Animation isn’t an easy thing to master. But small businesses and individuals that want to get into the animation game don’t have to learn a whole new set of skills. Animatron is a company that allows users to make quick animated videos without a lot of effort. Read more about the product and the company behind it in this week’s Small Business Spotlight.
What the Business Does
Provides easy animation tools.
CMO Kate Skavish told Small Business Trends, “We offer a product called Animatron, an easy-to-use and powerful online animated video maker which enables our users to create stunning animations and videos right in the browser. We made Animatron to empower small businesses, marketers, and educators to create professionally looking annotated and animated videos in-house easily. Large stock of video blocks, static images, animated characters, and music help create content, both high-quality and unique. With the recent release of Animatron Lite Mode, it has never been easier for the first-timers to animate like they were skilled professionals.”
Business Niche
The ability to customize even imported videos.
Skavish says, “Unlike other online animation makers, Animatron supports video import which offers its users innumerable ways to personalize and customize their videos. For example, users can create their own animations or leverage a huge marketplace with pre-animated assets, and place them over imported videos. They can also easily annotate their videos and put branding assets over videos to make their brands shine. This is very important and helpful, for example, for startup owners or small business owners who cannot afford a marketing professional yet, let alone a full-fledged marketing team or a professional designer.”
How the Business Got Started
Because of a school project.
Skavish says, “Dmitry Skavish, co-founder and CEO of Animatron, once was asked by his 10-year-old daughter, “Papa, can you help me create an animation for my school project?” “Sure,” he said. “Let’s see what software your teacher suggested you use.” The software that his daughter’s teacher suggested turned out to be an ad-cluttered website that combined several images into an animated GIF. Not exactly the best tool for learning and creating real animation… That’s how in 2011 the idea for Animatron was born: a powerful and user-friendly website that allows users to animate right in the browser and collaborate with friends or colleagues in real time.”
Biggest Win
Securing funding.
Skavish explains, “JetBrains, a technology-leading software development company specializing in creation of intelligent development tools, liked the idea of Animatron so much that they funded the project and supported us in many other ways. Now, a few years later, Animatron has grown into a company of 20 awesome people working hard on redefining the world of animation software by building an entirely new way to create animated and interactive content for the modern web.”
How They’d Spend an Extra $100,000
Spreading the word.
Skavish says, “Here at Animatron we are very much excited about what we do and we want more people to know that everyone, from a school kid to a startup owner, can animate like a pro. We want to spread the word Animatron, so we would invest in increasing awareness through community outreach.”
Company Mascot
The Animatron Hero.
Skavish says, “Our mascot is the Animatron Hero, it is featured on the company logo. The idea behind it is that Animatron helps ordinary people feel like pro designers, video gurus, presentation ninjas, and animation heros. We animate our mascot for each holiday – we dress it up like Santa Claus or St. Patrick. It’s been fun, and our customers love to play with the animated mascot. Our designers even created a girlfriend for Animatron hero for Valentine’s day. You can check the animated stories here.”
Favorite Quote
“Everything you can imagine is real.” by Pablo Picasso.
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Images: Animatron; Top Image: Kate Skavish, Second Image: Dmitry and Kate Skavish
This article, “Spotlight: Animatron Simplifies the Process of Making Animated Videos” was first published on Small Business Trends