Animation is a superb storytelling device, as evidenced by countless classic cartoon movies. Whether you’re a Disney devotee, you grew up with the Looney Toons or you get animated about anime, you’ve probably sat enthralled through at least one cartoon movie or TV show.

There’s just something about animation that appeals to people of all ages (but mostly kids).

But, aside from making us laugh or bringing fairytales to life, animation has other purposes. You can use it for so much more. This week, we take a look at some of the best uses of animation on YouTube.

Teaching Science

Animation can be used to teach anything, but it seems especially well suited to teaching lessons about science. YouTube is rife with channels that use animation to explain all kinds of sciencey stuff.

Not only is it engaging to watch, but because you don’t have to follow the laws of physics in animated videos, you can explain complex concepts much easier than you could without animation.

You can easily put a blue whale on a scale and weigh it against a dinosaur in an animated video. It helps people to visualize what you’re talking about much easier than if you were to just stand in front of a camera and explain it.

Even science videos on YouTube where people do just stand in front of a camera and talk about something tend to use a little bit of animation to help visualize the concepts.

Here is an example from the MinuteEarth channel explaining what the largest living organism on Earth is.

Vlogging

Most people who have a vlog on YouTube tend to use the sit-in-front-of-a-camera-and-rant approach, but for those who know how, having an animated vlog adds a nice aesthetic to what they’re saying.

It can also be a good tool for people who want to express their opinions about stuff, but who don’t necessarily want to show their faces (and it’s not as creepy as wearing a mask) while vlogging.  

Jaiden Animations is one of many vlog channels on YouTube that uses animation.

Turning a Hobby into a Livelihood

What starts out as just fun hobby can become quite lucrative if people like what you’re doing. Come up with the right concept, apply animation, and you could end up garnering a lot of followers.

One of the best hobby turned livelihood stories is the How it Should Have Ended YouTube channel. What started as just some friends having a laugh coming up with alternate endings to major motion pictures has grown to become a nice little niche on YouTube with almost 7 million subscribers and multiple regularly occurring animated shows in addition to the alternate movie endings the channel started out with.

Promoting a Business

You knew this one was coming, right? It’s kind of our thing. Animated videos can, of course, be used to promote a business by explaining what that business does or as an advertisement for the business.

As with the other entries in this post, the engaging nature of animation makes it more likely that people will watch it than if you just had a person standing in front of a camera talking. Whether you use whiteboard, 2D, 3D, cut out or some other style, animation is a stellar way to promote your business and let potential customers know about your business and what it does.

If you want your own animated video to teach something, promote something or explain something, using animation is a great way to do that. Learn about the different styles we offer and which one is best for you by checking out our pricing guide.