Explainer Video Maker: Growing Demand and How to Start

The client's entire reply was three words: "this works great." Behind that message sat nine hours of work, three of which went into one bounce animation on a logo that refused to look smooth no matter how many times I adjusted the easing curve.

Rs 3,100 for that 45-second video. First time it actually felt like explainer videos might be a real skill worth building, something I hadn't taken seriously before that project.

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From editing videos for friends to actual client work

Video editing was already familiar territory, small YouTube edits done for free for friends over the years. Then a startup founder I knew asked, almost casually, "could you make one of those explainer videos for my landing page?"

I'd seen explainer videos before but never made one. Said yes without really knowing how technical it would turn out to be.

Opened Canva, saw it had video templates, assumed that would make things simple. It didn't, not by a long shot.

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The first attempt was rough

Gave myself three days for that friend's project. Wrote a script, tried basic Canva animation, and the result looked cheap, like a template someone had barely touched.

He gave honest, gentle feedback: "feels a little amateur." He wasn't wrong, I could see it too.

Actually, that project never got paid, it was purely practice for a friend. What it did teach me was that making an explainer video isn't just editing footage together. Script writing, timing, and visual storytelling all matter just as much.

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Learning After Effects the hard way

Started working through After Effects tutorials on YouTube. The interface felt nothing like Canva, considerably more complex, but with far more actual control.

Spent close to two months practicing, building tiny 10 to 15 second animations just for myself. One evening went entirely into a simple text reveal animation because the timing kept looking off no matter what I changed.

Genuinely frustrating stretch. But easing curves, transitions, and proper timing slowly started making sense.

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The first paid project

A small SaaS startup building a project management tool posted on Fiverr looking for a 60-second explainer. We agreed on Rs 3,600.

Wrote the script first and got it approved before touching animation. Used an AI voiceover tool since a professional voice artist wasn't in budget yet. Built the animation in After Effects.

That same logo bounce problem showed up again here, a smooth fade-in with a slight bounce that kept rendering strangely no matter how the keyframes were adjusted. Spent close to four hours on that single detail alone.

When the final video went out, the client's response was short: "perfect, exactly what we needed." That one line made the whole stressful stretch feel worth it.

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What the actual demand looks like now

Startups and SaaS companies consistently need these for their landing pages, it's become close to a standard expectation now. The same logic that works for building a portfolio without real client history applies here too, self-made sample videos are essential since no client takes a risk on someone with nothing to show.

Something like two to three projects land most months, though it varies. Total earnings from explainer video work over the past seven months come to roughly Rs 19,850.

One recurring problem hasn't gone away: every project is timing-sensitive. A single small client revision request can throw off the entire animation's rhythm, and fixing that ripple effect sometimes takes hours longer than the original edit did.

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A new brief landed yesterday, a 90-second explainer for a fintech app. Longest project offered so far by a good margin. Script's underway already, though how long the whole thing actually takes this time is genuinely hard to guess in advance.