Types of explainer videos: eight styles and when each one works

Why the style matters

The style of an explainer is not decoration. It decides what the viewer can see. A payment moving between two banks is easy to draw and impossible to film. A founder’s welcome is the opposite. Picking the wrong style means fighting it for the whole film.

So start from the question: what does the viewer need to see to understand this? Then pick the style that shows it most simply.

The eight types of explainer videos

1. Motion graphics

Designed elements in motion: type, shapes, icons, charts, diagrams and the product’s own screens or packshots. Motion graphics are the default for products, data and processes because they can show anything a designer can draw, in the brand’s own colours and type.

Best for: SaaS and app explainers, launch films, feature announcements, fintech flows, anything with numbers.

2. Illustrated story (cut paper and flat illustration)

A small world drawn in a consistent style, often with a simple character the viewer can identify with, a girl at a window on a cold night or a boy paying by phone. Textures like cut paper make it feel warm and human.

Best for: everyday science, money and health topics, audiences new to a subject, education.

3. 2D character animation

Characters who move, talk and act out a scene, often with lip sync. It takes the most animation work of the drawn styles, and it is the right choice when the story is about people and how they behave.

Best for: training scenarios, customer stories, behaviour change.

4. Whiteboard animation

A hand draws the explanation on a white surface as the narrator speaks. The drawing itself is the point: the viewer watches the idea being built.

Best for: step-by-step teaching, simple models, internal training.

5. Kinetic typography

Words themselves move, scale and land on the beat of the voice. With few or no pictures, the type carries the rhythm and the emphasis.

Best for: manifestos, short announcements, hooks for social, ideas that live in a phrase.

6. Screencast

A recording of a screen, usually with zooms and callouts, showing exactly where to click. It is the most literal style and the fastest to make when the software already exists.

Best for: click-by-click tutorials, onboarding, support articles.

7. Live action

People and places filmed with a camera. Trust that rests on a real person, a founder, a doctor, a teacher, comes through best this way.

Best for: founder messages, testimonials, physical products in use.

8. AI presenter

A generated or cloned person reading a script to camera, sometimes in many languages. It brings a face to a script without a shoot.

Best for: training at scale, internal updates, paid social ads built around a presenter.

Explainer video types compared

Type	What the viewer sees	Best for	What takes the time
Motion graphics	Type, shapes, charts, product screens	Products, data, processes	Design and animation of every shot
Illustrated story	A drawn world with simple characters	Everyday science, money, education	Illustration and scene building
2D character animation	Characters who act and talk	Training scenarios, stories about people	Character rigging and acting
Whiteboard	A hand drawing the idea	Step-by-step teaching	Drawing to the voice
Kinetic typography	Words that move with the voice	Short announcements, manifestos	Timing type to every word
Screencast	A real screen with callouts	Software tutorials	Recording and editing clicks
Live action	Real people and places	Trust that rests on a person	Planning, shooting, editing
AI presenter	A generated person reading to camera	Training at scale, presenter ads	Script and voice choices

Bottom line: if your idea is a product, a number or a process, use motion graphics. If it is an everyday topic for a newcomer, an illustrated story. If it is a sequence of clicks, a screencast. If it is about trusting a person, film that person.

How to choose, in three questions

1. Is the subject something you can film? If not, money moving, heat flowing, data syncing, it needs a drawn style.
2. Is it about a product, or about people? Products and systems suit motion graphics; behaviour and relationships suit characters.
3. Who is watching, and how much do they know? Newcomers relax with a warm illustrated story; experts want the clean, exact look of motion graphics and real screens.

The styles Voom makes

Voom makes three of these styles from a prompt or a product link, and chooses between them for each film’s topic and mood:

• Motion graphics, for products and processes, as in the Zyflow SaaS explainer, built from the product’s own screens.
• Illustrated cut-paper stories, for everyday topics, as in the heat pump film at the end of this page and the UPI payment explainer.
• Kinetic typography, where the type carries the film, as in Voom’s own launch film.

Every film comes with a voice-over in one of 20 voices that speak more than 20 languages, an original score, sound effects and optional captions, in 16:9, 9:16, 1:1 or 4:5. To plan one from start to finish, read how to make an explainer video.