Still Unbuilt

All 100 ideasVideo

#82 of 100 · Video

Launch videos without After Effects

Founders want an easy way to make polished product or explainer videos with animated text, mockups and music, without video editing skills.

10asks, each re-read
10separate threads
8of 19 years
2since 2024
2010first asked

Asks per year

’082’1021’121’14’16’18’2011’221’241’26

What the askers want

  • Would pay0%
  • Want it local or private0%
  • Object to subscriptions0%
  • Want it open source or self-hosted0%
  • Want AI to do it10%

Share of the 10 asks that say so, as judged by Jev.

What exists on Show HN

Built, still asked for31 Show HN launches do this job, and 17 more do part of it. People still ask, so the launches are missed, unknown, or not what they want. Ask what they’re missing before you build.

Instead of: After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Screen Studio, Loom

The idea, as matched

A tool that makes polished product, launch or explainer videos (animated text, mockups, typed code, music) from a finished app or screenshots, without After Effects skills.

Jev first matched 11 requests to this idea; a second reader kept 10 of 11.

Every ask, newest first

Each line is an AI paraphrase of what the writer wanted. The link goes to their own words on Hacker News.

Reader’s note. Many asks are old (2010 to 2013).

  1. Mar 2025Wants an AI tool for polished product launch videos with animated text and music, not screen recordings. Read it: a post: “What do people use to create sexy software product videos?”
  2. Apr 2024Asks for tools to make product promotional videos. Read it: a comment in “What are some good tools that can be used to make product promotional videos?”
  3. Jan 2022Wants a tool that makes polished product videos like MockRocket's intro easier to create. Read it: a comment in “Show HN: MockRocket – 3D app mockups and animations in the browser”
  4. Jun 2021Wants a tool for building JavaScript-based animated screencasts like Copilot's landing page. Read it: a comment in “GitHub Copilot”
  5. Jul 2013Wants simple video software for a Kickstarter pitch mixing pictures, text and clips, not a complex editor. Read it: a comment in “Ask HN: A Decent Video Editing solution for a small Kickstarter project?”
  6. Nov 2012Wants software to make an animated explainer video like Hipmunk's. Read it: a post: “Ask HN: Best software tool to make an animated video?”
  7. Sep 2011Wants a service that auto-generates a promo video from chosen music and text. Read it: a comment in “Y Combinator by the Numbers”
  8. May 2011Wants software for making animated explainer videos like Dropbox's for a class project. Read it: a post: “Ask HN: Video Creation Software”
  9. Oct 2010Wants a tool that makes whiteboard-style animated explainer videos easier, with words appearing rather than hand-drawn. Read it: a comment in “RSA Animate – Changing Education Paradigms”
  10. Aug 2010Wants a web service to easily create their own demo video. Read it: a comment in “Ask HN: Favorite startup demo videos”

Building this?

Read ten of the asks above first, because they say what the existing launches miss. If you ship it, post it as a Show HN so the next run of this list finds it.

See all 100How the counts work

Ship it like Vercel, on a server you own

This site runs on ShipTiffin. A push to GitHub deploys it, the way it would on Vercel, but the server is a Hetzner box in your own account. Postgres, sign-in, email, jobs and analytics are already on it, every project gets a hard limit, and nothing is billed by usage.

Get your own box

$19 a month per box, plus about $10 for the server at Hetzner. Open source, so you can also run it yourself for free.