I don’t know about you but since this whole quarantine thing started I have been watching WAY more YouTube videos than I used to.
At first, I was watching a lot of educational types of videos on social media marketing stuff like Instagram and Pinterest and blogging.
Then, I got into watching a lot of crafting and DIY types of videos like home organization, room renovations and DIY dupes on expensive home decor items.
Lately, I’ve discovered a new type of video to watch and that’s the vlog style of video. You know, the ones that are basically taking you through the “day in the life of” or a “week in the life of” kind of video.
In watching all of those kinds of videos on YouTube, I’ve noticed that the ones that I most look forward to watching are the ones that do a good job at making the mundane routine look interesting.
Sometimes that might mean adding some special effect to the videos and other times that means including graphics in their edits.
When it comes to graphics for videos I like to separate them into 6 categories.
1. Titles
It’s very likely that you’re already using titles in your videos since mostly editing programs include a selection of title themes for you to choose from.
Basically, these are text only graphics that you can add to your videos to introduce an event in your video.
Sometimes these titles are added on top of a piece of video footage and other times titles are added in front a still background image or pattern.
2. Lower Thirds
Lower thirds are the graphics that show up in the lower part of the video screen. They can be used to display someone’s name but it’s also the place to show information like your logo or social media username or even a YouTube subscribe button.
Just remember that when creating and adding this type of graphic it’s important to place it in the title safe area of your video.
3. Pop-up Stickers
I was originally going to refer to this type as just “pop-ups” but that makes me think of those boxes that show up on websites.
Since most of us are already familiar with Instagram and adding stickers to Stories and stuff like that, it made more sense to refer to this type of graphic as a “pop-up sticker”.
When I think of this type of graphic, I’m always thinking of some kind of image-based graphic as opposed to text.
For example, some common “pop-up stickers” that I’ve seen are logos for tools or programs that you use. Another “pop-up sticker” that I see a lot of are emojis.
One thing to note with these “pop-up stickers” is that they tend to appear in the upper half or upper ⅔ of your video screen, unlike the lower third which only appears in the bottom section of the video.
4. Sidebars
I suppose a technical term for this type of graphic would be more like a “split screen” but I’m used to web design where you can choose to have a page layout with the sidebar on the left or right of your main content area.
In terms of video graphics, the idea of using sidebars works in a similar way to web design. They are a narrow column with text and usually occupy the left third or right third of your video screen. Most of the time they slide into the screen either from the left or right (depending on the position of the sidebar)
Sidebars are great way to show a larger amount of text like checklists or recipe ingredients or even a memorable quote
5. Full Screen Cutaways
The best way to think about this type of graphic is treating it almost like a slide from a Powerpoint presentation.
This kind of graphic is often used as a title transition between two events in your video or the title graphic that introduces the theme of your entire video.
If this graphic is animated then sometimes it is used to visually demonstrate a concept that you are explaining, like a series of steps or phases to accomplishing something.
6. Transparent Overlays
Transparent overlays are similar to the full screen cutaways with the exception that some part of the graphic will be transparent to see the footage behind it.
These full screen overlays are a great way to add an aesthetic effect to your video footage and create a visual switch from watching the normal footage in your videos.
Sometimes this might mean using a stylized frame or it could be the type of transparent graphic like the camera recording type of overlay (with those four corners and red record circle flashing).
Now, just because I’ve listed 6 categories for graphics it doesn’t mean that you have to use all 6 of them in your videos.
You may like the idea of switching back and forth between your video footage and a full screen cutaway to create visual interest.
Or maybe you’ll find that using a sidebar works better to highlight certain points that you’re talking about.
There really is no rule to using graphics but they are a great tool to use, especially in a vlog style video or talking head kind of video (think video call style).
If you have any questions about video graphics, feel free to contact me or, even better, send me a DM on Instagram.