A guide to whiteboard explainer videos.
Answer questions and teach your viewers in style. Learn what a whiteboard explainer video is and how to make them with this simple guide.
Whiteboard explainer videos are a great tool for informing and educating your viewers. They’re also easy and fun to create.
Whiteboard explainers explained.
An explainer video is a short, to-the-point presentation that answers a question or describes a task. If you’ve ever watched a how-to tutorial on YouTube, you’ve seen an explainer video.
Whiteboard videos are animations where you draw the scene onto a whiteboard or other similar surface — hence the name. They are usually shot with time lapse videography. (They can also be entirely digitally animated, but here we’ll be doing it the good old hand-drawn way.)
How to shoot a whiteboard explainer video.
- Write your script: Any good video begins with a strong script. Make sure you explain your topic in a tight, brief package to keep your viewer engaged. Create storyboards to figure out how you want to draw your scenes.
- Prepare your gear: Set up your camera directly above the whiteboard. Pay attention to lighting so you’re not casting distracting shadows onto the board as you draw.
- Film your video: Start recording and drawing. It’s good to do several takes of each drawing to get the process down. If you make a mistake, just start over — you can always erase a whiteboard.
- Record your voiceover: You have to record your audio separately, since time lapse videography makes it impossible to do during filming. Remember to use a good microphone and to eliminate background noise.
Complete your video.
Once you’re done recording, compile your video with a good video editing software program — like Adobe Premiere Pro. With it, you can easily trim and cut your clips, add and mix audio, speed video up or slow it down, and much more.
Learn more handy video production tips.
And find out what you can create with Premiere Pro.