5.3 Explainer videos & Whiteboard animations

Introduction to Whiteboard Animations and Explainer Videos

A popular technique to create videos, often referred to as explainer videos or whiteboard animations. It is completed by recording the process of visualizing an idea, through sketching. There are many ways to accomplish this, and although it helps to have some drawing experience, it is by no means the most important skill.  As with most multimedia projects, it is the story being told that will have the most impact on the audience. How clearly you can tell that story and provide the information is the challenge you need to consider.

We went through a very typical process from script to storyboard to final production, and documented the promotions.

How did we make it?

1. First, we talked about what we wanted/needed to communicate  to planned out the idea quickly using a storyboard. You can of course make your video on Educreations by starting with the app itself, but we find it’s always easier to rough out our ideas first. Here is the one we used for our video:
2. We then fleshed that storyboard out with a script so that we’d know what to say. This we spoke out naturally and made quick bullet point notes so our dialogue would feel natural.
3. Finally, we fired up the app. It took four takes of about 4 minutes each until we got something we liked. We both tried making one to get practice.

Other types of “Doodle” videos

A collection of videos called “Teaching & Learning by Sketching“, was created to showcase the wide variety of videos that have been created in this way.

As you can see, there are many examples in this list that do not look like they were created by a visual artist, and they are still awesome!

Attribution & References

Except where otherwise noted, this content is adapted from Teaching through whiteboarding by Jason, CC BY 4.0.