Make an explainer video with explainroo

explainroo makes an MP4 video from two files: a script with the words the voice says, and a small JavaScript file that draws the pictures. A voice model on this computer reads the script. explainroo writes down when each word is spoken, Chrome draws the frames, and explainroo adds music and sound effects.

Find or install explainroo

Try these first:

command -v explainroo
ls "${EXPLAINROO_HOME:-$HOME/.explainroo}/bin/explainroo.js"

If neither exists, install it. It needs Node.js 20.11 or newer, ffmpeg, and Chrome or Chromium.

git clone https://github.com/vincentsch/explainroo.git "$HOME/.explainroo"
cd "$HOME/.explainroo" && npm install
node bin/explainroo.js doctor --fetch

In the rest of this file, explainroo means whichever one you found: the explainroo command, or node "$HOME/.explainroo/bin/explainroo.js".

Read AGENTS.md

AGENTS.md in the explainroo folder has the steps, the writing rules, the settings and the Scene API, which is the list of everything scenes.js can draw. Read it before you start.

Make the video

Create the project where the user wants it, for example ./video:

explainroo init video --theme paper --title "..."

Then follow the steps in AGENTS.md. When the video is done, tell the user where video/out/video.mp4 is, how long it is, and what explainroo verify video said.