[Screenshot of Explaindio main interface]
Creating professional-looking animated explainer and whiteboard videos doesn‘t have to cost a fortune or take weeks of training to learn complicated software. Explaindio Video Creator 2.0 promises an easy and affordable way to produce impressive marketing and training videos by combining animation, text, images, video clips, and voiceover. But does it deliver on those claims?
In this in-depth Explaindio review, I put version 2.0 of the software through its paces to discover its true capabilities, limitations, and ideal use cases. By the end, you‘ll know if this is the right explainer video tool for your needs and budget.
What is Explaindio Video Creator?
Explaindio Video Creator is a Windows and Mac desktop software application for creating animated videos. Its key features include:
- Drag-and-drop scenes and timeline
- Libraries of pre-made characters, props, images, video clips and music tracks
- Import your own media files
- 2D and 3D animation effects
- Text editing and animations
- Voice recording or import
- Export to MP4 in up to 1080p resolution
The software is primarily aimed at marketers, educators and trainers who want to create professional-looking explainer videos without needing to be an animation expert.
Explaindio 2.0 Pricing
Explaindio has a simple pricing model – it costs $67 for a 1-year license, or $97 for a lifetime license. The license lets you install and activate the software on up to two computers.
Unlike many other video tools, there is no free trial of Explaindio. However, it does come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. So you can purchase with confidence knowing you can get a refund if you‘re not happy with the product.
Compared to alternatives, Explaindio is very affordable. Similar tools like VideoScribe ($168/year) and Doodly ($468 one-time) cost 2-5X more. The closest competitor on price would be MySimpleShow ($99/year).
While I always like to see a free trial option, I believe Explaindio provides good value for money overall. The one-year license is ideal for those with a short-term need for explainer videos, while the lifetime license is great for ongoing use.
Ease of Use
When you first launch Explaindio, the interface can seem a bit overwhelming. There are tons of buttons, menus and panels crammed into the single window:
[Screenshot of cluttered UI]
However, looks can be deceiving. The drag-and-drop, timeline-based interface is actually quite intuitive once you spend a few minutes orienting yourself. I was able to create my first simple video within about 15 minutes of tinkering around.
That said, to take full advantage of Explaindio‘s more advanced features, expect to spend a few hours working through the tutorials and practicing. Some key concepts to wrap your head around are:
- Scenes vs Timeline – You build your video with multiple scenes, each containing animations that you control on the timeline
- Animating objects – Every object you add to the canvas can be animated in various ways by clicking it and using the Animation panel
- 3D Positioning – 3D objects can be rotated and moved in 3D space using the X, Y, Z axes
- Asset Libraries – Explaindio comes with built-in libraries of templates, characters, props, images, videos and music tracks to build your video
While you can certainly create videos by just using the pre-made assets, to unlock the full potential you‘ll want to import your own images, videos and music too.
The interface could be more intuitive, but overall I found Explaindio fairly quick to learn. The depth of possibilities does require some upfront learning to master. But for basic videos, most people should be able to jump right in.
Templates & Characters
Explaindio comes with a good selection of pre-made video templates, 2D characters, 3D models, props, images, video clips and music tracks to get you started:
- 83 2D Cartoon Characters
- 25 3D Zing Characters
- 163 2D Zing Characters
- 75 Video Templates
- 70 Background Videos
- Hundreds of images and props
- 100+ Music Tracks
Having a library of assets like this is table stakes for an explainer video app. And Explaindio‘s selection is solid.
In particular, I was impressed by the variety and quality of the cartoon characters:
[Image of cartoon characters]
There‘s a good mix of male and female characters of different ages and ethnicities in various poses. Using these as a starting point, you can create professional-looking character videos without needing to be an artist.
The video templates are also well-designed and sensibly organized into categories like intros, outros, text callouts, image holders and transition effects.
However, the 3D characters are very limited and look quite dated. The background videos are pretty cheesy too (think people hi-fiving or shaking hands).
It‘s nice that Explaindio includes some assets to work with out of the box. The 2D characters and many templates are high-quality and useful. But you‘ll probably want to use your own videos and images beyond the limited built-in options.
Animations and Timeline
The real power of Explaindio is in the flexibility of animating objects on the timeline. Pretty much any asset you add to your project can be animated in multiple ways.
For example, you can animate text:
- Type on/off effects to have words appear/disappear one character at a time
- Move text around the screen
- Change size, color and rotation
- Apply entrance and exit animations like fading, scaling or flipping
Similar options are available for images and characters. Plus you can draw paths for objects to follow, change their layer order, and set precise timings for animations down to 0.1 second level on the timeline.
This level of control is impressive. Far beyond what most competing explainer tools offer. With some creativity, you can create highly engaging animations. Almost to the level of what you could do in high-end tools like Adobe After Effects.
But this power comes with complexity. The animation options are scattered across different right-click menus and panels. It takes some hunting around to figure out what‘s possible.
[Screenshot of convoluted animation options]
The timeline works well though. It‘s easy to see exactly when each object appears and animate multiple objects simultaneously.
Import Media & Custom Assets
As mentioned, you‘ll probably want to use your own images, videos, music and voiceovers to create unique explainer videos. Explaindio makes it pretty simple to import most common file types into your project:
- Images: PNG, JPG, BMP, TIF
- Videos: MP4, WMV, MOV
- Audio: MP3, WAV
- Fonts: TTF
Importing is generally as easy as clicking the relevant button on the timeline and selecting the file.
One quirk to watch out for is that you can‘t import multiple files at once. For example, importing a dozen images requires a dozen individual import clicks. Not a huge deal but adds some unnecessary tedium.
You can also copy and paste graphics directly from PowerPoint:
[Animated GIF of copying from PPT and pasting in Explaindio]
So if you already have slides or graphics created, it‘s easy to bring them over and incorporate into an Explaindio video.
In addition, Explaindio includes integrations with two free stock media libraries – Pixabay for images and Videvo for video clips. This makes it super handy to find and add relevant visuals to your project with just a few clicks:
[GIF of searching and adding stock images]
With all these input methods combined, it‘s pretty painless to assemble the raw media ingredients you need. Then you can focus on the creative work of animating them together into an compelling video.
Voiceovers and Audio
Voiceovers and background music can make or break an explainer video. Unfortunately, this is one of the weaker areas of Explaindio.
First, the selection of built-in background music tracks are very limited and not great quality. Maybe I‘m just picky, but they sound cheap and cheesy. Like the CD that came free with my first video editing program 20+ years ago.
Explaindio completely lacks any text-to-speech capability, which is now standard in most competing tools. This is a big omission that means every video project requires manually recording voiceover or paying someone to do it for you.
You can record voiceovers directly in Explaindio. But the options are extremely basic. There‘s no editing, noise reduction, or any effects whatsoever. Just record and done.
My recommendation is to record and edit audio externally in Audacity (free) or Adobe Audition (paid) and import the final files into your project. It‘s an extra step but will give you much more professional results.
The same goes for music. Plan on using stock music sites or having custom tracks made. Don‘t rely on Explaindio‘s built-in audio options.
Video Export & Sharing
When you‘re ready to share your creation with the world, Explaindio provides a good set of options for exporting your video.
You can export in resolutions up to full HD 1080p and choose between three quality/file size options. I always opted for the highest quality setting and was impressed by the crisp results. Even with lots of animations, the exported videos looked smooth and professional.
One export feature I really appreciated was the ability to easily add a custom watermark:
[Screenshot of watermark settings]
Entering a logo, adjusting the size and positioning it on the video took just a few seconds. Great for brand building and reducing the risk of viewers stealing/reusing your video without permission.
Once exported, you‘ll need to upload the resulting MP4 video file to a hosting service like YouTube, Vimeo or Wistia for sharing. Unfortunately there‘s no way to publish directly from Explaindio to these platforms. A direct publishing integration would be a welcome addition.
Customer Support & Training
Explaindio provides several support options including:
- Built-in tutorials and help files
- Searchable knowledge base
- Support ticket system
I submitted a couple test support tickets with questions during my review period. The response time averaged around 16 hours, which is decent but not great. The replies themselves were a bit terse but did directly address my questions.
The built-in tutorials were hit or miss. Some were quite detailed and helpful, like the 7-part Getting Started series. Others were just short, simplistic overview videos.
Searching the knowledge base was more useful. It returned relevant, detailed articles for most of my how-to queries.
Overall, the support and training materials are sufficiently helpful to get you unstuck. But don‘t expect highly personalized service or Netflix-quality training video production values.
Final Verdict
Explaindio Video Creator 2.0 is a powerful, affordable tool for creating professional whiteboard and animated explainer videos. The extensive animation capabilities provide a lot of creative flexibility. And the libraries of templates, characters and graphics are a helpful starting point.
However, the workflow and interface to access all those features could be streamlined. Expect to invest some time in the beginning to learning and take full advantage of the possibilities. The audio capabilities are also quite limited.
If you‘re looking to create explainer videos with advanced animations, Explaindio is definitely worth considering – especially given its very affordable one-time pricing. You‘ll just need to be willing to put in some upfront learning time and source quality audio elsewhere.
For simpler explainer videos with less customization, a web-based tool like VideoScribe or MySimpleShow may be easier to use. And for full control over every detail, you‘re still better off investing in Adobe After Effects or Apple Motion.
But for many solopreneurs, marketers and educators, Explaindio hits a real sweet spot of power and value for producing attention-grabbing animated videos.