How to Create an Animated Explainer Video: Helpful Step-by-Step Guide

It’s a brief guide to creating an animated explainer video. Our team at Explain Ninja has prepared it to help you navigate the entire production process. Hurry to learn about the magic of animation right now!

Let us guess it… Have you probably decided to produce an animated explainer video for your business? Have you, maybe, even noticed how animated videos have performed in your competitor’s advertising? Have you liked how the animated explainer video looks on their landing pages? Yes, it might look amazing there. However, you can produce an even better one. 

Here our team provides a short, step-by-step guide on animated explainer video production. We hope that will come in handy for you and will help you navigate through the entire process of video creation. 

First of all, choose a visual style

It’s extremely important. First of all, you will need to choose visual and animation styles that fit your business goals and purposes best. Just to provide you with full information about all options available, we’d like to mention that there are three primary explainer video styles: animated video, live-action video, and screencast video. 

In this guide, we are considering an animated video production process. There are several animated video styles available: 2D animation, 3D animation, and whiteboard animation. 2D animation implies the movement of objects horizontally, and it’s much easier to implement, requires less production time, and has a significantly lower cost. 

3D animation is a style designed in a 3-dimensional environment. It usually uses complicated transitions, object rotations, turns, twists, and so on. It’s more costly but looks more realistic and exciting. 

Create a script for the video

When you have already decided on visual and animation styles, it’s time to create an engaging script for your animated explanatory video. It includes a story that will be depicted in the video, a description of all the most crucial animation moments, and creating a narration. 

The video scenario must clearly communicate a marketing message and brand idea but be unobtrusive at the same time. We have noticed that many brands are too salesy in their commercial videos. 

We would recommend trying to make your video more engaging, entertaining, fun, and less promotional, as obvious advertising is what really irritates online customers today. They are simply exhausted with it and strive to get fresh and exciting content. It’s where an animated explainer video can come in handy, but it’s essential to keep it less promotional. However, it still should contain the answers to the following key questions: 

1. What is your product or service?
2. Who is it for?
3. What problem does the product or service solve?
4. How does it solve the problem?
5. What should a user do to get started?

It’s highly recommended to keep your video under 1-2 minutes long, as short videos perform best on the internet. Keep in mind that your script should align with this video length. 

Record and edit the audio narration

Is your video script ready? Excellent! The next step is recording and editing the audio narration. At this point, you might need the help of professional voice artists. Some animated explainer video companies like Explain Ninja, in particular, can recommend the right professional from their business networks. 

You should choose a voice artist that speaks the same language as your target audience. By saying “the same language,” we mean not only the language itself but also the slight nuances of accents, voice, age, gender, etc. It will help you approach your viewers and potential customers in the best way and communicate a message to them even more effectively, 

Illustrations and graphics

The next step is creating graphics and illustrations for your animated video. At this stage, illustrators usually create characters and graphics that will make up an animated story later. Many companies think that pictures must be super-complicated or detailed to engage the viewers. However, the reality shows different. Actually, simple illustrations gathered in an exciting scenario and outstanding voice-over usually resonates with the audience much more. 

Animation

At this stage, a motion designer breathes life into all images and creates animation. It’s one of the most exciting moments in explainer video production, as animation always adds even more beauty, mood, and character to the story. Usually, 2D animation is much faster to create. 3D animation requires more motion designer’s time and involvement. 

Add background music

Now, it’s time to choose royalty-free music in an audio stock or produce an original sound for your video. The background music must correspond to the overall mood of the video and a brand message. We advise using neutral tunes that don’t distract the viewer front the main idea and the product itself. 

Publish, share, and track performance

The last step! Finally. It’s a so awaited and exciting moment! The time for publishing your animated explainer has come. Try to share it everywhere on the web and encourage your friends and customers to share it with their friends on social media too. Oh, sure! Don’t forget to track its performance in engagement analytics on social networks or using special social media listening tools.

Conclusion

Here is a short animated video production roadmap, from the very first iteration on the script to creating animation, sound design, and publishing the video on the web. We hope that this article has been helpful for you and will inspire you to start your animated video creation right now! 

Are you looking for a team to make an animated explainer video for your business? Don’t look further! Explain Ninja is here to help you and bring your bold ideas to life! Contact us here.