Picture this: you have a tight deadline to create an explainer video that needs to captivate, explain, and convert—all in under two minutes. The clock is ticking, and your client or boss is counting on you.
What do you do?
You grab some high-quality stock footage, a versatile template, and dive into your favorite video editing software to make it happen. Here’s how using stock footage and templates can transform your video production process into a quick, creative, and impressive workflow.
Table of Contents
The Power of Stock Footage: Less Filming, More Storytelling
Creating an explainer video usually requires lots of scenes to tell a complete story, often beyond the reach of a simple one-day shoot. Stock footage gives immediate access to professional visuals that would be difficult (and expensive) to film yourself.
Want an aerial shot of New York City? Or maybe a smooth close-up of a scientist working in a lab? With these clips, you’re just a click away.
It also opens up creative possibilities by letting you mix different visual elements that enhance the storyline. The trick is to find footage that matches your message, ensuring it feels like a seamless part of your video instead of a random add-on.
The magic is in the editing, where you can use tools within your video editor to make minor adjustments, like color grading or cropping, so the footage complements perfectly the custom parts of your project.
Templates: The Fast Track to a Polished Look
Templates are the ultimate time-saver. They provide a fully designed layout complete with placeholders for text, graphics, and transitions. With such drafts, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Instead, you’re customizing an existing design to fit your specific content and style.
Imagine trying to create an animated explainer video from scratch in your video editing software. You’d spend hours on each transition, each text animation, each visual effect. With templates, most of the hard work is done for you.
You just swap in your own text, images, and clips to create a polished, high-quality explainer video in a fraction of the time. Most templates are also flexible, allowing you to rearrange, delete, or add scenes based on the story you’re telling.
Picking the Right Stock Footage and Templates for Your Brand
When choosing stock footage, it’s essential to keep a cohesive look. Don’t mix vastly different styles or scenes, as this can make your video feel disjointed. Look for clips with similar lighting, colors, and framing.
For example, if you’re making a tech explainer, opt for clean, sleek visuals with lots of whites and metallics. But if it’s a wellness product video, natural lighting and soft tones might work better.
The same rule applies to templates. There are designs specifically made for product videos, instructional content, entertainment, etc. Make sure you’re using templates designed for explainer videos, as they’ll generally have the right pacing and structure to communicate ideas quickly and clearly.
Editing Stock Footage and Templates Like a Pro
Stock footage and templates can sometimes look too generic. But a few creative edits can add that personal touch.
Use the tools in your video editing software to customize colors, add filters, or adjust the speed of clips. For example, try adding a slight zoom or pan effect to a still stock shot to make it feel dynamic. If the template includes a logo animation, replace it with your brand’s logo to keep things professional.
Furthermore, voiceovers can make a big difference in turning generic footage into something specific. Narrate your explainer with a friendly, clear voice that guides viewers through the visuals. Sync the voiceover with the action in the video editor to create a seamless flow.
Where to Find Quality Stock Footage and Templates?
Many video editing software comes with their own libraries of stock footage and templates. It can be a separate platform that’s linked with the program or a built-in library.
Adobe Premiere Pro, for example, has an integrated stock footage library through Adobe Stock, while Final Cut Pro allows access to various plugins for templates. There are also dedicated platforms like Envato or Storyblocks that provide high-quality templates and footage designed to work well with any editor.
Here’s also a good read on some successful explainer video examples to get some inspiration if you need it:
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/explainer-videos
Advantages of Combining Stock Footage and Templates
By now, it’s clear that stock footage and templates can drastically cut down production time, but there are additional benefits to keep in mind:
- Consistency: Templates ensure your branding, fonts, and colors remain consistent, which is crucial for building trust with viewers.
- Budget-Friendly: Full video production cost is much higher. Here, you can achieve the same or close results without spending a lot.
- Speed: By skipping the full production process, you can deliver explainer videos faster, meeting those tight deadlines with ease.
- Accessibility: Even if you’re new to video editing software, templates and stock footage make video creation easy.
Wrapping Up
Today’s video editing software offers plenty of options to streamline production. By mixing and matching templates and stock footage, editors can create stunning and effective explainer videos. Are you a professional or just starting as an explainer video content creator? Incorporate stock footage and templates into your process to edit video faster and leave more time to become more creative.
