Vyond Review

Detailed Reviews

Animated videos have the upper hand on other kinds of videos as they are easily able to attract user’s attention when appropriately created. Vyond is an online video maker which helps users create animated videos without the need of being an expert animator or a seasoned video editor. Using Vyond is one of the better and faster ways of creating animated videos which include all the traits of any professional video.

Pros

• Multiple style options.
• Can replicate almost any scenario on the video.
• Can modify animations and expressions of characters.
• Allows adding effects and motions for elements.
• Text-to-speech comes with multiple accent options.
• Can create a custom character.
• Hand drawing on a whiteboard animation available.
• Lip sync for recorded audio.

Cons

• May take some time to master.
• The abundance of styles and options may be overwhelming for a few users.

Introduction

An average netizen faces a Tsunami of content and information every time she decides to browse the internet. You search for a straightforward term, and there will be thousands of results on the search page.

It will be the same piece of information packaged in a lot of different ways. The availability of so many options is a good thing if you look at it from a customer’s point of view. However, things were never so difficult for content creators.

The abundance of content has left users with very short attention spans and content providers with the task of continuously finding new ways to grab user’s attention.

Of all the ways available out there to convey a message or a piece of information, videos seem to be the best way to go. It doesn’t require the user to concentrate hard, something which is a necessity when it comes to written and audio messages.

When you boil it down to videos, you will once again come across a variety of options. There are multiple kinds of videos. Some are animated, some are narrated sketches, some can be only textual with some background music, and so on.

However, it is only the best quality of videos with all the right ingredients that are usually able to do the intended job. It may come with a high cost if you go out looking for assistance in this case.

If you have people with the right skillset assisting you, then you will probably end up with some great content, but it may also break the bank.

One can always take the help of video creation tools. Using a video creation software allows you to bypass some of the roadblocks on the way to creating exciting and appealing videos.

Vyond is one among such video maker tools. Formerly known as GoAnimate, this video creation is quite popular for providing video creation solutions for all kinds of needs and for people with all kinds of skillsets.

They propose to provide an easy way to create videos and use them in different walks of life. On the official website, they have talked about three key areas; performance, security, and support.

Since these three sections seem to have so much importance in their agenda, we will be using these three sections to gauge the performance of this product.

A video can be used in various kinds of situations. It can be to educate, inform, entertain, train, and much more. The needs of a user may vary depending on circumstances and we will keep that in mind too while reviewing this product.

By the end of this review, you will have an idea of all the capabilities and shortcomings of this video maker.

The beginning

Let’s start from the point when a user logs in on this tool for the first time. At the very beginning, you will get to choose one of the three style options available on this tool.

The subsequent characters and layouts you get on the tool will be in line with the animation style you select at the beginning. However, there is nothing much to worry since you can switch between styles at any time you want, and even use different styles together in a single frame to create appealing videos.

Styles can have a lot of impact on how the viewers view you or your service. You may be creating content to represent your brand, and therefore, you must go with an appropriate style option.

Let us go through the different style options available.

Contemporary

This style is closer to modern art as compared to other style options, in our opinion. When it comes to art, you can’t have a set parameter or layout to measure how good is a style. It varies from one person to another as personal preferences vary. Therefore, we won’t be getting into that rabbit hole.

This style option contains a good mix of scenarios and infographics. Consistent art form allows one to use them in branded videos since it’s easier to maintain some consistency.

As recommended by the service provider, you will find it easier to use this style with promotional videos and numbers. Any situation demanding a good mix of infographics and serious animations can easily have this style.

Business friendly

This style form is closest to the real world as compared with other options. The other two style forms have their own ways of depicting items and characters whereas this style form seems to try to mimic the actual world.

In our opinion, this style form will go best with situations in which you want to create relatable narratives for the viewer. You can easily use it for storytelling or to imitate real-life situations.

Vyond recommends using this style for company culture videos, announcements, and explainer videos.

Whiteboard animation

We have all come across one of those videos in which there is a hand moving at supersonic speeds creating beautiful drawings. I guess most of thought that someone created all those drawings with their hand in real-time on seeing the animation for the first time.

With this animation style, you can create the same videos which once awed you. It has all of that hand animation and other stuff to surprise the people watching this kind of a video for the first time.

This style format can be especially useful for teaching videos, especially the ones related to academic stuff. If you are not a fan of that hand animation then you can remove it, as well.

The user should keep in mind that any style can be used for any video as long as they can keep it relevant and interesting enough for the user. As you spend more and more time with the video maker, you will have a much better idea of application of these style types.

Since you can easily use these different style forms with one another, it opens up the possibility of you coming up with a unique way of creating videos.

One of the significant drawbacks of video creators like these is that the user can’t expect to have some unique style or art form since a lot of other users have access to the tool. However, Vyond provides the user with enough options to keep things fresh.

The editor

At the heart of any editing or creation tool for photos and videos is the editor. The user expects the editor to be neat and simple enough to use but at the same time wishes it to house all the possible options.

Users also expect the editor to not have a steep learning curve and want to be able to create all the complicated animations. Even though it might be difficult for any editor to have all that the user desires, it makes the service providers try to achieve those gold standards.

The editor on Vyond is an excellent example of an almost perfect interface. The placement for various tools, the intuitiveness, the smoothness, and everything else seems to be optimized just the way it is supposed to be.

However, that is our opinion, and you may have different preferences. And this is something that service providers can’t handle. It is just impossible to take care of everyone’s taste.

The parameters we used to judge Vyond’s editor are flexibility, neatness, and robustness. If you also look for these things on an editor, or if these are among the various attributes that you use to gauge an editor, then you may find something of the essence in this review.

We will not go into the details of how to use the different features available of this video creator. We don’t want to create a tutorial as there are plenty of them already available on the internet. And some of them are very good.

Let us take all the three parameters and see how the editor fared against all of them.

Flexibility

When we speak of flexibility, it refers to all the functional capabilities of the editor. No one would want their video to be even slightly less impressive because of lack of some features on the tool. In a perfect world, if you're going to do something on the video, the editor is most likely to allow you do that.

Vyond allows you to do most of the things that you can think of doing on a video creator with animations. There are obviously some limitations when it comes to style, but that is always going to be the case if you are using software to create animations.

For flexibility, Vyond offers three style options. And as we have already mentioned, you can use these styles in all the ways possible. The styles differ in terms of templates and characters. You can use a combination of characters and templates from different styles to make the video more interesting.

The template refers to the background or premise of any scene, and Vyond offers multiple scenarios in this case. You can choose from the various template categories.

You will find template categories for different real-life situations such as farming, industrial, office, government, etc. And then there are template categories for better illustration such as charts & data, comparisons, points, screens, etc.

You not only get a lot of types, but each group also comes with plenty of templates. For instance, if you select the travel category, then there will be various templates depicting situations at airports, bus stations, etc.

Whenever you want more options, Vyond will not disappoint you. If you look at characters, then once again, you will have loads of options. Each style has multiple character options, and then feature to create a character sweetens the deal even more.

The characters come in various shapes and sizes, and you are highly likely to find all the ones you want for your story.

There are even more things which make this editor flexible. You can edit all the templates. Each template comes with some objects, characters, background, etc. Vyond allows you to play with templates the way you want.

You can move the objects and characters, change colors, add new elements, etc. One handy feature of this tool is the Replace button. All you need to do is select an object and then click on the replace button.

If it is a character, then you will get suitable character options for the replacement, and if it is an object then you will get replacement objects for it. This feature allows one to go through all the possible variations quickly.

We found ourselves using this option a lot to modify things according to our taste without changing the original premise.

There is so much more to flexibility on this editor than just the templates and characters. You get multiple options for charts, text, animations, movement, audio, transitions, etc.

We will discuss these sections in much details in later sections of this review. Otherwise, we may end up discussing the whole video creator under the flexibility section.

It also implies that Vyond is less likely to disappoint you when it comes to flexibility. You will always find enough options at your disposal to create awesome animations to woo your audience.

Neatness

The neatness of an interface matters to us because it affects efficiency while using the tool. A cluttered UI makes it difficult to find the right options. In our case, it becomes difficult to focus if a lot is going on the screen.

The hallmark of all the prominent tools is that they keep things surprisingly simple. And since we are talking about a video creator built to allow anyone to create animated videos, simplicity can’t be ignored.

If the tool is overwhelming in any way, then users may not be so encouraged to use it and may also find it challenging to use it because of the complexness of the UI.

Vyond comes with a very simple user interface. Most of the customization options are available in the top panel. The audio and video layers are at the bottom of the canvas, and that’s pretty much it.

Just like it so easy to explain the whole layout, you can work on the editor without a hiccup. You can interact directly with objects on the screen. The selection will present you with all the customization options available for that object or character.

Adding new scenes, templates, and audio is a piece of cake. You can see the arrangement of various scenes and sounds at the bottom making it easier for you to keep an eye on the process as a whole, as well.

When you create dialogs for characters, then you can arrange the dialog elements of characters to decide the order. The same can be done for actions and other movements. It just becomes so easy to maintain a flow in the scene with these subtleties.

The left side of the top panel presents you the selection option for major changes. The elements include characters, charts, audio, text, etc. The right side is dynamic and focused on the secondary customization options.

For instance, if you have selected a character, then it will give you the options to take care of expressions, movements, dialog, etc. If you choose an object, then you will get options to change color, decide motion path, and anything else that can be done with the object.

The availability of customization options on the selection of an object, not only helps keep the user interface clean, but it enhances the intuitiveness of the editor.

If you had only a look at this interface, then you would’ve had some hard time comprehending how can such detailed videos can be created using such a minimalistic editor.

We are very impressed by how this editor is so easy on the eyes and yet packs so many features.

Robustness

This is often the most ignored section of video creation software. You can have all kinds of features available on a tool, and it will all go down in vain if the tool is not responsive enough.

Creating an animated video can be a very focus intensive task. Any hindrance is enough to annoy the user in such a case. An interruption in the flow of the creative process ends up degrading the quality of the end product in one way or another.

Vyond is a cloud-based product. You don’t need to download and install a client on your desktop. There is no need to worry if your device would be compatible with the tool or not.

All you need to take care of is that you use a snappy web browser and good internet speed. Since it is not so difficult to take care of these two things, you will get some excellent performance from this tool in general.

We did not come across any issue while creating videos. Options appear as soon as you select them. Once you have enough idea of how the tool works, you can speed through the whole process.

The proficient users can easily rely on the responsiveness of Vyond and apply complex effects in no time. The editor is as snappy as it gets, and all the features compliment its responsiveness

Things you can do with Vyond

So far, we discussed how easy it is to create impressive videos on this platform. Let us now dive into the details of what you can do with this video creator at your disposal.

Animations and movements

The movement of objects and characters on a screen help make things more exciting and attention-grabbing. No one like to watch a video which moves between various stills from time to time and has some audio in the background.

You can add all the nuances of real-life in your videos or create special effects using the tool. The tool allows you to insert a motion path for objects. It is needless to mention that you can customize a lot these aspects of motions.

You can show characters entering a leaving the scene. You can have objects flying around in the video. For presentations, you can have stats pop up from all the different places to emphasize their importance.

For characters, you get to pick from a bunch of actions available in the gallery. You can have the characters perform action related to everyday life such as breathing, running, dancing, etc. or you can choose one of the other categories such as sports and make your character land a knock-out punch.

The options just don’t seem to end. It might not add up to the quality of this review, but we want to let you know that we had an absolute blast while checking out all these actions.

You can have specific camera movements, which allows you to add some cinematographic effects. We had one of our characters do the superhero landing, and while she was landing, the camera zoomed in on her. We can’t even explain how amazing that scene turned out to be.

Lifelike expressions

If your video involves the use of characters, then you will like this feature a lot. Facial expressions are what adds life to a character or scene. It helps convey a message without saying anything. It can help the audience engage with the video and relate to it.

On Vyond, you can add more than just the primary expressions of sadness, anger, and happiness. As it has been the case with this tool in most of the sections, you will get plenty of options for expressions, as well.

How many facial expressions can you think of right from the back of your mind? The video creator comes with 22 options under the expressions tab.

If you were able to think of more expressions than this, then you are a living and breathing encyclopedia on facial expressions my friend. (tips hat)

All these facial expression options let you add so many emotions. There is an option to decide where the character is looking. I guess you can make out how it can help someone add some drama in the piece of content.

Things get so much better when you use these expressions in sync with the various action options already available on the tool.

Audio, dialogs, and lip-sync

With expressions and actions already taken care of, the only thing left to complete the package is the audio.

Background music and audio for special effects are quite common on video creators. Vyond comes with a library of a lot of music and special effect options. On top of that, you can add some audio content of your own.

Both background audio and special effects sections have enough choices to take care of most of your artistic needs. If not, then it not very difficult to source audio files and effects anyway.

However, it is not this section that we want to discuss. We want to talk about dialogs for characters. You can have text-to-speech, mic recording, and the option to upload audio files for dialogs.

Let us talk about text-to-speech first. You get to choose from various language options, accent options, and obviously the option to determine if it is a male or female voice.

Vyond impressed us with their attention to details, even for audio. Not many people would have complained if they did away with only one language and two options for text-to-speech.

Instead, they included accents along with different language options. Some of the accents feel very real, and you can spice up the videos using them.

Recording audio over mic is a handy option if you have the necessary voice at your disposal. There is no need to get all fancy when you can record audio on the microphone connected to your device.

Finally, the option to add audio files helps take care of the needs of professional video creators. The lip-sync feature may not be effective all the time, but it does the job well enough. It is especially useful when you want the character to emit strong emotions.

The audio section of the platform packs in most of the things necessary to create amazing videos.

The infographics

Storytellers may like Vyond for all the characteristics we mentioned above. But this video creator can be used for so much more.

Videos are becoming more of a norm when it comes to educating people or broadcasting information. Videos can be an excellent way to train, teach concepts, broadcast information, create guides, and so much more.

Creating videos related to educating or informing users may involve the use of showcasing data and illustrations. There might be some numbers, and sometimes you may want to emphasize the importance of one number over the other.

These videos may also require you to include graphs or other infographics and present some data to users.

Adding infographics on a video is a simple task on most of the video creators. You can always import the images and showcase whatever stats you want.

However, the situation is much better on Vyond. They have a dedicated section for charts, there are template options for charts, and then there are style options appropriate for charts.

You will not have to be content with some dull static images of numbers. You can have them flying across all over the video, use animations to highlight them, and modify them according to your liking.

For the charts available on the creator, you can make as many modifications as you want. They allow you to decide if you're going to include numbers or just illustrations. You can fill in data for available chart options and display accurate graphs and comparisons on the video.

As we already mentioned, the whiteboard animation style is particularly useful when it comes to creating infomercials. But you can create equally engaging videos using other style options too.

Creating characters

People like creating an animated version of themselves. If not themselves, then creating some other character they have in mind.

You can create characters on Vyond and satisfy that urge to have a character in your video you can relate to.

We don’t want you to get your hopes high in anticipation of creating characters that look exactly like you. One needs to make do only with the available options.

Even though there are plenty of options to change all the attributes of a character right from the nose type to the shoes, you may come across dead ends every once in a while.

With custom characters, you can add some uniqueness to your videos. For personal projects, you can surprise the viewers by showcasing them in the video.

The usefulness of this feature varies from person to person and with the situation, as well.

Customer support and security

It is unusual of a tool built for creating animated videos to boast about the security measures implied on the platform. It might just be a way to lure in more users, or they must be talking about it just because they made sure that the platform is safe enough for creators.

In any case, they have now put the security of the software under the spotlight, so, let’s see how impenetrable their security mechanism is.

Vyond is a tool designed for use by both enterprises and individuals. Both of them have different requirements and expectations when it comes to security on the platform.

Enterprises want strict measures to take care of privacy and a more secure environment to allow teams to communicate and work together on projects.

When it comes to individuals, they don’t want the service provider to gain access to a lot of their personal information. Nowadays, most individuals don’t feel at ease when the service provider starts asking way too many questions.

Vyond takes care of the needs of both the factions. Vyond Secure Site, the feature available only on Vyond for enterprise, comes with multiple security enhancements.

Some of the mentionable features of Vyond Secure Site are brute force login protection, IP whitelisting, custom video cache expiration, etc.

For individual users, they ensure that they don’t hassle the users unnecessarily for personal information. The company is GDPR compliant. They don’t use wicked ways to extract information out of users.

For payments, they take the help of reputed third parties. It is to ensure that all the card and electronic payment information is not stored on their servers.

When it comes to servers, Vyond uses services of AWS. It is one of the faster and more secure options for the choice of servers. Even though AWS is a safe enough service, they keep conducting internal tests to ensure that everything is in order.

There are more factors, such as various certification, Single Sign-on, etc., which establish Vyond as a safe and secure platform. Those few who were concerned with security and privacy on this video maker can now happily get back to creating some great animations.

Customer support is one of the resting pillars for any successful business or service. While a lot of people confuse customer support with the availability of live chat and similar features, there can be a lot of other ways to assist users.

Before we get into discussing the customer support on this platform, we need to point out the fact that Vyond has done a commendable job when it comes to creating a tool which is so easy and intuitive to use that one might not need a lot of assistance.

But you never know when a user may run into a roadblock and need some help. The first line of support on Vyond is the help center on the official website. It comprises of a load and articles discussing various issues and topics around the product.

You can refer to it in case you need some technical assistance, if you want to know how to use a specific feature, or if you have any other question. Their help center is comprehensive and capable enough to deal with most of the issues.

You can also find a lot of videos which can help you on how to use various features available on the tool.

Those who need to interact directly with company officials can reach out to them either telephonically or via live chat during the company’s business hours.

For other cases, there is always an option to send out emails. They usually reply promptly to all the user queries.

Both the security and support section on the tool are good enough that you don’t need to worry much about them.

Conclusion

Most online video tools allow users to work with video clips. Users introduce more elements on top of them to create the videos they want. Vyond is all about creating animated videos using the elements available in Vyond ecosystem.

Depending on the kind of video you want to create, this can be either a pro or a con. Those who prefer adding all sorts of foreign elements to their to video may not like Vyond that much.

However, Vyond falls in a select category of video makers. And it turns out that it is one the best in its class. If you prefer consistency and the ability to control each and every aspect of the video, then this might be the right product for you.

There are no limitations when it comes to creating the kind of video you want. It is almost equivalent to you instructing some actors to perform a scene for you.

There is a wide range of choices when it comes to characters, and the option to create custom characters makes things even better.

Vyond has got you covered if you are one of those who don’t like to have characters in their videos. You can work with charts and graphs to create attractive presentations. The whiteboard animation style will allow you to create some of the best informative videos that you can.

Just like characters, there are plenty of choices for everything else. If one is open to the idea of mixing up different style options, then the possibilities are endless.

It is not just the characters and elements which create a great video. It is the animations which help put life to all the characters and scenes. Vyond did not disappoint us on this front, as well.

The lip-sync helps make the videos look even more professional, and all the camera movement and motions help to make the videos more dynamic.

The library had enough audio options to complement the aesthetic art styles. The available audio options are good enough that one may not feel the need to use a voice recorder or add music themselves.

Vyond is, undoubtedly, one of the best options available to create animated videos online.