Explainer Videos Explained

An explainer video is a very short animated video, usually between 1 to 3 minutes, used to introduce or describe an idea, project, company, website or product. The explainer video, is usually done in a simple motion graphic and often cartoon style, with a narrator, background music, & sound effects.

What I provide, that sets me apart from the competition, is that I draw all original art from scratch. Yes, you can find sixty-second animations online for $499, but they are all based on templates and pre-drawn characters and libraries of syndicated clipart. What I draw is something new and original every time, custom designed to meet every client's needs, exactly.

Over the last four decades, I have had to re-invent myself to meet the ever changing commercial art market, while still trying to maintain the right balance of practical skills and ever growing digital wizardry. Explainer videos encompass many of the skills I have spent decades honing, and now, with almost ten years of experience in this field, I feel purpose built and ready to break out into the broader business myself.

In the last ten years Ive worked for a variety of clients, but most of them were the larger "whiteboard" animation studios who were charging their clients at least $10,000-$20,000 per minute, for work I was being paid $400-$800 for. Not that I minded cutting my teeth on this new niche, but it became quickly tiresome as the client representatives were generally young salespeople who knew nothing about the animation process and would frequently mis-interpret a client's vision, because they didn't want me to talk directly to them. There are exceptions, perhaps, but for the most part, this was my experience with four of the major companies I worked through. All of them also insisted that I not ever use their work in portfolio's, so I had to work doubly hard to build a body of work to finally show.

That time has come and I present http://www.markgiles.com