My favorite app to create book promo videos!!

From book trailers to social media videos

I got some awesome news that Marshmallow & Jordan has been nominated for the 2025 Bluestem Award, Illinois’ Grades 3-5 Readers’ Choice Award, sponsored by the Association of Illinois School Library Educators (AISLE). I'm super excited and honored. With the nomination, AISLE creates a series of author videos with the nominees on their YouTube channel. So, I've been digging into my Marshmallow & Jordan archives and creating special book promo videos for this special occasion.

I really enjoy making videos, so I thought it'd be cool to share my favorite video production apps with anyone who loves making videos as much as I do!

Marshmallow & Jordan is a perfect book to show how I make videos because I've made a bunch of promo videos using different apps, editing, and animation techniques. I always try to find the quickest and easiest way to grab attention when making promo videos. Since these videos are for social media, I know people's attention spans are short, so keeping it short and sweet is the key!

⭐️ 1 - Adobe After Effects

Adobe After Effects is a powerful professional compositing and animation software. It's like a video or animated version of Photoshop, and it can handle a variety of features such as multiple layers, effects, animation presets, and dynamic 3D animation. Additionally, it seamlessly integrates live-action footage, 3D and 2D assets, photos, and illustrations. It also includes sound editing and mixing functions to streamline the entire process.

The book trailer for "Marshmallow & Jordan," which you can see in the video above, was created using After Effects and the Photoshop files from the book. After Effects is my favorite and go-to program when making something more intricate from scratch.

The downside of After Effects is that there is a slight learning curve for new users. While After Effects has neat puppet tools for creating cut-out style animation, it's not well-suited for traditional hand-drawn style animation within the program.

⭐️ 2 - Adobe Premiere Rush

I love using Adobe Premiere Rush for editing my social media videos. It's like the mobile version of Adobe Premiere Pro but can also be used on desktops. The interface is super easy to use, and it has all the tools I need to make my videos look professional. I especially love the collection of motion graphics, sounds, and the user-friendly editing tools for color, lighting, transitions, and sound. I use it for editing and putting together almost all of my drawing and painting videos.

The only downside is that it's a simplified version of Premiere Pro, so it's not the best for really complex or large video projects.

⭐️ 3 - Procreate

Wait, Procreate for video? You may ask, isn’t Procreate for drawing and painting? What's going on here?

I totally love using Procreate to create cute hand-drawn animations. Even though the animation feature is pretty basic and limited, that's what I love about it! It's so simple and reminds me of old-school animation with paper and pencil. Learning to animate in Procreate is a breeze as long as you know how to draw and animate.

The above video was made using Procreate for the animation and then put together in After Effects.

And who doesn't love the Procreate auto-recording feature that captures your creative process?

In the above video, I recorded my drawing process using Procreate's auto-recording feature. Then, I used Procreate to animate the character towards the end. The background of the sketchbook was added in After Effects, and I put everything together and added the end title in Premiere Rush.

⭐️ 4 - Stop Motion

Stop Motion is an awesome mobile app for making stop-motion animations. It's totally free and you can easily download it from the app store on your phone. It's super user-friendly and a breeze to learn. Even though it's a small app, it's packed with all the tools you need to create really cool stop-motion animations in all the major output formats.

In the video above, I used Stop Motion to create the animation and Premiere Rush to add some cool motion graphic elements and do the final editing.

That's a wrap for today. I hope you enjoy this post about creating videos!

Want more Marshmallow & Jordan stories? Click link to access the entire collection, including behind-the-scenes stories, drawing demos, downloadable goodies, and more!

Love making videos? Drop your favorite app in the comments below. I'm always on the lookout for cool new video apps to check out!