Creating a seamless entertaining experience for viewers is always a priority for any decent video maker. However, it can be quite a hassle to retain the attention of your audience in this fast-paced world. Unlike traditional videos, learning to make interactive videos changes how your audience engages with your content. This dynamic video style boosts user engagement and watch time, making it ideal for e-learning, training, marketing, and entertainment. In this guide, you will explore the interactive videos and how you can create these interactive videos yourself with the right software.
In this article
Part 1. What Is Interactive Video?
An interactive video is a form of video that engages the viewer to participate, make choices, and explore the content. When you create interactive videos, you allow each viewer to have a personalized video experience. This is due to the various interactions available within the video that build up to give a unique sense of involvement.
Interactive videos, including interactive video ads, deviate from the traditional way of viewing content, which limits viewers to the options to pause, play, and stop the video. Interactive types of videos usually have a higher attraction to the audience. Certain features can be added to make your videos more interactive and contribute to the clear difference between your interactive video and a traditional video.
A typical interactive video contains clickable elements such as links, hotspots, and buttons to make users explore more of your content. Quizzes and polls can also be added to create the necessary interactions and get feedback from your audience. You can take your videos to the next level by creating different options for your viewers, leading to a series of storylines depending on their choice.
Part 2. How To Make an Interactive Video
Now that you know what interactive videos are, it is time for you to learn how to make your videos interactive. There are certain steps to take in putting together an interactive video.
Define Your Purpose and Goal
Having a defined goal and purpose for your videos gives you a clear picture of what you want the results of your videos to be. It is not enough to have just one good interactive video. The goal should be to create great interactive videos consistently.
Goals should include focusing on a target niche, the number of videos to be made within a timeframe, and the quality of such videos. Creating videos that appeal to a particular audience or niche is a huge factor in defining purpose. Make research on the type of videos your viewers love to see and how you can add your unique touch to those types of videos.
Putting factors like lightning, audio quality, and video quality into account when marking out your goal is also essential. This ensures that your viewers will always access high-quality videos consistently.
Plan Your Message and Storyline
Once your goal is defined, it is time to script your video. Your script contains the key message you want to pass across in your videos. Video planning is a very crucial step because it streamlines your video creation process, making you focus only on what is important.
Spending more time planning your message reduces the time it takes to make an interactive video because you tend to make fewer mistakes. A well-thought-out plan goes a long way in bringing an interactive video to life while poor planning results in a shabby video output, reducing the interest of your audience.
Choose the Right Interactive Video Software
A well-defined video that is properly planned can never be complete without the right tool. Wondershare Filmora is an outstanding video editing software which makes it the best tool for creating interactive videos. The software simplifies the video editing process making it a perfect choice for both beginners and experienced editors alike.
Filmora supports multiple layers of videos, audio, and effects allowing users to create an engaging video masterpiece. It also offers many basic and advanced features that let creators incorporate interactive properties in their videos such as motion tracking, key framing, split screen, and green screen.
Filmora gives creators access to explore their creativity with access to a library of royalty-free music, effects, and transitions giving their audience a great viewing experience. Filmora is supported on mobile (iOS and Android) and desktop versions (Windows and macOS).
Key features
- Motion tracking: This feature allows you to track the motion of moving objects in a video. Effects, text, or graphics can then be added to follow the moving object.
- Green screen: The green screen or chroma key on Filmora enables users to remove backgrounds. The removed background is replaced with a custom background or animation.
- Auto reframe: This feature makes it possible to upload a video across multiple platforms.
- Keyframing: Spice up your video by animating the movement of objects, texts, or effects over time.
- Texts: Use text and title templates to customize and create eye-catching captions, titles, and overlays.
- Advanced Video Stabilization: This feature stabilizes your video by reducing shakiness to give it a smoother and professional look.
- Export Options: Export your videos in multiple formats and resolutions including 4K. Your videos can also be uploaded on platforms like YouTube and other social media platforms straight from Filmora.
How To Add Interactive Element in Your Video Using Planar Tracking
Planar tracking is a video editing effect that tracks flat surfaces in a video. The planar tracker uses four-point tracking to allow text, graphics and other elements to be placed on moving surfaces like billboards or block license plates. Planar tracking can attach labels, diagrams, or instructions to items in product videos, making them more interactive and informative. This feature is available only on the desktop version of Filmora.
This is a step-by-step guide on how to use Filmora's planar tracker.
Step1Import your video
Launch Filmora on your computer. Click on New Project to start your project. On the next window, select Import to import your videos. Drag and drop your videos into the editing timeline.
Step2Begin Planar Tracking
Click on your video clip in the editing timeline. To start the Planar Tracking, click on the Video tab at the left corner of the screen. Select AI Tools and click on Planar tracking.
Step3Track a Planar surface
There are two options for Planar tracking: Auto and Advanced. Select Auto. A four-point tracker will appear in the preview window.
Drag and adjust the tracker on the flat surface you want to track. Click on Start to begin tracking.
The Planar tracking process will begin.
Step4Select Link Elements
Add link elements to the clip by selecting either Import from the computer or Add a mosaic. Importing an image from your computer overlays the tracked surface with an image while the mosaic blurs out the tracked surface.
Step5Adjust Linked Elements
Adjust the linked elements to fit into the four corners of the tracked object.
Step6Export Video
Once you have gotten your desired results, click the Export button at the top right corner of the screen to save the project to your device.
How To Add B Rolls to Videos With Filmora
B rolls are supplementary video footage that supports the main video content. They usually include scenery or cinematic shots that help tell a story. B rolls give more context to the video and act as visual engagement to make a video more interactive.
Here is a stepwise guide to add B rolls to your videos.
Step 1: Add your B roll videos from your computer by clicking Import. If you don't have a B roll footage, click on Stock Media at the top left corner of your screen. Select and download the stock images and videos of your choice.
Step 2: Watch through your main video. To add a B roll to a section of your video, drag and drop the B roll right above the main video in the editing timeline.
Step 3: Play through your video and make the necessary adjustments where necessary.
How To Add Voiceovers Using Filmora
Take advantage of voiceovers in your videos to increase engagement with your audience. Good storytelling keeps your viewers fixed on your content and can create a strong sense of connection within them. Voiceovers provide more details to tutorial videos making them easier to understand. You can add Call-to-Actions (CTAs) to encourage viewers to like, comment, and share their thoughts about your video. Create a challenge, ask your viewers to recreate it, and tag you on social media.
Below are simple steps to add voiceover to your videos.
Step 1: Click on the Microphone icon. A three-second countdown will begin. Start your recording after the countdown elapses. Click OK when you are done recording.
Step 2: Record as many voiceovers as you want. Your recorded voice will be added to the editing timeline automatically.
Step 3: Cut unwanted parts out of the recording. Click on Audio > Basic to edit the recorded voiceover. Add fade in and fade out effect for a smooth transition.
How To Add Keyframes to a Video
Keyframing is an animation technique that enables movement between two frames, a starting and ending point. It can create a zoom-in effect, focusing on an object in the video. Keyframing gives motion to static elements such as texts, images, and videos, making them capture the attention of your audience.
Follow these steps to add keyframes your videos.
Step 1: Import your clip into Filmora and drag it to the editing timeline.
Step 2: Watch through your video to select the starting point of your keyframe. At the top right corner of your screen, click on Video > Basic > Transform to add a keyframe to the video in the timeline.
Step 3: Add as many keyframes as you like to your video. Right-click on the keyframe to select a keyframe type.
How To Add Text to a Video
Adding text to your videos will drastically increase your audiences' focus on the video. Nowadays, people watch videos in public spaces with the sound off. Subtitles and captions will go a long way in carrying along the viewers, allowing them to read along and stay engaged with the content. Just as with voiceovers, you can add Call-to-Actions to drive more engagements to your videos.
Here is how to add text to your videos using Filmora.
Step 1: Click on the Titles tab at the top of the screen. Choose a template, drag and drop it in the editing window.
Step 2: Click on the Text button at the top right corner of the screen to customize the text template. Change the font, size, color, animation, etc.
Step 3: Fill in the text or caption you want.
Test and Optimize Video
Once you are done creating your videos, test the interactive features you have added to confirm that they are seamless and will stir up a positive interactive response from your audience. Alternatively, you can share the video with your friends and family to get their feedback on the videos.
Publish and Promote
Publish the video on your preferred social media platforms. Promote your recently published videos to notify your audience that fresh content is available. This can be done on any social media platform like Instagram stories, YouTube community posts, and Facebook stories. Platforms like YouTube offer video analytics. Study the analytics to know the performance of your videos. The analytics give you insight into your watch time, average view duration, click-through rate, and other metrics.
Bonus: How To Use AI Translation to Get Global Reach
Inputting the features discussed in the steps above into your video creation process will boost how your audience engages with your content and tutorial videos. You can introduce your content to an international audience by translating your videos into another language. With Filmora's AI translation feature, you can translate your videos into up to 20 other languages including French, German, Spanish, and Chinese. The most exciting part of this AI translation feature is that it is easy to carry out and your videos are translated into another language within minutes.
Here is a step-wise guide to translating your videos into another language.
Step 1: Import your video into Filmora. Drag and drop the video to the editing timeline.
Step 2: Click on the More icon above the editing timeline and select AI translation.
Step 3: There are two options: Translate voice and caption and Only Translate caption. Choose your preferred alternative.
Step 4: Choose English as your source language and any preferred language from the drop-down menu as your Target language. Click on Auto-match and select Try Free.
Step 5: Your video will be translated in no time. Once the translation is complete, export your video to your device.
Conclusion
Getting the attention of your audience with interactive videos has never been easier. We have discussed in this guide the elements that make your videos interactive. Have fun creating interactive YouTube videos and other forms of content with the Filmora editing software. Using the new Planar tracking feature on Filmora, even the flat surfaces in your video tell a story.
