InDesign Animation Export Options

[figurab@morainevalley.edu]

For the community college, we create a lot of 'digital billborrads' for various events, courses, departments, etc. Some are still images, some are videos, and I'm just now tapping into using InDesign to utilize the animation tool to create simple animations based on the print collateral for various pieces. But then I get to the export option and it appears there's nothing built in that we can actually use for direct output that will function on the screens. Is there anything new in InDesign 2020 to make the export more functional? Am I missing something? Or will this continue to be a 3rd party tool needed?

[Randy Hagan]

Before we can help, we'd need to know which import formats your digital billboards can accept. Without that information, we'd be shooting blind.

Randy

[figurab@morainevalley.edu]

Certainly - makes sense, sorry. So this is what I have from our Media desk:

For videos:

.mpg, .mpeg, .mov, .mp4, .avi, .dv, and .wmv

Recommended Quality Settings
H.264 MPEG-4 is best. A bitrate of 10Mbps – 15Mbps recommended for high-definition video.

Surprisingly, GIFs are not supported, so I usually take any that I am given and convert them into an MP4.

For images:

.AAI, .ART, .ARW, .AVI, .AVS, .BMP, .CALS, .CGM, .CIN, .CMYK, .CMYKA, .CR2, .CRW, .CUR, .CUT, .DCM, .DCR, .DCX, .DIB, .DJVU, .DNG, .DOT, .DPX, .EMF, .EPDF, .EPI, .EPS, .EPS2, .EPS3, .EPSF, .EPSI, .EPT, .EXR, .FAX, .FIG, .FITS, .FPX, .GPLT, .GRAY, .HDR, .HPGL, .HRZ, .HTML, .ICO, .INFO, .INLINE, .JBIG, .JNG, .JP2, .JPC, .JPEG, .NEF, .ORF, .OTB, .P7, .PALM, .PAM, .PBM, .PCD, .PCDS, .PCL, .PCX, .PDB, .PDF, .PEF, .PFA, .PFB, .PFM, .PGM, .PICON, .PICT, .PIX, .PNG, .PNG8, .PNG24, .PNG32, .PNM, .PPM, .PS, .PS2, .PS3, .PSB, .PSD, .PTIF, .PWP, .RAD, .RAF, .RGB, .RGBA, .RLA, .RLE, .SCT, .SFW, .SGI, .SHTML, .SID, MrSID, .SUN, .SVG, .TGA, .TIFF, .TIM, .TTF, .TXT, .UIL, .UYVY, .VICAR, .VIFF, .WBMP, .WEBP, .WMF, .WPG, .X, .XBM, .XCF, .XPM, .XWD, .JPG

Image Performance Notes

• Images designated to be ‘background images’ within CommandCenterHD must be set to 1366 pixels by 768 pixels or 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels. Images added to templates at an aspect ratio other than these supported resolutions will yield unsatisfactory results.

• Image files should not exceed 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels tall. We recommend uploading images at the size you wish for them to display on the screen. If the file is larger than 1920 on the long or short end, the file will be automatically resized by CCHD. Unless you’re running a video wall deployment which uses special canvas sizes.

[BobLevine]

Find something else to create this. InDesign is not a motion video tool.

[figurab@morainevalley.edu]

Bob - We generate a lot of print campagns for various things and for visual continuity and ease of production process, it'd be great to utilize these simple functions within the software we're already using instead of rebuilding elsewhere. I recognize it's not technically made for this kind of work, but I'm just trying to figure out if there's functionality here that I'm missing.

[BobLevine]

Do you need them to be self running? If so, you're going to be dead in the water. There's no easy way to advance pages automatically.

I'd really need to see examples of what you want to do to be able to even to guess at what would be involved.

I'm not trying to discourage you, just trying to be real.

[figurab@morainevalley.edu]

No worries, I appreciate the help. I was banging my head trying to figure out if I was just missing an export option.
I'm used to using Spark - just to lend some basic movement to lend visual interest without going nuts on animations... like this:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7zhgxphZ0Q/

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1z6_oYhst8/

Any suggestions are welcome. I have zero knowledge of any of the other animation/vid softwares.
thanks

[BobLevine]

You could, I suppose workaround this by using a screen recording software.

[BobLevine]

Randy's correct.

What's the end game? Are you looking to export to something works on its own or something you can pull into something else. On its own, you could use fixed layout epub but that works best on iOS and Mac OS. Other operating systems are a bit of a crapshoot.

If you need HTML, look into in5 for exporting the document.

[figurab@morainevalley.edu]

These are pushed out to big screens around campus. Not initially for web use.

[BobLevine]

Get in5 and use that to export HTML. That's the closest you'll get to something workable.

But for something that is going to self run, you're going to be in for a world of pain anyway. InDesign just isn't the right tool for this.

[figurab@morainevalley.edu]

Ok, good to know. Does any of the Adobe software for vid/animation function in such a way that I can take an IN file I've already created for print and open it within that software to create simple animations/movement without having to rebuild it within that other software?

I use Spark on my phone and this seems like the basic functionality I'm looking for. Would I need to rebuild in something like Spark?
thanks