What is a Scribble Video

Explainer Videos style to communicate complex topics

We all know that there are different types of explainer videos: laying trick, whiteboard animation video, motion graphics, comic style, 2D, 3D, mixed media... and scribble videos.

But what is a scribble video?

Scribble Video – a quick introduction to the scribble style

Why are our explanatory videos called “Scribble Video”?
The right images in your head – a little digression
- Create scribble video = whiteboard animation?
- Explanatory video from Walt Disney: “Laugh-O-Gram”
- Another successful explanatory film: La Linea, “The Lineman”
- Form follows function – also important when creating explanatory videos
Production of a scribble video
- Why is Scribble Video Style so easy?
- Complex or complicated – reducing complexity
- Creating a scribble video means telling a story
- The hero's journey in less than three minutes
- Have your own scribble video created: Function of colors
- How is an explainer video animated in scribble style?
- And at the end of the video there is always a call to action
Have an explanatory video created: Scribble video step by step
Everything understood in a minute – one of our success stories

Why are our explanatory videos called “Scribble Videos”?

The year is 2014. The idea of developing our own style for explanatory videos arose in a marketing and communications agency. He should be reduced, expressive and likeable. Reduced to keep the viewer's attention focused on the message in the video. Expressive to convey emotions and tell a story. And likeable, able to explain even very dry topics with a wink and make the viewer smile.

After some labor-intensive time, the style with which you want to draw your own explanatory films is designed. This is followed by optimization for simple and attractive animation in the individual film scenes. Pilot projects then show that the style works very well and is well received by customers.

Scribble Video - because it simply works

Now the child needs a name. Simple, not too short, not too long - a name that is easy to remember and also describes the style! After a lot of research (the most obvious one in English was “Scribe Video”), extensive brainstorming and even more consideration, the name was decided: Scribble Video.

Up until this point the name had not been in common use and it sounded good. Today, scribble videos are widely known and have become synonymous with hand-drawn explainer videos.

The right images in your head – a short excursion into successful whiteboard videos

Create scribble video = whiteboard animation?

A scribble video is often equated with whiteboard animation. And that's right, that's where the roots of this style lie.

A whiteboard animation in its original form is created when a presenter visually captures the key points of their presentation on a whiteboard while they speak. A whiteboard animation visualizes individual terms and actions and visually relates them to each other. Since all the pictures remain on the board, at the end you have an overall picture of the lecture, a good memory aid to remember what you have heard.

A scribble video works a little differently. The illustrations here are also created by a hand drawing on a digital whiteboard, but a story is told scene by scene that develops from it. This development is important because a story awakens the viewer's natural curiosity and helps to anchor the information conveyed in their memory.

Explanatory video from Walt Disney: “Laugh-O-Gram”

Can scribble videos convey emotions? As is well known, it is not enough to just achieve a rational understanding from the audience; you also have to reach them emotionally so that they can take action. Every video has a goal and wants to get the viewer to take action. Aren't scribble videos too simple to convey emotions?

This question answers itself if you know who actually “invented” these types of videos: It was Walt Disney. In the early 1920s, Disney produced small cartoons that played in theaters and called them “Laugh-O-Grams.” He was happy to mix live-action and animated films. Sometimes he simply filmed his hand drawing cartoons on current topics at the time. It was exciting and entertaining at the same time – and without a doubt also emotional!

With a scribble video you are not limited to images or actions from the real world, but have a range of artistic possibilities for fictional storytelling. Any setting can be created with illustrations; there are no limits to your imagination. Whether under water or on the moon, unicorn or jack of all trades, nothing is impossible.

Another successful explanatory film: La Linea, “The Lineman”

When you said this, didn't you think of La Linea, “The Lineman”? The adventures of the “Line Man” were drawn by the Italian cartoonist Osvaldo Cavandoli between 1969 and 1986.

“The big-nosed, very emotional, often nagging white lineman is constantly presented with new challenges by his creator, whose drawing hand can occasionally be seen, or has to free himself from hopeless situations. The entire scenery - including animal, human or objective "adversaries" - usually arises from a continuous line that runs horizontally out of the picture to the right and left." Wikipedia, La Linea

For the sake of interest, here is a short excursion into the creation of La Linea (from: Wikipedia, La Linea):

La Linea was invented in 1969 when Osvaldo Cavandoli was looking for a graphic concept for a commercial on behalf of the Italian kitchen appliance manufacturer Lagostina. As a trained cartoonist, he was looking for a new idea that would throw everything previous overboard: simplicity and straight lines instead of color and details. All that was important to him was constant action and movement:

“So I stared at the white paper and started doodling. My hand with the pen was constantly moving, drawing lines in front of my eyes. When I looked at the lines as a whole, I realized that the best idea was to reduce everything to a single line and to express everything I wanted to tell with that one line.”

Form follows function – also important when creating animated videos

In order to explain complex connections and topics simply, simplicity is the key. A little excursion into the history of design:

The expression “form follows function” originally comes from architecture and is part of “a famous saying by the American architect and main representative of the Chicago School, Louis Sullivan, one of the first great high-rise architects.

“Sullivan developed the form of the tall steel skyscraper in late 19th-century Chicago at a time when technology, taste and economic forces converged to make it necessary to break with established styles. If the form of the building was not to be chosen from the old pattern book, something had to dictate the form, and according to Sullivan this should be the purpose of the building. 'Form follows function', as opposed to 'form follows tradition'." (translated from English Wikipedia article)

From this we can conclude that if something is to be explained simply, the images used must also be kept simple.

Create a scribble video to make complex topics understandable - communication made very simple

Why is Scribble Video Style so easy?

Simple, reduced illustrations offer the following advantage: the simpler the object is represented, the less effort the brain needs to process the image and relate it to other things.

Since a scribble video, by its very nature, leaves out the superfluous - everything has to be drawn in front of the viewer's eyes - the conception of a scribble video requires very precise preliminary considerations. What is important must be clearly differentiated from what is unimportant. It is precisely this condensation of a topic that is the goal that one wants to achieve. An explanatory video should be short and get to the point. Scribble videos are the optimal medium for this.

Complex or complicated – reducing complexity

A scribble video is always a simplification, a compression: only the crucial facts and processes are recorded. However, facts that are not absolutely necessary for understanding can be omitted.

This is where the genius of a scribble video shows itself: it only shows the essentials in order to explain a topic in an easy-to-understand manner. Accordingly, the preparation of a complex topic requires intelligent consideration. It is much easier to tell all the details of a process or procedure than to limit yourself to the common thread and an appropriate framework. It's about getting to the core of your service or product and putting everything else aside.

The French mathematician Blaise Pascal wrote: “I made this letter longer because I didn’t have the time to make it shorter.”

Producing a scribble video means telling a story

ood explanatory videos tell an exciting story that the viewer can identify with. Because a story awakens people's natural curiosity and helps to easily anchor the information to be conveyed in one's memory.

Telling stories is part of human history. From cave paintings to Shakespeare, from Aesop's fables to Hollywood blockbusters, storytelling has been used to inform, entertain and move people. The big global players Apple, Coca Cola and Co. have also recognized this and use storytelling in their image campaigns.

Many memo techniques are also based on this principle.

That's why a scribble video always tells a story, if at all possible, according to the concept of the classic hero's journey.

The hero's journey in less than three minutes

The hero's journey in its “original form” goes back to Joseph John Campbell , professor of mythology. In his book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” (published in 1949), Campbell looks at the fairy tales, myths and religions of various cultures. He discovers the hero's journey as the essence of these many stories. It is the structure of the most successful stories, which are still quoted and have moved people even after centuries. In the first part of his book he defines the hero's journey in 17 steps.

Christopher Vogler used Joseph Campbell's insights for his work as a screenwriter. Vogler is a respected teacher in the field of screenwriting.

He optimized Campbell's hero's journey for the film industry. His book The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers (published in 1992) is one of the best-known guides for screenwriters and filmmakers. He worked for well-known production companies such as Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures. His filmography includes films such as The Lion King and 10,000 BC

He shortens the hero's journey to 12 phases :

1. The hero in his familiar surroundings

2. Call to adventure

3. Refusal to follow the call

4. Meeting with the mentor

5. Crossing the first threshold

6. Trials, Allies and Enemies

7. The goal within reach

8. The final battle

9. The reward

10. The way back

11. The Resurrection

12. The return with the elixir

Scribble Video summarizes the hero's journey in 5 scenarios . This makes it possible to accommodate this proven form of storytelling in less than 3 minutes:

1. Initial situation

2. The problem arises

3. Helpful intervention from a mentor

4. Conquering the problem

5. Happy ending: Reaching the goal with reward and call-to-action

Have your own scribble video created: Function of colors

Like a whiteboard video, Scribble videos usually draw in black on a white background. But you can also do it the other way around and have the hand-drawn images appear in white on a black background - this is the slate effect.

A scribble video always takes your corporate design into account, both in terms of colors and fonts. If you already have your own drawn figures, these can also be integrated.

Color accents are used specifically when creating scribble videos. Above all for emphasis, for a better understanding of the togetherness - for example the company color as a splash of color in the clothing of the company representatives - and to indicate moods. Also to structure and order things even more clearly.

How is an explainer video animated in scribble style?

A scribble video is created in real time by a drawing hand, which maintains the curiosity and thus the attention of the audience.

The scribble images can also be moved onto the drawing surface by hand, you can fade them in and out so that the facial expressions or movements of the protagonists look like they are in a flip book, you can erase parts of a scene... Whatever is needed at the moment without distracting from the core message.

How to create an explanatory video: An Scribble video step by step

Creating a scribble video takes place in four steps.

You brief us using a briefing questionnaire and other targeted documents. We will then carefully familiarize ourselves with your matter and clarify any open questions in a re-briefing by telephone or Zoom meeting.
We create a professional storyboard with illustrations and the narrator's text, always keeping the hero's journey in mind.
You give us feedback on the storyboard, make corrections where necessary, and if everything is right, you give us approval for production.
We create your scribble video with a professional voice-over and royalty-free background music, animate it and deliver the video to you in the formats you require.

Complete!