Webwatch: Powtoon – create animated videos and presentations

Animated videos are becoming an increasingly popular way to explain concepts, communicate ideas and enliven presentations. Even the driest topics and reports can be brought to life when communicated through animated videos.

However, it can be expensive to commission an illustrator to create animations for your ideas. This is where Powtoon can help. Powtoon’s mission is to address the frustrations people have with PowerPoint and Keynote. It offers an alternative – a combination of presentation and animated cartoon.

On signing up, Powtoon provides the animation tools needed to immediately begin creating videos and presentations. And you don’t need to have graphic or web design skills. From start to finish, Powtoon guides you through a simple, step-by-step process of creating a video.

There is also a quick-start guide comprising a series of videos which detail how the tool works and some of the main features. These include a range of styles and templates, dynamic characters, powerful imagery and active text sequences.

You can create a free account to try it out. The Premium plan includes more features:

  • Complete slides package
  • 24/7 support
  • Full privacy control settings
  • PowToon watermark and outro removed
  • Additional music, images and styles
  • HD download to computer and upload to YouTube
  • 15+ mins in video length

Try Powtoon here: http://www.powtoon.com/