Launch Video for an Open-Source Project, from Repo to Film

What is an open-source project launch video?

It reads the README and what the project states; it does not read the code and does not claim stars, downloads or users that your pages do not publish.

• Film: about 30 seconds, 16:9, captions burned in, AI narration and an instrumental music bed on by default.
• Output: H.264 MP4 at 25 fps, 16:9: a 1280×720 preview, clean exports in 1920×1080 (1080p) or 3840×2160 (4K), and short cuts of 5, 6, 8, 10 seconds in 16:9, 9:16, 1:1.
• Price: from $39, one-time credit packs, no subscription.
• Time: the 5-second ad in about 4 minutes, the full film about 2 minutes after you ask (measured 8 October 2026; a queue can add a few minutes).

Who is it for?

• Maintainers launching a library, a tool, a framework or a plugin.
• Projects preparing a Show HN, a Product Hunt or a conference talk and needing a short film.
• Teams that want contributors and sponsors to understand the project before they open an issue.

What LaunchReel reads from what you give it

LaunchReel reads only public pages (the home page and up to three inner pages such as pricing, features or docs, fetched as LaunchReelBot, honouring robots.txt). It answers six questions from them, each with the page it came from: what the product is, who it is for, the pain it removes, how it compares, why you built it and how a founder would pitch it. It also takes:

• The one-line description and the problem in the README.
• The install or quick-start command and what the project then does.
• Supported languages, platforms and integrations as listed.
• Your project's colours, typefaces and logo, if it has them.

What is in the film

The film is about 30 seconds at 25 frames per second. It is drawn as motion design from your real screens, not generated frame by frame, so text stays exact. A 30-second storyboard runs to about seven shots. Today:

• A problem developers recognise, then the project's one idea.
• The install command set as real type, then the result.
• Three beats at most, each on one section of your README or site.
• A closing shot with the repository address.
• Narrated: narration is on by default: a female or male AI voice reads one or two lines per shot in the film's language, and you can switch it off. Captions are burned in, so it also reads with the sound off. A quiet instrumental music bed sits under the narration by default.
• Your look: a palette, type pairing and logo taken from your site, a light or dark stage, and a pace of cuts. Two products do not come out as the same film.

How it works in 3 steps

1. Paste your repository. Paste the address of your GitHub repository, and add the project site if there is one. Stripe Checkout asks for your email and takes payment before the film starts.
2. Read the brief and the storyboard as they are written. A writing desk running on Claude Opus 5.5 answers six questions from your pages, writes the brief and a shot-by-shot storyboard, and shows each piece with its sources. You can correct any line by chat, before or after the film is drawn.
3. Take the film. The 5-second ad arrives in about 4 minutes; the full film of about 30 seconds follows about 2 minutes after you ask for it. Keep the 720p copy, change shots by chat, or buy a clean 1080p or 4K export.

What to give it: input requirements

• A website address, a GitHub repository, a sentence about the product, or just its name (we look for the site and show you which one we found).
• Optional: up to 6 pictures (png, jpg or webp) and a .zip of up to 50 MB. Use them for screens that are not public.
• To start you pay $39 for one launch video in Stripe Checkout, which asks for your email. Nothing is generated before that.
• A public GitHub repository, or the project's site.
• Up to 6 pictures, such as a screenshot of the tool in use or a logo.

Output specs

• Full film: about 30 seconds, 16:9, MP4. Clean 1080p (1920×1080) costs 10 credits, 4K (3840×2160) costs 20. Captions are burned in and an .srt file comes with every clean export.
• Sound: AI narration (female or male voice, one or two lines per shot, in the film's language) is mixed into the MP4 by default; switch it off or change the voice on the order page without spending credits, and the music bed is changed or muted by asking in the chat. A narration .srt is linked there.
• 720p copy: every project keeps a 720p copy with a small corner badge and a one-second end card with your domain. The six answers, the brief, the storyboard, the 5-second ad and the preview of the full film come with the project.
• Short cuts: 5, 6, 8, 10 seconds in 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, with platform-safe margins. Badge previews of every cut cost no credits; a clean cut is 6 credits.
• Files: MP4 and .srt only. No GIF. The project's source files are not included.

How much does it cost?

Credits are sold in one-time packs, in US dollars, with no subscription. Sales tax or VAT is added at checkout where it applies. Packs: Starter 60 credits $39, Launch 160 credits $89, Growth 400 credits $199, Studio 1000 credits $449, Agency 2000 credits $879. Credits never expire.

• Starter ($39) is enough for one film. A typical launch video, the film plus five shot edits and a clean 1080p export, comes to about 60 credits, and Starter holds 60.
• Pay first: nothing is generated, and no trial render runs, until you buy a pack. Before paying you can open the public examples, the style pages and the pricing page.
• If a job fails, the credits come back automatically. See pricing for every credit price.

What you can edit afterwards

• By chat or in the Storyboard view: say what to change in plain words, or edit a line directly. Only that shot is rewritten and redrawn; the others stay as they were.
• A shot change costs 2 credits, charged only when the change lands. Questions are free and every version of a shot is kept.
• Look and colours: change colours, type, stage and mood from the style panel; rewriting the whole storyboard costs 20 credits.

How long does it take?

• The 5-second ad: about 4 minutes after the project starts.
• The full film (about 30 seconds): about 2 minutes after you ask for it. The dark cinematic Stage version takes about 5 minutes.
• One writing desk handles briefs in turn, so a queue can add a few minutes. Those are measured figures from 8 October 2026, not guarantees.

What it cannot do

• Claim stars, downloads or adopters that you do not publish. Numbers come from your pages.
• Walk through the source code. It reads the README and the site, and presents what the project does, not how it is built.
• Live-action footage, photoreal scenes or 3D product renders. The film is motion design built from words and screens.
• Screens that do not exist. The engine never invents an interface; give it screenshots of anything that is not public.
• A human voice. The narration is an AI voice and the music is an AI-composed instrumental bed; for your own recorded voice, switch the narration off and add it in an editor.
• Other shapes. The full film is 16:9 only. 9:16 and 1:1 come as short cuts of 5, 6, 8, 10 seconds.

Refunds and who owns the video

• Refunds: a credit pack is fully refunded on request until you download a clean export, and after that it is not refundable. If we cannot make your video, any pack you bought for it is refunded in full. Write to support@launchreel.ai with your project link. See the refund policy.
• Ownership: you get full commercial usage rights for the delivered video. Customer content is not sold and not used to train models. LaunchReel AI is operated by YK TECH INC.