How to make an explainer video about a mortgage loan estimate

Last updated 2026-08-20 · 6 min read

What is the short version?

An explainer about a financial document fails if the facts are approximately right. What makes this format work is that the rules come from the regulator's own pages rather than from memory, and the numbers on screen are calculated rather than invented.

1. Go to Vizard Agent and say which document to explain.
2. Say what the video should cover — what it is, what is on it, when it arrives.
3. Give it your logo and any required footer text.

What do you need before you start?

The topic and your branding. Vizard Agent researches the rules itself and builds the graphics from what it finds, and what has to come from you is the compliance furniture, because a lender's disclosures are specific to that lender and no amount of research will supply them.

• The document. A Loan Estimate, a Closing Disclosure, whatever you are explaining.
• The questions. What it is, what is on it, when it should arrive.
• Your logo. Vizard Agent can cut it out of a brand image.
• The footer text. Licence numbers, equal housing wording, whatever applies.
• The length. Around two minutes covers a document properly.

What do you type into Vizard Agent?

State the questions, not the script. Vizard Agent writes the narration from the regulator's own material once it knows what the viewer needs to walk away with, and listing the three questions is a better brief than an outline you wrote from memory.

Prompt

Variants worth knowing:

• A worked example. Vizard Agent will calculate consistent example figures.
• A branded version. Give it your logo and footer and it applies them to every frame.
• A vertical cut. Ask for both if it is going on social as well as your site.

What does Vizard Agent actually do?

Here is the order Vizard Agent worked in on a real Loan Estimate explainer. The research comes first and it is not a search summary: it read the regulator's page on the document, then went back for the page covering the timing rules.

1. Checks the workspace and lists the tools and their prices.
2. Researches the official Loan Estimate rules and reads the regulator's page.
3. Goes back for the timing and validity rules, then the regulator's FAQ.
4. Auditions narrator voices and checks how the delivery can be directed.
5. Searches stock footage for the b-roll slots and records the narration.
6. Measures the narration length and pulls word-level timings to hang the graphics on.
7. Calculates the example loan numbers so the figures on screen are consistent.
8. Builds the motion graphics in two batches, reads the error log for the two that failed and re-renders them.
9. Checks every card at full resolution for text size, fixes the subtitle placement and the hook overlay, measures the mix, then cuts out the logos from your brand image and adds a compliance footer to every frame.

Step 9 has a detail worth stealing. Reviewing graphics on a contact sheet makes everything look legible; Vizard Agent pulled full-resolution frames specifically to catch text that a thumbnail flatters.

What does the result look like?

From the run this page is written from, probed on the delivered file: 1920x1080, H.264, 30fps, 116.42 seconds, AAC audio. Widescreen, just under two minutes, narrated, subtitled, with motion-graphic cards of the document and a branded compliance footer running across every frame.

Two minutes is right for a document with several sections. Vizard Agent gives each part of the form its own card rather than talking over a single static image, which is what makes the video answer the question instead of restating it.

When does this not work well?

Vizard Agent researches the public rules thoroughly and it is still not your compliance department. Anything specific to your licence, your state or your particular product has to come from you, and whatever you supply is used exactly as given rather than checked.

• Regulations vary and change. Vizard Agent reads the current public guidance; your legal review still applies.
• Disclosures are yours. Vizard Agent places the footer text you supply and does not know what is required.
• Example numbers are examples. They are calculated to be consistent, not to be a quote.
• This is education, not advice. The line between the two is regulated in this industry.
• A logo cut from a screenshot has limits. Give a clean file if you have one.

How do you fix a result that came back wrong?

Point at the card. Vizard Agent keeps the research, the narration with word timings, every rendered graphic and the loudness measurements, so correcting a figure or a caption is a re-render of one element rather than a rebuild of the explainer.

• "That deadline is wrong for our state." Corrected and the narration re-recorded.
• "The footer is too small." Rebuilt and reapplied across every frame.
• "Add a section on fees." Written from the same research and slotted in.

How does Vizard Agent compare to doing it yourself?

By hand this is reading the regulator's site yourself, writing a script from it, booking a voice, building a dozen graphics cards, and then discovering on a big screen that the smallest text on three of them is completely unreadable.

Common questions

Where does it get the facts? Vizard Agent reads the regulator's public pages rather than answering from memory.

Can it add our branding? Yes. Vizard Agent can cut the logos out of a brand image and build a footer from them.

Does it write the script? Yes, from the research, once you say what the viewer needs to know.

Are the example numbers safe to use? They are consistent examples, not a quote. Treat them as illustration.

Can it do other financial documents? Yes. Name the document and the questions and Vizard Agent researches it the same way.

Does it add subtitles? Yes, in a style it checks at full size before committing to it.

What if a graphic fails to build? Vizard Agent reads the error log and re-renders it, which is what happened to two cards on this run.

Can it use stock footage? Yes. Vizard Agent searches for b-roll to fill the slots between the graphics cards, and looks at frames from each clip before using it.

Does it check the audio balance? Yes. Vizard Agent measures the narration against the music bed, trims the peaks and proves the balance before setting the final level.

Can it direct the narrator's delivery? Yes. Vizard Agent checks what direction the voice tool accepts and uses it, which matters for a document explainer where the read has to stay calm.