Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: A different kind of AI Video generation

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 21 posts

Show HN: A different kind of AI Video generation

#1

Post by fcpguru »

Hello!

I'm Andrew Arrow, a developer and Final Cut Pro user. My history with FCP goes back years and years, I tried to be a video editor as a career but ended up a software developer. I purchased the full version of the software a long, long time ago. And to Apple's credit, every single time I goto the App Store on any mac I still have access to download it. I must have been through 20, 30? I don't know, but a lot of macs over the years. Just recently I downloaded it again and noticed the XML Export feature.

Wow. There's a lot of stuff there. I mean a lot. I started playing around with generating the XML and that has lead to this project.

https://github.com/andrewarrow/cutlass/blob/main/README.md

Read through those go structs and xml tags. Keep going. And going. It just never stops! It's a very sophisticated XML format that can describe any timeline, effect, or animation you can imagine. Apple's documentation is scattered, the XML is notoriously finicky, and one wrong attribute crashes your import.

And of course with Claude Code (or others, pick your favorite AI) you can have your AI write some amazing things in go using cutlass.

```go // Generate a timeline with precise keyframe animations

video := fcp.Video{

    Ref: assetID,

    Offset: "0s", 

    Duration: fcp.ConvertSecondsToFCPDuration(10.0),

    AdjustTransform: &fcp.AdjustTransform{

        Params: []fcp.Param{{

            Name: "position",

            KeyframeAnimation: &fcp.KeyframeAnimation{

                Keyframes: []fcp.Keyframe{

                    {Time: "0s", Value: "0 0"},

                    {Time: "240240/24000s", Value: "100 50"},

                },

            },

        }},

    },
} ```

So I haven't been writing code like that with my human brain. I spend most of my time just telling Claude the video I want to create, and he uses the cutlass library to achieve it. I'm hooking up FCP directly to Claude. A different kind of AI Video generation.

Would love feedback, thanks for reading this far! -aa

Re: Show HN: A different kind of AI Video generation

#4

Post by echelon »

Editing will remain of utmost strategic important to automate until generation dominates the field. At that point, we'll probably generate from storyboards.

A lot of small startups are trying to automate timeline construction with VLMs. I've counted about a dozen, some with seed stage funding. If you can crack this, there's absolutely a path to a unicorn. But in the long term, generation will disrupt nonlinear video editors, because whatever high level software we build will be able to dispatch to both generation and editing tasks.

Fwiw, I also work in this space and spend a lot of time thinking about it. Prior to AI, I also spent a significant amount of time making films the old fashioned way.

Re: Show HN: A different kind of AI Video generation

#5

Post by iinnPP »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #2

It's video editing, not video generation at all, not even a "different kind". Really cool though.

Creating a video through edits is generation of a video.

This is a great project that demonstrates a unique way to tackle a problem from someone with a passion for those problems.

Re: Show HN: A different kind of AI Video generation

#7

Post by ozgung »

echelon wrote: post #4

Editing will remain of utmost strategic important to automate until generation dominates the field. At that point, we'll probably generate from storyboards. A lot of small startups are trying to automate timeline construction with VLMs. I've counted about a dozen, some with seed stage funding. If you can crack this, there's absolutely a path to a unicorn. But in the long term, generation will disrupt nonlinear video…

Could you name a few of these startups please?

Re: Show HN: A different kind of AI Video generation

#8

Post by absolute_unit22 »

ozgung wrote: post #7
echelon wrote: post #4

Editing will remain of utmost strategic important to automate until generation dominates the field. At that point, we'll probably generate from storyboards. A lot of small startups are trying to automate timeline construction with VLMs. I've counted about a dozen, some with seed stage funding. If you can crack this, there's absolutely a path to a unicorn. But in the long term, generation will disrupt nonlinear video…

Could you name a few of these startups please?

I’m curious as well.

I’ve been exploring this space for a potential project - curious to see what these startups are doing

Re: Show HN: A different kind of AI Video generation

#9

Post by jasonjmcghee »

ozgung wrote: post #7
echelon wrote: post #4

Editing will remain of utmost strategic important to automate until generation dominates the field. At that point, we'll probably generate from storyboards. A lot of small startups are trying to automate timeline construction with VLMs. I've counted about a dozen, some with seed stage funding. If you can crack this, there's absolutely a path to a unicorn. But in the long term, generation will disrupt nonlinear video…

Could you name a few of these startups please?

I feel like they've really changed how they are presenting themselves but Runway was the big one that came to mind for me that focus on more than simple video generation but actually meant for film makers.

This is the best page I found- maybe there's a better one...

https://runwayml.com/product

But its interface looks like a video editor- timeline, etc

Post reply on HN