Faceless Video

RiaanBeylef613 · June 19

Good day Everyone.

Im busy with my 1st course creation. Its about preparing for the IELTS exam.

Because its 90% factual, and I dont have a face for video, Im planning a faceless video, with slides and voiceover.

Any suggestions for apps or programs to create my videos.

Thank you

Boris035 · June 19

I like faceless videos too, and would like to learn from other instructors as well. Here’s my contribution to the topic.

Based on what I have seen up to now – you / we have few alternatives, based on the budget, available time, skills, willingness to learn new things, personal preferences, etc.

Option 1: The simplest, fastest and cheapest option is to create your slides in PPT (or Canva) and add voice over (I’ll explain the voice-over part below). That way – videos will look like a professional presentation, allowing the consumer to see the most important messages in a form of texts and charts.

Especially if you would like to add more appealing elements – you should rely on Canva for the visual part (by adding some images, characters, objects, etc.). And, I think you can do everything within PowerPoint or Canva by inserting / uploading the voice-over.

The major downside – it can be a bit boring and static, especially if your course is loaded with facts and theory, without a nice storytelling.

Check “Asen Gyczew” – very successful Udemy Instructor – I think he is applying this approach (from technical perspective).

Option 2: You can rely on 2D animation (moving characters) with build-in templates (scenes, characters, objects, etc.). These kinds of videos are very catchy if you learn how to do it properly. For example, you can find a lot of explainer videos done in this style. As I know – for course creators, Vyond is the most popular software (in terms of price and quality), although many people use much cheaper alternatives (for example, I have just started experimenting with Toonly, and sharing the first videos on my YouTube channel and LinkedIn in order to get some feedback and further develop the skills).

The major downsides – it requires some time to learn how to use it properly, some people find it too “cartoonish” and avoid such courses. If the course is created as a sum of short explainer-videos – it can be interesting to watch a video or two, but very overwhelming to watch it in long takes – you’ll have to make simple videos without too many colorful, background elements which is a craft for itself. And, it can be very expensive – no matter if you buy a software and do the production on your own, or you are going to buy a service from experienced video creators from Fiverr or Upwork.

Check “365 Careers” – very successful Udemy Instructor – as I know, they rely on Vyond.

Option 3: You can rely on Whiteboard animation (drawings) – with or without a drawing hand (it’s up to your own preferences – it’s just a turn on/off button from technical side). From my perspective – it’s somewhere between PPT slides and 2D animation style if done properly (especially if you add some GIFs here and there). It’s very catchy, you can play with associative visual elements, and it might look as a professionally done presentation, etc. while drawings (or fade in / pop-up elements) create specific dynamic effects and keep the attention. Personally, I prefer this style (and might be biased) and think it’s especially suitable for longer formats like courses, meaning few hours of video material one can take in one or few shots.

There are many software on the market you can use – for example, VideoScribe is very popular due to the price. Previously mentioned Vyond has built-in Whiteboard tool as well – and it looks great for sure, although it’s much more expensive. Personally, I use Doodly software in combination with Canva visual elements – I like the characters, functionality, and it’s relatively cheap if you get a life-time special discount (just like the previously mentioned Toonly – they belong to the same company).

You can check the videos done in this style on my own profile page (open videos), although I’m not even closely successful to Asen or 365 – after all, I started 2.5 years ago.

Option 4: You can find other alternatives as well. For example, you can use talking avatars – either animated, or as a physical person presenting instead of you. Honestly, I haven’t used this approach although it might be interesting since many consumers prefer to watch others presenting something compared to pure faceless videos. Yet, I don’t like those cheap animated avatars, while using more advanced options like (probably AI-generated / edited) physical persons talking is significantly above my budget. For example, Synthesia looks amazing to me but it’s too expensive.

Regarding the voice over – as I know, many people rely on recording their own voices with Audacity, where you can edit the voice over as well. It’s a very user-friendly and free software, and I think this the industry standard – I used this approach before.

Yet, since I’m not a native English speaker and have a very strong accent that affected my course ratings and the watch-time – I have just started using AI-generated voice-overs. ElevenLabs works perfectly well for me. You can check the difference – I have re-recorded 2 of my courses with AI voice, while 4 others are still with my own voice. It’s not just about the accent, but pace and energy-level as well. Yet, that’s my own preference – as an English teacher, you’ll probably go with your own voice.

After all – since this is your first course – I think you shouldn’t invest too much money upfront, especially if you don’t have a wide audience and well-developed social media presence already. Just start with some sort of a Minimal Viable Product, and build from there, re-recording your own videos here and there based on the feedback. Playing at Udemy is a long shot.

And, if you can afford to spend extra $100 (just to build your own experience faster and stretch your thinking) – you can hire one or few professional video creators from Fiverr or Upwork for a test-video purpose in order to better understand what can be visually done from your own script / teaching material – so, later on, you can try to copy that style on your own. Or, just spend some time watching other Udemy creators who rely on faceless videos. Personally, my role models are 365 Careers and Asen (as faceless course creators) and Lawrence Miller (who relies on his own presence), learning from all of them some different course-creation elements.

That’s my observation. I would like to learn from others who rely on faceless videos as well – after all, throughout exchange process, we all can progress much faster.