Brett LindenbergAn explainer video is a short video that explains one idea, product, process, or policy so a viewer can understand it or act on it. The examples below show the main types: Common Craft's 2007 "RSS in Plain English," a Kurzgesagt science animation, three training series that teams built in Vyond, a library of software walkthroughs, and a support explainer that branches. For each one, we note what to copy and how it applies to training and onboarding. The first example is the demo below, a password reset explainer that asks where you are starting and shows only the steps for that situation.
What makes an explainer video work
The explainers below share four habits. Each one answers a single question, starts from the viewer's problem, lets pictures and narration carry the idea together, and stops when the idea is clear. Research on instructional video supports the last two. A 2016 review by Cynthia Brame in CBE: Life Sciences Education recommends narration over visuals in place of printed text on screen, and it summarizes a study by Guo and colleagues of 6.9 million viewing sessions in four edX courses. In that study, viewers typically watched close to all of a video shorter than 6 minutes and about half of a 9-to-12-minute video.
Viewers also expect explainers. Wyzowl's 2026 video marketing survey asked 266 marketers and consumers in late 2025. Wyzowl reports that 96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service, and that 68% of video marketers have made one. The sample is small, so treat these as rough signals.
If you are still writing, start with our guide on how to write a good script, which includes a one-minute sample script in the two-column A/V format.
7 examples of explainer videos
1. Common Craft, "RSS in Plain English" (2007)
Common Craft posted RSS in Plain English to YouTube on April 23, 2007. It runs 3 minutes 45 seconds. The video's description says it uses an "old vs. new" theme to show how reading the web with RSS differs from visiting each site. Common Craft says its In Plain English series, which started that year, helped spark what is now called the explainer video genre.
What to copy: show the old way first, then the new way. Training teams can use the same structure for any system change, because new hires and existing staff both know the old process and need to see what changes.
2. Kurzgesagt, "The Immune System Explained I" (2014)
Kurzgesagt posted The Immune System Explained I: Bacteria Infection on July 1, 2014. It runs 7 minutes 49 seconds and had 54.6 million views on October 1, 2026. The description introduces the immune system as an army of cells that fights to protect the body.
What to copy: explain a complex system through one comparison the audience already understands, such as an army for the immune system. Note the length. This is a video people choose to watch. A required training explainer on the same topic would need to be much shorter.
3. Quickbase: a customer course told by characters
Quickbase's customer education team rebuilt its introductory course as a series of Vyond videos with an intergalactic theme, in which characters explain basic concepts to each other. Because the course changes with each product release, the team used Vyond's text to speech and AI voices in place of recorded voice-over. Vyond's case study reports that course completion rose from 33% to 68% of learners and that the course's Net Promoter Score rose from 62 to 88. These are vendor-reported figures.
What to copy: let two characters talk through a concept. Quickbase's manager of customer education said in Vyond's case study that concepts explained this way, as part of a story, were more memorable than the same material in text. If the content changes often, choose a voice you can regenerate when the script changes.
4. Advocate Health: a nurse orientation series with a running story
Advocate Health built one orientation program for more than 40,000 nurses across six states. According to Vyond's case study, the six-week series follows an ongoing detective story. Before production, the teams agreed on styles, a color palette, characters, and backgrounds. The videos mix animation with software screenshots and simulations. After three months of development in Vyond and Articulate Storyline, the course launched in March 2025 through the hospital system's Workday LMS.
What to copy: write a short style guide before you make the first video in a series. It keeps a long onboarding series looking like one program, whatever tool you use.
5. Illinois Courts: policy explainers with acceptable and unacceptable examples
Court staff in Illinois must follow the Safe Harbor Policy, which sets out what they can and cannot say to court users. A training specialist with no prior Vyond experience built a video series that shows light-hearted examples of acceptable and unacceptable conversations, then arranged it in Rise 360 with a quiz between videos. Vyond's case study says the series serves court staff across 102 counties.
What to copy: pair every rule with one acceptable and one unacceptable example, and check understanding right after each video. Policy explainers that only state the rule leave the viewer to guess where the line is.
6. Mindstamp tutorials: one task per walkthrough
Our own tutorial library has 27 guided video walkthroughs. Each one covers one part of the product, such as branching, lead capture, or reporting, and its title names that part.
What to copy: for software training, make one explainer per task and name it after the task. Learners find the video they need from a search or a help article. When the interface changes, you re-record one short video instead of a whole course.
7. A support explainer that branches
The demo at the top of this post is a 31-second interactive explainer. At 5 seconds, it asks the viewer to choose one of three situations: "Locked out at sign-in," "Signed in to my account," or "Resetting for a team member." Each choice opens the steps for that situation. A second choice then checks the next action, for example "Open Forgot password" against "Try random passwords." The last screen shows the route the viewer took and the result. We built it with video branching and buttons on one recording.
What to copy: find the first point where your viewers' situations differ and branch there. Everyone else's steps stay out of the way. See the password reset example page for how each route is set up.
Explainer video tools for training teams
You can make an explainer with an animation platform, an AI avatar tool, templates, a freelancer, or an agency. The first table compares four platforms on the features that matter in an enterprise L&D review. We read each vendor's own plans page on October 1, 2026. Plans change often, so confirm with the vendor before you buy.
| Platform | What it makes | AI generation | SCORM export | Brand controls | Single sign-on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vyond | Animated, mixed-media, and AI avatar videos | Vyond Go turns text, a document, a script, or a URL into a video, on all four plans | Enterprise and Agency plans | Brand Kit on Enterprise and Agency plans | Enterprise plan |
| Powtoon | Animated videos and presentations | "AI Anything to Video," AI avatars (HeyGen), and text to speech (ElevenLabs) on paid plans | Its enterprise page lists "SCORM and xAPI export to your LMS" | "Corporate branding toolkit & management" on Enterprise | Enterprise plan |
| Synthesia | AI avatar presenter videos | Avatar videos from a script; translation into more than 80 languages on Enterprise | Enterprise plan | Brand Kits on Enterprise | Enterprise plan |
| HeyGen | AI avatar and video translation | Avatar videos from a script; translation into 175 languages and dialects on paid plans | Business plan and up | Brand kit on paid plans | Business plan and up |
Most searches that bring readers to this page mention Vyond. Vyond calls itself an "enterprise-ready video creation platform." Its template library includes styles, settings, characters, and props, and its home page says Vyond Go is suited to explainers, sales enablement, and training. All four Vyond plans export 1080p MP4 video. Brand Kit and SCORM export start on the Enterprise plan, and single sign-on is listed on Enterprise only.
Powtoon, Synthesia, and HeyGen each also list some built-in interactivity. Powtoon's enterprise page lists "Quizzing & branching (beta)," Synthesia's Pro plan lists interactive videos, and HeyGen's Business plan lists interactive video with quizzes and links. If interaction is the main reason you are buying, compare those features with a dedicated interactive layer, covered below.
Other ways to produce an explainer
| Route | Example | Who writes and builds it | What you need in-house |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design tool with video | Canva | Your team, from templates | A script and someone comfortable with design tools. Canva's app listing describes a video editor and a large template library. |
| Motion templates | VideoHive (Envato), Motion Array | Your editor, starting from a purchased or subscribed template | After Effects or Premiere Pro skills, plus your own voice-over |
| Freelancer | Upwork | A freelancer you hire through the marketplace | A clear brief, a budget, and time to review drafts |
| Agency | Wyzowl | The agency, from script to animation | A brief and reviewers. Wyzowl says its price includes scriptwriting, custom graphics, voice-over, music, and animation, with fixed prices, fixed delivery dates, and unlimited revisions. |
Motion Array sells a subscription with unlimited downloads of video templates, presets, and other assets, while VideoHive sells templates as individual items. Upwork describes itself as a work marketplace where businesses hire independent professionals. Wyzowl calls itself "the explainer video company" and has offered fixed-price explainers since 2011. For a wider look at budgets, in-house teams, and agencies, see our guide to video production for corporate training.
How to make an explainer video you can measure
A finished explainer tells you how many people pressed play. It does not tell you who understood it. In two of the examples above, the check sat outside the video: Illinois Courts placed a quiz between videos in Rise 360, and Advocate Health built its course in Articulate Storyline around the Vyond videos. That approach works, and it keeps the quiz in an authoring tool the team already uses. You can also put the check inside the video, at the moment the idea is taught.
Mindstamp adds that layer to a video you already have, including an MP4 exported from any tool in this post. It also connects directly to Synthesia and HeyGen videos. Here is how we would set up a training explainer:
- Add a multiple-choice question right after the explanation it tests. Questions pause the video, and you can require an answer before playback continues.
- Send a wrong answer back to the explanation, or to a short clip that explains the point another way, with video branching.
- For software explainers, put a hotspot on the button or field the narration names, so the learner clicks the control on screen.
- Deliver it in your LMS as a SCORM 1.2 or 2004 package on supported plans. The LMS records completion and a score, and Mindstamp records each answer by learner. Our help article on LMS compatibility explains what each delivery method records.
For an onboarding program, see how teams use this for interactive onboarding training, and our guide to employee training videos for formats beyond explainers.
Common questions
Does Vyond provide an online platform that L&D teams and marketers use to make explainer and training videos without animation skills?
Yes. Vyond is a video creation platform that you sign up for on its website, with a free trial. Its templates come with characters, settings, and props, and Vyond Go drafts a video from text, a document, or a URL. Vyond's case studies describe an online retailer whose instructional designers, without a creative background, produced training videos within weeks, and the Illinois Courts training specialist above, who had not used Vyond before.
Vyond vs. Powtoon: which fits an enterprise L&D team that needs SCORM export, AI generation, and brand template management?
Both cover all three on their enterprise tiers. Vyond lists SCORM export and Brand Kit on its Enterprise and Agency plans, and Vyond Go on every plan. Powtoon's enterprise page lists SCORM and xAPI export, and its Enterprise plan lists a corporate branding toolkit, corporate templates, and single sign-on. Powtoon's paid plans include AI video generation, AI avatars, and text to speech. Ask each vendor for a trial with your own brand assets and LMS, and compare the exported SCORM package in a test course.
Can you make product explainers with Vyond?
Yes. Vyond's home page offers "Product Launch" and "Explainer Video" as starting prompts for Vyond Go, and its template categories include marketing as well as eLearning. For a product explainer, start with the problem your buyer has, show the product solving it, and end with one call to action. Our free explainer video script generator drafts that structure scene by scene.
Can corporate training teams export Vyond videos as SCORM for LMS delivery?
Yes, on Vyond's Enterprise and Agency plans, which list "SCORM Export" for uploading a video to an LMS as a SCORM package. On the Starter and Professional plans, export an MP4 instead. You can upload that MP4 to your LMS as a video, or add questions to it in Mindstamp and export a SCORM 1.2 or 2004 package, on supported plans, that reports completion and a score.
Which AI tools can produce a consistent series of onboarding explainers, one for each module of our software?
Vyond Go, Powtoon's AI video generation, Synthesia, and HeyGen can all draft videos from a script, and Vyond Go and Powtoon also start from a document. Consistency comes from decisions you make before you generate anything: one template, one voice or avatar, one script structure, and one naming pattern. Advocate Health agreed on its styles, palette, characters, and backgrounds before it built the series. For software modules, add screen recordings of the real interface, because generated scenes cannot show your product's current screens.
How do I get an explainer video with a quick turnaround?
Draft it yourself with an AI generation feature, then spend the saved time on review. The slow steps are usually the script and the approvals. Vyond's case study about a global consulting firm reports that the firm cut its proposal video turnaround from up to 10 weeks with outside agencies to 48 hours after it moved production in-house with Vyond Go. An agency can work quickly too if you send a finished script and name one approver.
How long should an explainer video be?
Aim for the shortest video that answers the one question. Our explainer script generator targets 60 to 90 seconds for most product explainers. Mindstamp platform data points the same way: across 8.07 million views of 18,315 Mindstamp videos (2018 to October 2026), videos of 1 minute or less averaged 59.4% watched, compared with 39.2% for videos of 2 to 5 minutes. These are mostly training, marketing, and sales videos made by Mindstamp customers, and many factors differ between them, so treat this as a pattern.
Where should I put an explainer video?
Put it where the viewer meets the problem it explains:
- The help center article for the same task, above the written steps
- The first screen of a new feature or app
- The onboarding email that introduces the task
- The LMS course module, as a SCORM package or embed
- The product or landing page that makes the claim
- A sales follow-up email after a demo
- The internal wiki page for a policy or process
Who makes the best-known explainer videos?
We do not know of an independent ranking. On YouTube, two widely watched producers are Common Craft, whose founders say they helped start the genre in 2007, and Kurzgesagt, whose immune system video above has more than 54 million views. Wyzowl, an explainer agency, says it has made more than 4,000 videos for more than 2,000 companies since 2011. Vyond's case studies are a good source of training explainers from organizations such as Advocate Health and Quickbase.
To start, pick one process your learners or customers get wrong most often and write a 60-to-90-second script for it. Show the old way and the new way, or one acceptable and one unacceptable example. Then add one question at the point where people go wrong today, and check the answers after the first week.
Sources and further reading
- Brame, C. J. (2016). Effective educational videos: principles and guidelines for maximizing student learning from video content. CBE: Life Sciences Education, 15(4), es6. Read the article on PubMed Central.
- Vyond plans and features: vyond.com/plans (checked October 1, 2026).
- Powtoon enterprise features: powtoon.com/enterprise (checked October 1, 2026).
- Vidito: how to make viral videos, a guide to opening hooks and shareability for social video.
