Cut it
Over the course of the past few months, I’ve been learning more about editing, so I wanted to write a short blog about one of the key takeaways I have learned. Pacing is something I always try to keep in mind when I animate a short (story time or otherwise), but once I started learning more about editing techniques in premiere, it was like a whole new world dawned on me.
The timeline
I always thought my editing style was fine enough, but when I started looking at other styles of editing made for YouTube videos, I realized that viewers really like more fast paced sequences. These days, viewer attention spans are very short, and if a shot lingers for even a second too long, you can lose your audience. As an animator and storyteller, that’s something I try not to do! Cutting up a short helps keep viewers engaged with the content, as there’s a feeling of constant progress.
The other important factor for editing is that it makes the content more interesting. I try to squeeze the most out of each drawing, and adding close ups, zooms, flips, twists and transitions all make watching a short more entertaining. If you look at the first few storyline shorts, cuts lingered and there wasn’t any movement: camera drifting, zooms, etc. If you look at how long viewers watched the earlier shorts, you would not be surprised that they left within 15 seconds. The stories might have been good, but they felt boring. In comparison to the newer shorts, overall watch time has increased, and I’ve gotten far better feedback with the new stuff than the old stuff.
Render
Editing is a ton of work, but the effect is huge as far as viewer enjoyment and making a more finished product is concerned. The effect of making better pacing through edits not only maximizes the the effort I made doing the drawing and animation, it also makes the stories far more entertaining for viewers.
I’ve learned a lot of lessons while editing, and it has been crazy seeing just how potent its effect has been on my shorts. When I first started incorporating the knowledge I learned, I didn’t think the effect would be so impactful, but over time it really has elevated my content to another level
-Until next time-