It’s not a secret that attention spans are measured in seconds. That’s why it is very important to harness the power of video and visual storytelling.
The coming of apps such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts has totally removed the way consumers connect with brands and has created a strong desire for exciting which high-calibre cinematic content.
To separate themselves, marketers are doing more than telling a story; they are making a visual engagement that is expressive and visually.
In the past, if the marketer wanted to create Hollywood-like effects, they needed the bandwidth of a production studio, both in storytelling depth and in capital assets.
Hollywood had the budgets and expertise to create sophisticated visuals, and anything short of Hollywood was rarely seen or executed.
But as per Pristine Market Research, as the film industries advance, so does the VFX software market development and advancement.
With the rapid pacing we see today, a new era of visual effects software has emerged where tools are more accessible, cheaper, and more intuitive.
These emerging tools are democratising ultra-high-quality visuals so the world of digital marketers can extend their creatives without all the budget and studio requirements.
With these solutions, marketers can now create their cinematic magic, levelling the playing field and putting the power of professional-grade visual effects directly into their hands.
Here are the top five VFX software tools that let you create Hollywood-level visuals.
5 VFX Software Tools Every Digital Marketer Should Know
1. Adobe After Effects
Tools like Adobe After Effects provide the motion graphics and visual effects and which are widely used by professionals in the VFX and editing fields.
Its main skills for marketers include robust compositing, motion, and tracking, as well as rotoscoping, which allows for the whole integration of visual elements into live-action footage.
Through its thoughtful integration into the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, it works fluidly with tools such as Premiere Pro and Photoshop.
Recent software’s vast library of third-party plugins makes it likely to produce everything from stunning 3D titles and involved particle systems to dynamic animated infographics.
After Effects is extremely influential, no doubt, but it is not the most user-friendly program to learn, and it has a high learning curve for learners.
This effect uses a node-based system and a timeline, which can make it appear daunting to learn and invest time in.
Such an effect is also a part of the Creative Cloud Pro subscription model, which offers numerous selection tiers and can be expensive.
The value that After Effects provides, however, is unrivalled for marketers who want or need to create high-end and polished content.
After Effects has endless use cases, including: making sick product launch videos, making individual brand intros and outros, producing social media ads using animated text, and turning out sleek animated explainers that outstrip the competition.
2. Blender
It’s a free and open-source 3D creation suite that covers the full workflow, including modelling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing, and motion tracking.
Although it’s widely used by indie filmmakers and hobbyists, what Blender can produce in terms of high-quality professional sceneries is completely viable for marketers who are truly willing to put in the work.
Its abilities include making superb 3D product visualisations and animated logos as well as character animations, which can be combined into videos or used for virtual and augmented reality campaigns.
Its compositing landscapes are also outstanding for combining 3D essentials with practical material.
Its learning curve is quite steep, but the extensive variety of features it offers is hard to match, especially since it’s completely free.
The blender community gives wide tutorials and resources, which make it accessible to those who are willing to put in the time. Due to its being free and open-source, it gives supreme convenience.
Marketers can influence Blender to create realistic 3D product renders for e-commerce, shape immersive animated scenes for brand storytelling, and even design interactive AR filters for social media.
Its value for producing custom and high-impact 3D content without a huge economic investment is immense.
3. HitFilm
HitFilm is a complete video editing and VFX package that’s popular among social media creators and up-and-coming filmmakers.
It’s an association, a user-friendly video editor with an influential compositing and filmic effects toolkit.
Such a tool’s main abilities for marketers comprise professional-grade colour grading and green-screen keying, as well as 3D compositing and a large library of effects.
HitFilm has its own workflow, which permits users to effortlessly switch between editing and adding complex visual effects without switching applications.
The learning curve for HitFilm is much gentler than After Effects or Blender, creation it an outstanding choice for marketers who are beginners to VFX.
It gives a free tier (HitFilm Express) that comprises a surprising number of specialised features, with supplementary paid add-ons accessible for a one-time purchase.
Such a “freemium” model provides excessive flexibility. Marketers can use HitFilm to rapidly produce dynamic YouTube intros, add sci-fi effects to a campaign video, and produce short-form content with fun visual flourishes for TikTok and Reels.
4. Runway ML
Runway ML is a new generation, AI-powered creative tool that is changing the way marketers can create videos and requires very little practical skills.
It is a browser-based platform that leverages machine learning to do complex things with a single click.
Some of the more outstanding features include a magical background removal instantly, text-to-image generation, text-to-video generation, and “in-painting” tools for removing or adding objects from/to a video.
It is designated as a generative AI platform, allowing marketers to create entirely new visual material from simple text prompts, which could easily save them a lot of production hours.
Runway ML’s biggest selling point is its simplicity and usability; an intuitive, browser-based interface, no installation or training required.
The pricing plan is credit-based, with different plans that include limited free and paid versions that will allow more credits and more generations.
Marketers and small businesses can leverage this platform as the possibilities are endless.
Application examples include generating waterfall or other unique B-roll footage for a campaign, quickly removing backgrounds from product shots for a clean look, or generating surreal dream-like visuals for an advertisement, all with just a couple of words.
5. DaVinci Resolve (Fusion)
DaVinci Resolve is a one-stop shop for video editing and is favoured by many expert colourists and filmmakers because of its cohesive Fusion page that offers a progressive, node-based visual effects and motion graphics facility.
It provides marketers with high-end colour grading, advanced compositing, and 3D text and title animation, as well as powerful motion tracking capabilities.
Fusion’s node-based workflow lets marketers have full control over every part, which allows them to design a custom and movie-like visual experience.
Despite the steep learning curve of the Fusion page in Resolve, the overall software is surprisingly simple for basic video editing.
It is extremely rare to find a fully functional, professional-grade free version of software, which is essentially what DaVinci Resolve is.
For most marketers, the free version is more than sufficient. The Studio version has some advanced features and is a one-off purchase, but anything to do with pricing makes DaVinci Resolve a great option for marketers looking to ramp up their video production, as it is so affordable.
For instance, marketers can improve their brand films with cinematic colour grades and create super-realistic product visual compositions, or build complicated title sequences for an epic ad campaign using Resolve.
How Digital Marketers Can Maximise ROI From VFX Tools
In order to fully realise the return on investment with value for money as far as VFX tools are concerned, digital marketers need to be efficient and thoughtful rather than just a ‘wow-factor’.
A good tactic in such an innovative area of marketing is to use templates and pre-designs to save an immense amount of time and money on production, while still being able to look professional.
Given attention spans are short, marketers should strategise to create short, impactful visuals for the social media platforms, such as Instagram Reels and TikTok, where a much shorter effect put together dynamically can provide a large engagement.
The best marketers don’t just create VFX-heavy content. They redistribute that content across many platforms.
For example, a single cinematic invention unveiling video can be broken down into dozens of shorter clips for social media and animated GIFs for e-blasts, as well as stills with effects for website banner ads.
To maximise the workflow of your teams, ownership of cloud-based workflows keeps people in alignment when collaborating and providing feedback.
And always remember to assess the balance in effects on the brand message. A visual effects element can enhance and support your story, and not out loud your story.
Future of VFX in Marketing: AI, AR & Immersive Experiences
The upcoming use of visual effects in marketing is heading towards a more immersive and personalised as well as interactive landscape.
AI-based VFX and real-time interpreting are quickly democratising the making development, which allows marketers to make realistic visuals and complex animations with unprecedented speed and ease.
This will allow for new content to be produced by smaller teams, and on budgets that previously required a studio, while taking less time to produce.
In 3 to 5 years, marketers will be incorporating augmented, virtual, and 3D realist effects into campaigns as a hyper-immersive, experiential tool.
Rather than just getting to watch a video, the consumer would be able to “step into” a virtual showroom and/or “try on” a product through an augmented reality filter.
We will also see the rise of interactive content such as “shoppable videos” where the effects integrate a point in the video that allows a user to click on a product in a dynamic scene and subsequently gain more information, watch another related video, or, in some cases, purchase the shown product.
The importance for digital marketers is a pivot from passive storytelling to active and engaging experiences that foster a robust link between a brand and its audience.
Achievement will depend on the capability to leverage these available technologies to generate personalised and two-way conversations with consumers.
Conclusion
The transition from specialised, Hollywood-centred craft to popular access for marketers is a major turning point in digital communication.
With the VFX software market growing rapidly, driven mainly by the need for eye-catching content online, digital marketers are now equipped to create cinematic experiences without the traditional costs previously associated with making those experiences.
The tools have transformed from one professional-level, with Adobe After Effects and DaVinci Resolve, to new levels of accessibility – with Runway ML and affordable alternatives such as Blender and HitFilm that have democratized creativity.
Via leveraging such tools, the marketers can continue to improve their brand storytelling and engage audiences in new ways, as well as preserve their advantage in the visual-first digital world.
