My first Squigl

I have made my first Squigl, a whiteboard animatie (these videos with drawings). You probably know them from RSA animate. Whiteboard animations are quite popular, but if you want a professional one, you will probably need over 1000 euros. This took me 3 hours of time to develop. In this blog I will explain how you can make a Squigl yourself (in Dutch or other languages!).

Scribology I had bookmarked Squigl by Truscribe as whiteboard animation after I had seen the link on a LinkedIn group. Truscribe uses the scientific methodology of scribology.  The drawings help to retain attention and increase the retention rate of information. Personally I would like to stimulate people to think rather than memorize the main points of the video, but I do think that watching a drawing has a different effect on your brain than watching a so-called talking head. My personal experience is that when I watch talking heads I often start multi-tasking, even when the topic is interesting. Often I notice the video has ended and I realized I missed the second half.

Reinventing HRD I am preparing a session about reinventing HRD on the basis of part 4 of our book. I thought it would be a nice idea to introduce the 3 major changes in HRD by means of a whiteboard animation. In the session, more practical examples will be shared and discussed. In addition, I can easily reuse this video. Here is my Squigl, or animation. Feedback is welcome because it is a first attempt.



You create your account on Truscribe.com to create a Squigl. After that, it is all very easy. There is a short video explanation, then you simply click + to get started. I liked the way you could get started right away. It is basically a 3 step process.

1. Type or paste your text on the left hand of the webpage. 
2. On the right hand side your can record the text by voice, using the microphone of your laptop or ipad. 
3. Click Finish to prepare your video. Or in Squigl language: "this is where the magic happens!".

To produce the video Squigl analyzes the written text on the left hand and picks its own words to highlight in images. Unfortunalely Squigl doesn't speak Dutch so you will get this type of pictures when you have the word VAN. (meaning from in Dutch)

Squigl for the Dutch

Still, it is possible to make a Dutch video. A few tricks:

• Make sure you have a few words in English in the text. Then Squigl is more likely to pick up on these words. The written text is only to help Squigl and people will not see this text. I just think that you may also be able to charge the entire text in English and speak in Dutch.
• Change images when editing. The biggest job producing a Squigl animation is during the editing. After watching your video, you can write down which images you may want to delete or change. Suppose you want to see a professional instead of the bus, then you can change this image and search for the word professionals. You will see all the pictures that other users have made and can choose from these images.
• Or create your own pictures. When editing, you also have the option to click on 'draw your own gliph'. I quickly drew 2 pictures with my laptop's touchpad, this is not perfect. I would like to see if you can improve this if you use an ipad and pen or stylus.