Explainer video style · Chinese ink wash

Chinese ink painting style explainer videos

Bold brush, flying white and pale washes on rice paper. Brief it in one sentence and get a narrated, animated explainer film in the Chinese ink wash style, scored and voiced, in about 15 minutes.

Make one in this style

Or let the director choose a style for your topic.

What it looks like, and when to use it.

Bold black brush strokes that run dry into streaks of white, pale washes bleeding into rice paper, a few touches of colour and a red seal. Chinese ink wash is drawn in code stroke by stroke, so the picture is written in front of you while the narrator speaks. Its empty space makes even a hard idea feel calm and clear.

Best for

Nature, seasons and animals
Chinese history, poetry and philosophy
Calm, reflective topics

Try a brief like

“Why bamboo grows so fast”
“What Taoism says about water”
“How Chinese characters began as pictures”

The art direction the director follows.

Every style is a full art direction, not a filter: its own palette, type, motion and music. This is the brief the director works from for Chinese ink wash.

Look: Chinese ink-wash painting in the free "xieyi" manner, after Bada Shanren and Qi Baishi, drawn in code: warm rice paper with fibres; bold brush strokes whose ink runs dry into flying-white streaks; pale washes that bleed outward on the paper; the five tones of ink from scorched black to clear grey; light washes of ochre, indigo blue and rattan yellow; whites left as bare paper; bamboo, birds, shrimp and misty distant hills; a red seal stamp.
Motion: Written, not animated: each stroke writes itself along its path and each wash blooms outward and keeps spreading slowly; mist bands drift across distant hills; bamboo sways and its leaves flutter; a bird darts across; few elements and plenty of empty paper.
Music: Chinese classical: guqin and xiao flute, sparse pipa, soft bells, wide silences.
Type: Brush-written titles: a casual hand (Kalam 700) traced with the brush in scorched ink, vertical where it fits, with a small red square seal beside it.