How to Create Your Own Animated Explainer Video Online

How to Create Your Own Animated Explainer Video Online

As you're probably aware of by now animated explainer videos have exploded onto our screens in the last year or so and can be extremely effective for your business. Explainer videos are only usually a minute or so long and present the viewer with a problem they may have and then provide a solution to it in that video. And business's that use explainer videos on their website and and social media sites in promotional or marketing campaigns see amazing results from them. So since these are relatively cheap to purchase or fairly easy to make yourself online thanks to the technology increasing, it's something that's worth having a crack at!

So there are a few ways to get explainer videos made. Either purchase a service that does it or learn to make your own using some video editing software or make one online using one of the best free online explainer video sites. Yes there are sites that you can create videos online for free or pay a little extra for it be in HD format or for some extra images etc but there are also sites that are dedicated to helping you create a quick but professional explainer video too.

Some of these sites are free but come with some limitations like branding or time limit and some of them provide ways to upgrade the video or add more time or images etc to it for a fee. You can make a basic free one using these sites but if you want to have a full HD video with a lot of scenes and images and text etc in it you may have to pay a little extra for that privilege. On average, you don't want to spend any more than $50 for a decent explainer video and you can even get them for cheaper than this from some freelancer on SEOClerks.

Video production costs aside, if you have enough funding then you can get a very high quality professional and personalized explainer video made for you or even yourself online if your determined. Most of the best explainer video creation sites are very easy and simple to use to fully edit your video according to your preferences.

The only thing is that these videos you make yourself might not have the same professional touch to them that a true professional video creation specialist might be able to do. So it could be worth paying a bit more and hiring someone to do this for you who can work with you to get the explainer video exactly how you want it.

That said, even if you do create your own one, it might be a bit basic at first but you can get quite creative using all their free images, and things you can use in your videos. Their templates can usually be edited so that you can just change the images and text around and then hey presto you've got a video and this can be suffice for a young business at first.

I've tried out many free online explainer video sites and they all have their own unique thing or advantages and disadvantages, pros and cons etc. Some are free but may ask for more if you start adding more features to your video if you want that but these are the ones where you can still create a completely free explainer video even if it is a little basic and limited.

Best Free Online Explainer Video Sites

rawshorts.com
RawShorts helps businesses create beautiful explainer, demo and marketing videos for web with an easy to use drag and drop video builder in the cloud.

Here's a quick animated explainer video I made earlier using RawShorts.

biteable.com
Biteable is packed with broadcast quality animation styles. Simply select the scene styles you’d like in your video and edit the text, colours, photos and music.

animaker.com
Click and Choose. Drag and Drop. Edit and Play. That's Animaker - 10X Better than other Online Animation Video Making software (#DIY).

powtoon.com
PowToon is an online business presentation software tool that allows you to create free, cool, and awesome animated explainer videos.

4 Tips to Creating Your Explainer Own Video

Those sites help you do a great job with their clever scene editors but I've put together 4 tips that go over some of the most important things to know when creating your own.

Tip #1: Write the script first.

A good script is critical as it's the core message put across in the video and a good script can make or break the video just like it can a good or bad movie. You should think about your script in blocks or sections. In the first section it want's to introduce your character and explain his problem. Then in the next section provide a solution and so on until you have your full script ready. Your script should explain what the video is about, what it does and how it works but in as simple terms as possible. Make sure it's proof read and has no spelling and grammar mistakes as well of course!

Here's some bullet points to consider when writing your script.

• Keep sentences short, sweet & simple.
  
• Find a problem and provide a solution.
  
• Explain how it all works and why the viewer should care.
  
• Talk straight to the viewer as though you're face to face.
  
• Play your script out in a rehearsal over again to perfect it.
  

Tip #2:Record Your Voiceover.

Getting the voice part right is important as it needs to be a professional sounding voice that has the right tone and tempo to it as the video does. Now if you or someone you know has a voice that will be perfect for an explainer video then you can get them to do it either for free or a coffee perhaps. You can also hire a freelancer on SEOClerks to do it for you also. Just make sure to work with someone first so the understand what you want so you can get it just right. There's also some voice marketplaces where you can buy them from by people who will read out your script such as oice Bunny or Voices.com but these places can be a bit pricey if you have quite a long, complicated script.

Tip #3: Shoot and record the actual video.

Shooting and recording your video can be the most time consuming part especially if you're doing it for yourself, for the first time. But as you play around with any free online explainer video creation site your skills and knowledge in using it will increase and you'll be able to make much better explainer videos much faster after a while. On average it should only really take around 10-20 minutes on creating your first explainer video or faster if you're only using a basic template. These sites make it very easy for anyone to make their own animated explainer video regardless of computer skills. And while the final video might not be that unique and have the same look and feel as many others, they do provide a lot of ways of personalizing it and it's still pretty adequate for a basic explainer video.

Another way to make an animated video like an explainer video is to shoot the video on your mobile phone. Most modern smartphones or tablets have HD video recording or you can take stills in frames. There is even some cool free video creation apps you can use like Animoto and Magisto and don't forget, Vine to name just a few! You might not be able to create an amazing stop motion blockbuster but if you're on a shoe-string budget and trying to create a basic free animated explainer video it can be done quite well if you are creative and have skills.

Tip #4: Add great background music and sound effects.

The right background music and sound effects in your video can really set the mood and tempo of it. Fortunately there are hundreds of sites where you can download and use royalty free music and tracks that you can use in your video for free. Unless the explainer video creation site you're using provides them or doesn't provide enough that's right for you, you can find royalty free music from sites like freesound.org and audiojungle.net for thousands of free background music tracks in many different genres and tons of cool and useful sound effects.

Some explainer video creation sites do let you upload and add/use your own background music and sound effects, and some don't. Usually the ones that do will charge you extra for that privilege when it comes to saving and download the finished video or if you want to upload straight to YouTube as some let you do that as well otherwise you'll have to download the video file and upload it yourself.

And that's some ways on how to create your own free (or paid for) animated explainer video! Let me know if you have any questions about anything as I only made this quick!

Have you made your own explainer video using any of these sites or know of any others worth a look?

Let us know in a comment below. I'm still on a learning curve myself!

Thanks!