A Practical Guide to Making Animated Explainer Videos

How to Create Animated Explainer Videos Like the Ones You Linked (Tools + Skills)

Those videos sit in a familiar lane on YouTube: animated explainers / motion-graphics videos. The core idea is simple—take an argument, a lesson, or a story, and make the visuals do just enough work to keep attention and clarify what’s being said.

The good news: you don’t need a studio. The bad news: you can’t skip the fundamentals. The channels that make this style look “easy” usually have a tight workflow, consistent design, and a strong sense of pacing.

Below is a practical breakdown of the tools and skills that get you there—whether you want something template-driven or fully custom.

1) What “style” are we talking about?

Most videos like this are built from some combination of:

Motion graphics: animated text, shapes, icons, charts, simple characters, transitions.
Explainer structure: narration drives the timeline; visuals reinforce or clarify.
Consistent art direction: limited color palette, repeated typography, recurring visual motifs.

You’ll often see minimal “character acting” (no complex frame-by-frame animation) and more emphasis on timing, composition, and movement—things sliding, scaling, revealing, and transforming in sync with the voiceover.

2) Pick your production approach: templates vs. custom

There are two realistic paths, and they lead to different tool stacks.

Path A: Template-first (fastest to publish)

If your goal is to publish consistently and learn by doing, template tools can get you 70% of the way.

Typical strengths

Quick turnaround
Built-in assets (icons, scenes, music)
No heavy animation knowledge required

Typical limits

You’ll look like a template unless you customize heavily
Less control over timing, style, and unique visual jokes

Path B: Custom motion graphics (highest ceiling)

If you want that “this channel has a distinctive visual identity” feel, you’ll eventually want a real motion design tool.

Typical strengths

Total control: pacing, transitions, style, animation language
Easier to build a recognizable brand over time

Typical limits

Steeper learning curve
Asset creation and cleanup takes time

A lot of creators start in Path A, then slowly migrate to Path B as they get pickier (and as their audience grows).

3) Tools: what you actually need (by category)

A) Editing + assembly (you need one)

Even for fully animated videos, you’ll be assembling the final cut somewhere.

DaVinci Resolve (powerful editor; good all-around choice)
Adobe Premiere Pro (common in professional workflows)

What this is for: tightening pacing, cutting dead air, arranging scenes, adding music/SFX, final export.

B) Motion graphics / animation (choose your level)

Beginner-friendly tools (template-driven)

Canva (fast, easy animated layouts; good for simple explainers)
Powtoon (character-and-scene style explainers)
Vyond (strong for business-style characters and scenes)
Animaker (similar template/scene approach)
Renderforest (template-based intros/explainers)
VideoScribe (whiteboard animation look)

These can absolutely work if your strength is writing + narration and you want visuals that “keep up” without becoming a full-time animation student.

Intermediate/advanced tools (custom motion design)

Adobe After Effects (motion graphics standard; huge ecosystem)
Blender (3D; free; powerful but more technical)
Manim (code-based animation, great for math/diagram-heavy styles)

If the videos you like have very deliberate movement, polished transitions, and a consistent visual language, they’re probably closer to this category.

C) Design tools (for making assets that don’t look cheap)

Even template workflows benefit from better assets.

Figma (fast for layout systems, icons, simple illustration)
Adobe Illustrator (classic vector tool)

What this is for: clean icons, consistent typography layouts, reusable components, background shapes, simple character parts.

D) Audio (the thing that makes the whole video feel “real”)

Explainers live or die on audio. Crisp narration can make simple visuals feel premium.

A decent USB/XLR mic (plus basic treatment/quiet room)
Basic audio cleanup (noise reduction, compression, EQ)

Music and sound effects matter too—mostly because they fill the “dead space” and create momentum.

4) Skills that matter more than the tools

Tools don’t save weak structure. These videos work because the creator is good at a few unglamorous fundamentals.

Scriptwriting (the real backbone)

Motion graphics videos are expensive to animate—so the script has to be tight. You’re aiming for:

A strong hook in the first 10–20 seconds
One idea per section (don’t stack five concepts in one breath)
Specific examples (even quick ones) to make abstract points stick
Clear transitions so the viewer never feels lost

If you only improve one thing, improve the script.

Storyboarding (so you don’t animate yourself into a corner)

You don’t need fancy boards. You need a plan that answers:

What’s on screen for each line?
What changes (movement/transition) keeps it alive?
Which moments deserve emphasis (zoom, highlight, isolate, big type)?

A rough storyboard prevents the common mistake: animating early scenes beautifully, then rushing the last 40% with sloppy visuals because you ran out of time.

Visual design taste (basic, but non-negotiable)

You’re not trying to become a full-time graphic designer, but you do need:

Simple layout hierarchy (what should the eye read first?)
A limited color palette (stop using every color because you can)
Typography consistency (1–2 font families max)
Spacing discipline (clean margins, alignment, breathing room)

A “simple” video with good spacing and type almost always beats a busy video with bad taste.

Timing + pacing (the hidden craft)

This is the motion graphics version of comedy timing. Good pacing means:

Visuals change often enough to maintain attention
But not so often that everything feels jittery or random
Emphasis moments are earned (bigger motion for bigger ideas)

A surprisingly effective rule: if nothing on screen changes for too long, viewers feel it—even if they can’t name why.

5) A realistic production workflow (that doesn’t burn you out)

Here’s a typical pipeline for this style:

Research + outline
- Define the point of the video in one sentence.
- List the 3–6 beats that must land.
Write the script
- Read it out loud while writing.
- Cut anything that sounds like filler.
Record the voiceover
- Even a scratch VO is helpful for timing.
- Animation is much easier when the audio is locked.
Storyboard (very rough)
- Scene-by-scene notes: “big title,” “icon + label,” “simple chart,” etc.
Create assets
- Reusable components: headers, lower-thirds, callouts, arrows, shapes.
Animate / assemble
- Build scenes to match the voiceover beats.
- Keep transitions consistent (don’t invent a new style every 10 seconds).
Sound design + music
- Light SFX for emphasis (swishes, pops, taps).
- Music mixed low enough to never fight the narration.
Final polish
- Check readability (mobile viewers matter).
- Watch once without looking away—any boring section will reveal itself.

6) Recommended tool “combos” (simple and workable)

If you want a clean setup without overthinking:

Template-first: Canva (visuals) + DaVinci Resolve (edit/audio)
Motion design route: After Effects (animation) + Premiere/Resolve (edit) + Figma/Illustrator (assets)
Diagram-heavy / math-y: Manim (animations) + Resolve/Premiere (edit)

The combo matters less than building a repeatable workflow you can actually maintain.

Conclusion

To make videos like these, you’re really building two muscles at once: clear writing and clean visual pacing. Templates can get you publishing quickly, but custom motion graphics is where a distinctive style starts to emerge. Pick a workflow you can repeat weekly, then upgrade tools only when your current setup is actively limiting your ideas.