I’ve seen a few attempts at doing this kind of thing, and the only one I’ve been impressed with up to now is a monthly ($15) service.
However, THIS is a ONE-OFF cost and for the amount of program you’re getting, it’s an incredible bargain while it’s running.
So what is it? And why am I so worked up about it?
It’s a tool for both Windows and Apple computers that enables you to make those really cool hand-drawn sketch videos.
Wow. Really wow.
There’s no doubt in my mind that people find these much more acceptable to view than regular videos as they look animated and they’re interesting and fun to watch.
It has a clean interface, is drop-dead simple to use, fast, and outputs videos in MP4 format.
Think about how much your clients would be willing to pay for such a service and how much you can improve your own marketing.
It has hundreds of built in graphics (plus a pile of packs in the download area) and they’re adding more all the time – all included in the one-off price.
I bought it and started to look for the “catch”, but after using it for a few hours last night I don’t think there is one.
The kind of thing I was looking for was being locked into a service that you had to have to make it work, or having to pay extra. While there are some *options* to do that if it suits you, you DON’T need the extras.
Everything is there. That’s why I’m telling you about it. If it wasn’t, then you wouldn’t be learning about this from me. 😉
There’s even some royalty free backing music included, and it’s easy enough to add your own.
The other apprehension I had about this was the graphics format and adding in your own graphics that could then be sketched out by the program.
Happily, it turns out that it uses the fairly standard SVG format. All you have to do is make sure that everything is “ungrouped” and that all the paths are at the top. Then they work perfectly.
You can do this with Adobe Illustrator (my eldest has an educational copy) and I believe with the free Inkscape program too – I have yet to try this.
Update: I’ve now successfully worked out a method of conversion using InkScape – see the second video above.
Get Easy Sketch Pro Whiteboard Animation Software here.
-Frank Haywood
Hi Frank, Thanks for taking the time to show how to use the program in the first video and how to use the SVG format in the second video. I had heard about the SVG format mentioned, but not shown how to use it in formatting.
Hi Jeff,
You’re welcome, and I really do love Easy Sketch Pro. I have access to Illustrator here as my son is in further education and got a hold of an educational copy, but it seems a bit like a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
InkScape seems to have a lot of the functionality that Illustrator does but with the bonus that it’s free. 😉
And the SVG format is about to “come of age” I reckon, so it’s useful to know how to convert images to the SVG format. I guess not all images are suitable (hi-res photos), but enough of them are to be able to know how to do it.
I see SVG as being most useful to use with small images such as ads and logos with the big benefit of re-scalability so that they look good on whatever device you happen to be using without having to create multiple formats and set up complicated CSS to display the appropriate one.
Pretty cool really. 🙂
-Frank
Hi Frank
Thanks for the heads up on the great software….its a STAR purchase !!
Also thanks so much for the demo on the inkscape software for converting your own files, it saved me hours of work trying to sort it out myself !!
Enjoy your commission you just made 😉
Geoff Lord
webmaster and Internet Marketing Management
PS. you forgot to send me the link to the updated autoresponder !!
Hi Geoff,
Thank you and I think it’s one of the best buys I’ve made for quite a long while.
I’m hoping the price won’t go up too much (or at all) after today as it’s such a good buy and I know that plenty of people will benefit from this, but not everyone has bought yet. 😉
I’ve noticed a small bug in it and reported it and hopefully it will get fixed in due course. It’s not a show stopper, but on two of the timers you can’t set the time down to 0, it will only go down to 0.5s.
Looking at demo videos made with Easy Sketch Pro, it looks like it didn’t used to do this and it’s a bug that’s crept in with later version(s).
As a side-effect of all this, I’ve learned something new and I’m now quite interested in InkScape and the fact that’s a text / XML format for storing scalable images. I didn’t know that.
But what I did know is that most people wouldn’t have Illustrator and couldn’t justify the expense just to create SVGs in the right format, so I fiddled and teased with InkScape until I finally worked out how to output SVGs that ESP could use.
Yes I had other things I should have been doing, but it just grabbed my attention and imagination and I couldn’t let it go. 🙄
I reckon I’ve got access to a pretty good suite of video tools here now as my eldest needed Sony Vegas for his course, so we got him a copy and he’s quite good with it now and been showing me some stuff. 🙂
But as for ESP, what’s lit me up is the ability to create:-
#1 – Courses using short and snappy videos.
#2 – Good looking promotional videos without voice-overs. The wrong voice or accent can sometimes put people off, so it’s nice to know that we can now create “vanilla” videos if we want to.
#3 – The ability to create short segments introducing a longer video. I’ve done this twice now while promoting ESP and I think it works really well.
And finally, I also really like my wife’s idea of turning her short stories into animated videos.
Oh and really finally, I’ve just re-sent your autoresponder order email… 🙂
-Frank
Thanks Frank! I had already purchased Easy Sketch Pro before your email arrived suggesting it. I had just started playing around with it and watched the SVG video you made. I have Illustrator but haven’t learned it yet because I spend my time with Photoshop. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve created or used a graphic that I wanted to render larger or smaller but couldn’t get it to scale properly. Your tutorial and the Inkscape program will help me out immensely. You could have easily kept it as your own little secret. Thank you for putting this together and then sharing it with us!
Hi Derek,
You’re welcome. We all learn new stuff every day, eh? 😉
My eldest son has been learning Illustrator at college, and he was showing me how to use the pen tool to trace existing images onto another layer for conversion into a vector graphic. It seemed to take quite a while to do it but we both believed it was the only way.
It turns out that InkScape can do it for you, and I guess Illustrator can too – I’ve not tried to do it now I know that InkScape can do it.
Almost certainly it generates much larger files than you might want, but who cares if it saves you time?
80:20 rule. 🙂
-Frank
Hi Frank,
I purchased this? via your link and after trying to use it and seeing the many bugs and limitation it has I have to say that I am angry that you did not point out these bugs and limitations.
The text editor shows a box with room for plenty of text but when trying to input paragraphs the end result is it displays everything on one line, not paragraph style. This is stupid and useless.
The font window cuts off the preview of the font, so you only see the name and no accurate depiction.
When resizing or moving text or images it always skews the text or image so you have to fiddle with it to correct the orientation.
The product has plenty of potential but should not have been released with all these bugs.
Hi NS,
I’m sorry you have some issues with it. I think it’s the best thing since sliced bread.
I spotted one minor timing bug which I mentioned, and which has already been fixed.
The text editor input style that doesn’t display paragraphs correctly is common to other programs. And for me it isn’t a show-stopper, it’s just something you work with and around.
I’ve just checked and they released a new version yesterday that I’ve just installed and which *sort of* addresses this.
Now if you put a break into the text as you type it, it creates TWO text items on the page which you can then move to where you want them. Not ideal but better than it was before.
The re-sizing is a bit of pain and it would have been better if we could have used the usual shift-key modifier, but again I didn’t think it was a deal breaker.
It looks like they’ve fixed the font preview problem with this new version. 🙂
But, I’ve also discovered another bug a few days ago which I haven’t yet reported. It’s not a biggy once you know about it and it’s present in this new version too.
When you use the option to drag the drawn image off, all the arrows are pointing in the wrong directions.
I’m confident that once I report this then they’ll fix it in due course.
-Frank
Hi Frank,
I’ve seen … you explain “how to use the SVG”, it is great!
I have a question to ask you, can you help me?
Can you tell me … how to use easy sketch pro License Number (COMMERCIAL LICENSE)?
Thank you
Hi atic,
Thank you. 🙂
I *think* that’s a support question for the ESP guys. 😉
But, just enter your email address and auth code found in the members area into ESP and that should do it. I’ve checked the box that says “Keep me in” and it remembers my password so I don’t even have to enter it.
-Frank