Classic whiteboard
Marker hand and handwriting, colour scribbled in by a brush, the camera moving across four pages.
New in 3.0
Doodle Maker, whiteboard animation
Your script, drawn by hand as it is spoken.
Doodle Maker turns a script or a recording into a whiteboard video. It plans every board, then a hand sketches your pictures, writes your points letter by letter and draws icons, arrows and charts on the word they are said.
- 11boards to draw on
- 4camera styles
- ~1,000icons to draw
- 3pictures on a board, at most
- 2sizes, 9:16 and 16:9
From your words to a drawn video, in five steps
A doodle video goes through the same steps as any video, with its own screens that show only what a board needs.
-
1
Script or recording
Start from a script for a voice to read, or your own recording. Pick the board, the hand and how pictures are coloured with a live preview, then the shape, the narrator and the line-art style.
-
2
Voice
Generate and preview the voice first, so every board is planned on when each word is really said.
-
3
Plan
The Doodle Director reads your whole script, plans each board and reviews the video as a whole.
-
4
Boards
See every board before any picture is made. Change anything, then press Auto fill, or go board by board.
-
5
Timeline and export
Move anything to another word, style your captions, add music, then export an MP4 and an .srt subtitle file.
See what it can draw
Press play on any of them. Most have a voice and the drawing sound; a clip marked No voice shows the drawing on its own.
Sketchbook pencil
Painted pictures on paper: a pencil sketch with shading, then the paint washes in.
Chalkboard and eraser
Chalk lines, soft dusty colours, and a felt eraser wiping the board between points.
Glassboard
Dark glass and a glowing marker, with the hand drawing from behind it.
Blueprint No voice
A pale technical pen on a blueprint grid. Good for machines and how things work.
Parchment No voice
Sepia ink on aged, stained parchment, made for history.
Legal pad No voice
Navy pen on a yellow ruled pad with a red margin.
Any picture
A photo, a 3D render, a watercolour and a dark night scene, each sketched and then coloured in.
Move in and wipe
Finished pictures brought on by the hand, marks drawn between them, then a wipe to the next page.
Continuous pan
One long board, with the camera gliding after the pen and no jumps between pages.
Pen on its own
The same video with the pen and brush moving by themselves.
Chalk on its own
A chalk stick and felt eraser with no hand holding them.
Lines that draw themselves No voice
Nothing holds the pen: the title and icons simply appear, stroke by stroke, on a dot grid.
Chart on kraft paper
Axes, bars and figures drawn as they are said.
Bar chart on graph paper No voice
A chart drawn bar by bar on green engineering paper.
Urdu, from the right No voice
Nastaliq handwriting, and a chart that runs from the right.
Notebook list for Shorts
Vertical 9:16: ruled paper, a blue pen, a highlighter and three points.
Planned like a designed page, not a slideshow
The Doodle Director decides what is drawn on every board and on which word, using the language model you connect.
It reads the whole script first
What it is about, what its words mean here, its one idea and a visual thread. A container in a shipping video is drawn as a shipping container.
It composes every board like a page
Up to three pictures side by side with a short label under each, titles, lists, and bar charts when figures are compared.
It reviews the finished plan
No picture is drawn twice, figures it missed are written, figures given year by year become a chart, and no long stretch goes by with nothing new.
It writes like a teacher
Notes are short labels in its own clear words: one to five words, or about 12 for a big line. Each makes sense alone, and a figure you did not say is never added.
It draws on the word
Everything lands on the word that needs it, because it plans on your real voice. Words are written strictly in reading order.
It keeps your costs down
A doodle video needs far fewer pictures than an ordinary one, because words, icons and charts carry much of it and cost nothing to draw.
Sketched first, then the real picture comes in
Line art is drawn along its own lines. Photos, 3D renders, paintings and dark scenes get a real sketch with shading, and the drawing always ends on your picture exactly as it is.
1. First lines
2. The sketch grows
3. Shading
4. The real picture
In ordinary videos too. The same drawing is a photo treatment called Sketch reveal. It draws the picture a shot already has, so it costs no new image, in marker, pencil or chalk. See photo treatments
One idea, eleven surfaces
Each board brings its own pen and ink. The same drawing is shown on every one below.
Make it yours
Choose the hand, the pen and the camera
Set the look with a live preview in the wizard, and change it in the panel beside the picture at any time.
What draws
A hand in three skin tones, with a blue, white or grey sleeve or a bare arm. Or the pen on its own, your own uploaded hand, or nothing, so the lines draw themselves.
How colour comes in
Scribbled in by a brush, washed in under a brush edge or faded in. Or stay with lines only. Auto picks for each picture.
Four cameras
One at a time, Close-ups, Whole page, or Pan along one long board.
The next page
The camera moves on to a fresh part of the board, or a felt eraser wipes it clean. End on a pull back to the whole board, or stay on the last page.
A sound from the hand
A marker's rasp, a pencil's hiss, chalk's grit, made from the hand's own movement. It dips whenever someone speaks. Off, Subtle or Normal.
Your own video
Your own or stock video on a board is drawn from a still frame, then plays in place.
Every board is yours to change
Make the whole video with Auto fill, or go board by board with Generate assets and Draw board. A live count shows how many pictures are made, then how many boards are drawn.
See it before you pay for it
The Boards step shows every board first. No picture is made and no video is counted until you press Auto fill.
Change any board
Change what is drawn and on which word, add or remove things, or swap in your own picture.
Split and merge
Split one board into two or merge two into one. Their voice is made again to match.
Plan just one again
Plan again gives one board a fresh take that keeps to the rest of the video. Every other board stays exactly as it is.
Play each board
Every board plays in its own preview with its voice, so you can check it without exporting.
Drag to the nearest word
On the timeline, drag anything on the Drawn track and it lands on the nearest word.
Every caption option
Font, size, colours, highlight and background, animation and position. Boards lay themselves out clear of the captions.
Set the drawing order
Change the order the parts of any picture are drawn in, so the idea builds the way you tell it.
Picture styles
Line art made to be drawn
A new Doodle group in the picture styles holds every style a board draws well, with eight new ones. Each draws one subject on plain white, so the hand draws it cleanly on any board. They work in ordinary videos too.
- Whiteboard Drawing
- Stick Animation
- Marker Cartoon People
- Doodle Icons
- Colour Marker Illustration
- Continuous Line Art
- Pencil Line Art
- Technical Line Drawing
- Ink Engraving
- Crayon Doodle
- Chalkboard Line Art
- Calm Science Line Art
Languages
Written the way your language is written
In Urdu and Arabic the hand writes from the right, line by line, in Nastaliq for Urdu and Naskh for Arabic, and goes back to dot each word as a writer does. Charts run from the right too.
The Doodle Director writes its notes in the language of your narration and describes its pictures in English for the image model. Other languages keep their own words too.
FAQ
Questions about Doodle Maker
What it does, what you need and what it costs.
Still have a question?
Send us a message and we'll help you out.
Contact us
What is Doodle Maker?
The whiteboard animation tool in Vid Optimus. Give it a script or a recording and a hand draws your video on a board as it is spoken: pictures sketched and coloured in, words written letter by letter, and icons, arrows and charts drawn as they are said. It has its own place in the sidebar, called Doodle, with its own home, wizard and timeline.
Is this the same as a whiteboard animation?
Yes. Doodle Maker makes whiteboard animation, also called doodle or explainer videos. The whiteboard is one of eleven boards, alongside paper, a chalkboard, a glassboard, a blueprint and more.
Does it write my script?
No. You bring the script or the recording, and your narration is never rewritten. The Doodle Director plans what is drawn. The short notes it writes on the board are its own words, in the language of your narration, and it never adds a figure you did not say.
Can I use my own voiceover?
Yes. Start from your own recording instead of a script. It is cut into boards, and everything is planned on your own timing. Your recording needs transcribing, with a Groq or OpenAI key.
Can I use my own pictures?
Yes. Pictures are made as AI line art, and on the Boards step you can replace any of them with your own. You can also put your own or stock video on a board: it is drawn from a still frame, then plays in place.
Can it draw a photo?
Yes. Line art and stick figures are drawn along their own lines, flat cartoons edge by edge. Photos, 3D renders, paintings and dark night scenes are sketched first, then their colour comes in. The Sketch reveal photo treatment brings the same drawing to ordinary videos.
How many pictures does a video need?
Far fewer than an ordinary video. Up to about 6 in every 10 things drawn are pictures, depending on your script. Words, icons and charts make up the rest and cost nothing to draw. Nothing is made until you press Auto fill.
Which API keys do I need?
A language model key for the Doodle Director, and an image provider for AI pictures, or the Vidoptimus Image Server on your own graphics card. The built-in voice needs no key.
Does it work in Urdu and Arabic?
Yes. The hand writes from the right, line by line, in Nastaliq for Urdu and Naskh for Arabic, and goes back to dot each word as a writer does. Charts run from the right too. Other languages keep their own words.
Can I make vertical videos?
Yes. Pick 9:16 for Shorts and Reels or 16:9 for YouTube. Each board lays itself out for the shape you choose.
Does it include subtitles?
Yes. Exporting also saves an .srt beside the MP4, with the same name, and the Subtitles button saves one without rendering anything.
What if a picture fails?
The video carries on. A picture that fails is written as words until you try it again, and Auto fill can be stopped and continued.
Does a doodle video count toward my videos?
It counts as one video, from the moment you press Auto fill. During the free trial that is one of your 3 videos a day. Paid plans have no limit.
Get started
Draw your next video instead of filming it.
Free for 7 days. No card needed. Works on Windows and macOS.