The Power of Customizable Overlays for your Photo Booth Business

Understanding Animated and Static Overlays

What are Static Overlays?

Static overlays are non-animated graphical elements that can be placed on top of photos, GIFs, bursts or videos to enhance their visual appeal. These overlays can include custom frames, borders, logos, or decorative elements that complement the captured moments.

What are Animated Overlays?

An animated overlay is similar, but it includes motion. For instance, an animated overlay might include falling snow for a winter event, twinkling stars for a night-themed event, or confetti that appears to fall. Animated overlays can be especially appealing for GIFs, bursts (boomerangs) or videos taken at the photo booth, as the motion of the overlay can complement the movement in the photo/video itself. These overlays add an extra touch of excitement and interactivity, making your photos and videos truly stand out.

The Benefits of Animated and Static Overlays for Your Photo Booth Business

For photo booth owners, customizable overlays offer several significant benefits:

1.  Enhanced Personalization: Offering custom overlays allows your clients to add a unique and personalized touch to their event photos, making the booth experience more engaging and memorable for attendees.
2. Competitive Advantage: Providing customizable overlays, especially animated ones, can set your photo booth business apart from competitors. This can be a key selling point, especially for corporate clients or high-end events looking for unique, attention-grabbing features.
3. Brand Awareness: For corporate events, custom overlays featuring a company's logo or branding can boost brand visibility. This can be an attractive selling point for corporate clients, helping them to increase brand awareness among event attendees.
4. Increased Customer Satisfaction: By offering customizable features that enhance the photo booth experience, you can increase customer satisfaction. Satisfied customers are more likely to refer your services to others and return for future events.
5. Upselling Opportunities: Overlays can be offered as a premium add-on service, providing an additional revenue stream. Clients are often willing to pay more for personalized features that align with their event's theme or branding.
6. Marketing Opportunities: Photos shared on social media with your unique overlays can act as a form of advertisement for your photo booth services. This can increase your business's visibility and potentially attract new clients.

Why Choose Snappic for Your Overlay Needs

Snappic is designed to be a user-friendly solution for photo booth owners, keeping your needs at the core. Here's why Snappic is your go-to software for creating memorable experiences with overlays:

Ease of Use: Snappic offers an intuitive interface that enables you easily upload your own animated or static overlays. It eliminates the technological complexities typically associated with such processes.

In-built Template Builder: If you're starting from scratch, you can utilize Snappic’s basic template builder to create stunning static overlays. It gives you the creative freedom to design overlays that truly represent your brand and your clients' visions.

Event Templates: Snappic's Event Templates allow you to create an event from the click of a button. These events are themed (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Weddings and more!), and come with free static and animated overlay templates that you can use at your event.

Stable and Reliable Platform: Snappic is the industry's premium photo booth software. We pride ourselves on creating the best photo booth app for our users, offering an all-in-one solution for all your photo booth needs.

24/7 Support: If you need help at any time of day, Snappic's got your back! We have a live support team who will assist you within minutes.

So now that you've chosen the right software, let's look at what you need to create your animated and static overlays.

Creating Animated Overlays

Animated overlays do require some technical skill. You will need to add movement to your designed elements using a program such as After Effects or Photoshop. You can also use a free programme such as Canva. There are two types of animated overlays you can upload to your templates in Snappic: GIF/Burst Animated Overlays, and Video Animated Overlays. Both require different methods of animation and exporting.

GIF/Burst Animated Overlays

We recommend creating an animation that is up to 16 frames long, as Snappic's bursts can go up to 16 captured frames. This will keep the animation in line with the timing of your burst. The same goes for a GIF, which can have up to 4 captured frames.

Once you have created your animated overlay, you would need to export the amount of frames you will need (in this case, we will use a 16 frame burst as an example). These 16 frames will need to be exported as individual PNG files, and they must have a transparent background so that your captured images will be displayed behind the overlay.

You can then choose "Animated Template" when choosing your template in the event set up, and upload the 16 individual PNGs in the correct order.

Video Animated Overlays

Videos are not limited to only 16 frames, so your animation can be longer and will look a lot smoother. You can create animated overlays for videos using programs such as After Effects or Canva, and find great stock animations on sites such as Motion Array or Envato Elements.

Here are the requirements for uploading an animated overlay in the VideoFX Builder in Snappic:

If you are using a program such as Canva to create your animated templates, check out this handy tutorial on how to upload the video with transparency.

If you need a tool to convert your .mov file to an mp4 with transparency, you can download Snappic's VideoFX Media tool under the Resources tab on your dashboard.

Creating Static Overlays

Designing static overlays is relatively more straightforward and more accessible to those without extensive animation skills. Graphic design software like Adobe Photoshop or Canva can be used to create static overlays. You can start by designing frames, borders, or decorative elements that align with your brand or event themes. Save these designs with a transparent background, and adjust the overlay's size, position, and opacity to achieve the desired visual effect.

Alternative Sources of Animated and Static Overlays

If you're not a graphic designer or motion graphics artist, you might find creating your own customizable overlays a bit daunting. But don't stress! There are highly skilled people who are always willing to provide their services.

Custom Design Services

Investing in professional services can greatly enhance the outcome of any project. When it comes to the photo booth industry, partnering with a graphic design studio specializing in this field can ensure creative and polished results. At Snappic, we have collaborated with top-notch design agencies that excel in producing magical experiences for your booth.

Photo Booth Graphics provides a variety of design options for Snappic. These include stock templates, animated overlays, buttons, and screens. They also offer custom graphic design services, digital props, branding activation assets, marketing materials, and general graphics to meet your needs.

BoothMotion.com is the photo booth industry's leading self-serve customised Start Screen creator for Snappic. Hundreds of templates to choose from and edit online in seconds with zero design experience. Plus, with animated video overlays and static templates to boot, BoothMotion is the Snappic partner you don't want to miss out on!

Photo Booth Talk creates clean and customizable photo booth templates that are designed to make you and your photos stand out. Their templates come in a variety of layouts dimensions, including Photo Strips, 4x6, Square and Instagram Story sized layouts. They offer templates for individual sale, and also have a VIP Template Club that includes unlimited downloads for an annual fee.

Community Forums and Free Resources

One effective way to improve your skills as a photo booth professional is by joining online communities and forums that cater to this industry. These platforms provide an excellent opportunity for exchanging ideas and resources with like-minded individuals.

Connecting with fellow professional allows you ton learn from tutorials, access free static and animated overlays, and participate in discussions to expand your knowledge and network. Ultimately, this can help you stay up-to-date with industry trends, enhance your skills, and build a strong reputation within the photo booth community.

A great starting point is Snappic's Facebook User Group.

Online Marketplaces and Design Communities

There are many online marketplaces and design communities where you can find diverse pre-designed animated and static overlays. Etsy, Creative Market, and GraphicRiver are just a few examples of websites that offer a vast array of options created by skilled designers. By browsing through their collections, you can select overlays that match your business and aesthetic preferences, and seamlessly incorporate them into your photo booth services.

Static and animated overlays are more than just added features—they are powerful tools that can transform your photo booth business. With Snappic, you're not just adopting a new feature, you're choosing a comprehensive, efficient, and user-friendly solution for your business. So why wait? Start creating captivating, customized photo experiences with Snappic today.

Why not test Snappic our for yourself? Sign up today and get a free trial! Simply visit www.snappic.com and chat to one of our friendly support team members.