to do the narration

#10.  Supporting Employee Wellness at the End of the Year

“It’s good to remember that the season of cheer can sometimes be the season of stress.” So begins this video offering tips on how employees can practice self-care during the holidays. 

• Features a whiteboard-style illustration style
• Includes sections for pointing employees to helpful resources

Want to play around with Vyond Studio and make your own content, free for two weeks? Sign up for our trial to get access to 200+ fully scripted templates, 200+ starter templates, and more than 2,300 scene templates. 

Bucking prevailing tech industry trends, we achieved strong customer growth across key enterprise use cases, including learning and development, sales enablement, and internal communications. Solid execution across all company functions also enabled us to increase our customer base, grow our headcount, and expand our geographic footprint while continuing to focus on customer satisfaction.

Vyond’s ability to help companies create content that actually “sticks” helped us add 400,000 new users to our community this year, illustrating the value of video creation software as a cost-efficient and highly effective communication tool in today’s business environment. 

We’ve grown in key vertical markets like banking and finance, and expanded our seat license numbers in numerous high-growth sectors, including healthcare, biotech and pharmaceuticals, as well as with software and internet companies. Vyond’s channel program also continues to expand, and we recently achieved a strategic win with partner Omniplex to place Vyond in the UK Government’s G-Cloud procurement platform. 

Some additional highlights from Vyond’s outstanding year:

• Off-the-Charts Customer Satisfaction Scores

  Our customer satisfaction (CSAT) metrics, which have been at an industry-leading 94% over the past five years, rose even further in 2022. Thanks to diligent customer listening and outstanding responsiveness, we exceeded our own lofty internal goals, with customer satisfaction scores averaging between 97 and 99%. What’s more, we achieved a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 63 (the industry average is around 30) with customers describing Vyond’s platform as “fast,” “easy-to-use,” “flexible,” “customizable,” and “fun,” and raving about our customer support. 

• New Locations, New People

  During a year in which many tech companies reduced their workforce, we increased our total headcount by close to 40%. This spring, Vyond welcomed new Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer Van Diamandakis, who is overseeing the company’s new Chicago office, located in the Fulton Market tech hub. The company’s regional expansion into the Midwest will include more than 25 new hires in sales, marketing, and customer success. Vyond also created a new wholly-owned subsidiary, Vyond Company Limited, based in Thailand, to serve as an anchor for Vyond’s Asia Pacific (APAC) expansion, which is being spearheaded by CTO Matt Harney. 

• Vyond Studio Enhancements

  This fall, we introduced the newest version of  Vyond Studio – extending the relevance, speed, and power of our flagship solution. We integrated several customer-driven product enhancements, including AI-powered capabilities enabling up to 10x speed and efficiency improvements, graphics enhancements, and more – keeping Vyond at the forefront of video creation technology for the enterprise.

“I would like to congratulate our team for an outstanding year in 2022, and thank our customers for their trust in our people and our product,” says Vyond CEO Gary Lipkowitz. “With an incredible track record of customer growth, as well as headcount and geographic expansion, this has been a year to remember. A keen focus on customer needs and delivery of outstanding customer service has put us on a path to sustainable growth in 2023 and beyond – and we couldn’t be more excited about Vyond’s future prospects.”

Check out this short video about some of our milestones this year.

To learn more about Vyond’s 2022 successes, see the press release. Happy Holidays and best wishes for 2023 and Vyond. 

As a longtime user of Vyond’s video animation software, Rance decided it would be fun and instructive if he created a movie that both highlighted many of the storytelling effects Vyond’s software makes possible–and shared his most useful strategies for integrating storytelling into common L&D eLearning formats. 

To bring his big idea to life, Rance joined forces with Taylor Morgan, an expert video producer here at Vyond. The end result was a one-of-a-kind masterclass experience called The Mysterious Disappearance of Stories that multiple participants have told us was one of the most memorable and effective presentations they’d ever seen.

Watch the Storytelling Masterclass

We highly recommend you watch the whole thing (maybe during a lunch break, or on your phone during your commute). But in the meantime, here are a few selected takeaways from Rance Greene’s masterclass:

1. Storytelling in instructional design is proven to boost engagement and retention

The London School of Economics found that when an audience is presented with information using a story, they retain 65% of the information. Take the story away, and they’ll remember a mere 5%. 

As Rance elaborated in his presentation, two of the reasons stories engage us are because they encourage critical thinking and help demonstrate the relationship between isolated facts, in a way that helps us to remember them for a long time.

“Stories are hugely important in our lives – shouldn’t they be important in eLearning too?” – Rance Greene

 

2. To create stories that motivate your audience, get to know them a little first

Bridging the gap between story and action are two essential elements: conflict and relatable characters. But for these elements to work convincingly and effectively, you need an in-depth understanding of your learners (the audience) to effectively elicit their empathy and sympathy for the characters in the story. 

To get to know your audience, Rance suggests meeting with a few representative members of that audience and asking questions like: 

1. What do you value?
2. What are your current circumstances at work?
3. How are you reacting to those circumstances?
4. What do you fear?
5. What do you do in your spare time?

3. Help subject matter experts get beyond “being aware”

Helping learners be aware of–and understand–important ideas is not automatically going to yield action on their part. This is often where subject matter experts start, but you can help them get beyond “understanding,” “being aware of,” or “avoiding,” and drill down to observable actions. 

Instruction is implemented by your learners in real-world situations. So the story for instruction you design should be centered around driving changes in behavior (which are observable). 

For example, if you’re creating a manager course meant to increase empathy and understanding between managers and their employees, don’t stop at telling them to “be aware of employee situations” or “understand where your employee is coming from” and call it a day. 

Ask the subject matter expert, “What does someone who understands where their employee is coming from actually do?” Help the subject matter expert unearth observable actions, like “Schedule a meeting,” “Ask the employee what’s working well for them and what’s challenging for them,” and “Listen to their side of the story.” Record these observable actions and construct an action list. These are the actions learners should be able to practice within the course and continue to do after the course. 

Watch the Storytelling Masterclass

We hope these takeaways from Rance Greene’s Masterclass are helpful in developing highly engaging and effective L&D courses. Also, If you watched the masterclass, were inspired by the video’s imaginative production (created with Vyond!), and want to learn more about Rance and Taylor’s creative process, check out this behind-the-scenes story of the making of The Mysterious Disappearance of Stories.

To see how using Vyond can help you meet your communications goals, sign up for our 14-day free trial.

For more inspiration and step-by-step video production guides, check out the Vyond Producers Hub.

Before he was a full-time author and speaker, Rance was an L&D practitioner himself–and it was in his role as compliance training director at Blue Cross and Blue Shield that he became a big fan of Vyond’s animated video creation software. When we asked Rance to create and present a Vyond Masterclass earlier this year, he decided he wanted to take a fresh approach that would highlight all the great things Vyond Studio can do, especially when paired with Adobe Premiere Pro: “I prefer not to be a talking head, I like interacting with people, so I decided to create a movie instead.”

With the help of Taylor Morgan, one of our expert video producers, Rance created the 30-minute-long The Mysterious Disappearance of Stories – a video masterclass that incorporates live-action footage, all varieties of animation, music, and more—and showcases his most powerful ideas about incorporating story elements into eLearning.

Watch the Storytelling Masterclass

The response to The Mysterious Disappearance of Stories was incredible, garnering rave reviews from the 2,000+ people who attended. Since many attendees asked for a peek behind the curtain, we asked Rance and Taylor if they’d provide a breakdown of their collaboration, from start to finish. And being helpful guys, they said yes.

Brainstorming the Concept

For Rance, any story used for training needs two important elements: strong conflict and relatable characters. To illustrate this point he decided to ground the video in a fun, over-the-top story that imagined a future world in which bad eLearning content had caused stories everywhere to go missing…and the only person who could bring them back was you, the viewer. 

As for relatable characters, he decided to feature three different Rance characters: Rance 1, his real, live-action self; Rance 2, a business-friendly guy with a stubbled jawline who added some light-hearted comic relief; and Rance 3, a serious news anchor type.

“I wanted to show the different styles Vyond was capable of and introduce a little comedy. Also, practically speaking,” Rance added, “there just wasn’t the time to involve anyone else with the voiceover work.”

Together, this intrepid trio would investigate the story-less world of eLearning and hunt down answers on how to solve the problem. And Taylor’s technical wizardry on Vyond and Adobe Premiere Pro would combine all three characters’ journeys to seamlessly interact with one another on screen.

Shooting the Live-Action Video

After Rance had the big idea in place, he started writing the script and created a basic storyboard. To make sure viewers would stay invested in the story, he incorporated a lot of dialogue between the three Rance characters and ensured the action of the story took place in a variety of locations, both real and virtual.

When it came time to film live-action footage, Rance enlisted his family, friends, and students to serve as actors. Impressively, he was able to capture everything he needed with only an iPhone, a tripod, and the help of his wife, who stood behind the camera holding cue cards for him to read. For the footage of other live-action characters, Rance used his iPhone with a gimble and stitched the short video takes together using iMovie.

Throughout the recording process, Rance also took care to ensure the footage he shot and the audio he created for his animated selves would be easy to work with in post-production:

“I filmed the characters one at a time, so I didn’t need to worry about switching between Rance, the serious news anchor-type guy, and the funny business-friendly one. I said my lines for live-action Rance 1, then in my head, I said Rance 2’s lines and reacted. The challenging part was making sure there was no delay between the spoken lines.”

Putting All the Pieces Together

Once all the raw footage and audio for “The Mysterious Disappearance of Stories” was compiled, and Rance had finished creating the animations in Vyond, he handed the baton to Taylor, who added a few extra animation elements, edited the audio and attached it to match his characters, finessed the timing a bit, and added music and sound effects as needed.

“I marked on my script where I wanted two characters on the screen at once and Taylor worked to make a seamless back-and-forth,” Rance says.

First Taylor combined the audio from the animated sections with the recordings of live-action Rance, creating a single, easier-to-manage audio track. Taylor then exported this file into Vyond where he added the animations so they matched that audio.

“Almost all the Vyond videos I make, I’ll make the audio first, then start building the scenes. I’ll edit the audio in Premiere, and export it as one single-track file that has the timing I want. That way, when I bring it into Vyond, it’s just one file and I can build scenes and move them around and it doesn’t change the timing of the audio. It makes everything a lot tidier.” – Taylor Morgan

 

In only a few instances did Taylor have to slow down live-action Rance’s footage to leave enough time for his alter egos to say their lines in between his own. “Taylor stitched the videos together beautifully. He made the animation and the live-action videos seamless”, said Rance. 

The Finished Project

While it’s unlikely most L&D content producers will routinely find themselves making a video of this length and complexity, Rance and Taylor hope their video will inspire them (and video creators of all kinds) to try a few new techniques, and think outside the box in how they present information.

Rance estimates he spent 90 hours total perfecting the dialogue, shooting scenes, and editing clips–and Taylor estimates that he spent about 40 hours editing and producing the final product. But to put this effort in perspective, Taylor estimates that if he were doing editing for a 30-minute live-action video, the process would have taken almost 10 times as long. And Rance says he hasn’t found anything else that would have allowed him to make something this creative, in as short an amount of time as Vyond did. 

“I’ve been a Vyond fan for a long time, and as far as I’m concerned, it just keeps getting better,” Rance said. “It’s efficient, it’s easy to use, and, most importantly, when I need to bring one of my stories to life, Vyond is the tool I reach for most often.”

Join the 2,000+ attendees who watched and loved Rance’s Masterclass, The Mysterious Disappearance of Stories by clicking on the link below.

Watch the Storytelling Masterclass

To see how using Vyond can help you meet your communications goals, sign up for our 14-day free trial.

Or for more inspiration and step-by-step video production guides, check out the Vyond Producers Hub.

		Rance Greene  Rance’s background is in theater, film, and choreography. But it was while working in New York City that his passion for storytelling flourished. “I’m from the North Carolina mountains, teaching inner-city kids from the Bronx and Spanish Harlem. I needed help establishing trust with them. Stories were our connecting point.” Years later, Rance first stumbled across Vyond when it was still called GoAnimate. He instantly became a fan–and has created L&D content with Vyond’s easy-to-use tools for years.  Rance’s training solutions have been recognized by ATD, The eLearning Guild, Training Magazine, and The Telly Awards. He is also the best-selling author of Instructional Story Design, an invaluable reference tool for learning how to craft effective, story-based corporate training courses, complete with downloadable templates and practice activities.
		Taylor Morgan  Taylor has nearly 12 years of experience in video and sound production. From a young age, he’s always loved stories: “I grew up during a time before the Internet. I was in the Boy Scouts camping a lot and the evening entertainment would always revolve around stories. For years I did live-action video production, so Vyond was my first introduction to storytelling using animated characters–which was a whole new ballgame and something I’ve loved doing ever since.”

We’re excited to announce the opening of our new Vyond Chicago office, located in the Windy City’s dynamic tech hub, Fulton Market. Our new location at 159 North Sangamon Street will accelerate our regional growth, with over 20 new hires planned in sales, marketing, and customer success. The expansion brings us in close proximity to our growing customer base of more than 50 local organizations.

Leading our new office will be recently-appointed Chief Marketing Officer Van Diamandakis, a tech industry veteran who previously led marketing and sales at WANdisco, Persado, Sage, Joyent, and Riverbed Technology, among others.

“The Midwest and the Chicagoland area represent a huge market opportunity for Vyond because we provide a solution that makes business-critical content stick,” commented Diamandakis. “Whether that content is for eLearning, HR, internal comms, or sales and marketing, Vyond’s intelligent, AI-driven video creation solution helps enterprises deliver compelling video that drives engagement and retention. As a Chicago native, I’m excited to lead the team that will not only support and grow our business in the region but will also integrate Vyond’s brand into the local business community.”

Board member Kevin Willer, partner at Chicago Ventures and a personal investor in Vyond, thinks that Vyond’s new presence in the Midwest will reap significant rewards.

“Chicago is one of the world’s most dynamic and exciting cities for business,” said Willer. “Our region is home to numerous enterprise companies that truly need Vyond to accelerate their video-based learning programs for training, education, and employee development. We are expecting great things in terms of growth, and our firm is looking forward to collaborating with Vyond as their solution is embraced by customers throughout the Midwest.” 

The Vyond Chicago office opens on December 5, 2022.

DevLearn is where folks in the L&D field get to discuss the business-critical issues facing our industry right now, and the awesome technologies and products being developed to solve them. Featuring 150+ sessions spread over two days, attendees could take their pick from a diverse range of topics including: Contextual Microlearning, Gamify Your Course Design Process, and The Art of Storytelling.

“The export option for review is my fave. Can’t wait for you to add layers so overlaid objects are easier to manage. Keep the features coming!” 

^{Ray Handley, Senior Learning Designer at Downer New Zealand}

 

Keynote speakers included renowned physicist Michio Kaku, brain scientist Cori Lathan, Kevin Bethune, author of reimagining design, and chemistry professor, Dr. Kate Biberdorf.

During her explosive keynote, Vyond’s sponsored speaker, Kate the Chemist, put on some entertaining experiments to help explain the importance of representing diversity in education. Our growing library of relatable and customizable characters is key to the success of Vyond’s video templates – improving employees’ ability to learn through connecting with animated characters.

“[Vyond is the] Best 2D animation tool” 

^{Abdul Rafay, Creative Designer at Landster}

 

Discussions around the evolution of e-learning were high on the agenda, with presentations like The Future of the Mind, The Power of Transformative Design, Technology Trends That Will Enhance Human Performance, and Blowing Up Stereotypes in Learning.

CEO Gary Lipowitz talks Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and content creation 

Gary Lipkowitz, Vyond’s CEO, took to the DevLearn stage to discuss: AI and the Race for Intelligent Content Creation, touching on how supercomputers could “surpass the abilities of any human”, and how “The Singularity” concept points to a day when AI could teach us, humans, instead. 

He demonstrated bringing digital personas to life in animated videos with VyondAI – the stuff of science fiction. Utilizing the smartest AI and ML capabilities and time-saving technologies, he detailed how the technology allows you to create high-quality, relatable “real-life” videos.

Attendees of Gary’s talk came away fully versed in Photo to Character, Instant Video Translation, AI Prop Generation, and other ways to build amazing animated videos for different customer types. A lucky few also bagged the much-coveted Vyond hoodie. Don’t worry if you missed Gary at DevLearn though, our fall release blog will bring you up to date. (But no more hoodies left, unfortunately!) 

“Vyond was something that everyone was talking about.” 

^{Ronny Lohuis, Senior Consultant at The Courseware Company}

Vyond’s stand-out show

We loved sharing our learning technologies with other DevLearners, and showcasing Vyond’s game-changing video creation products. As well as VyondAI, there was also plenty of buzz around the Import/Export copy feature and Instant Translation – real-time savers for today’s busy professionals. 

“[Vyond’s stand] on the exhibit floor generated so much enthusiasm.” 

^{Ronny Lohuis, Senior Consultant at The Courseware Company}

“That’s a good-looking booth!” 

^{Adam Perry Vice President of Product Marketing at Folloze}
 

Fall Release Launch Party

On Wednesday night, a select number of guests enjoyed Vyond’s invite-only Fall Release launch party, complete with live music and custom cocktails.

After some heartfelt words of thanks to our customers, we toasted Vyond’s latest capabilities with a Vyond Gimlet. And congratulations to our raffle winner – enjoy the Oculus VR headset. Can’t wait to see everyone at DevLearn ‘23!

Vyond is the enterprise-grade agile video creation software that’s reinventing business communications. Helping your organization to quickly create relevant, engaging videos at scale without making a costly production out of it.

If you’re wondering whether Vyond can help your business, start making videos today with our 14-day free trial.

The win marks a year-over-year Telly’s Award-winning streak for Sofala, after taking last year’s first-place gold prize in the “General – Social Video” category, for her production of Vyond’s “Black Characters In Children’s Books.”

In “Sofala Explains It All,” she covers everything from the basics of video animation to more advanced techniques. With clear and concise explanations, Sofala makes it easy for anyone to learn how to create their own stunning videos.

In this Q&A, we had the chance to get candid with Sofala about her personal approach to creating meaningful connections with her audience, and her mission to help people tell their stories in the most effective way.

A Q+A with Sofala Knapton

What’s Sofala “Explains It All” about?

“Sofala Explains It All” is a tutorial series that walks through Vyond Studio in a fun and exploratory way. The series focuses on explaining the main functions of the Studio in greater detail, but also offers when it might be best to use certain video-creating techniques over others. These videos are for Vyond users that have been using the platform for a bit but are still learning the ins and outs of the product.”

How did you come up with the idea for the series?

“One of the main intentions of this project was to create a tutorial series that was a little more casual in explanation than our help center videos or other series that we have done in the past. We realized that our customers respond well to that type of instruction and wanted to create a learning experience that centered on that. Once we had the idea, Amanda Morgan, our director of marketing came up with the name, which is a play on the show Clarissa Explains It All.”

Which steps did you take to create these videos?

“The Vyond team is always listening to and seeking out feedback from our customers. We want all our users to master the process of creating in Vyond and to feel comfortable enough to get creative. The first step we took in creating these videos was to look at some of the pain points that users were having trouble with. Once we understood what needed more explanation, and cross-referenced it with our Help Center, we were then able to start constructing a series that focused on best practices for the video-making process.”

What are the secrets to making your audience relate to animated characters?

“I feel like we as a society gravitate towards animation because, in a lot of cases, animated characters were our first introduction to storytelling. For me personally, it’s almost second nature to feel comfortable observing and learning from an animated character. My only suggestion for creating an animated video is, when you’re doing the voiceover to lip-sync to your character, try not to sound like a robot and add as much natural personality to your voice as possible.”

Which video from the series do you like the most?

“My favorite video from the Sofala Explains It All series is probably the episode about gradients. That episode is a great example of how you can get creative with your props and colors.”

Where were you when you found out you had won a Telly award?

“Joleen Richards and I were hosting a webinar called ‘Scroll Stopping Video for Social Media,’ and Kevin Doherty who’s our marketing communications manager mentioned it while he was introducing us. It was a great way to start the webinar and made me sound more official. lol.”

Will you record a season 2 for Sofala Explains It All? What upcoming projects can we expect?

“Yes, Sofala Explains It All is an ongoing series that will continue making episodes till Sofala has nothing more to explain.”

Vyond Producers Hub

“Sofala Explains It All” is hosted on Vyond’s “Producers Hub.” This new platform is packed with instructional videos from award-winning animators like Sofala, who each produce their own series teaching how to get the most out of Vyond Studio.
From instructional videos to inspiring content, the Producers Hub has everything to create stellar videos. The current lineup includes, “Director’s Cut,” “Discovering Vyond with Prakriti,” “Taylor Tinkers,” and “Vyond + Adobe.”

Get started making your own award-winning videos with Vyond today!

Visit the Producers Hub

Hello! My name is Fabricio Perez and I am a digital marketer from the San Francisco Bay Area. Recently, I had the privilege of joining Vyond’s hybrid team as their new Marketing Communications Specialist. Throughout my hiring and onboarding, video played a huge part in finding my way at Vyond.

With an unprecedented global pandemic that challenges many aspects of our lives, all of us have come up with clever solutions to some of the most disrupting changes to how we interact with others. Video conferences, instant messaging, and calls have kept us together as we face uncertainty and change.

During these trying times, socializing, being close to strangers, and coexisting in a working space are practices that can compromise public health. So we rely on technology to connect us and preserve the collaboration that cultivates productivity and innovation in the workplace.

Nonetheless, not only has communication changed. As workers redefine the notions of work and continue to ponder about career options, it is no surprise that one of the procedures to observe a significant shift was the hiring process.

The Shortcomings of Traditional Interviews

I am no stranger to the traditional hiring practices of the past. Over the last 4 months, I had my fair share of struggles: computer issues, internet connection problems, and some instances of “your microphone is muted”. I, for one, welcome video interviews if that means I can avoid long commutes and having difficulties finding a parking spot. But even with the comfort and flexibility of interviewing from home and the ability to send an email and get a response, I could not avoid the headache caused by a confusing candidate experience. 

After several tedious video interviews, unclear expectations, and a lack of effective communication, I began to lose motivation. Quickly, the process became monotonous as I saw myself missing the fun aspects of human communication like nonverbal cues and expressions of emotion. Burnout was imminent, and I am certain that it is just as exhausting for HR professionals trying to find the right talent.

I can imagine how time-consuming it is to filter through dozens of messages and have to juggle with applicants and hiring managers’ calendars. Not to mention the tough act of communicating bad news to candidates.

Use Video to Attract Top Talent

While continuing my search for an opportunity in the field of digital marketing, I stumbled upon a company with a versatile product: Vyond. Their belief in concise and enjoyable communication through animated videos caught my curiosity. Their mission to make video animation production accessible and more affordable while simplifying the creation of content compelled me to apply.

Quickly and effectively communicate your brand identity and mission through video. Entice the candidate with a short video explaining the company, what they do, and why working for them can be fun.

Vyond customers can use this video as a template to create their own benefits explainer video.

CREATE A BENEFITS EXPLAINER VIDEO

Use Video to Enhance Candidate Experience

To my surprise, Vyond provided a short video explaining some of the topics covered during the introductory phone call with the hiring manager. The quick and friendly video also described the next steps in the interviewing and hiring processes.

The step-by-step video was encouraging, easy to follow through, and effective at stating what happens next. Not to mention that the visuals, tone, and language used, were quite enticing.

Making onboarding straightforward

As my journey with Vyond began, I prepared myself to endure the customary onboarding procedures that usually involve a lot of paperwork and boring training. In pre-COVID times, the onboarding process was a hands-on experience that involved constant interaction with Human Resources professionals and colleagues. To the average employee, training can be time-consuming and tedious.

Use Video to Train New Hires

Vyond’s creative and efficient approach to onboarding includes short and animated videos that make the process less of a hassle. I was given a series of videos on complex topics, like cybersecurity, and was able to comprehend a novel concept without feeling brain fatigue or a significant loss of interest.

Use Video to Introduce Your Team

Create a better sense of belonging by introducing your team to a new hire with a short video. Having a resource that conveys the company structure, the different teams that work in tandem with each other, and the leading members of each department is very useful.

The following video is not only informative since it helps with organizational way-finding, but welcoming. As each department representative explains how the team operates, they inspire a sense of trust and openness with the new hire.

Create your own introduction video with Vyond’s customizable template video!

CREATE AN INTRODUCTION VIDEO

Use Video to Communicate Hybrid Office Policies

Need to effectively communicate new COVID-19 protocols to new employees? Videos can help. Short and enticing videos explaining COVID-19 safety protocols within the office and the proper ways of navigating a hybrid/work-from-home environment will save you and the new hire a lot of time.

Vyond customers can customize this return-to-office (RTO) video to create their own COVID-19 safety videos.

CREATE A COVID-19 SAFETY VIDEO

Create Videos for Hybrid Onboarding

I believe that animated videos have become one of the most dynamic methods of storytelling and learning, but I am uncertain if their full potential in business communications is yet to be seen.

Short videos with the capability of being created and distributed with ease are a game-changer for relaying important information. Give this approach a try! Short and animated videos are impressive at effectively conveying organizational expectations and results without compromising learning or attention. I am confident that this form of innovative and creative problem-solving will surprise your new and current employees.