The Top 3 Most Interesting Custom Video Automation Projects
Some selects from the land of video automation.
3 of my favorites from over the years.
Wes Kennison
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By Wes Kennison
3 min read
Video automation is a new and promising category in my world of solving business problems using video content, and it’s one I'm personally quite committed to. This article is going to unlock some of the mystery around video automation by examining 3 really killer video automation projects.
Top List
#3 Lee Martin - Rewinding Tour History with the Foo Fighters
Fellow Louisianian and code artist Lee Martin has a number of interesting projects that take the whole “marriage of video and code” thing to the next level. On a data vis project made for the Foo Fighters, Lee wanted to be able to look back at setlists from the many FF concerts over the years. His coded solution for this ingested a data input from Setlist.fm, and piped that info into a delightfully designed and animated After Effects project using Templater by dataclay. Lee was able to easily generate over 1500 unique videos designed for Insta.
#2 Algo.tv - NextAtlas
I’m a bit of a sucker for some slick data vis, and Algo is a company that’s focused on leveraging data into video content at scale in a programmatic way. Their project with NextAtlas features an API pull as the primary driver of the data source for the videos, then offers a ton of customization options in the form of 6 modular scenes that allow users to create truly unique videos at scale. Their platform is bit more bespoke and sophisticated than that of Sunday Sky, with some beautiful UI/UX and a clever way to create permutations before hitting the “Create Video” button. Maximum leverage! This is truly a custom build in their interface specifically for this client, which is where I believe the automated video industry is best positioned to facilitate an intersection between uniquely useful creative and meeting the content needs of audiences of all stripes.
#1 Cloneless Media - March Madness
Ah Cloneless. I keep waiting for them to not be in Beta mode anymore and unleash their platform upon the world but it hasn’t happened yet. Their platform is highly sophisticated and designed primarily for technical users. Cloneless is one of the original agencies doing bespoke video automation and are an inspiration to all of us in the space. Their project for March Madness several years back was way ahead of it’s time and frankly one of the best examples of not only rendering a high volume of video content, using LIVE data, with a huge degree of variability in the artwork, but also incorporating an AI component to do PREDICTIVE video, all powered by Google Cloud’s tech, the client on the project. It’s a great example of a custom application of rendering technology.
I head a company named version47 where we're pioneering the category of custom video automation. If you've got thoughts or questions, reach out using the form below, I'd love to chop it up in person or on zoom.
Top List
- March Madness - Cloneless Media
- NextAtlas - Algo.tv
- Rewinding History with the Foo Fighters - Lee Martin
#3 Lee Martin - Rewinding Tour History with the Foo Fighters
Fellow Louisianian and code artist Lee Martin has a number of interesting projects that take the whole “marriage of video and code” thing to the next level. On a data vis project made for the Foo Fighters, Lee wanted to be able to look back at setlists from the many FF concerts over the years. His coded solution for this ingested a data input from Setlist.fm, and piped that info into a delightfully designed and animated After Effects project using Templater by dataclay. Lee was able to easily generate over 1500 unique videos designed for Insta.
#2 Algo.tv - NextAtlas
I’m a bit of a sucker for some slick data vis, and Algo is a company that’s focused on leveraging data into video content at scale in a programmatic way. Their project with NextAtlas features an API pull as the primary driver of the data source for the videos, then offers a ton of customization options in the form of 6 modular scenes that allow users to create truly unique videos at scale. Their platform is bit more bespoke and sophisticated than that of Sunday Sky, with some beautiful UI/UX and a clever way to create permutations before hitting the “Create Video” button. Maximum leverage! This is truly a custom build in their interface specifically for this client, which is where I believe the automated video industry is best positioned to facilitate an intersection between uniquely useful creative and meeting the content needs of audiences of all stripes.
#1 Cloneless Media - March Madness
Ah Cloneless. I keep waiting for them to not be in Beta mode anymore and unleash their platform upon the world but it hasn’t happened yet. Their platform is highly sophisticated and designed primarily for technical users. Cloneless is one of the original agencies doing bespoke video automation and are an inspiration to all of us in the space. Their project for March Madness several years back was way ahead of it’s time and frankly one of the best examples of not only rendering a high volume of video content, using LIVE data, with a huge degree of variability in the artwork, but also incorporating an AI component to do PREDICTIVE video, all powered by Google Cloud’s tech, the client on the project. It’s a great example of a custom application of rendering technology.
I head a company named version47 where we're pioneering the category of custom video automation. If you've got thoughts or questions, reach out using the form below, I'd love to chop it up in person or on zoom.