# Make an animated video with Video Maker

> Make short animated videos on your MockFlow board with Video Maker: scenes of text, shapes and pictures, animations on a timeline, AI generation, templates and export as MP4, GIF or SVG.

Source: https://mockflow.com/docs/make-an-animated-video-with-video-maker

**Video Maker** makes short animated videos on your MockFlow board: a product launch, a social reel, a how it works explainer or an event promo. A video is a row of **scenes**. Each scene holds text, shapes, pictures and icons that come in, stay and leave with an animation you choose. It sits on the board beside the plan, copy and designs it came from, so the whole team can watch it and give feedback.

![A Video Maker on a board playing scene 2 of a launch video: the logo pops in, the heading comes in word by word, a task card slides in from the right, and the playhead moves along the scene strip and the animation rows before Smart move carries it into scene 3; then the Task card bar is dragged later on the timeline](https://assets.mockflow.com/docs/media/472e7e4396334ae7a52023bdc8b796a2.webp)

## Why make videos in MockFlow

- **From idea to video in one place.** Plan the story on a [storyboard](/docs/plan-a-story-or-video-with-a-storyboard), collect the copy and pictures on sticky notes and a moodboard, then make the video right beside them. Nothing needs to be exported from one tool and uploaded into another.
- **Made together.** Everyone on the board sees the video as it changes and can comment on it. Reviewers and anyone with a public link can play it on the board, with the scene strip under it to jump to the part they want to talk about.
- **One design, many formats.** Turn a post you made in a [Design frame](/docs/create-a-social-post-or-poster-with-a-design-frame) into a video with **Convert to video**, switch between landscape, reel and square sizes, and use your brand kit's logos from the **Brand** category in the Library.
- **Product demos without a video editor.** Record a browser tab with Clippy and let **Make zooms from clicks** turn every click into a smooth zoom, ready for a launch post or a help article.
- **A first cut in a minute.** Describe the video and AI writes the scenes, animations, pictures, voiceover and music. You start editing instead of starting from a blank timeline.

## Add a Video Maker

1. Click **Frames** in the toolbar at the bottom of the board, then choose **Video Maker** under **Design frames**.
2. In **Choose a size**, pick **Landscape video (16:9)**, **Reel or story (9:16)**, **Square post (1:1)** or **Portrait post (4:5)**.
3. Or start another way: **Make a video with AI**, **Add a screen recording**, or **Browse templates in the Library**.

You can change the size later from **Size** in the frame's toolbar, which also has **Cinema (21:9)**, **HD 720p (16:9)** and a custom size.

## Generate a video with AI

1. Select the Video Maker, click the AI button in its toolbar and choose **Make a video with AI**.
2. Describe the video: what it is for, the message, the length and the look. For ideas, open **Examples**, such as **Product launch**, **Social reel**, **How it works** and **Event promo**.
3. Keep **With images** on to have AI make the pictures for the scenes. Turn on **With sound** to add a voiceover and background music.
4. Click **Generate**.

AI writes the scenes, their text, their animations and the transitions between them. To change a video you have, choose **Modify with AI** and say what should change.

## Edit the scenes

Click **Edit video** in the toolbar to work inside the video. The toolbar then has tools to add a heading, a picture or a rectangle to the current scene, and **Library** for text styles, shapes, charts, icons and animated packs such as **Kinetic titles**, **Lower thirds**, **Callouts**, **Data in motion** and **Devices**. **Layers** lists everything in the scene.

Select anything in a scene to change its look in the properties panel. The **Scene** settings set its **Length**, the **Transition** it comes in with and a **Camera** move such as **Push in** or **Pan left**. **Duplicate** copies a scene and **Delete scene** removes it.

Click **Exit video** when you are done.

## Animate with the timeline

While you edit, the timeline sits under the video:

- **Scenes:** the whole video as a strip of scenes. Click one to edit it, drag its right edge to make it longer or shorter, and pick a transition, such as **Fade**, **Smart move** or **Slide**, from the pill between two scenes. **+ Add scene** adds a scene after the current one.
- **Animation rows:** one row for each item in the scene. Its bar shows when it comes in and how long it takes: drag the bar to move it, or drag its ends to change the start and length. After it comes in, an item stays on screen until its **Exit**.
- **Animate scene:** gives everything in the scene that has no animation yet an entrance.

Press **Space** or the play button to play the video, and **Preview scene** to play only the current scene.

In the properties panel, **Animation** has more choices for the selected item: how it comes in (**Enter**), such as **Rise**, **Pop**, **Type on**, **Word by word** or **Count up**, the **Feel** of the move, what it does while **On screen**, such as **Float** or **Pulse**, and how it leaves (**Exit**).

## Add pictures and clips with AI

From the AI menu, choose **Make a picture or clip**:

- **Picture:** a still picture for the scene. Choose **Fill the scene** to place it behind everything, or **In the middle**. With a picture selected, the new picture takes its place.
- **Video clip:** an 8 second clip with real motion. With a picture selected, **Start from the selected picture** brings that picture to life. A clip takes about a minute; you can keep working.

The dialog shows about how many AI credits it costs before you click **Make it**.

## Add sound

When nothing in a scene is selected, the properties panel has the scene's **Voiceover** and **Sound for the whole video**:

- **Voiceover:** a line read aloud for each scene. Click **Read it** to make the voice, and **Fit the scene to it** to match the scene's length.
- **Captions:** show the voiceover as words on screen, in a look such as **Dark band**, **Word highlight** or **Big bold words**.
- **Music:** **Make music** with AI, or **Use a sound file**.

## Add a screen recording

Click **Add a screen recording or video** in the toolbar to put a video file in a scene. A scene plays one video, so another one gets its own scene. The **Screen recording** settings set the **Backdrop**, **Padding**, **Corners**, **Shadow** and a **Window** or **Browser** frame around it.

Recordings of a browser tab made with [Clippy](/docs/webpage-to-wireframe-with-clippy) know where you clicked. Click **Make zooms from clicks** to zoom in on each click, and set the **Cursor size** and **Click ripples**. In Clippy's clip box, **Open in Video Maker** puts a recording straight on the board.

## Start from a template or a design

- In the Library, the **Templates** tab has whole videos to start from.
- In **Templates** in the tool bar, open the **Videos** card under **Design** for animated posts, promos and explainers. Each one plays its preview before you add it.
- To animate a design you already have, select a Design frame and click **Convert to video**.

## Export a video

![The Export video dialog: switching the file type from MP4 to GIF, clicking Place on board, the frames being drawn with a progress bar, and the GIF landing on the board beside the video](https://assets.mockflow.com/docs/media/425c35a472f34eac9f333ff314df339c.webp)

1. Click **Export** in the frame's toolbar.
2. Pick a **File type**: **MP4**, **WebM**, **GIF**, **Animated SVG** or **Poster frame**, a PNG of the first scene.
3. For MP4 and WebM, pick the **Quality** and the **Frames** per second.
4. Click **Export MP4** (or the button for your file type) to download it, or **Place on board** to put the file on the board beside the video.

Your browser makes the file. Turn on **Server render** to have MockFlow servers make an MP4 instead, so your computer stays free; you get a link when it is ready. 4K and videos over 3 minutes are always made on MockFlow servers.

> **Note** An animated SVG has no sound and can't hold a screen recording. A GIF has no sound and holds up to 30 seconds, or 15 seconds with a screen recording.

## What viewers see

People who can only view the board, and anyone with a public link, see a play button and the video's length on the frame. Click it to play or pause. A strip of the scenes sits under the video: click a scene to play from there. **Hide** puts the strip away, and **Show the timeline** on the play button brings it back.

> **Plan** Video Maker is available on every plan. Making videos, pictures, clips and sound with AI uses AI credits, and clips cost more than pictures. On the Basic plan, videos export up to 720p and 30 seconds, and placing an MP4 or WebM on the board is not available (a GIF can be placed). 1080p, 4K, **Server render** and videos up to 10 minutes are on paid plans. See [MockFlow pricing](https://mockflow.com/pricing/).

## Next steps

- [Create a social post or poster with a Design frame](/docs/create-a-social-post-or-poster-with-a-design-frame)
- [Plan a story or video with a storyboard](/docs/plan-a-story-or-video-with-a-storyboard)
- [Templates](/docs/templates)