✦ Summary
Three questions, 18 animation styles with a still of each, and a table that matches the subject of your training to the two styles that suit it best.
How to choose between animation styles for training videos
Choosing between animation styles for training videos comes down to three questions: who is watching, what kind of subject it is, and where it will play. Answer those and the list of 18 styles below shrinks to two or three. This post shows a still of every style Interlace offers, grouped the way the style gallery groups them, and ends with a table that maps common training subjects to the two styles that suit each best.
The style is chosen once per video, in the composer, and it sets how every scene is drawn. So it is worth a minute before you generate, not after.
Three questions before you pick
Who is watching? Engineers accept dense line drawings. New hires on day one respond to people and warmth. Executives want numbers on a clean page. Children need color and big shapes. The same content can land or miss on style alone.
What kind of subject is it? Most training falls into one of five kinds: a procedure (do these steps in this order), a concept (how something works), a scenario (how people should behave), data (what the numbers say), or a product (what this thing is and does). Procedures want precise drawings. Scenarios want people. Data wants charts that look like charts.
Where will it play? A laptop at a desk shows fine lines well. A phone in portrait shrinks them, so bolder shapes survive better. A projector in a bright room can wash out a dark canvas. If the video will loop on a screen on a factory floor, pick something readable from a few meters away.
The 18 styles, in five families
Each still below is a frame from a real sample video in that style. Click a style name to see it in motion on the styles page.
Hand-drawn
Marker, chalk, pen and crayon, drawn on the surface you would expect. Good for concepts and teaching, because the drawing feels like someone explaining at a board.
Whiteboard. Black marker line art on white. The default for business explainers, tutorials and walkthroughs. For more on this look, see the whiteboard video maker.
Chalkboard. White and pastel chalk on dark green. Suits classroom-style teaching, science and math.
Notebook. Handwritten pen notes and diagrams on paper. Feels like a good student's study notes.
Dark Sketch. Chalk and marker on black. High contrast, good for short explainers that need to hold attention.
Kids Crayon. Bright, friendly crayon. For early learning and anything aimed at children.
Illustrated
Drawn scenes with people in them. This is the family for scenarios, behavior and stories, where the viewer needs to see someone doing the right thing.
Editorial Illustration. Refined line work in a muted magazine palette. For conceptual topics and opinion-led explainers.
Ligne Claire. Even black outlines and flat color, in the Franco-Belgian comic tradition. Strong for workplace scenarios, customer service, sales training and onboarding.
Graphic Novel. Inked panels with halftone shading and realistic people. Handles sensitive compliance scenarios, such as harassment or misconduct, with the seriousness they need.
Paper Collage. Cut paper, tape, halftone and bold type. Made for change announcements, internal comms and policy launches.
Business and data
Vector shapes, thin line diagrams and data pages, for content a corporate audience reads the way it reads a slide.
Modern Flat. Clean flat icons and shapes. For software and corporate explainers and feature summaries.
Consulting Line. Thin single-weight line diagrams with one brand accent. The calm choice for policies, SOPs and process training a brand team has to sign off.
Blue Deck. Investor-deck data pages in one cobalt family. For executive updates, results and metrics.
Technical
Precise drawings for systems, procedures and equipment, where getting the detail right is the point.
Blueprint. Technical line drawing on blueprint blue. For engineering concepts, architecture and technical workflows.
Technical Manual. Assembly-manual drawings with numbered callouts. The first pick for SOPs, safety procedures and equipment how-tos.
Isometric 3D. Matte isometric objects with one accent color on charcoal. For systems, data flows and IT training.
Isometric Light. Product-render isometric objects on light grey. For hardware training and technical onboarding.
3D and product
Rendered objects with light and material, for products and launches.
Soft 3D. Soft matte clay objects with gentle shadows. For modern product explainers and app concepts.
Skeuomorphism. Tactile, hardware-like objects in plastic and metal. For product and hardware training and launch content.
Subject to style: two picks per row
Start with the first pick. If it feels wrong for your audience, try the second.
| Your training subject | First pick | Second pick |
|---|---|---|
| SOP or step-by-step procedure | Technical Manual | Consulting Line |
| Safety procedure or equipment use | Technical Manual | Isometric Light |
| Policy or compliance obligations | Consulting Line | Paper Collage |
| Sensitive scenario (harassment, misconduct) | Graphic Novel | Ligne Claire |
| Customer service or sales behavior | Ligne Claire | Graphic Novel |
| Onboarding and culture | Ligne Claire | Paper Collage |
| Change announcement or town hall recap | Paper Collage | Editorial Illustration |
| How something works (a concept) | Whiteboard | Chalkboard |
| Academic or science content | Chalkboard | Notebook |
| Data, results or metrics | Blue Deck | Modern Flat |
| IT systems and data flows | Isometric 3D | Blueprint |
| Engineering or architecture | Blueprint | Isometric 3D |
| Software product feature | Modern Flat | Soft 3D |
| Hardware product training | Isometric Light | Skeuomorphism |
| Children or early learning | Kids Crayon | Notebook |
| Short, high-contrast explainer | Dark Sketch | Whiteboard |
Two habits help across a whole library. Keep one style per series, so a set of onboarding videos looks like one program. And match the style to the subject, not to your taste: the style that looks best in a gallery is not always the one that teaches the procedure best.
Picking the style in Interlace
On the Create page, click the style button in the row under your prompt. It shows the current style's name. Hover over any style in the list and a sample plays on the right, with its "Best for" line underneath. The My Styles tab holds custom styles your team has made.
When to build a custom style
The 18 presets cover most training. Build your own when the video has to look like your brand rather than a generic style: an agency making videos for a client, a company with a strict visual identity, or a series that must match existing course material.
In Interlace, open Library, go to the Styles tab and click New style. The wizard has six steps:
- Assets. Add Reference images that show the look you want, then optionally press Extract with AI to fill the palette and suggest a font from them.
- Palette. Set your brand colors, including the canvas behind scenes.
- Typography. Choose a heading font and a body font.
- Logo & Watermark. Add your logo and decide whether it appears on videos.
- Preview. Press Generate preview to see a sample image in the new style.
- Review. Name it and press Create style.
The new style then appears under My Styles in the composer. The brand and style page covers what a custom style controls, and keeping every AI video on brand with custom styles explains how teams use one across a library.
Pick with the subject, test with one scene
Use the three questions, take the first pick from the table, and read the first generated scene before you commit a whole series to it. If it does not suit the audience, try the second pick on a short test video. Join Interlace to try all 18 on your own content.