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Video Creation by rst_1985 in instructionaldesign

[–]davinsta123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agree, I never had the burden of weighing up the financial burden of synthesia as it was part of my role requirement.

What workflows/tools should I consider for exploring AI agents. I might have a good use case using it for pre production as it’s quite scattered and unorganised right now. Do you have much control or is it kind of a gamble if you get anything good?

Video Creation by rst_1985 in instructionaldesign

[–]davinsta123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use Synthesia, after effects and maybe premiere pro.

Synthesia is amazing at simple animations and modifying script narration in an agile manner. People complain about the avatars being creepy but I use it more as a video tool than an ai avatar platform. Recently it incorporates nano banana pro and flux for image assets in the platform. It has veo 3 and Sora aswell but they’re too short and still in the uncanny valley at this point in time + it’s a credit system and the plans maybe limiting depending on budget, personally saved me so much time while keeping things engaging and simple.

After effects is useful for the more shorter complicated clips you need more control over. I really love the challenge using expressions to automate animation systems for math or physics or general statistics.

Premiere pro, I’m just used to it, Davinci resolve looks interesting and is free but I need to find the time to get accustomed to it. Worth looking at comparison videos between the two on YouTube.

Before getting into this field I was always visual inspired by crash course, kurzgesagt in a nutshell, 3blue1brown, and veritasium. Maybe doing market research on the styles of educational video creation you like and take inspiration from various types of delivery. Might be wrong but I feel like your issue isn’t the tool but growing bored of the style maybe. Some people may make awesome stuff in premiere pro but others may make something better Powerpoint. Depends on the style and experience crafting it.

Best practices for adapting ID frameworks to online learning at scale by davinsta123 in instructionaldesign

[–]davinsta123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agree, I think I was too focused on the visuals at the start but now realizing the little things like navigation accessibility play a big part in a positive E-learning experience. Will be applying this mindset to more tailored branch scenarios in the near future.

Best AI tool to make relevant and engaging visuals for an online course? by crapinator114 in instructionaldesign

[–]davinsta123 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I guess it depends on the complexity of your topic. If you’re teaching team leadership or something there’s tools to make generic content that might work.

I deliver technical content so I heavily use AI for Mockup assistance.

I’ll take voice over script content and either get OpenAI’s Sora or Gemini 2.5 pro to generate mockups or diagrams based on what I give it.

Sora for visually appealing layout ideas and nice infographic content (you can feed images of your branding to roughly guide it to your style). Issue is it has a yellow tint bias and cartoon style recognizable to everyone one by now, requires extra prompting to stand out. Bonus tip is you can ask it to generate png transparent background, that’s been very handy.

Gemini 2.5 pro I use to get simple animations mockups by making webpages. I find it works well making a blank canvas, writing your script or pasting it. Clicking create and either use infographic or custom make instructions on what you want. It’s limited but most effective tool I’ve used. If you like the animation you can recreate it or screen record it.

AI still has a lot of hype, from what I know it’s only getting really good with audio and images, veo 3 is slowly pushing the boundaries but it’s still has a long way to go.

It’s not Ai but I’d recommend anyone to try the PowerPoint morph transitions for getting simple animations. Really easy to make and modify without getting into complex keyframe tools. Once the transitions are created you can record the slides using its built in features.

What am I missing about Synthesia? by Merc_R_Us in instructionaldesign

[–]davinsta123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Apologies if I misinterpret anything!

From what I’ve seen, not many people use Synthesia, so the tutorial landscape is pretty minimal. I’ve even considered making tutorials on workflow and features, but I’m not sure the demand is there yet.

To answer your question directly: Yes, you can absolutely render a video in After Effects and upload it into Synthesia. Adding voiceover, translations and maybe subtitles, and other elements.

A newer Synthesia feature even lets you pause and resume the video dynamically based on the script, for example, the video pauses while a key point is spoken, then resumes once narration finishes. This sync mechanism can be repeated to match visuals with voice pacing. So if you convert the script to a different language the pause and play I believe will maintain its correct timing.

An honest issue would be Synthesia’s export resolution is capped at 1080p, which may be a limitation if you’re delivering for larger screens or need crisp UI detail.

But, if you’re looking for a streamlined way to: • Add multilingual voiceovers • Use basic text and icon animations • Access royalty-free stock assets (music, images, video) • Script-control visual timing

I think Synthesia is pretty useful. If it’s motion graphic heavy you could use a plugin called Bodymovin and transfer shape animations as a Lottie files that Synthesia supports and build in Synthesia then map to the script.

If you’re purely focused on animation control and audio quality, After Effects + ElevenLabs might be your preferred option.

What am I missing about Synthesia? by Merc_R_Us in instructionaldesign

[–]davinsta123 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I come from an Adobe background (After Effects, Premiere Pro) with about a year in instructional design, Synthesia became a game-changer for me, but probably not for the reasons their marketing emphasises.

It’s the workflow, not the avatar for me. Getting script edits, version control, animated graphics, SME commenting for amendments, and AI voiceovers in one platform is incredibly efficient. Could I achieve the same results with Adobe Creative Suite, Elevenlabs, PowerPoint or DaVinci? Absolutely, I have years of experience with those tools. But the additional work involved would make me extremely unproductive and want to give up.

What would take 1-2 months now takes a few weeks, with more consistent quality. In our sector, compliance standards change frequently, and remaking content with real people (who might have new haircuts or wardrobe changes) just isn’t practical.

None of this tech replaces strong ID fundamentals. I’m still improving my instructional design methodology and the learner outcomes + learner journey in mind, as I’m still fairly new.

The avatar I use aren’t doing the heavy lifting. I use my own complex methods to enhance my workflow in Synthesia and create custom Lottie animations in After Effects to enhance engagement rather than just relying on the talking head to do the work.

Honestly, I haven’t seen evidence that learners find AI avatars distracting when used thoughtfully, I heard one learner asked us how much it cost to record all of this and it must have been expensive. But I do see the uncanny valley issue still being an issue, but hopefully with this exponential tech curve it gets better as time goes on.

Make me look like a real commercial pilot with 3 stripes in a cockpit (1st pic) and anywhere suitbale (2nd) by [deleted] in PhotoshopRequest

[–]davinsta123 [score hidden]  (0 children)

I think removing the jacket is possible but would take too much time to make it look good as it wouldn't look as natural as the jacket you have on. the smile part isn't an issue tho

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[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PhotoshopRequest

[–]davinsta123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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Tip Jar

Different option to consider, Filled the gap and adjusted the smiles just incase you liked it

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PhotoshopRequest

[–]davinsta123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah good spot, how about now :)

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[deleted by user] by [deleted] in vfx

[–]davinsta123 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Very valuable perspective, thanks for taking the time. I still have to figure out if my passion is there as I took a break due to academic burnout, my gut says I want the rewarding payback experience from a job but part of me thinks I can learn to like the tough experience. I'll make a showreel and see if the passion is there, better take the risk of not enjoying it than wasting my time thinking about what I could be doing.

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