Doodly is a whiteboard animation software that lets you create unlimited videos both for personal and commercial use. In this doodly review let’s have a look at the pros and cons of this software and find out whether Doodly is worth the money or not.
BTW I already have a license for Doodly software and use it regularly for creating educational and marketing videos. I bought it during the launch of the first version of doodly around 3 or 4 years back.
How Exactly Does Doodly Work?
As mentioned above, doodly allows you to create whiteboard animation style videos. If you don’t know what a whiteboard animation video is, please watch the video below. I have created a short video using the doodly software for familiarizing you to the whiteboard animation software.
Doodly is a downloadable software that can be installed on PC and MAC. You don’t have to purchase two separate licenses for this. A single license gives you permission to use this software across multiple devices.
Although it is downloadable software, you can’t use it without an internet connection. Every time you log in, you need to enter your email address and password into the login screen of doodly to access the software. This means you can’t use it offline.
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How to Create Whiteboard Animation Videos with Doodly?
Creating an animation video with doodly is not very complicated. Once you purchase the software, you will get an email almost instantly from the product creators, which includes the doodly download link and your login details.
Once you download and install the software on your device, launch it and input your login details to enter inside.
Now, click on the create new video tab.
Type of Boards
You have the option to create videos in 3 major styles. Whiteboard animation videos, chalkboard animation videos, and glass board animation videos. In the chalkboard option, you can choose either black or green chalkboards.
There is also a fourth option that allows you to create videos on a board that has the color of your choice. You can choose any color you want from the color palette and use it for creating videos.
Once you have chosen the board style, enter the title of your video and click on create.
Once you enter, the dashboard inside will look like this.
You have got the main area to put all the elements together for the video, five types of audio and graphic assets to choose from, and a timeline to arrange the videos and match them with the audio or the voice over.
You can also click on the settings gear near the timeline and choose the type of hand you want for your videos.
Type of Hands Available for Animation in Doodly
There are many types of hands available for you to choose from. There are human hands and cartoon hands. Among human hands, there are male and female hands. You can also choose the hands according to the skin color of your choice.
You can also go with the option of no hands, where the final animated video will not have any handwriting effect.
Now to start creating a video just choose an asset from the tab on the left side. By just clicking on the asset it will be added to the main whiteboard area at the center. You can click and drag the asset to move it to your desired area on the board. Similarly, you can add multiple assets to the board.
Now when you preview the scene all the assets you added will be drawn with your chosen hand, in the sequence, you added them to the board. If you want to change the sequence of these drawings or if you want to increase or decrease the draw time, you can do that by using the tab on the right side of the dashboard.
To publish the video you can click on the export button. You can save the file on to your computer in MP4, MKV, OGG or WebM formats. You can also save the file in different resolutions.
Oh, BTW to add voice-overs and music to the video, use the timeline. You can also record the voice over on the timeline itself.
To add your own audio files or music files to the media library, use the + button as shown below. Similarly, you can add text and graphics to the media library.
Doodly Review: The Pros
Doodly is a great whiteboard animation software, according to me. Here are a few things I liked about this software.
Unlimited Videos
You can create unlimited videos with doodly, for personal use as well as commercial use. Even the basic license gives you the right to publish unlimited videos. That’s great, isn’t it?
Doodly One Time Purchase Fee (May not be available right now)
When I bought the doodly software it cost me a tiny one time fee of 47$. Of course, it was during the launch. Recently they were running a promotion offering the one-time fee again. (The pricing structure may be subjected to change and will also depend on when you are reading this article)
Right now, the Doodly one time offer is going on. You can check out this Doodly lifetime license link to find out more.
So if you are interested, go check out their page using the link given above. Imagine creating unlimited professional-looking videos, getting a lifetime of updates and premium support for a one time fee.
Beginner Friendly
The learning curve isn’t very steep when it comes to handling this whiteboard animation software. It is very beginner-friendly and you don’t need any special technical skills to get started.
High-Quality Videos
The resulting video quality is really good and you can choose from different resolution levels that are available when publishing the video.
Custom Draw Paths
This feature allows you to add custom draw paths to the images you have uploaded. By using this feature you can recreate the handwriting/drawing effect even for the images you uploaded, which otherwise wouldn’t have had the effect.
Recording Voice Over
Now with the new update to the software, you can record your voice over directly, using doodly’s dashboard.
Free Update
You will get a free software update for life. At least that’s what I got with my purchase.
Support and Community
Doodly’s support team is really responsive and they even have a great Facebook community where members post their experiences with doodly software and several tips and tricks that they learned along the way.
Cons
Can’t Be Used Offline
As mentioned earlier, you need an internet connection to log in to the dashboard of the doodly software. So it can’t be used offline.
Video Rendering Time
Some people have experienced very long video rendering times when exporting high-resolution videos with a lot of elements in them. However, I myself have had no problems in the past in this regard.
Confusing Pricing Structure
During the launch doodly had a one time fee. But later, as the software evolved the pricing structure changed. They shifted it to the monthly option.
Recently they have been running some promotions where they are selling the software again for a one time fee. The pricing structure can really get confusing at times.
Costly Membership Options
The Doodly membership options are not for people with a limited budget. It can cost you $39 per month for the standard version, and $69 per month for the enterprise version.
The Doodly standard version only gives you access to 10 characters with 20 unique poses and 200 props & images whereas the Doodly Enterprise version gives you access to 30 characters with 25 unique poses.
Doodly Pricing
Well, I bought it for 47$ one-time fee. Right now, it can cost you $39 per month for the standard version. If you decide to pay yearly, the standard version will cost you $20/month. For that price, you get the standard license which comes with the following features.
Doodly Standard Version Features
- You can create unlimited videos
- You can use on multiple computers
- You get the premium support
- You get 200 characters which include 10 characters with 20 unique poses
- You also get access to 200 props and images
- 20 tracks of royalty-free music
- You get access to the doodly design Facebook group
- You even get commercial rights, where you can sell the videos to customers and charge them money
Doodly Premium Version
At present, the doodly premium license can be purchased for a monthly fee of $69 when paid in monthly billing cycles and is $40/month in the yearly billing cycles.
The premium version has the following extra features.
- It gives you access to 750 characters which include 30 characters with 25 unique poses
- You get access to the library of assets filled with 1,100+ props & images (I heard it’s now 5500+)
- 80+ tracks of royalty free music
- You also get access to the doodly club monthly membership program at no extra cost, which gives you new characters and images every month.
Are There Any Doodly Coupon Codes?
No. Right now Doodly doesn’t offer any coupon code for discounts. However, you can use the one time purchase link mentioned above to get the lifetime membership license with no monthly or yearly fees. All the future updates and premium support will be free as well.
Doodly Review Conclusion and Verdict
Doodly is a good product. We have been using it for the past three or so years and are really happy with the results. Considering the tiny one-time fee we paid, doodly was really worth the purchase back then.
However, things have changed recently.
There are many software in the market that offer way more features than Doodly for very low prices. So we recommend such products to our readers and subscribers.
Doodleoze is one such product.
You can read our complete Doodleoze review to know more.
