How to make stickman explainer videos about finance, psychology or history

Choose a question you can answer with pictures

A stickman explainer makes an unfamiliar idea easier to follow by showing a person, an action and a consequence. “Finance” is too broad for one short. “Where did this character’s spare coins go?” gives you a visible problem. Start with one question and write the last sentence first: it should deliver the answer promised by the opening.

Use Doodle explainer when the concept matters more than the setting. Its simple figures and plain background leave room for a jar, a timeline or a diagram. Use a more detailed stickman look when the location is part of the explanation, such as a historical street or workshop.

Finance example: explain a budget with one character

Keep a first finance explainer about a concrete process. Use fictional amounts, label the example and do the arithmetic outside the AI image generator. Put exact numbers in editable text or your own diagram rather than relying on generated lettering.

Scene plan: an empty weekly budget sheet; three labeled containers; a final unexpected expense. Keep the same character and container colors throughout. The narration explains the choice while the pictures show where the money is going.

Psychology example: show a question before naming a concept

Use a small fictional situation to introduce the question: a character encounters two descriptions of the same event, or changes a decision after hearing a friend. The story is an illustration, not proof that every person behaves the same way. Check any research claim against the original study before including it.

Scene plan: the same empty room seen by two figures, two simple thought bubbles, then the figures comparing notes. Keep labels short and use narration for the nuance. Do not turn a short character story into a diagnosis or a claim about the viewer’s personality.

History example: follow one object through a sourced timeline

Choose a narrow historical question and collect the dates, places and sources before asking the writer for a draft. A letter, tool or coin can give the viewer a concrete thread through the explanation. Separate what the source establishes from a fictional character used to connect the scenes.

Scene plan: an object in a workshop, the same object being carried through a town, then a close view showing the feature you are explaining. Check clothing, architecture and tools against your source notes. An attractive AI illustration does not establish historical accuracy.

Build the explainer in Clippie

Open the Doodle explainer template for 16:9, or its short-form version for 9:16. Paste your checked script or use the script writer to make a draft. Put narration in the script field. Put drawing rules such as “same blue coin jar in every scene” in Scene instructions; that field changes pictures, not spoken words.

Give recurring characters stable names and appearance descriptions. Review the images in order with the voiceover. Replace a confusing diagram with an image you made, and regenerate a scene that changes an important prop. Add AI animation only to the moments that need motion and check the displayed credit cost before starting.

Listen through the final video, correct names and numbers in captions, and watch it at phone size. If the explanation still needs a paragraph of extra context, narrow the topic or make a longer version rather than speeding up every line.

• The opening asks one question and the ending answers it.
• Examples, research claims and historical facts are clearly distinguished.
• Each scene makes the spoken idea easier to understand.
• Numbers and diagrams are checked independently.
• Captions and scene timing match the final narration.