Free explainer video outline generator

The five-beat structure

Most good explainers, from 45-second Shorts to five-minute YouTube videos, follow the same arc. The hook opens a question. The problem shows why the question matters: what goes wrong without the answer. The idea is the one concept that solves it. The example makes the idea concrete by following one real case. The recap repeats the idea in a sentence and tells the viewer what to do next.

Keeping to five beats forces you to choose one idea. If you need two, you probably have two videos.

How the timing is split

The outline shares your target length across the beats: a very short hook (around 8% of the video), a fifth for the problem, the largest share for the idea, a quarter for the example and the rest for the recap. At a natural narration pace of about 2.45 words per second, a 60-second video holds roughly 145 spoken words; the [words to minutes calculator](/tools/words-to-minutes) does the conversion for any text.

Need a different structure, like a list or a tutorial? The [video length planner](/tools/video-length-planner) lets you plan any number of scenes.

How to use the outline generator

Describe the topic as the question your video answers. Add the audience if it matters (“for developers”, “for first-time buyers”), choose the length and the language, and generate. Edit any beat directly in your notes, or send the outline to the studio: Motiongist writes the full narration from it and animates every beat.

Tips for a stronger outline

Make the problem tangible: a cost, a delay, a mistake people recognize. Pick an example from the viewer’s world, not yours. Give every beat a visual that could not illustrate any other beat; if two visuals are interchangeable, the beats are probably saying the same thing. And end the recap on a single action, not three.