Do we need an Arabic version, and is it a voiceover or subtitles?

If a committee, a tender pack or a government-linked reviewer is in the chain, plan for one, and make it a voiceover. A subtitle track satisfies the box that says an Arabic version exists and fails the person who plays it: the captions sit over a frame composed for a different reading direction, and they vanish the moment somebody watches without them. A voiced version is a second script recorded properly. It costs more than a caption file and less than the second production you would otherwise commission in a year, and it is the version that gets forwarded.

Modern Standard Arabic or Gulf dialect, and who decides?

We recommend, you decide, and it is settled before anything is recorded. Standard Arabic for anything formal, informative or pan-Arab, including a video going into a submission, because that is the register those readers expect. Gulf dialect for a UAE-resident consumer audience, where the standard register reads like a news bulletin and puts distance between you and the viewer. One thing worth separating: the Arabic form of your trade name on the register is a transliteration judged on how it sounds, which is a different question from spoken register, and it is argued at branding in Dubai.

How long should it be, and how long does it take to make?

Sixty to ninety seconds for anything external, and longer only when the video is teaching rather than persuading. That band is our working discipline rather than a statistic, and we would rather say so than quote a retention figure we cannot source. On the timeline: the script and the board take the first stretch and the animation takes the rest, and the variable that moves the date most is not the animation but how quickly the one claim gets agreed. We commit to a date in the scope once the script is signed off. Where the video is one output of a wider brand programme, that starts at branding in the UAE.

Our buyer is a government or semi-government committee. Does that change the script?

It changes the opening and the register, and it is the case we build for most often. That viewer is working through an evaluation rather than discovering you, so the hook that suits a cold feed wastes the first ten seconds of a video somebody was told to watch. The claim they are checking arrives early, the register is formal, and the Arabic version is Standard Arabic rather than dialect. This is the buyer the Abu Dhabi market runs on, and the reason the second version is a requirement rather than a nicety. A DIFC professional-services firm whose service is invisible until somebody draws it has the same problem for a different reason.

Does an explainer that runs as an advertisement need a permit here?

Promotional publishing in the UAE is permitted, and the permit covers promotion whether or not money changed hands. The National Media Authority issues it to the individual who publishes, and what a company may promote on its own channels is scoped by its trade licence, so where that lands for you specifically is a question for your own advisers rather than for a studio. What it means for us is narrower and entirely ours: the claims inside the script are checked before anything is recorded. A line in a caption can be changed in an afternoon; the same line in two voiceovers cannot.

2D or 3D, and what does the difference actually buy?

Choose 2D unless the thing you are explaining is physical and its form is the point. 2D animates ideas, flows and interfaces, changes without a rebuild, and is what most software, service and process explainers should be. 3D earns its cost when a viewer needs to understand a shape, an assembly or an interior. And where the product genuinely exists and can be photographed rather than drawn, an animation is the wrong tool entirely: that is product video production, and we will point you there rather than animate something you could film.

Do we get the project files, so a future version does not start again?

Yes, and it is the question worth asking every studio before you sign. You receive both masters, both scripts, the caption files and the working project with its scenes as named layers, in your own name. The layers are the part that matters: an explainer where the artwork was flattened cannot be updated when a screen or a price changes, so version two becomes a new commission. How the mark behaves at the end card is defined once at brand identity design rather than invented per video.

Explainer video production · UAE

Explainer video production in Arabic and English.

The English version is for the buyer and the Arabic version is for the file, and a committee will expect one whether or not anyone plays it. Webzenia scripts both, in the same week.

Tell us what the product does, in your own words

What the engagement produces

Every video gets two scripts.

Three things come out of this work, and the animation is the last of them. The first two decide whether the second version is a version or an apology.

The script

The one clear way to say what the product does, approved as words before anything moves. No animation rescues a script that does not make the point, and finding that out at the storyboard costs a conversation.

The two voices

Which Arabic, decided alongside the English script rather than after it. Register and dialect are a commercial choice, not a preference, and the answer changes with who is watching.

The cut

A master in each language plus the shorter versions the funnel actually uses. A right-to-left caption changes the frame it sits in, so the second language is an edit rather than a track laid over the first.

What we make

Six ways to explain your idea.

Six ways to make an idea legible. Which one you need is decided by how abstract the thing is, not by how much motion you can afford.

2D animated

Scenes built in layers so a change is a layer rather than a redraw, which is what makes a second language and a version two possible at all

Output

an idea shown, not described

LayeredEditable

Motion graphics

Type and shape doing the explaining, which is the format that survives a muted feed because the words are on screen rather than only in the voice

Output

legible with the sound off

Kinetic typeSilent-safe

Whiteboard animation

A process drawn as it is explained, which is the right register for a mechanism somebody has to follow rather than admire

Output

a sequence a viewer can retrace

Drawn liveProcess

Animated infographic

Numbers arriving in an order rather than all at once, so one figure is doing the work at a time

Output

data a viewer reads rather than skips

One at a timeData

Product and app walkthrough

The interface animated with callouts rather than filmed, so it can be corrected when the product changes instead of recorded again

Output

a demo that survives a release

CalloutsRe-editable

Character and mascot

A character built as a turnaround rather than a drawing, so it stays on-model across every scene and every later video

Output

a system, not an illustration

TurnaroundOn-model

How an explainer gets made

Three ways to add Arabic.

A Dubai Internet City SaaS company selling into government-linked entities almost always arrives at the middle column first.

	A template animationBought as a style, filled with copy	English first, subtitled afterThe second language as a task	Scripted in both languagesTwo scripts, one production
What you approve first	A style frame, before anybody has agreed what the video says.	An English script, which is the right thing done half way.	Both scripts, side by side, before a frame is animated.
The Arabic version	Not offered, and not really possible in the template.	A caption track sitting over a frame drawn for English.	Its own voice, its own timing, its own on-screen type.
In a committee file	It reads as something bought rather than made.	It reads as an afterthought, because it was one.	It reads as a document produced for the reader it went to.
When the product changes	You buy the template again.	You re-record, then re-time every caption.	You edit the layer and re-record one line in each language.
Who holds the project	The platform, and it expires with the subscription.	The studio, usually.	You do, with the scenes as layers and both scripts.

The middle column costs most.

Subtitling afterwards looks like the sensible half-measure, and it is the one that costs most. A caption track solves the file requirement and fails the viewer, because it sits outside a frame that was composed for a different reading direction, and it disappears the moment somebody watches with captions off. Doing it properly later means re-recording and re-timing everything, which is the second production nobody budgeted. Where the thing being explained is a real object that can be filmed rather than animated, that is product video production.

The UAE context

What decides an explainer here.

Webzenia has worked with Gulf clients since 2018. Four things decide whether an explainer works in this market, and the animation is not one of them.

01of 04
Commissioned twiceNot translated once
Every explainer is commissioned twice.
A committee, a tender pack or a government-linked reviewer will expect an Arabic version whether or not anyone plays it. Treating it as a deliverable rather than a task is what stops it arriving as a caption track laid over a frame drawn for English.
Our methodBoth scripts are written in the same week, or the second is declared out.
02of 04
Which ArabicA decision, once
We recommend one Arabic dialect.
Standard Arabic for formal, informative and pan-Arab content, including anything going into a file. Gulf dialect for a UAE-resident consumer audience, where the standard register reads as a news bulletin. An ADGM-registered fintech in Abu Dhabi needs the first; a consumer app usually needs the second.
Our methodThe register is settled in writing before anyone books a recording.
03of 04
Watched by an evaluatorNot discovered
Viewers are already evaluating you.
They already know what category you are in and are checking whether you can explain yourselves. That changes the opening: the hook that suits a cold feed wastes the first ten seconds of a video somebody was told to watch, and the claim they are checking should arrive before the story does.
Our methodThe opening is written for the reason the viewer pressed play.
04of 04
A recorded claim is fixedHarder than a caption
Recorded claims are fixed.
Promotional publishing here is permitted, and the permit covers promotion whether money changed hands or not. A line in a caption can be edited in an afternoon; the same line in two recorded voiceovers cannot. So the claims are checked before the recording, not after the file is in a submission.
Our methodEvery claim is checked against evidence before a voice is booked.

What the engagement covers

Six steps to both languages.

Six parts, and the first three happen in words and drawings. Nothing is animated until the thing it says has been agreed.

The one sentence

We find the single claim the video exists to make, and write it down before anything else. A video trying to land four points lands none, and the discipline is subtraction rather than production.

One claim
Written

Storyboard cut to length

Every scene drawn and timed against the script, so the runtime is a decision rather than a discovery. A board that runs long on paper runs long in the edit, and it is far less painful to cut here.

Timed
Scene by scene

The dialect decision

Which register the Arabic uses is settled in writing and signed off, then both languages are recorded and mixed to one loudness so neither version sounds like the quieter afterthought.

Register
Both recorded

Animated to the approved board

Scenes built in layers against the board that was signed off, which is what makes a later change a layer edit rather than a rebuild of the sequence around it.

To the board
In layers

Arabic edit and cut-downs

The second language composed as its own edit, with the type set for the direction it reads in, then the shorter versions each destination needs derived from both masters.

Second edit
Shorter versions

The final handover

Both masters, the caption files, both scripts and the project with its layers intact, in your name. Version two of an explainer is nearly always an edit, provided somebody kept the layers.

Layers intact
Both scripts

Our stack

The animation tools.

The kit behind a video that exists twice and is not two videos. Select one to see why it earns its place, and what we do with it that most do not.

Figma

Why Figma

The storyboard is the last place a change costs nothing but a conversation. Seeing every scene at once, with the script under each frame, is how a video gets shortened before anybody has animated the part that should have been cut.

How we excel

We board both language versions side by side, so a scene that works in English and runs long in Arabic is caught on the board rather than in the mix. Arabic lines frequently run longer, and a board only in English hides that.

Whole board at onceBoth languages visibleChanges cost

FigmaMinutes

A slide deckAn hour

Animatic firstA day

Straight to animationA rebuild

How the work runs

From script to final cut.

The order is set by what has to be agreed in words. Everything expensive happens after the part that costs almost nothing to change.

01Week oneScoped

Both scripts get written first.

The English script and the Arabic one are written in the same week, not in sequence, and the register is settled and signed off while it is still a sentence in a document. The board follows, with each scene timed, so the runtime is agreed before anyone opens an animation tool.

Both scriptsthe same week, not after
The registerdecided and signed off
The boardtimed, scene by scene

02Both languagesBuilt

Both voices are recorded.

Both voiceovers are recorded by people who speak the language and mixed to one loudness against each other. The animation is then built to the approved board in layers, which is what makes a later change a layer edit rather than a rebuild of the sequence around it.

Both voicesrecorded, never synthesised
One loudnesschecked against each other
Scenesbuilt as named layers

03Week fourRunning

Everything is handed over.

The Arabic version is composed as its own edit rather than captioned over the English, then the shorter versions each destination needs come out of both masters. What leaves is both films, both scripts, the caption files and the project with its layers intact, in your name.

The Arabican edit, not a caption track
Cut-downsfrom both masters
The projectlayers intact, in your name

The Arabic is written and recorded in the same weeks as the English, with the layers handed over.

Both languages, one production

Two scriptsTwo voicesLayers yours

Our commitment

Promises on both languages.

Explainers fail at the script, at the second language, and at the moment somebody asks for version two. These four are about that.

No machine-translated Arabic
Never machine-translated, never synthesised, and read aloud by somebody who would notice if a sentence sounded wrong. A version produced by a tool is detectable by the audience it was made for, which is the audience that matters.
Register decided before recording
Standard Arabic or Gulf dialect is a scoped decision with a recommendation attached, agreed before a voice is booked. Discovering it at the mix means paying for a recording twice, and it is the most avoidable cost on this page.
Every claim needs evidence
A claim in a voiceover is set in two recordings and reaches an audience under a permitted publishing regime. If a line cannot be traced to something you hold, it is reworded before recording rather than after a file is submitted.
Project files are yours
Both masters, both scripts, the caption files and the working project transfer at delivery. Version two of an explainer is almost always an edit rather than a new film, and only if somebody kept the scenes as separable layers.

Common questions

Answers on explainer videos.

If a committee, a tender pack or a government-linked reviewer is in the chain, plan for one, and make it a voiceover. A subtitle track satisfies the box that says an Arabic version exists and fails the person who plays it: the captions sit over a frame composed for a different reading direction, and they vanish the moment somebody watches without them. A voiced version is a second script recorded properly. It costs more than a caption file and less than the second production you would otherwise commission in a year, and it is the version that gets forwarded.
FAQ · 01
We recommend, you decide, and it is settled before anything is recorded. Standard Arabic for anything formal, informative or pan-Arab, including a video going into a submission, because that is the register those readers expect. Gulf dialect for a UAE-resident consumer audience, where the standard register reads like a news bulletin and puts distance between you and the viewer. One thing worth separating: the Arabic form of your trade name on the register is a transliteration judged on how it sounds, which is a different question from spoken register, and it is argued at branding in Dubai.
FAQ · 02
Sixty to ninety seconds for anything external, and longer only when the video is teaching rather than persuading. That band is our working discipline rather than a statistic, and we would rather say so than quote a retention figure we cannot source. On the timeline: the script and the board take the first stretch and the animation takes the rest, and the variable that moves the date most is not the animation but how quickly the one claim gets agreed. We commit to a date in the scope once the script is signed off. Where the video is one output of a wider brand programme, that starts at branding in the UAE.
FAQ · 03
It changes the opening and the register, and it is the case we build for most often. That viewer is working through an evaluation rather than discovering you, so the hook that suits a cold feed wastes the first ten seconds of a video somebody was told to watch. The claim they are checking arrives early, the register is formal, and the Arabic version is Standard Arabic rather than dialect. This is the buyer the Abu Dhabi market runs on, and the reason the second version is a requirement rather than a nicety. A DIFC professional-services firm whose service is invisible until somebody draws it has the same problem for a different reason.
FAQ · 04
Promotional publishing in the UAE is permitted, and the permit covers promotion whether or not money changed hands. The National Media Authority issues it to the individual who publishes, and what a company may promote on its own channels is scoped by its trade licence, so where that lands for you specifically is a question for your own advisers rather than for a studio. What it means for us is narrower and entirely ours: the claims inside the script are checked before anything is recorded. A line in a caption can be changed in an afternoon; the same line in two voiceovers cannot.
FAQ · 05
Choose 2D unless the thing you are explaining is physical and its form is the point. 2D animates ideas, flows and interfaces, changes without a rebuild, and is what most software, service and process explainers should be. 3D earns its cost when a viewer needs to understand a shape, an assembly or an interior. And where the product genuinely exists and can be photographed rather than drawn, an animation is the wrong tool entirely: that is product video production, and we will point you there rather than animate something you could film.
FAQ · 06
Yes, and it is the question worth asking every studio before you sign. You receive both masters, both scripts, the caption files and the working project with its scenes as named layers, in your own name. The layers are the part that matters: an explainer where the artwork was flattened cannot be updated when a screen or a price changes, so version two becomes a new commission. How the mark behaves at the end card is defined once at brand identity design rather than invented per video.
FAQ · 07

Keep exploring

Explore Branding

Part ofBranding

Brand Identity Design

Marks, a bilingual system, and the files your team can run.

Brand Strategy

A position your licence supports and a buyer can verify.

Logo Design

A mark drawn in both scripts, and made to be fabricated.

Pitch Deck Design

A deck built for the pocket of capital reading it.

Company Profile Design

The document a vendor registration checks before anyone reads it.

Presentation Design

One master that sets decks in both directions.

Social Media Design

A master set your own team can fill, in both scripts.

Product Video Production

One permitted shoot, cut for every place it sells.

Product Photography

Shot to two marketplace specs, against the sellable pack.

Next step

Find your script angle.

Send the product and who has to understand it. We will come back with a script angle and the Arabic decision that goes with it.

Tell us what you need.

Every video gets two scripts.

The script

The two voices

The cut

Six ways to explain your idea.

2D animated

Motion graphics

Whiteboard animation

Animated infographic

Product and app walkthrough

Character and mascot

Three ways to add Arabic.

What decides an explainer here.

Every explainer is commissioned twice.

We recommend one Arabic dialect.

Viewers are already evaluating you.

Recorded claims are fixed.

Six steps to both languages.

The one sentence

Storyboard cut to length

The dialect decision

Animated to the approved board

Arabic edit and cut-downs

The final handover

The animation tools.

From script to final cut.

Both scripts get written first.

Both voices are recorded.

Everything is handed over.

Promises on both languages.

Answers on explainer videos.

Explore Branding

Brand Identity Design

Brand Strategy

Logo Design

Pitch Deck Design

Company Profile Design

Presentation Design

Social Media Design

Product Video Production

Product Photography

Find your script angle.