Arcade looks genuinely great, so thanks for posting this question.
Several folks have already mentioned that the real value of screen capture tools is to create assets that can be used by a person whose job it is to explain abstract concepts to an audience. I would go so far as to say that if you're a founder, hiring someone who is really good at product videos is something you should 100% outsource even if you're talented with storytelling and motion graphics. It's a distraction from your key priorities, and you don't have enough distance from the subject matter to be objective about what's okay vs great.
I'd like to add that it's really debatable that a video where someone rapidly zips around an interface that they haven't used is actually something people want to see. I suspect that on its own, such a video is often not the huge win that it might seem.
Also, if a process is really easy (press a button, enter a credit card) then you can bet your ass people will soon be tired of seeing the same presentation with different marketing copy.
Things that were absolutely novel at one point include: agent chat widgets in the bottom right corner, presentations that tween and zoom on every slide, infinite scroll newsfeeds, captchas. All timeless things people love more and more every day, right?
I think that product tutorials are somewhat of a black art. On the one hand you have:
1. Keeping the flow moving and the video fast-paced and interesting
2. Adding aftereffects and other visual niceties
3. Pointing out the relevant bits with zooms, highlights, etc...
But on a deeper level, you also have questions of:
1. Am I using the right sample app to demonstrate my use case?
2. Is the feature I'm using bulletproof? Do I need to change something in the DOM of the application since that feature is not 100%? Do I need to not show a piece since it's irrelevant? Do I need to speed through or flip over from things while they're running / fetching / compiling / generating etc...?
3. And, maybe most importantly, what is the message I intended to deliver? Is that a product overview? A documentation-oriented video? A demo for a conference or a customer? Who's my audience? Am I speaking to them?
I've been doing videos for a while, and I found that the second part of the problem is actually not as easy as one would assume.
I applaud great YouTubers for that - they cracked how to do walkthroughs of products that are not only technically interesting, but also visually pleasing.
And happy to say I improved a little bit from then :)
(that website's pretty new, comments more than welcome)
Terretta 2 days ago [-]
At what point in the process do I tell you I read somewhere that lack of pricing on a website sucks so give me a discount?
Some point before we've bargained on the pricing, or after? :-)
tomgs 2 days ago [-]
Right here in the thread so everyone knows that I offer discounts, clearly! :)
fragmede 2 days ago [-]
still,
give me a ballpark for pricing. is this a $50 thing, $500, or $5,000? how many videos so I get for $50,000?
that looks super neat and I'd love to do those for people. if there was a way to get those kinds of jobs, one-off, I'd give it a try. RIP taskrabbit.
tomgs 2 days ago [-]
Oh definitely low four figures. Can’t imagine doing it for five figures (maybe I should imagine harder) and for less than that it’s just not an interesting pursuit financially for me (given the amount of work required and how much I think my time is worth).
fragmede 1 days ago [-]
Low four, so say like $2,000 for a five minute video? Why not list $1,999 for a five minute video on your website? For an open source side project, that's maybe out of reach, for a company, that's peanuts (so they'll readily pay it). Or; how much haggling do you do? It's a very neat product, but how much time do you spend on sales emails to get to a price?
peteforde 4 hours ago [-]
Because every project is different.
Because the first person to say a number in a negotiation tends to lose.
Because maybe they aren't selling five minute videos. The point is not ever to create five minutes of video. The point is to clearly explain what a product does, and that process is going to be wildly different depending on whether the product makes any fucking sense. You usually don't know if you're going to be able to work with a client until you talk to them.
If someone is sexy and charming, you'll probably go home with them for free. If someone else is neither sexy nor charming, they better be prepared to put something pretty amazing on the table or you're going to pass.
tomgs 1 hours ago [-]
Oh, I should have 100% said this instead.
Yeah, yeah, scrap what I said - let's go with Pete.
tomgs 1 days ago [-]
Oh, half the fun is the sales calls. It’s very much something I can delegate off to a person on my team, but this is relatively new and so the volume is not that large yet. I also really enjoy them!
I treat these more as discovery sessions than anything else. It’s also how I’ve landed on the exact pricing points I have - talking to people, especially when early, is a great experience.
There’s also something to be said about showing prices only in calls - people hate it here (or in general), but there is value to showing the price at the end of the call and not at the start. You get to show the thing to the person, get them excited, and then the price point looks a little different.
The trick is tailoring the sales call to the person - if I can convince them that they should keep me around since I provide a good service, they might pay the price.
Also, there are always discounts as the guy above mentioned;)
tomgs 1 days ago [-]
As an aside, what I normally do is reply to each form submission with a personal video and an overview (albeit a short one) of what I think the project should look like given their demands. I then drop a price and get on a call, if they want to.
Many do! And the ones who don’t still get a taste of how I think like and perhaps want to talk some more about other things - this is a side-business productized service; I mainly contract with technical startup companies to do their GTM.
It’s actually looking like it’d be a pretty decent lead funnel for that too!
Man, going out on my own was a great fucking decision.
For me it never does. Always throws me to a human agent. I haven't had a single case where a bot solved my issue.
jdewerd 3 days ago [-]
The other day, the Synchrony chatbot was able to remove a fee that they had previously agreed to remove (delays on their end created a late fee on my end). I was shook.
But yeah, 99% of the time the bots are as useless as IVRs. "Please listen carefully as our menu options have changed. For quality assurance, your call may be monitored or recorded."
rblatz 3 days ago [-]
I think this is the biggest shift that us technically inclined people will need to make. Bots are becoming useful.
jasperstory 3 days ago [-]
That one is ScreenStudio - it's a great product!
I'm a founder at Yarn (YC W24) – we're building in this space and launching on HN soonish.
We often see teams combining ScreenStudio with products like iMovie, AfterEffects, or Veed. Other products in the space to check out are Tella.tv, Kite, or Descript.
For more advanced motion graphics, you'll often need a freelancer or agency.
Feel free to drop me a message (email in bio) to talk through options!
jamesbfb 3 days ago [-]
I’m a dev lead who is a rusted on Linux user, I’ve always hated that ScreenStudio is Mac only since it’s a great product. Any plans for Linux support? I would love the ability to dem stuff and have it actually look pretty.
jasperstory 3 days ago [-]
The problem is that a lot of the details requires macOS accessibility permissions (identifying active window, measuring cursor movements), so there's non-trivial platform specific code.
For product demos specifically, best bet might be a Chrome-extension-based product like Arcade!
duckmysick 2 days ago [-]
This would be difficult because mouse and window controls are different in X11 and Wayland.
bcjordan 3 days ago [-]
ScreenStudio is really good, I use it for all of my capture. Main feature I find missing is ability to reorder or combine multiple recordings into one clip, or add audio from within the app.
ScreenStudio looks nice. And thank god a pay once app.
jasperstory 3 days ago [-]
Yep although to be precise it's a pay-for-a-year-of-updates model, and the underlying macOS APIs in this space change significantly between minor and major macOS releases, so ymmv in terms of "pay once forever". (For upcoming features like shareable links, they'll presumably move to a part-subscription pricing model.)
vunderba 3 days ago [-]
Agreed, as far as I can tell, this is the only one in the space that doesn't insist upon a monthly payment.
yodon 14 hours ago [-]
I'm baffled why you'd name your product in a way that conflicts with a heavily used front end tool.
shafyy 3 days ago [-]
+1 for ScreenStudio, use it and love it.
mavsman 3 days ago [-]
A lot of fragmented promise for video editing amongst these different apps. Hopefully someone will make a comparison chart for these. Good luck on your launch!
3 days ago [-]
rrrx3 3 days ago [-]
Another +1 for Screen studio. I use it legitimately daily in my Product Design job, and not just for customer-facing demo videos.
ImHereToVote 3 days ago [-]
Mac only?
jasperstory 3 days ago [-]
Many of the apps are macOS only unfortunately. For Windows, there's Descript or Camtasia. Linux not sure, but Descript and Veed are browser-based.
snide 3 days ago [-]
Unfortunately this is one of the places where Linux really doesn't have any good options. While there are definitely raw capture options for Linux, there isn't anything as nice as Screen Studio or Screen Flow or Camtasia for quick, short videos with basic editing.
darou 3 days ago [-]
Yes, I use Camtasia for over a decade. It not only solves screen recording but also most other tasks you would need cutting video and sound.
djbusby 3 days ago [-]
On Linux I've used SimpleScreenRecorder. Can invoke ffmpeg to screengrab too.
xrd 3 days ago [-]
I chuckled when you said you weren't sure about Linux tools. Real Linux users code all their sleek demo videos inside emacs in hex.
heyarviind2 3 days ago [-]
ScreenStudio looks amazing, thanks for sharing
TheFreim 3 days ago [-]
How long is the Yarn wait list?
jasperstory 3 days ago [-]
Not sure. Hopefully next 4-6 weeks. Building as fast as possible with current teams – but lots of tricky webGL, Swift, and headless Chrome involved.
SushiHippie 3 days ago [-]
My 2 cents:
I really don't like these demos, they are really nauseating to me.
As I generally don't like videos with many/fast transitions like many popular YouTube videos and movies are, I'm probably a minority in this regard.
chihuahua 2 days ago [-]
This one was quite pointless. It's someone scrolling some web page from top to bottom, with a few gratuitous zooms and some mouse pointer movement. What am I supposed to take away from this? I can't even read all the text, and there's no voice-over, so really all it communicates is "we have a web page that says supercharge your growth with AI"
SushiHippie 2 days ago [-]
Yeah for this particular example a link to the website would be way more informative/helpful than the video.
pikpok 3 days ago [-]
Others mentioned ScreenStudio (which is awesome), but if you don't need all of its features (or can't afford it at the moment), I've found ScreenRun to be a great alternative: https://screenrun.app/
It's browser-based, but there's a Mac (and Windows I think) companion app that records the screen with click-tracking for zooming (as it's not possible with browser screen sharing just yet). It's somehow limited compared to ScreenStudio, and the interface feels cheaper compared to a native Swift app, but for my needs it gets the job done.
ldenoue 1 days ago [-]
Thanks happy you like it. Send us feedback for new ideas
pando11 3 days ago [-]
Hi everyone! I'm the CEO of Arcade (who a few people have already mentioned...thanks!).
+1 to that being ScreenStudio.
Sometimes people import ScreenStudio videos into Arcade to add branching, annotations, and get analytics about who is engaging with the tool.
We're about to announce a big release on May 17th which will be very relevant - we're going to show how you can capture beyond the browser and get even more powerful analytics (https://www.linkedin.com/events/7189307779977818112).
Happy to answer any questions here as well.
purple-leafy 2 days ago [-]
Hey mister Arcade CEO, from a fellow entrepreneur and extension developer (there are dozens of us!), have you found any pros/cons of building in the extension space versus a typical web app?
I basically exclusively build extensions because I strongly believe most startups and devs overlook the space
destraynor 3 days ago [-]
Thanks for featuring Intercom in your site :-)
smarri 2 days ago [-]
Hello Des, I recently watched the intercom video series that kicked off about AI. I thought it was absolutely terrific! Great production and content.
dfeehrer 3 days ago [-]
CEO at Kite (YC S23) here, thanks for the mentions!
Like Screen Studio, Kite lets you record your screen and automatically zoom in on the action.
But with some key upgrades:
- Combine multiple recordings
- Add text scenes with animations
- Place your recordings on a 3D device like a phone or laptop
- Add music and AI voiceovers
With lots more in the works.
It's still early, but we have lots of startups using Kite regularly for feature-launch videos. We're live on Mac OS and have a waitlist for Windows.
Get in touch if you have pain points in this space. Happy to chat any time!
> Place your recordings on a 3D device like a phone or laptop
What does this mean?
dnsbty 2 days ago [-]
I'm guessing they mean overlaying the screen recording on top of a 3D render of a phone or laptop to show them being used "on device" instead of just as a flat screen recording.
dfeehrer 2 days ago [-]
Yep, exactly that! You can show the recording on the screen of a phone, laptop, monitor etc to add more context than just a plain recording
uncertainrhymes 3 days ago [-]
No specifically for video, but I've always had a soft spot for this site:
It was my first time using all these tools. It took me a couple days to make the video. Premiere is a bit of a beast, but by just asking ChatGPT how to do everything, I was able to get up to speed with it pretty fast.
marban 3 days ago [-]
CleanShot is also included with SetApp
gedy 3 days ago [-]
I find it kinda funny that the 'sleek demo' above is just zooming around their landing page.
DrammBA 3 days ago [-]
It's also kinda sad we're at the point where a video of someone scrolling a webpage with an oversized mouse is considered a 'sleek demo', it wasn't even a smooth scroll at that.
nytesky 3 days ago [-]
It’s obv a person manipulating the mouse and scroll. It’s very uneven and jerky.
Do these tools provide HMI automation, where you script the mouse movements/clicks/scrolls during the recording?
pandemicsoul 3 days ago [-]
No, but Screen Studio does allow you to tweak how the mouse appears to move, in the sense that you can make it move more smoothly or quickly.
jonwinstanley 3 days ago [-]
To be fair, I’ve seen plenty of screen recordings which are far worse
petemir 3 days ago [-]
Now I wonder if asking about the tool is a red herring to make us watch the video...
Uptrenda 3 days ago [-]
>my demo would be much better guise --tips fedora--
mlitwiniuk 21 hours ago [-]
Recently I was preparing video for my YC application [1]. I've used RecordOnce[2] and actually it worked pretty great - I've recorded my actions together with voice. It transcribed voice to text and then used text to voice again to render the video. For me, as a non-native speaker, this was really great. And I could edit voice description of my actions post-recording - worked like a breeze. It still rough around the edges, but nonetheless I highly recommend it (for reference - until now I've used Screen Flow for multiple years)
I have a gitlab CI job to update my demo .gif's every time I update my application; always ensures that things are up-to-date and provides gif/video recording that I've ran specific commands (perfect for auditors!)
shihanwan1 3 days ago [-]
Woah, great suggestion! Gonna dig into it and see if I get a similar setup as yours.
The carousel on top does some weird flashing on Android Chrome.
pando11 2 days ago [-]
Thanks for mentioning - we're going to take a look into it
panqueca 3 days ago [-]
Very good alternative, thanks for sharing
pando11 3 days ago [-]
Happy to answer any questions about Arcade!
sangeeth96 3 days ago [-]
Sorry to be that person but are there any free/OSS alternatives to the ones mentioned here? Mainly for macOS?
freedomben 3 days ago [-]
I'm linux-only so can't say for macos, but I use OBS to record and Kdenlive[1] to edit. It will take a bit more effort to get some of the effects like the zoom as Kdenlive is full video editing software, but it's a skill that IMHO is well worth the 45 mins to an hour it takes to get comfortable.
Free like QuickTime to Record/Capture Screen contents and iMovie to modify the material?
3 days ago [-]
monetus 3 days ago [-]
Not a direct alternative per se, as it is meant for coding, but https://syphon.github.io/ - I used to use this years ago and it worked great then for screen captures.
meiraleal 11 hours ago [-]
Remotion is the best alternative imo
madethemcry 3 days ago [-]
Hey, while being on that topic and somehow related. There seems to be kind of a default company that creates those catchy tech marketing videos, explainers etc: https://sandwich.co
I tend to use TechSmith Camtasia. It will do all that stuff, and also lets you add all kinds of active overlays and effects.
ScreenFlow is also good.
But it's still a lot of hard work, making these. I suspect that AI tools can help, but, in the aggregate, it still needs a skilled eye and hand, to make stuff look good, and not obnoxious.
lowkey_ 2 days ago [-]
Side note, but I see two YC-backed startups mentioning themselves in this thread:
It's sort of crazy YC is backing so many hundreds of companies that there's this level of overlap. I assume one pivoted into this?
Still, crazy to imagine all the YC companies competing with each-other these days. I've even seen YC-backed 'incumbents' being disrupted by new YC-backed startups.
krschacht 1 days ago [-]
Value isn’t zero sum, or more accurately, most spaces are not winner take all so there is room for multiple great companies to be built. Every company I’ve ever started, I even make a point of reaching out to the competitors in my space to meet the founders. These frienemies are often some of the most fun people to compare notes with. We generally don’t share everything but enough for the conversations to be productive.
eternityforest 2 days ago [-]
I know nothing about business, but that demo didn't seem that exciting. It mostly showed the website rather than the actual product.
f0e4c2f7 3 days ago [-]
Lots of good tools for this.
One way to do it completely free is OBS + Kdenlive. The interface for both leaves something to be desired but both open source and have all the features you would want (though sometimes buried in menus)
jpau 3 days ago [-]
I use screen.studio
gnicholas 2 days ago [-]
I've used Keynote to add some basic 'special effects' to videos. It's not super fancy, but you can do quite with just iMovie + Keynote! [1]
From the linked video, I saw video panning with mouse movement and zoom-to-clicks ... I think Camtasia can do those? For sure on the zoom, less sure on the panning. Camtasia is commercial and cross-platform.
Added benefit is that I think Camtasia is relatively easy to pickup compared to other tools I've tried to use.
Presentation is close to entertainment business, a whole domain in itself. Takes time to master the craft but you can take inspiration from parody bits like "Every BBC series about the universe": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOA5vnUt00c
I don't have a Twitter account, where are the responses?
josephernest 3 days ago [-]
Anyone a recommendation for Windows? Something simple and lightweight? (Screenstudio is Mac only)
maccard 3 days ago [-]
I record these videos for my workplace on windows.
We use Loom + Davinci Resolve - it's nowhere near as smooth as screenstudio
josephernest 3 days ago [-]
With which of these 2 software can you do the "zoom in", "move mouse cursor", and "zoom out"?
vicluz 3 days ago [-]
It's done in two steps, first use loom to record the mouse movement in much higher res than needed and then use resolve to zoom, follow and frame as needed.
josephernest 3 days ago [-]
> to record the mouse movement in much higher res than needed
how can this be done? if the monitor resolution is say 1600 x 900, how can it record the frames and/or mouse movement in higher resolution than this?
maccard 2 days ago [-]
I've a 4k monitor and we publish 1080p videos.
maccard 2 days ago [-]
Record at 4k with loom - that gives you mouse cursors. Then edit in Davinci to get the zoom effect
shymaple 3 days ago [-]
When I started creating demos for our startup, I started with Shotcut, it is pretty awesome and simple to start with. VN editor is also a good option if you are just starting your journey. And combine your screen recording with some animations and images.
Hope this may help you.
riskable 3 days ago [-]
I don't know about other demos but that one in particular would be trivially easy to create using KDE's desktop effects zoom feature and OBS screen recording (tell it to record a specific window).
andrewstuart 3 days ago [-]
It's not a technology problem, or at least only partially a technology problem.
not sure what you are proposing here? a hardware device that can zoom on a cursor?
radley 3 days ago [-]
The Mini wouldn't make anything like what's in the demo. It's good for multi-camera-angle, one-take videos. But it would also require cameras, lights, mics, etc. And you'd want at least a Mini ISO so you can fine-tune everything in post.
mschuster91 3 days ago [-]
It's a live video mixer that you can use to switch between various sources of input - say, a demo device (or, in my case, a device under test), a front camera (or two) facing the presenter, a top camera showing how the presenter interacts with the device... supports a bunch of transitions, and if you get yourself the ISO variant, it records all audio and video tracks uncompressed together with a bunch of metadata that allows you to import the exact same cut as it was broadcast, and fine-tune aspects of it in post to get a refined video.
iancmceachern 3 days ago [-]
I'm saying I've used, and seen used, this tool to make very cool investor pitches and videos. It's not specifically the mouse zoom thing, but more generally a great way to make super high quality, professional looking pitches when you need to show things that are live.
Easy to make these videos, edit, match music to it, etc.
fursund 3 days ago [-]
https://rotato.app/ Is another option if you’re looking for something more 3D
panqueca 3 days ago [-]
A worth mention, thanks!
croisillon 3 days ago [-]
but do you pronounce it rotayto or rotahto?
arifsundrani 2 days ago [-]
My cofounder and I are looking at using a YC company called Kite: https://kite.video
a_t48 3 days ago [-]
This is probably a screen recording with a bit of video editing on top. My fiancée does this sort of thing on a contract basis sometimes.
themkrage 3 days ago [-]
We use https://kite.video for our demos and it works great for that style of video
2 days ago [-]
netman21 3 days ago [-]
Supademo is great for creating interactive demos. You record your screen then script out the actions a user would take. Super simple.
scabarott 3 days ago [-]
ScreenStudio and Arcade are great. If you're looking for an in-product demo/tour, there's driver.js
thesuitonym 3 days ago [-]
You can make a video like that with OBS and Kdenlive. The main thing is having the skills to edit a video.
bluelightning2k 3 days ago [-]
I know you are talking about a one off demo
But if you want a nice 90s edit of every 1h sales demo meeting check out DemoTime.
3 days ago [-]
nprateem 3 days ago [-]
How do people make those animated videos like AWS use for their products?
LettuceSand12 3 days ago [-]
The flat 2d animated diagrams?
theden 3 days ago [-]
Anyone know an app that does this for mobile devices? Specifically iphones
city17 3 days ago [-]
Screen.studio can also record your iPhone’s screen if you connect it to your Mac with a cable.
nextworddev 3 days ago [-]
seconding this
pwillia7 3 days ago [-]
What's the one that has the rainbow line cursor option?
fileseeder 3 days ago [-]
Screen studio is amazing for that; Loom is also pretty great
laksmanv 2 days ago [-]
I'm trying to do this exact thing, but I want it to be in vertical video format for Instagram Reels. Do any of these software allow you to record screen captures so it will fit nicely in a vertical vid? i.e. not a horizontal video with black bars and below
devops000 3 days ago [-]
the biggest pain for product demo is to have fake user data to populate the UI.
magundu 3 days ago [-]
This is the main problem we are facing right now.
We are looking for tools that can generate fake data(may be based on our small set of data) for live demo setup.
iamawacko 3 days ago [-]
You could try using something like Synth[0]! You can hook it up to a database, it'll generate some json describing the shape and types of your data based on your database (or you could write the json yourself), then you can use Synth to generate fake data and directly insert it into your database.
Full disclosure, I'm the maintainer, but it's not like it'll cost you anything.
Outsourcing is the simplest thing that might work. There are probably better uses of your time. Good luck.
pdntspa 3 days ago [-]
A video of someone scrolling through their website is a sleek looking demo?
smdh.
norwalkbear 3 days ago [-]
Capcut
em1sar 3 days ago [-]
[dead]
smgit 3 days ago [-]
[flagged]
windowshopping 3 days ago [-]
I would prefer the version of this comment that lacked the excessive condescension. You could communicate the idea that you wish tactics like this wouldn't proliferate without denigrating the people you're talking to.
rembicilious 3 days ago [-]
I found the comment to be informative and the condescension thought provoking. I guess it’s because the disparagement cuts both ways. There is criticism for the marketer who uses these techniques as a cheap ploy and for the consumer who lets the Trojan horse enter because “ooh a horsey”.
Obviously the post could have been more pragmatic, but then bland? Not everyone enjoys onion even though the flavour is remarkable.
But in a way the “denigration” is like the pretty demo effects. It dresses the whole comment up in something that pops out and here we are having been derailed from the op subject
edanm 3 days ago [-]
Calling people "the chimp troupe" with "3 inch brains" is not a good way to communicate your ideas. For sure not to the people you're calling chimps, but also not to anyone else except people who both agree with you and have similar contempt for others as you do.
lukan 3 days ago [-]
You can also read it as ironicaly self mocking, as the commentor him or herself is also included in the chimp group.
omeze 3 days ago [-]
I thought it was so over the top it transcended condescension and was firmly comedic. Gilfoyle from HBO’s Silicon Valley could’ve written that.
ziffusion 3 days ago [-]
I'd like to follow you. Do you capture your ramblings somewhere?
rembicilious 3 days ago [-]
Wow no stranger has ever said that to me before and I really liked it, thank you! /desperate acknowledgment
I don’t write, no social media either. Just staying in my place, a lurky digital hermit since the 90’s
throwaway14356 3 days ago [-]
Ah yes, the days when it doesn't even suck was high praise. When men were made of cardboard rather than rice paper.
Gabriel_Martin 3 days ago [-]
I came back specifically for the comment to find it flagged.
cladopa 3 days ago [-]
[flagged]
flappyeagle 3 days ago [-]
He’s asking for the tool that everyone uses. Not a pompous lecture.
It’s called screen studio.
Citizen_Lame 3 days ago [-]
Screen studio is Mac only so no one will use it, apart from few die hards.
goy 3 days ago [-]
[flagged]
goy 3 days ago [-]
Very thoughtful. Thanks.
cqqxo4zV46cp 3 days ago [-]
…what? Did you read the post?
Rendered at 07:02:14 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
Several folks have already mentioned that the real value of screen capture tools is to create assets that can be used by a person whose job it is to explain abstract concepts to an audience. I would go so far as to say that if you're a founder, hiring someone who is really good at product videos is something you should 100% outsource even if you're talented with storytelling and motion graphics. It's a distraction from your key priorities, and you don't have enough distance from the subject matter to be objective about what's okay vs great.
I'd like to add that it's really debatable that a video where someone rapidly zips around an interface that they haven't used is actually something people want to see. I suspect that on its own, such a video is often not the huge win that it might seem.
Also, if a process is really easy (press a button, enter a credit card) then you can bet your ass people will soon be tired of seeing the same presentation with different marketing copy.
Things that were absolutely novel at one point include: agent chat widgets in the bottom right corner, presentations that tween and zoom on every slide, infinite scroll newsfeeds, captchas. All timeless things people love more and more every day, right?
https://syntaxcinema.dev
I think that product tutorials are somewhat of a black art. On the one hand you have:
1. Keeping the flow moving and the video fast-paced and interesting
2. Adding aftereffects and other visual niceties
3. Pointing out the relevant bits with zooms, highlights, etc...
But on a deeper level, you also have questions of:
1. Am I using the right sample app to demonstrate my use case?
2. Is the feature I'm using bulletproof? Do I need to change something in the DOM of the application since that feature is not 100%? Do I need to not show a piece since it's irrelevant? Do I need to speed through or flip over from things while they're running / fetching / compiling / generating etc...?
3. And, maybe most importantly, what is the message I intended to deliver? Is that a product overview? A documentation-oriented video? A demo for a conference or a customer? Who's my audience? Am I speaking to them?
I've been doing videos for a while, and I found that the second part of the problem is actually not as easy as one would assume.
I applaud great YouTubers for that - they cracked how to do walkthroughs of products that are not only technically interesting, but also visually pleasing.
I'm a bit of a video nerd, I guess. I started out way back when doing these little nuggets of absolute terribleness (oh my god the thumbnail) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlM7w0mARnn4ytxM6s-0b...
And happy to say I improved a little bit from then :)
(that website's pretty new, comments more than welcome)
Some point before we've bargained on the pricing, or after? :-)
that looks super neat and I'd love to do those for people. if there was a way to get those kinds of jobs, one-off, I'd give it a try. RIP taskrabbit.
Because the first person to say a number in a negotiation tends to lose.
Because maybe they aren't selling five minute videos. The point is not ever to create five minutes of video. The point is to clearly explain what a product does, and that process is going to be wildly different depending on whether the product makes any fucking sense. You usually don't know if you're going to be able to work with a client until you talk to them.
If someone is sexy and charming, you'll probably go home with them for free. If someone else is neither sexy nor charming, they better be prepared to put something pretty amazing on the table or you're going to pass.
Yeah, yeah, scrap what I said - let's go with Pete.
I treat these more as discovery sessions than anything else. It’s also how I’ve landed on the exact pricing points I have - talking to people, especially when early, is a great experience.
There’s also something to be said about showing prices only in calls - people hate it here (or in general), but there is value to showing the price at the end of the call and not at the start. You get to show the thing to the person, get them excited, and then the price point looks a little different.
The trick is tailoring the sales call to the person - if I can convince them that they should keep me around since I provide a good service, they might pay the price.
Also, there are always discounts as the guy above mentioned;)
Many do! And the ones who don’t still get a taste of how I think like and perhaps want to talk some more about other things - this is a side-business productized service; I mainly contract with technical startup companies to do their GTM.
It’s actually looking like it’d be a pretty decent lead funnel for that too!
Man, going out on my own was a great fucking decision.
If the agent chat actually works, I like it.
But yeah, 99% of the time the bots are as useless as IVRs. "Please listen carefully as our menu options have changed. For quality assurance, your call may be monitored or recorded."
I'm a founder at Yarn (YC W24) – we're building in this space and launching on HN soonish.
We often see teams combining ScreenStudio with products like iMovie, AfterEffects, or Veed. Other products in the space to check out are Tella.tv, Kite, or Descript.
For more advanced motion graphics, you'll often need a freelancer or agency.
Feel free to drop me a message (email in bio) to talk through options!
For product demos specifically, best bet might be a Chrome-extension-based product like Arcade!
I really don't like these demos, they are really nauseating to me.
As I generally don't like videos with many/fast transitions like many popular YouTube videos and movies are, I'm probably a minority in this regard.
It's browser-based, but there's a Mac (and Windows I think) companion app that records the screen with click-tracking for zooming (as it's not possible with browser screen sharing just yet). It's somehow limited compared to ScreenStudio, and the interface feels cheaper compared to a native Swift app, but for my needs it gets the job done.
+1 to that being ScreenStudio.
Sometimes people import ScreenStudio videos into Arcade to add branching, annotations, and get analytics about who is engaging with the tool.
We're about to announce a big release on May 17th which will be very relevant - we're going to show how you can capture beyond the browser and get even more powerful analytics (https://www.linkedin.com/events/7189307779977818112).
Happy to answer any questions here as well.
I basically exclusively build extensions because I strongly believe most startups and devs overlook the space
Like Screen Studio, Kite lets you record your screen and automatically zoom in on the action.
But with some key upgrades:
- Combine multiple recordings
- Add text scenes with animations
- Place your recordings on a 3D device like a phone or laptop
- Add music and AI voiceovers
With lots more in the works.
It's still early, but we have lots of startups using Kite regularly for feature-launch videos. We're live on Mac OS and have a waitlist for Windows.
Get in touch if you have pain points in this space. Happy to chat any time!
https://kite.video
What does this mean?
https://tiffzhang.com/startup/
It semi-randomly creates the site of a recently-launched startup. It is nine years old now, and completely nailed the overused style of the time.
The company names are also excellent. I wonder how many accidentally became real.
It was my first time using all these tools. It took me a couple days to make the video. Premiere is a bit of a beast, but by just asking ChatGPT how to do everything, I was able to get up to speed with it pretty fast.
Do these tools provide HMI automation, where you script the mouse movements/clicks/scrolls during the recording?
1. https://humadroid.io 2. https://recordonce.com
We use this for really nice terminal only demos. Highly recommend even though there are some minor rendering issues if you are using special fonts.
https://github.com/charmbracelet/vhs
I have a gitlab CI job to update my demo .gif's every time I update my application; always ensures that things are up-to-date and provides gif/video recording that I've ran specific commands (perfect for auditors!)
[1]: https://kdenlive.org/en/download/
Examples you may know:
ScreenFlow is also good.
But it's still a lot of hard work, making these. I suspect that AI tools can help, but, in the aggregate, it still needs a skilled eye and hand, to make stuff look good, and not obnoxious.
Yarn - Make Videos Like The Best (W24) https://yarn.so Kite - Product Videos Made Easy (S23) https://kite.video
It's sort of crazy YC is backing so many hundreds of companies that there's this level of overlap. I assume one pivoted into this?
Still, crazy to imagine all the YC companies competing with each-other these days. I've even seen YC-backed 'incumbents' being disrupted by new YC-backed startups.
One way to do it completely free is OBS + Kdenlive. The interface for both leaves something to be desired but both open source and have all the features you would want (though sometimes buried in menus)
1: https://medium.com/hackernoon/adding-visual-effects-to-your-...
https://www.remotion.pro
I haven't used Journey, but it seems promising for product Tours: https://www.william-troup.com/journey-js/
You can do similar with more effort video editing software like DaVinci Resolve
For more sleek promo videos, I would work with a professional.
For example this one is probably better for ad etc:
https://x.com/bolt__ai/status/1786058021531238661?s=12
Added benefit is that I think Camtasia is relatively easy to pickup compared to other tools I've tried to use.
We use Loom + Davinci Resolve - it's nowhere near as smooth as screenstudio
how can this be done? if the monitor resolution is say 1600 x 900, how can it record the frames and/or mouse movement in higher resolution than this?
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/atemmini/techspecs...
And some hdmi cameras
Easy to make these videos, edit, match music to it, etc.
But if you want a nice 90s edit of every 1h sales demo meeting check out DemoTime.
We are looking for tools that can generate fake data(may be based on our small set of data) for live demo setup.
Full disclosure, I'm the maintainer, but it's not like it'll cost you anything.
[0] https://www.getsynth.com
smdh.
It’s called screen studio.