2D animation
2D animation vs motion graphics vs edited footage: which fits your product?
Three ways to make a video about your product, what each one does best, where each one struggles, and a simple way to choose between them.
When people ask for “an animated video”, they often mean very different things. A character walking through a story, a slick interface with text flying in, and a fast-cut ad made from real clips are three different crafts, with different strengths, timelines and costs.
Here’s a plain-English guide to the three, and how to pick the one that fits your product.
2D animation: illustrated stories
What it is: illustrated characters, scenes and objects that move. Think of a classic explainer with a hand-drawn or flat illustrated style, or a short animated story.
Where it shines:
- Explaining ideas you can’t film. Data moving between servers, how an insurance claim works, what happens inside the body.
- Telling a story with a relatable character who has the problem your product solves.
- Building a recognisable brand world with your own colours, characters and style.
Where it struggles:
- It has more steps: script, style frames, storyboard, illustration and then animation. That takes time.
- Changes late in the process are expensive, because a small edit can mean redrawing scenes.
- For software, cartoon versions of your interface can feel less real than the actual product.
Good fit for: new categories that need explaining, abstract or invisible processes, healthcare, finance, education, and brands that want a strong visual personality.
Motion graphics: shapes, type and interfaces in motion
What it is: design brought to life. Animated typography, icons, charts, and very often your real product interface, recreated or polished and animated.
Where it shines:
- Showing software clearly. You can zoom into the important part of a screen, highlight a button, hide clutter and move smoothly between features.
- Looking crisp and modern with clean design, smooth movement and your brand colours.
- Staying up to date. When your interface changes, individual screens can often be swapped without rebuilding the whole video.
Where it struggles:
- Without a story or a human voice it can feel cold, like a moving slide deck. A strong script and sound design fix that.
- It’s not the best choice when trust depends on seeing real people or a physical product.
Good fit for: SaaS and app explainers, product demos, feature launches, launch films, data stories, and social clips for tech brands.
Edited footage: real people, real products
What it is: a video cut from filmed material. Live action, user-generated content (UGC), interviews, testimonials, screen recordings, or stock footage, shaped with pacing, music, captions and graphics.
Where it shines:
- Trust. Real faces and real customers are hard to beat for credibility.
- Physical products. Texture, size and use are easiest to understand on camera.
- Speed and volume, when the footage already exists. One shoot or one batch of UGC can become many ads and social posts.
Where it struggles:
- The result depends on the footage. Poor lighting or sound can’t be fully fixed in the edit.
- A new shoot adds cost and planning: locations, people, equipment.
- Abstract ideas are hard to show with a camera alone.
Good fit for: e-commerce and product ads, testimonials, founder and team videos, YouTube content, podcasts, real estate and local businesses.
Side by side
| 2D animation | Motion graphics | Edited footage | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best at | Explaining ideas and telling stories | Showing software and data clearly | Trust, people and physical products |
| Watch out for | Longer process, costly late changes | Can feel cold without a story | Only as good as the footage |
| Typical uses | Explainers, brand stories | SaaS demos, launches, UI promos | Ads, testimonials, YouTube, social |
You can mix them
Some of the strongest videos combine crafts. A few examples:
- Footage plus motion graphics: a customer testimonial with animated captions, callouts and product screens.
- 2D animation plus real interface: an illustrated story that hands over to your actual product for the “how it works” part.
- UGC-style ad plus motion graphics: a creator talking to camera, with animated text and product close-ups to keep the pace up.
Mixing works best when one craft leads and the other supports it. Decide which one carries the story.
How to choose in five questions
- Is your product software? Start with motion graphics built around your real interface.
- Is it a physical product? Start with footage, and add motion graphics for details and offers.
- Is the idea abstract or invisible? 2D animation will explain it most clearly.
- Do you already have good footage or screen recordings? Use them. Editing existing material is usually the fastest route.
- Where will it run? Feeds reward fast, punchy edits. Homepages and sales pages reward clarity.
Still not sure? Send us a link to your product and tell us where the video will live. We’ll tell you honestly which approach fits, even if it’s the simplest one.