Shows an image example and explains why having too many scenes or too many layers in a Doodly video production is bad and will cause layer lumping and scene jumping.

Scene Length

This documentation is intended to provide answers to questions about scene length and how to determine when a line has been crossed from being engaging to losing a viewers attention.

When is a scene too long?

This highly depends on whether you have a voiceover. Doodly is one huge scene is you stop and think about the mechanics behind the software. We have simplistic scene transfers between scenes but it is one canvas after another.

To really answer this question we need to answer some questions.

  • What is the age range and attention span of our target market?
  • Does our doodle have a voiceover, is it just music or even no audio?
  • What are we saying in the voiceover?
    Are there pauses?
    Do we switch to a new subject?
  • How many assets do we have on the scene?
    Is it cluttered?
    Are assets on top of one another?

Things to consider

Layer maintenance
The more layers that are added the more difficult the scene becomes to maintain, organize and control. We can only see a specific amount of layers within the program. Beyond that the layers become increasingly difficult to work with, especially with the tiny scrollbars Doodly provides.

Layer Jumping
This is where you click on a layer in the wrong spot and it jumps to the top layer in the layers section. It is quite an inconvenience and the more assets on the canvas, the more layers in the layers section to search through or try and find the layer that jumped taking up more time.

Each asset adds more time onto the render time of that scene. These times vary whether it is a text, image or a Doodly provided SVG asset.

With Voiceover
Our scene has to match the voiceover but there should be breaks in that voiceover to allow for a scene transfer. Plan your voiceover wisely. Too long of a scene and your viewers attention can fade losing you a potential sale, like subscribe or other.

Without a voiceover
Make the scenes quick. Keep the viewers attention. A long scene is a really fast way to lose the viewers attention.

Exceptions
An image asset being revealed with properly designed reveal paths. The revealing itself has the potential to keep the viewers attention.
Providing a connecting effect using Key framing animation in doodly (Read Advanced Skill Level Doodly Tutorial #7)

Note: I try to keep each scene around 16 second maximum or less.