How to Make a Vox-Style Explainer Video, Step by Step

Quick answer

Open the Vox Explainer creator, generate a script with one of four episode angles (or brief your own), approve the cut-out elements Korpi builds from it, generate the scenes, add optional music, keep captions on and render. The editorial paper-cut look and cut-out motion are built in: cut-outs slide in with a paper shadow, headlines get a red underline swipe, and hero images slowly push in.

What a Vox-style explainer looks like

It is the video-journalism collage style: a textured paper bed, vintage photo cut-outs, paper maps with routes and pins, bar charts with one accent bar, cutaway diagrams with numbered arrows, evidence boards with red string, and single enormous numbers or dates used as the whole graphic.

One calm narrator carries the argument. Each scene holds one graphic idea, and new elements land every few seconds inside it, so the screen keeps moving without cutting away from the point.

Korpi renders it vertical (1080x1920) for Shorts, TikTok and Reels.

Step 1: Open the creator and choose a mode

Open Vox Explainer. On the Script tab, leave Series mode off for a single episode, or turn it on for numbered parts with a shared title card.

Step 2: Generate the script

Click Generate w/ AI above the Narration Script box.

1. 1Script Type. Choose one of the four angles described below.
2. 2Duration. 45 seconds, 1 minute or 1.5 minutes.
3. 3Source. Pick an episode from the Idea List, write your own brief on the Custom tab (a topic, a question, the beats, or the full script you want narrated), or paste a video link in Remix Video to have it transcribed and rewritten.
4. 4Choose the output language and generate.

The four script types:

• History Mystery: a famous event, explained through the one detail nobody asks about.
• Money & Power: who actually pays and who actually profits.
• Crime & Con: how a documented con, heist or scandal really worked.
• Map Story: why a border, route or city is where it is.

Edit the script in the Narration Script box. Explainers live or die on one clear question in the first line, so make sure the opening asks something the ending answers.

Step 3: Approve the elements and generate scenes

On the Scenes tab, generate the characters and elements first. Korpi pulls the people, places and objects from the script and makes one cut-out reference for each. In Review your elements, approve, regenerate or swap them. They are reused across scenes so a recurring figure keeps the same look. Choose Skip references if the episode has no recurring cast.

Then click Generate Scenes. Each scene becomes one graphic: a map, chart, diagram, cut-out, evidence board or big typographic number. Regenerate or replace any scene, and animate scenes one at a time or with Generate All and Animate. Scene sound is off by default. The narrator is separate.

Step 4: Audio and captions

Vox Explainer is narration-first. On the Audio tab, background music is optional and off by default. If you pick a bed, the render keeps it low under the narrator. Captions are on by default in the editorial label style: white type on a dark paper tag. Keep them for sound-off viewers.

Step 5: Render

Click Generate Video. The button shows the credit cost. Render straight away, or open the project in the video editor first to make changes and add a watermark, then download the file.

Plan it for free first (optional)

Connect Korpi MCP to Claude or ChatGPT. Its script and storyboard planning tools are free on every account, no plan needed, so you can test several angles in chat and paste the winner into the Custom tab or the Narration Script box.

What makes a Vox-style explainer work

• One question, one answer. "Why is the border straight here?" beats "the history of Africa".
• One number per scene. A chart with one accent bar reads faster than a table.
• Show sources honestly. Say where a figure comes from, and phrase estimates as estimates.
• Let the map do the work. Map Story episodes are strongest when every scene adds one element to the same map.

Vox Explainer FAQ

Is this affiliated with Vox?

No. "Vox-style" describes the editorial paper-cut explainer look. Korpi generates original graphics for your own script.

Can I narrate my own script?

Yes. Paste it into the Narration Script box, or paste it on the Custom tab and ask for it to be narrated as written.

Can I make it landscape?

Vox Explainer renders vertical 1080x1920 for short-form platforms.

Is it free?

You can watch the example free, and planning through Korpi MCP is free on any account. Generating and exporting your own Vox Explainer video needs a paid Korpi plan.