How to make an infographic (Video)

Posted on 23. Mar, 2009 by Jess in Uncategorized, wallstats

Ok so the title is a bit misleading. This is not really a video tutorial on how to make sweet visualizations. However this video is a fast-motion recap the entire process I go through when making an infographic. The full sized image is below.

You should view it in full screen,

Ok what was that?

While working on a graphic for Mint.com, I took a screenshot of my Photohop window every 10 seconds. Then 2,482 frames later I had a 1 gigabyte flip book. My good friend Duston, who is a whiz with editing, put them all together with some B-roll I shot and some music by Four Tet (which you can get here). The whole process is something I call, Flowcapping, and I encourage all designers to give it a shot, it’s fun!

I generally don’t create infographics with too much planning so there are several points where I just try things out then scrap it. If you have any questions, just let me know in the comments.

Here is the final image. It was originally posted on mint.com and has some 50+ comments, if you want to join the hatefest.

Keep an eye out, I’ll be flowcapping almost everything I do and posted the vids here.

Tags: flowcapping, infographic, jobs, tax dollars, video

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11 Comments

Rob Beals, March 23, 2009:

So it looks like you exclusively use Photoshop? You use the pen tool for outlining the men jumping? Great job as usual Jess. You’re skills inspire me.
Tim, March 24, 2009:

hey Jess. I really like that. People don’t understand what I do for work, so something this might be a good way to show them. It all seems a bit frantic though! Maybe it’s all the dr pepper?

How did you take the screen shots? Manually? If you have an automated way of doing it I’d be interested to know the details.

Did you leave the web cam running as well, or just take a few scenes to put in? The acting looks a bit hammy

Cheers,
Tim
Jess, March 24, 2009:

@Rob,

Yeah, the pen tool is the only way to get nice curves in photoshop. No point in bringing the whole thing into illustrator just to rock a few paths.
Jess, March 24, 2009:

@Tim,

I think it’s frantic because it is 5 hours of work boiled down to 2 minutes. I actually don’t work as fast as the video depicts
I have tried a dozen screen grabbing apps but the best by far is SnagIt. I just set it up to grab a shot of a specified window every 10 seconds and it collects as pngs in a folder, about 2,500 for this project, though I had to cut a bunch out when I neglected to turn off SnagIt while I went to run errands or something, and it was still taking screens.

No webcam, just some b-roll with my digi.

Thanks!
Robert Kosara, March 24, 2009:

This is very interesting, thanks for posting!

One question I have is something I’ve never understood about graphic designers: why do you all use Photoshop? Wouldn’t it be much easier to use a vector-oriented tool like Illustrator, where you don’t have to decide on resolution so early and have a lot more control over the objects?
Jess, March 24, 2009:

@Robert

My decision to use photoshop is based purely on my ignorance of how to effectively use that program. I grew up using PS and never had any art or design training so it is what I feel comfortable with. I think most graphic designers who have degrees in such should be adept at using Illustrator for projects like these.

Fortunately, 95% of my projects have pre-defined resolution requirements. Learning Illusrator is something I’ve been ‘getting around to doing’ for years. Haven’t needed to yet though.
Matt Brett, March 26, 2009:

Awesome video, and great idea to show everyone how you design your posters. I figured the jumping banker was stock art when I first viewed this one. Cool to see you tracing and reproducing it from an actual photo.
Praveer, April 16, 2009:

Thanks - this gave me a whole new way to look at the mountains of information we deal with in the medical world!
michael boll, June 2, 2009:

Thanks so much for doing this tutorial of sorts. I am using your work to inspire my middle school students to come up with infographics of their own.
Darwin Grenwich, July 3, 2009:

Very cool. The skill and time it takes to bring a graphic like this to life are evident in your video. This should be shown to clients and employers who might occasionally ask, “How come it took all day?”
David E Bock, October 14, 2009:

WOW! I totally dig visual info and your vid totally shows how you do it! It’s cool to see talent at work! Makes one appreciate the end result so much more! Thanks for posting.