How to make an explainer video, from idea to published short
To make an explainer video, pick one question your audience asks, answer it in a short spoken script, turn every sentence into a picture, add a voice and captions, then review before you publish.
An explainer video answers one question in a few minutes or less, with pictures that move in step with a voice. Making one comes down to seven steps: choose the question, decide the format, write a script for the ear, storyboard it, pick a voice and a look, produce it, then review and publish. This guide walks through each step with the decisions that matter and the mistakes that cost the most time.
What an explainer video actually is
An explainer video is a short video whose only job is to make one thing understood: how a product works, why the sky is blue, what an API does, how compound interest grows. It usually combines a narration, animated visuals (titles, diagrams, numbers, simple illustrations) and captions. It is not a commercial, not a tutorial screen recording and not a talking-head vlog, although it borrows from all three.
Most explainers today live in two formats: the classic horizontal video embedded on a landing page, and the vertical short (9:16) published on TikTok, Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts. The method below works for both, but the examples assume a vertical short of 45 seconds to 3 minutes, which is where most new explainers are watched.
Step 1: pick one question, for one audience
The most common reason an explainer fails is that it tries to explain too much. Start from a question your audience actually asks, in their words. Good sources: support tickets, sales calls, comments under your posts, search suggestions, the questions people ask after a talk.
- Too broad: “How the internet works.”
- Better: “Why does a website load faster the second time?”
- Too broad: “Our product.”
- Better: “How our tool turns a messy support inbox into tracked tickets.”
Then name the audience in one line: who they are and what they already know. “Developers who have never used a CDN” and “store owners who have never heard the word CDN” need two very different scripts on the same topic.
Step 2: choose the length and format
Length follows the question, not the other way round. A simple “why” fits in under a minute. A process with three or four steps usually needs 90 seconds to two minutes. Anything that needs more than three minutes is probably a series.
| Length | Approx. words | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| 45–60 s | 110–150 | One idea, one surprising fact, a definition with a twist |
| 90–120 s | 220–290 | A process in three steps, a product overview, a comparison |
| 150–180 s | 370–440 | A concept with a worked example, a short case study |
As of October 2026, YouTube Shorts accept vertical videos of up to 3 minutes (since October 2024) and Instagram Reels also go up to 3 minutes, so all three lengths can be published as shorts. Check how long a YouTube Short should be for the trade-offs between short and long.
Step 3: write a script for the ear
The script is most of the work. Write it to be heard, not read: short sentences, concrete words, one idea per sentence. A reliable structure for explainers is:
- Hook (first 3 seconds): a question, a paradox or a consequence that makes people want the answer.
- Setup: why the question matters, in one or two sentences.
- Core: the explanation in two or three steps, each with its own picture.
- Payoff: the key number, the surprising detail or the “aha”.
- Close: a one-line recap and a single call to action.
At a natural narration pace of about 2.4 to 2.5 words per second, a 60-second script is around 150 words. Paste your draft into words to minutes to check the length before you go further. For ready-to-fill structures, see the explainer video script template, and for the first line specifically, how to write a hook for short videos.
A quick script checklist
- Read it out loud with a stopwatch. Rewrite any sentence you trip over.
- Replace every abstract noun you can with a concrete one (“three servers”, not “infrastructure”).
- Cut every number you can’t source. Round the ones you keep.
- Keep one call to action, at the end.
Step 4: storyboard every sentence
A storyboard for an explainer can be as simple as a two-column table: on the left, the line being spoken; on the right, what is on screen at that moment. If you can’t say what a sentence looks like, the sentence is too abstract: rewrite it or cut it.
Typical explainer visuals are a title that builds word by word (kinetic typography), a simple diagram that grows step by step, a number that counts up, a comparison side by side, a mock-up of an interface, or a small illustrated character. The full method, with a fill-in template, is in how to storyboard a short video, and the storyboard generator can draft one from your script.
Step 5: choose a voice, a look and captions
The voice
The voice sets the pace of the whole video. A calm, warm voice suits teaching and complex topics; a brighter, faster one suits social-first topics; an authoritative one suits news-style or finance content. Record yourself if you are comfortable doing it, hire a voice actor, or use a synthetic voiceover. If you use an AI voice, check its license for commercial use. The AI voiceover guide covers the details, and you can listen to the Motiongist voices to compare styles.
The look
Pick one visual style and stick to it: one background family, two or three colors, one or two fonts. For a company video, use your brand colors and logo. Flat 2D motion design is clear and fast to read; 3D adds depth and camera moves at the cost of a little legibility. See 2D vs 3D explainer videos if you are unsure.
Captions
Many people watch shorts with the sound off, so captions are not optional. Word-by-word captions burned into the image keep the eye on the screen and make the narration easy to follow. Keep them inside the platform safe zone, away from the buttons and the description.
Step 6: produce the video
You have three realistic options, depending on budget, time and how many videos you need:
| Option | Best when | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Animate it yourself (After Effects, Blender, a motion tool) | You have motion-design skills and a few days per video | Full control, slow, hard to scale |
| Hire a studio or freelancer | A single flagship video with a budget | High quality, weeks of back-and-forth |
| Use an AI explainer generator | You need many videos, or a first version fast | Less frame-by-frame control; review carefully |
If you use a generator like Motiongist, you give it an idea, a script, a link or a document; it writes or adapts the script, splits it into scenes, animates titles, diagrams, numbers and UI mock-ups in sync with the voice, and adds word-by-word captions. It renders vertical 9:16 videos of 45–60 s, 90–120 s or 150–180 s, in 2D or 3D, in 10 narration languages. You can review the storyboard scene by scene for free before rendering, and you see the exact credit price before you confirm. Prices are on the pricing page.
Step 7: review, then publish
Watch the result the way your audience will: on a phone, full screen, first with the sound off, then with it on.
- First 3 seconds: would you keep watching if you didn’t know the topic?
- Sync: does each visual appear on the word that names it, not before or after?
- Legibility: can you read every title and caption without pausing?
- Accuracy: is every claim, number and name correct? You are the one publishing it.
- Safe zones: is anything hidden under the platform interface? See TikTok, Reels and Shorts safe zones.
- Ending: is there exactly one call to action?
When you publish, write a title or description that repeats the question the video answers, in the words people search with. If the platform requires it, disclose that the voice or visuals are AI-generated.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Opening with your logo, a greeting or “in this video we’ll talk about”.
- Explaining the history before the answer.
- Showing text that repeats the narration word for word in big blocks, instead of short titles and captions.
- Using jargon the audience never asked about. See how to explain a technical concept simply.
- Publishing without watching on a phone.
Once you have made one, the next ones get much faster: keep the script structure, the look and the voice, and only change the question. For inspiration on structure, browse the templates and the examples.