Whiteboard explainer videos with AI: script to finished cut

When the whiteboard style is the right choice

Structure the script in five parts

• Problem: the situation or question, in one or two scenes.
• Cause: why it happens. This is where the drawings do the most work.
• Solution or mechanism: what changes or how the thing works.
• Steps or example: a concrete case, drawn step by step.
• Recap: the whole board in one frame, with the key words circled.

Words and drawings per scene

• Narration: 12 to 25 words per scene.
• Written words on the board: five or fewer per scene, usually a label or a single key term.
• Drawings: one main sketch per scene, plus arrows or small icons that connect it to the last scene.
• Text size on a 1920 by 1080 board: labels 64 to 96 px, key terms 110 to 150 px. On a vertical 1080 by 1920 board, use the same pixel sizes and fewer words per line.
• Handwriting style: a clean print font that looks hand-lettered. Script fonts are hard to read at speed.

Drawing speed, pacing and color

• Draw-on time: 1 to 3 seconds per sketch. Faster than one second looks like a cut. Slower than three feels sluggish.
• Timing: finish the sketch a beat before the narrator says the key word, so the eye arrives first.
• Hold: at least one second on the finished scene before the board moves.
• Transitions: pan across one long board, or wipe to a clean board every three or four scenes. Panning helps viewers remember where ideas sit.
• Color: black marker plus one accent color for the idea that matters, and a second accent only for contrast such as before and after. Red for problems and green for solutions is common, but add labels so colorblind viewers are not lost.

A full 60-second example script

• Scene 1 · A house with a snowflake outside. Board text: “Heat from cold air?” VO: “A heat pump warms your home using heat from the cold air outside. That sounds impossible, so let’s draw it.” Try it
• Scene 2 · Outdoor unit with arrows pulling in. Text: “Outside air.” VO: “Even cold air holds some heat energy.”
• Scene 3 · A pipe loop with liquid labeled “refrigerant.” VO: “A fluid called refrigerant runs in a loop. It boils at very low temperatures, so outside air can warm it into a gas.” Try it
• Scene 4 · A box labeled “compressor” squeezing the gas. Text: “Squeeze = hotter.” VO: “A compressor squeezes that gas, which makes it much hotter.”
• Scene 5 · Hot pipe inside the house, wavy heat lines. Text: “Heat released.” VO: “Indoors, the hot gas gives its heat to the air or water in your home.” Try it
• Scene 6 · Gas cools back to liquid, loop closes. VO: “As it cools, it turns back into a liquid and heads outside to start again.”
• Scene 7 · The same loop with arrows reversed and a sun. Text: “Summer: reverse.” VO: “In summer, many heat pumps run the loop backwards and cool the house instead.”
• Scene 8 · Pull back to the full board. Circle “refrigerant,” “compressor,” “loop.” VO: “Refrigerant, a compressor and a loop. That’s the whole trick.”
• Scene 9 · End card: “Follow for more how-it-works.”

Making it in ClickPop

Mistakes to avoid

• Writing the whole narration on the board. Write labels, not sentences.
• Drawings that finish after the narrator has moved on.
• Too many colors. The board stops looking like a whiteboard.
• A script that lists facts with no question to answer.
• No recap frame. The final full board is what people remember and screenshot.