Five free tools for creating interactive videos

Interactive video widens the narrative possibilities of the digital audiovisual format. Its development is progressive and currently there is a wide range of professional technological solutions for creating them. Nevertheless, there are also free options for occasional or individual users.

When YouTube included its annotations service it caught the imagination of many creators. The simple fact of including linked buttons in videos allows you to create non-linear stories.It’s a widely-used free option. On the official page you can see many examples.

In a short time the range of possibilities on offer has extended. Let’s look at a selection of five tools which include a free option.

Like a Rolling Stone

Do you remember the music video of Bob Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone? Viewers can go zapping the channels as if they were watching television and on all the channels, whatever the programme was, the characters are singing the same lyrics. It was made with the Treehouse platform from Interlude.

The company’s pricing plan shows two rates for professional projects and a free option for personal use. One of the advantages of Treehouse is its interface. The Treehouse visual editor shows the connections between the videos in a tree diagram. Links between the different pieces, called nodes, are placed over it and clicking on them defines the buttons.

Drawing over the image

Apart from linking fragments of video within the video itself, other interactive options are available, such as creating questionnaires, or drawing over the images. Both characteristics form part of the edition from HapYak.

It offers two monthly payment modes, for professionals and companies, and one free version. In this last version the videos created in HapYak, up to 20, have to be public.

Video + survey

If all you want to do is add surveys to a video, Metta is a very simple option. The free version offers 10MB of space and one hundred responses per questionnaire. The two paid versions, which are very economical, have no limit on the number of responses and increase the storage capacity.

With tags and links

The choice between one tool and another is often decided by the graphic option, the style element. For example, The Mad Video includes a series of predefined interactive buttons which show the place, person, music, product, people, pet or link. New ones can also be created. The button opens a floating pane with extra information.

It can be applied to many fields, including the mass media. RTVE incorporated it in its broadcasting of the series Isabel with notable success. Another example adapted to the news is that of the BBC (included at the end of service page).

The model of The Mad Video includes a free option and another with a reduced monthly rate. In this last option you can personalise the log and get statistics about its use.

Wirewax, also with a freemium version, is based on the same concept of buttons and tags. These are created as active zones on the screen.

The BBC has also used Wirewax in a three-minute documentary to celebrate the third anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The links in the video augment the information in floating panes.

The Interactive video is gaining ground in all fields and therefore more technological solutions to suit all pockets are appearing. The ones mentioned above are just a small sample.

Fuente: http://blogs.lavanguardia.com/thefourthbit/five-free-tools-for-creating-interactive-videos-10609