How to Make an Explainer Video: Script, Visuals, Voice, Done
To make an explainer video, write the script first, plan one visual for every sentence, record the voice, then build the visuals to the timing of that voice and add captions before you export. The tool matters less than the order. A one-off explainer for a product page or a class can be made with slide software you already own. A channel that needs a new explainer short several times a week runs into a different problem: the writing and timing take longer than the animation, and that is the part worth handing over.
This guide covers how to make an explainer video from the first question to the finished file, compares the kinds of tools on the same rows, and ends with the hands-off way for faceless YouTube channels. It also says plainly when the manual way is the better choice.
What an explainer video has to do
An explainer answers one question for someone who does not know the answer yet. “How does a heat pump move heat uphill?” “What happens to a parcel between the warehouse and your door?” “Why is the Sun so much bigger than it looks?” Everything in the video serves that one answer.
The good ones share a few habits:
- One question per video. Two questions make two half-answers. If the topic needs both, make two videos.
- The simplest true version first. Start with the idea a viewer can hold in one sentence, then add the detail that makes it right.
- A picture for every claim. “A quarter of the total” becomes a pie that fills to a quarter. “It happens in three steps” becomes three boxes joined by arrows.
- Pictures that move when the words land. The arrow should draw itself as the narrator says “flows”. Visuals that arrive early or late make the viewer work harder for no reason.
- An ending that answers the question. The last scene restates the answer, now that the viewer has seen why it is true.
The kinds of explainer video
Before picking a tool, pick a format. Each one suits a different kind of answer.
| Format | What it looks like | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Motion graphics | Shapes, diagrams, counters and charts that animate | Processes, numbers, comparisons, science |
| Character animation | Cartoon people acting out a scenario | A customer problem and how a product solves it |
| Whiteboard | A hand drawing on a white background | Step-by-step reasoning, lessons |
| Screen recording | Your screen with a voice over it | Software, websites, how-to tasks |
| Kinetic text | Bold captions and titles that pop on the beat | Short facts and lists on a phone screen |
Most short educational explainers on YouTube use motion graphics or kinetic text, because both read well on a small vertical screen and neither needs a camera. If you already make data-heavy videos, our guide to infographic video makers goes deeper on the chart side.
How to make an explainer video, step by step
The steps below work with any tool. Do them in this order, because each one fixes a decision the next one depends on.
- Write the question down. One sentence, ending in a question mark. If you cannot write it, the video is not ready to be made.
- Research the answer and keep your sources. Write each fact next to the page you read it from. An explainer that gets one fact wrong teaches the wrong thing to everyone who watches it, and the comments will say so.
- Write the script as spoken words. Short sentences, one idea each, numbers written the way you say them. Read it aloud with a timer: that tells you the real length before you have animated anything. Our guide on how to write a script for a YouTube video covers hooks and structure in detail.
- Storyboard it in a two-column list. Script line on the left, the visual on the right: “pie chart fills to 25%”, “arrow from factory to truck”, “two bars side by side”. A rough sketch is plenty. This list is the plan you will animate from.
- Record or generate the voice. The audio sets the timing for everything else, so it comes before animation. Record in a quiet room with the microphone close, or use a text-to-speech voice you have listened to all the way through.
- Build the visuals to the audio. Place each scene where its sentence starts and time each reveal to the word it illustrates.
- Add captions. Captions help anyone watching with the sound off, and viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing. For Shorts, see how to add captions to YouTube Shorts.
- Add music last, quietly. It should sit well under the voice. If you notice it while the narrator is talking, it is too loud.
- Export for where it will play. Vertical 9:16 for Shorts, Reels and TikTok; horizontal 16:9 for a website, a course or a regular YouTube video.
Steps 3 and 6 take the most time on almost every explainer. Writing an answer that is short, correct and easy to follow is hard, and timing every reveal to the voice is slow by hand.
Which tool to make an explainer video with
You probably own something that can make a decent explainer already. The question is how much of the steps above it does for you.
| Tool kind | What it does for you | What stays with you | Good fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slide software | Animations and export to video | Script, research, voice, timing | One-off explainers, classes, internal training |
| Online template editors | Ready-made scenes and stock assets | Script, research, voice, timing | Marketing explainers with a brand look |
| Animation apps | Characters, scenes and whiteboard styles | Script, research, voice, most timing | Product explainers with a story |
| Screen recorders | Captures your screen and voice together | Script, editing | Software walkthroughs |
| Channel generators | Script, research, voice, visuals, captions, timing | Choosing the topic, reviewing, publishing | Channels posting explainer shorts on a schedule |
Slide software
Slide software is the cheapest place to start, and it is underrated. PowerPoint, for example, exports a whole presentation as an MP4: Microsoft’s support page describes the path as “File > Export > Create a Video” and lists resolutions from 480p up to “Ultra HD (4K)” (as of October 2026). Build one slide per script line, use simple entrance animations for the reveals, record your narration over it, and export. Keynote can export a presentation as a movie too.
The limit is time. Every reveal is timed by hand, and every new video starts from a blank deck.
Template editors and animation apps
Template editors give you designed scenes to drop your words into, which helps when the explainer has to look like a brand. Animation apps go further with characters, camera moves and whiteboard hands. Both still leave the script, the research and most of the timing with you. They are the right choice for a single polished explainer that will sit on a home page for a year, where the hours spent are spread across every visitor who watches it.
Screen recorders
If the thing you are explaining lives on a screen, record the screen. A tidy screen recording with a clear voice beats an animated imitation of the same interface. Write the script first anyway: a recording made without one usually runs twice as long as it needs to.
The faster way: explainer shorts for a channel
A channel has a different problem from a company making one video. It needs the next explainer, and the one after that, every few days, each on a new question in the same niche. Here the slow parts repeat on every video: researching, writing, recording and timing.
Nichecast is built for that case. You describe a channel once, for example “space facts with true-scale comparisons”, and it makes each video for you: the script, the voiceover, the visuals, the captions and the render. Two of its styles are explainers:
- Motion graphics explainer. Animated diagrams drawn for each line of the script: process chains, cycles, size comparisons, counters, bar and line charts, timelines and versus cards, with each reveal timed to the spoken word. It uses no stock footage and no generated imagery.
- Faceless explainer. Narration with bold word-by-word captions, a title that stays on screen, a progress bar and a closing call to action.
For a channel set to “Based on facts”, each script is researched on the web and then fact-checked before it is recorded. You can also give each channel its own rules: topics to cover or avoid, how it should sound, what kind of imagery to look for.
Every video arrives in your YouTube Studio as an unlisted draft. Nichecast never publishes. You watch it, change the title or thumbnail if you like, and press publish yourself. If you want to know what that looks like on YouTube’s side, see private vs unlisted on YouTube.
The free plan includes 5 videos with no card, so you can judge the output on your own niche before paying. Pro is $29 a month for 30 videos, and a video that fails is refunded automatically. If you only want help with the writing, the free script generators need no account.
How a channel explainer gets made, start to finish
- Create a channel and describe the niche, the audience and the tone.
- Choose the motion graphics or faceless explainer style.
- Connect your YouTube channel.
- Start a video. Nichecast takes a new topic in your niche, writes and checks the script, records the voice and renders a captioned 9:16 short.
- Open YouTube Studio, watch the draft and publish it when you are happy.
Try it on your own niche and see whether the first five are videos you would publish.
When the manual way is enough
A generator is the wrong tool for plenty of explainers. Make it yourself, with slides, a template editor or an animation app, when:
- You need one video, not a series. A single explainer for a product page, a pitch or a lesson is worth crafting by hand.
- The script has to be exactly yours. Legal wording, a teacher’s own phrasing, a product claim that marketing signed off. Nichecast writes its own script from your channel brief, so it cannot read out a script you wrote word for word.
- It has to be horizontal. Nichecast makes vertical 9:16 shorts only. A website hero video or a course module needs 16:9.
- It shows your product or your screen. Nichecast draws diagrams and finds imagery; it cannot show your app’s interface or your physical product.
- It will not live on YouTube. Nichecast uploads to your YouTube channel. If the video is for a website, an email or a slide deck, a tool that exports a file is the simpler path.
If you are starting a channel built on explainers, the steps in how to make a faceless YouTube channel cover niche choice and the first month, and how to make animated videos for YouTube compares more animation routes.
A short checklist before you publish
- Does the first sentence state the question the video answers?
- Is every number traceable to a source you could name if someone asked?
- Does each visual appear as its sentence is spoken?
- Are the captions accurate, especially names and numbers?
- Does the last scene answer the question in one sentence?
- Is the music quieter than you think it needs to be?
An explainer that passes all six is ready, whichever tool made it.