Hey fellow doodlers!

If you’ve been following along, you’ve already seen how frameworks like BAB and 4P can spice up your presentations with Doodly.

Today, we're diving into a new approach to make your content even more engaging and insightful: the PEST matrix.

Understanding the external forces that can impact your business is crucial for making informed decisions.

The PEST matrix—covering Political, Economic, Social, and Technological factors—offers a detailed view of these influences.

By incorporating this analysis into your presentations, you can make complex data more accessible and actionable.

In today’s article, we’ll show you how to animate a PEST matrix using Doodly.

You’ll discover how to create custom shapes, import them into Doodly, and animate them to make your analysis stand out.

To help us explain how this matrix works, we’ll use a fictional business—let’s call it GlowUp Skincare—as an example.

Let’s jump in and explore how to transform your matrix into a dynamic visual experience!

Before we jump into creating the animation, let’s take a moment to understand what the PEST matrix is all about.

PEST stands for Political, Economic, Social, and Technological factors, each playing a crucial role in strategic planning.

Now that we have a clear understanding of what PEST entails, let’s see how these factors apply to some of the most common niches that utilize video marketing, especially whiteboard explainer videos.

Now that we’ve laid the groundwork with the PEST matrix and its relevance to different niches, let’s get our hands dirty with some design work. To make our PEST analysis visually engaging, we'll need to create custom shapes. That's where Pyks comes into play.

As some of you might already know, Pyks is a powerful tool designed for creating and editing images, and it’s part of the Voomly Cloud family. Voomly Cloud is an all-in-one platform for creators, offering a suite of apps to help you create, edit, and share visual content with ease. In addition to Pyks, Voomly Cloud includes:

With these tools at your fingertips, you can create all sorts of dynamic and engaging content. But for today, we’ll focus on Pyks to design the custom shapes we’ll use in our animated PEST matrix.

Let's walk through the process of creating a custom shape using Pyks. We'll keep it simple but effective.​

Create a 1920x1080 Custom Image
​First, open Pyks and create a new custom image with dimensions of 1920x1080 pixels. This is the standard size for most video projects, ensuring your shapes fit perfectly when imported into Doodly.

Add and Color a Rectangle Shape
​Now, let’s add a shape. Since we’re working on a PEST matrix, a rectangle works well. Go to the shapes option in Pyks and select a rectangle. At this point, it’s transparent, but we’ll add some color to make it pop.

Select a Fill Color
​Choose a fill color that matches your video’s theme. For this tutorial, let’s go with a light blue. To do this, go to the "Fill Color" option, select your preferred shade of blue, and hit "Apply."

Remove the Stroke
​Next, we’ll remove the stroke, which is the outline of the shape. A clean, stroke-free shape usually looks better in whiteboard animations. To remove the stroke, simply untick the Stroke Color box within the Shape Tools menu.

Fill the Entire Shape
​After setting the color and removing the stroke, make sure the entire shape is filled with your selected color. This will give it a solid look, which is perfect for our animation.

Export the Final Image
​Finally, once you’re satisfied with your custom shape, export the image. Save it in a format that’s compatible with Doodly, like PNG or JPEG, to maintain the quality when importing.

And that’s it! Your custom shape is now ready to be brought into Doodly, where the real magic of animation happens.​

With our custom shapes in hand, the next step is to bring them into Doodly and start integrating them into our PEST matrix animation.

Upload Process

​Open Doodly and navigate to the props library. Click on the "Upload New Prop" button, select the custom shapes you created in Pyks, and upload them into your library. These will now be available for use in your project.

Replacing Default Rectangles

​In your PEST matrix, replace any existing rectangles or shapes with the new custom ones. Simply drag and drop the custom shapes from your props library onto the canvas, positioning them where they belong in your matrix.

Now that your shapes are in place, it’s time to add some movement to make your analysis more engaging.

Animations are where the static shapes come to life, and Doodly makes it easy to add dynamic effects to your PEST matrix.

Basic Animation Techniques

​Doodly offers several default animations, but two of the most popular are the scribble effect and the fade effect. The scribble effect mimics a hand-drawing action, perfect for whiteboard-style videos. The fade effect allows elements to gently appear on screen, creating a smooth transition.

Adjusting Animation Speed

​To ensure your animation flows well, you may want to adjust the speed. Doodly lets you control the animation duration for each element. If you want a snappier presentation, reduce the time it takes for each shape to appear.

Reordering Elements

​The sequence in which elements appear is crucial. You want to guide your viewers through the PEST analysis logically. Use Doodly’s Layers feature to reorder elements, ensuring your matrix is presented in the right order—starting with Political, then Economic, followed by Social and Technological factors.

To take your animated PEST matrix to the next level, consider adding a voiceover and branding elements.

Voiceover Integration

​If you have a pre-recorded voiceover, you can easily sync it with your animation in Doodly. Import the audio file, then adjust the timing of your animations to match the voiceover. This adds a professional touch and helps convey your analysis more clearly.

Branding with Logos

​Don’t forget to include your brand’s logo! Import the GlowUp Skin Care logo (or your own) and place it strategically within the animation. This not only reinforces brand identity but also gives your video a polished look.