Whiteboard explainer videos or Scribes, what’s the difference?

There seems to be some confusion regarding the terminology used when it comes to ‘whiteboard-style explainer videos’ or what can sometimes be called ‘writing videos’. The latter seems to be more geared towards the US market, while written videos and whiteboard videos are the same. And this is certainly not to be confused with interactive whiteboards, which is a completely different product, something a school or university would use, certainly not us.

I guess first of all we should define what a written whiteboard or video actually is. In basic terms, this is a video that uses a white background and the ‘animation’ is solely based on seeing a hand holding a marker draw an image in time with a voiceover. The picture is usually a dialogue booster, so it tends to be very literal, and once a scene has been drawn, it pauses for a brief moment to allow the viewer to digest it, and then moves on to drawing a new scene.

Within an average 1 minute whiteboard explainer video, you would normally expect to see around 5-7 main drawings or scenes drawn. This can vary, depending on the level of detail and dialogue points, but it’s usually a good starting point. So, in its truest form and as originally thought, a traditional whiteboard video is simply a hand drawing of black outlines to create scenes, along with a voiceover.

While the end results may appear as though a camera has been used to film someone drawing a ‘live’ scene, this is actually far from the truth. Like 90% of commercially produced whiteboard videos, the software is used to give the “illusion” of an actual hand drawing. The process is actually a bit more complex than the final results suggest, but working digitally allows for greater precision, continuity, and a faster production process.

The hand you see moving across the screen is actually two photos in slightly different positions holding a pen. The pen itself is unbranded and we edit the company logos into the pen to provide that extra element of personalization. The lines that you then see drawn are created using vector graphics software, namely Adobe Illustrator. This allows us to rough out each scene first and then carefully trace with clean, precise vector lines. These digital files are then imported into the whiteboard’s animation software, which then intelligently traces the vector lines, giving the illusion that the lines are being drawn by the hand.

Working this way allows us to make quick changes to the drawings if needed, and makes it easier to sync the drawings with the dialogue, ultimately creating better-quality, more engaging videos.

In the next article, I’ll explore the many subtle differences that start to take a standard whiteboard video in a very different direction, while it has a ‘whiteboard’ look to it, it’s anything but.