If you are a marketing manager, product lead, agency producer, founder, or communications team trying to explain a product, service, or process, the hardest part is often not creating more information. It is deciding what your audience actually needs to understand. Complex features, technical language, and too many messages can make a simple idea feel harder than it is. Explainer video production solves that problem by turning one focused message into a clear combination of script, visuals, voiceover, sound, and motion. Scarlet Production can support brands and agencies in Bangkok and across Thailand with planning, live-action production, animation, motion graphics, VFX, post-production, and delivery. If you are still deciding how an explainer fits into your wider content strategy, start with our guide to corporate video production.
What Counts as an Explainer Video?
An explainer video is a short video designed to make a product, service, process, or idea easier to understand.
The important word is explain.
A general product video may focus on features, design, lifestyle, or brand appeal. An explainer has a narrower job: help the viewer understand what something is, how it works, why it matters, or what they should do next.
Explainers can use 2D or 3D animation, motion graphics, live-action footage, presenters, screen recordings, product demonstrations, voiceover, or a mixture of formats.
There is no rule that every explainer must be animated. An explainer is a short animated or live-action video that explains a product, service, or idea. It says 60 to 90 seconds is typical for many explainer projects, while longer videos can make sense when the concept genuinely needs more explanation.
Within the wider types of corporate video, explainers are especially useful when understanding needs to happen before the audience can buy, adopt, invest, train, or take another action.
Animated vs Live-Action Explainer Videos
Neither animation nor live action is automatically better. The right choice depends on what the audience needs to see.
When Animation Is the Right Call
Animation is often the stronger choice when the subject is abstract, digital, technical, invisible, or difficult to film clearly.
Think about a cloud platform, data flow, financial process, software integration, or product that is still being developed. A camera can only show what physically exists. Animation can show the logic behind it.
Animation also gives precise visual control. You can isolate one feature, simplify a dashboard, highlight a process step, zoom inside a product, or remove distracting detail.
For more advanced visualisation, 3D CGI can show mechanisms, environments, products, or effects that would be impractical to capture traditionally. Scarlet’s VFX and CGI services are relevant when an explainer needs custom 3D work, compositing, or visual effects.
When Live Action Works Better
Live action tends to work well when the explanation depends on real people, real environments, a physical product, or human credibility.
A manufacturer may need to show equipment operating in a facility. A hospitality business may need viewers to see the space. A professional service firm may benefit from putting an expert on camera.
If the audience needs to see how a product is handled, installed, operated, or used in context, filming it may communicate the idea more directly.
Live action also brings different production requirements, including locations, crew, lighting, sound, talent, scheduling, equipment, and sometimes permits.
When a Mixed Approach Makes Sense
Some of the clearest explainers combine both.
A presenter can introduce the problem, then motion graphics can visualise the process. A physical product can be filmed while animated callouts identify important features. A software platform can combine screen capture with live-action scenes showing the people who use it.
Hybrid production is useful when the video needs both real-world credibility and visuals for things a camera cannot show.
The Explainer Video Production Process
Professional explainer video production should begin with the communication problem, not the visual style.
First, define the audience, the problem they are trying to solve, and the one thing they should understand by the end. Then develop the concept and script.
Once the script is approved, a storyboard maps the message scene by scene. Animated projects can move into design, illustration, motion graphics, 3D work, or animation. Live-action projects move through pre-production before filming.
Voiceover, music, sound design, editing, colour, graphics, subtitles, and final mastering are then added as required.
For a deeper look at the wider workflow, read the production process.
What Drives the Cost of an Explainer Video?
There is no useful universal price for an explainer video because two videos with the same runtime can require very different amounts of work.
The main cost drivers include:
- Finished length: More runtime usually means more scripting, scenes, design, editing, animation, and sound work.
- Animation style and complexity: Simple motion graphics have different production requirements from custom character animation, detailed 3D modelling, or CGI.
- Live-action scope: Crew size, shoot days, locations, talent, equipment, production design, and logistics can affect the budget.
- Script and storyboard development: A clear, approved message makes production more efficient.
- Voiceover and sound: Voice talent, multiple languages, music licensing, and sound design can expand the scope.
- Revision rounds: Late changes may require new recording, editing, or animation.
- Deliverables: Vertical versions, cutdowns, subtitles, translations, and alternate aspect ratios all add work.
The quotes and turnaround estimates vary widely between production companies. Its current explainer-video service information identifies length, visual style, and complexity as important pricing factors.
Rather than judging a quote by runtime alone, compare what is actually included.
For a broader breakdown of video budgeting factors, see what shapes the cost.
Where Explainer Videos Get Used
Explainer videos are most useful when someone needs to understand something before taking the next step.
Product Launches
A product launch explainer can introduce the problem, show how the product works, and clarify its main value without trying to cover every specification.
SaaS and Customer Onboarding
Software products often involve interfaces, workflows, integrations, or unfamiliar terminology. Animation, screen capture, and voiceover can explain the essential concept without turning the video into a full training manual.
Investor and Stakeholder Presentations
An explainer can give investors or stakeholders a concise visual overview of a business model, technology, process, or product before a more detailed discussion. It should support the underlying evidence, not replace it.
Internal Training and Change Communication
Explainers can help organisations communicate repeatable processes, new systems, workflows, and basic training information consistently. Detailed procedural training may work better as several focused modules.
Crowdfunding and Early-Stage Products
When an idea is new or a physical product is not yet easy to demonstrate, animation or CGI can help communicate how it is intended to work. The video should clearly distinguish between what already exists and what is conceptual.
Sales and Landing Pages
A concise explainer can give prospects a common starting point before a sales conversation or deeper product page, particularly when teams repeatedly answer the same basic question about what a product or service does.
Common Explainer Video Mistakes
Trying to Explain Too Much
An explainer is not a compressed brochure. If the script covers every feature, objection, audience, technical detail, and use case, the main message disappears.
Choosing the Visual Style Before the Message
Starting with “we want animation” or “we want something cinematic” can push the project in the wrong direction. Define the communication problem first.
Writing the Script Too Late
The script is part of the production foundation. Changing a sentence early is simple. Changing the message after scenes have been filmed or animated can create significant rework.
Having No Single Takeaway
Ask one question before production: “What should the viewer be able to explain back to us after watching?” If there is no clear answer, the brief probably needs more work.
Using the Wrong Voice for the Audience
Voiceover should be selected for the audience and context. Tone, pace, language, accent, warmth, and authority can all affect how the message is received.
Leaving Stakeholder Feedback Until the End
Get the right people involved at script and storyboard stage. A storyboard makes visual decisions visible before the most production-intensive stages are complete.
FAQ
How Long Should an Explainer Video Be?
There is no universal ideal length. Many commercial explainer videos are around 60 to 90 seconds, and the range is typical for many projects. The right runtime still depends on message complexity, audience knowledge, and distribution.
The better rule is to make it as short as possible without making the explanation incomplete.
Do I Need Animation, or Can an Explainer Be Live Action?
An explainer can be animated, live action, or a combination of both. Animation is particularly useful for abstract, digital, technical, or difficult-to-film subjects. Live action works well when people, environments, demonstrations, or physical products are important to the explanation.
How Long Does Explainer Video Production Take?
It depends on the scope.
A straightforward project can move faster than custom 3D animation or a live-action production involving multiple locations and approval stages. As one current industry example, a typical animated explainer takes around six weeks through its own process. That is a supplier-specific benchmark, not a universal production standard.
What Is the Purpose of an Explainer Video?
Its purpose is to make one product, service, process, or idea easier for a specific audience to understand. That understanding may support a sale, onboarding, training, investment discussion, product launch, or another next step.
What Topics Work Well for Explainer Videos?
Explainers work particularly well for software, technical products, business processes, complex services, onboarding, internal systems, product launches, data concepts, customer journeys, and subjects that are difficult to communicate with text or live footage alone.
Should I Make an Explainer Video Myself or Hire an Explainer Video Company?
DIY tools can suit simple internal content or rough prototypes where custom production is unnecessary.
Professional explainer video services make more sense when the video is customer-facing, needs original scripting or visual development, requires filming, uses custom animation or CGI, needs professional voiceover and sound, or must be delivered in several formats or languages.
Talk to Scarlet About Your Explainer Video
A strong explainer does not begin with a camera or an animation style. It begins with clarity about what the audience needs to understand.
Scarlet Production can help turn that communication problem into the right production approach, whether the project needs live action, motion graphics, animation, CGI, voiceover, post-production, or a combination of formats.
Explore Scarlet’s corporate video production services and talk to the team about the audience, message, format, and deliverables your explainer video needs.