Additional animations
A few months ago we introduced the ability to animate overlays. Based on your feedback, we have added additional options you can choose from when animating your assets. The support article can be found HERE.
In addition to being able to fade in and out assets, you can also scale, move in and move out. More in-depth description below.
Scaling
Scale animation lets you scale your original asset up or down. When an asset is uploaded the default scaling of said asset is 100%. With scale animation type, you can make the asset bigger or smaller.
When you scale down your asset, the size can be reduced from the original size down to 0%, which would make the asset disappear.
When the asset is scaled up you can increase its size to 200%, doubling the size of the asset.
The start time will let you choose when you want the scaling process to start.
Duration will define the length of time it will take to complete the scaling process.
Example - Start time: 3 ; Duration: 1; Start size: 100%; End size: 50%.
With those settings at the beginning of the third second, your asset would scale itself from full size to half of the original size, the whole scaling process would take 1 second to complete.
Move assets in/out
Move animation lets you move into view, out of the view or within the ad. Move-in animation’s main functionality is to make an overlay asset move in off-screen from 1 of the four predefined directions. Inversely, the move-out animation moves the overlay away from your screen to 1 of the 4 predefined directions. It is important to note that with either of the options, it is possible to move the asset within the ad while keeping it on the screen the whole time.
When you use move-in, the asset will start moving into view from your chosen direction and will end up in the position that it was initially set to in the cropper tool.
When move-out is used, the asset will start moving from the cropper position and will move out of the view to your chosen direction.
The start time will let you choose when you want the moving process to start
Duration will define the length of time it will take to complete the moving process
Amplitude is a move animation-specific setting that determines the significance of the move. 100% amplitude will move the asset completely into or out of the view, while 50% only moves the asset halfway.
Example - Start time: 3 ; Duration: 1; Move in from: Left; Amplitude: 100%.
With those settings at the beginning of the third second, your asset would start moving in from the left. Due to the amplitude being 100%, it would be moved in completely. It would take 1 second to complete the moving process.
Easing - a new setting for every animation
The easing function specifies the rate of change of a parameter over time. To make the animations seem more natural, the easing will adjust the animation speed over time. Objects in real life don’t just start and stop instantly and rarely move at a constant speed. We have introduced 4 easing options:
No ease - Animation will move at a constant speed
Ease-in - Animations with the ease-in, timing function starts slow and speeds up towards the end.
Ease out - Animations with ease-out are the opposite, starting quickly and slowing at the end.
Ease in/out - Ease-in-out animations start slow, speed up in the middle, and end slow
Transparent video background
We have introduced a feature that enables you to make the background of your video asset transparent.
The background must be a uniform single color, and in most cases, our platform can automatically detect it. However, if the platform fails to do so, users can set the color code manually.
Transparent videos can be used across all layouts and uploaded into any asset slots to remove the background. However, if the intention is to layer the transparent video over another background, it's best to use it as an overlay which can be done in the Extras tab.
Some settings can be adjusted by the user if necessary, but in most cases, the default setting should work just fine.
Read more on the transparent background video from the support article HERE.
Preview site commenting and approval functionality
One of the frequently asked functionalities has been the possibility of having feedback loops for your creatives. Very often the person creating the ad is not the primary stakeholder and needs to validate the concept or the execution of the ad with someone else.
To tackle this we have created a way to leave comments and either approve or reject ads on the preview site. Whoever has the link to your ad’s preview can leave a comment and either reject or approve the ad. At this moment the comments and approvals are just visual indicators and do not have any other functionality behind them. We are looking to change that in the future, but to get it right we will gather users' feedback and iterate based on that.
At this point, the feedback functionality will not be open to everyone by default. Instead, if you feel like that is something that would be useful for your organization, please reach out to your account manager or contact us through the chat on the platform. We are more than happy to run you through the details and enable the feature for you.
Smaller changes
Status indicators
We have added status indicators to the ad editing view so that you are always aware of the status of the ad that you are currently working on.
Google/Microsoft sign-up and sign-in
You can now connect your NEXD account with your Microsoft or Google account to make the sign-in process seamless.
Add a card to export creatives
Each new client is entitled to our starting offer of a 14-day free trial and 5 million free impressions. However, to enforce the limit, we ask you to add your card details to the platform before you can export creatives. There will be no charge until the limit is exceeded or a plan to continue a subscription isn't chosen.