How to Use Renderforest to Make a Product Explainer Video

The short answer: write the script in short sentences with one idea each, filter the templates for Script to Video and colour changes, start with Create with AI or a preset, fit the text to each scene, apply your colours and fonts, add a voiceover, check the storyboard and fix with Smart Edit whatever the AI read too literally, preview for free, and pay only at export, once or by subscription.

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Most product pages that need an explainer do not have one, because nobody wants to brief an animation studio for 60 seconds of video. Renderforest's templates are motion design that you fill in, and the free plan lets you build and preview the whole thing before a cent changes hands. For plans, credits and licences, see the Renderforest glossary entry.

Have these ready:

• A script in plain, visual sentences. Renderforest's AI picks out nouns and action verbs, so an abstract line about strategy can come back as a literal shield or a building; its AI FAQ advises short sentences with one idea each.
• Your brand files. The logo, hex codes for your colours, and font files in TTF or OTF.
• The shape of the video. Widescreen for the product page, portrait for social.
• Whose video it is. Your own content is fine on Lite or Pro; a video for a client needs Business (commercial use article).

1. Find a template that will take your script

Click Create in the main menu, then Video Templates, and open the Animations category for explainers. On the right, open Filters and tick Script to Video, Color Change Option and, if the video will run large, 4K Support; set Duration to Flexible so scenes can stretch, and choose Widescreen or Portrait under All sizes, as the template filters article describes.

2. Choose how to start

Each template has a preview page with an example video; click the heart to keep it, then Create Now. You get three starts, per the editing guide: Select Scenes to build from scratch, Start with Presets for a ready-made story, or Create with AI. The last opens one window where you paste the idea or the full script, up to 10,000 characters, choose whether the AI may enhance it, add your logo and switch the AI voiceover on or off, then click Generate.

If no template fits, the AI video creator under Templates, Videos builds from the script alone, in a cartoon style, with stock footage, or with generated images that each cost credits (AI templates article).

3. Fit the words to the scenes

Click a text holder and type. Each field shows a live character count against an advised limit, which is the template telling you where the script is too long, per the project editing article. The toolbar above the timeline offers Similar Scenes, Add Scene and Delete, and on a flexible template you drag scene edges to change their length and drag scenes to reorder them.

4. Put the brand on it

In the styling panels, choose Custom under Colors and enter your hex codes, pick Random Transition or none, and set the primary and secondary fonts, uploading your own files where needed (styling article). A custom watermark, logo or text, is a Business feature. What each panel offers depends on the template.

5. Give it a voice and a soundtrack

Open Audio in the left toolbar. The Music tab takes your own MP3 or WAV, or a track from the library sorted by mood; the Voiceover tab takes an upload, a recording made in the browser, or a clip you used before (audio article). For an AI voice, open Text to Speech, set the language and speaker, preview it and click Generate; the panel shows how many speech minutes are left this month.

6. Check what the AI chose, scene by scene

When the video comes from Create with AI, review the storyboard before the full render: it shows the visuals the AI picked and their order, per the AI FAQ. Fix the misses with Smart Edit, the AI chat that takes commands such as change the background to blue, or swap the scene by hand.

The human check: read the storyboard against the script one line at a time, and replace every picture that illustrates a word rather than the idea. The AI drafts; a person who knows the product decides what each scene shows.

If you need the same explainer for ten product lines, the Renderforest API can duplicate a project, update its text and render it, through Node.js and PHP SDKs that the documentation asks you to use instead of raw calls. Rendering through the API needs an active subscription with API access, so a script or an agent can fill in each version while a person previews it before it renders.

7. Preview for free, then export

Click Preview to render the project live in the editor, with a check mark on each scene as it finishes (publishing article). Then click Export at the top right. HD 720 with a watermark is the free option; HD 1080 opens a window that compares a single export with a subscription (single export article). The pricing page, checked on 24 October 2026, listed the single HD1080 export at $24 and Pro at $39 a month on monthly billing.

8. Publish it and keep the claim away

The finished video sits in My Projects under Videos, with Download and Share. If YouTube flags it, the claim usually comes from Renderforest's music composer, Blue Fox, and Renderforest says it helps clear it within a few hours; to dispute it yourself in YouTube Studio, attach the Renderforest invoice (copyright article). Your own music avoids the claim altogether.

What Renderforest's help centre warns about

• Merging templates. Not possible; render each one and drop them into a template with video holders, or join them in another editor (combining article).
• Free exports for business. Free content is personal and non-commercial, and the watermark stays.
• A free account left alone. After 60 days without a login the files are removed, unless you log in within 10 days of the warning email (inactivity policy).

How to know it worked

Write down what the last explainer cost and how many weeks it took, or note that the page has none. For the new one, log the hours from script to approved draft and the cost per finished video: the export fee, or the month's fee divided by the videos you made in it. Once it is live, watch the play and completion figures in whatever hosts it, YouTube Studio for instance, for a month.

Budget on the regular price. On 24 October 2026 the pricing page carried a Halloween countdown with Pro at $13.3 a month for the first year on annual billing, and the same card showed $19 a month from year two (pricing page). A countdown is there to move the decision into this week; the second-year price is the one you will live with.

FAQ

Can I combine scenes from two templates?

No. Render each template and place the clips into a video-holder template, or merge the exports in another editor, per the combining article.

Is the free plan enough to try this?

To build and preview, yes; to publish for a business, no. Free exports are HD 720 with a watermark and for non-commercial use only (commercial use article).

Monthly or annual billing?

Annual plans are paid upfront for the year at a discount; monthly plans can be changed or paused as projects shift, and an upgrade mid-cycle charges only the prorated difference, per the billing article.