The 7 Best Animated Explainer Video Styles Revealed!

Video Transcription

Are you thinking about creating an animated video for your business?

Well, you’re in the right place.

In this video, I’ll go through the 7 most popular animated explainer video styles that you can choose from to create the perfect video for your business.

But before we begin, make sure you subscribe to our channel and hit the notification button. That way, whenever we release new videos to help you with your video marketing, you will get notified.

And in the comments below, let me know which of the 7 styles I go through in this video is your personal favourite.

So let’s get started….

Number 1: Cartoon Animation

This is one of the most popular explainer video styles and for good reason.

Cartoon animation is great if you’re looking for a more fun and light-hearted approach to your video. It’s excellent for storytelling, where the main protagonist of the story usually reflects your typical customer.

And it’s great for injecting emotions such as humour, shock, curiosity and cuteness into your videos to really bring them to life.

Number 2: Motion Graphics

Motion graphics is another very popular explainer video style. It has a more mature look and feel to it than cartoon animation, so it’s great for videos which lean more towards the factual side.

And for this reason, it’s a style commonly preferred by businesses that wish to project a more serious profile such as financial institutions.

For added impact, you can also consider mixing motion graphics with other styles such as 3D and character animation

Number 3: Whiteboard Animation

Whiteboard animation is another great explainer video style which has seen a boost in popularity over the recent years.

It involves images being drawn on a white background with a moving hand appearing to be doing the drawing.

The minimalist style of the visuals really helps hold the audience’s attention whilst not distracting them from videos message.

Research conducted by Professor Richard Wiseman at the University of Hertfordshire found that when compared to a more standard talking head video, whiteboard animations better help the audience retain factual information and have a greater chance of being liked and shared.

Which is why whiteboard animations can be a fantastic choice for producing educational videos.

With a number of great whiteboard animation software tools out there now like VideoScibe and Doodly, the cost of producing whiteboard animations has also gone down quite substantially in recent times, making it accessible to more people.

If you want to mix things up a bit, as an alternative to the more standard whiteboard animation that we’ve all become accustomed to watching, you can also consider creating a blackboard animation

Number 4: Screencast Videos

Screencast videos consist of digital recordings which are taken from a computer or mobile device and compiled together with a voiceover.

They are relatively easy to produce, so come with a much lower production cost than the other explainer video styles covered in this video.

Screencast videos are most commonly produced to replicate the actual experience of using a software tool.

Such videos can act as excellent sales tools as they can help clearly showcase the benefits of using your product. They can also be great for on-boarding new clients as screencast videos can help familiarise them with the various features of your software.

Number 5: 3D Animation

Made famous by the huge growth in the popularity of 3D movies like Toy Story, 3D animation involves digitally modelling characters or objects which can then be used to move them around.

3D explainer videos aren’t as common as 2D ones due to the higher costs generally involved in producing them. However 3D animation can be a great choice for explainer videos where visual aesthetics are of a high priority.

Number 6: Rotoscopic Animation

Rotoscope is another more advance animation style where the animator traces over live video footage frame by frame, using a software program to create a more realistic feel to the movements in the final animation.

This style can be great to give your video a more distinct and realistic feel. But due to the higher level of work is involved in producing a rotoscopic animation, it also comes at a greater cost, so is generally reserved for higher end productions which have the necessary budget.

Number 7: Stop Motion Animation

Stop motion is an animation technique that consists of photographing an object as it is moved in tiny increments. When the series of frames are then all played together in a single sequence, the result is the illusion of movement of the object.

Due to the amount of work involved in creating a high quality stop motion video, its production costs can also be on the higher side. But if you’re looking for something a bit more innovative to stands out, then stop motion could be the right option for you.

Bonus Tip: Consider Mixing Live Action With Animation

You don’t necessarily have to make a binary choice between animation and live action for your explainer video. In some cases the best option can be a combination of the two styles.

Live action adds the element of realism to your video, which can be important in certain cases, for example, if you want to show live footage of your product, or present your team.

In such cases, your live action can be supplemented with animation to add an extra layer of quality, helping your video stand out and better resonate with its viewers.

I hope you enjoyed this video. If you have any further questions about the animation styles I have discussed, leave a comment below and I will do my best to answer.

Also, make sure to subscribe to our channel and hit the bell button so that you don’t miss out on our future videos.

And finally, if you need help creating an animated video, you can get in touch with us at www.spielcreative.com

Thanks for watching!