How to Make a Launch Video for Your Vibe-Coded App (Without Touching a Timeline)
How to Make a Launch Video for Your Vibe-Coded App (Without Touching a Timeline)
April 23, 2026
Keston CollinsVideo editor with nearly 10 years of experience, exploring the intersection of motion graphics and AI.
How to Make a Launch Video for Your Vibe-Coded App (Without Touching a Timeline)
You shipped the product. The Claude conversation is 400 messages long. The app actually works. Now someone on Twitter asks: "do you have a demo video?"
And you have nothing.
This happens to almost every vibe coder. The build is fast. The video is where everything stalls — because suddenly you need to know something about motion graphics, or editing timelines, or what a "lower third" is. That's a different skill set entirely, and most people who code with AI don't have it.
This guide skips all of that. In about 20 minutes, you'll have a professional launch video using AutoAE's Season 2 SaaS Launch Kit — the same motion templates used by teams with real design budgets, but assembled in a browser with no timeline editing.
TL;DR — The 20-Minute Launch Video Stack
Step
Time
What you need
Output
Record a screen walkthrough
5 min
Loom, QuickTime, or Screen Studio
Raw demo footage
Brand opener (AutoAE)
3 min
Your logo + one-line product description
Dynamic brand intro clip
Product headline (AutoAE)
2 min
Your tagline, 3 words max per line
Clean text animation
UI demo moment (AutoAE)
3 min
A screenshot of your best product screen
Interactive UI showcase
Credibility slide (AutoAE)
2 min
One number — users, rating, or upvotes
Social proof animation
Assemble + export
5 min
CapCut or VEED (free tier works)
Final launch video
Total
~20 min
Launch-ready video
AutoAE handles Steps 2–5. CapCut or VEED handles Step 6. You handle nothing else.
Why Vibe Coders Get Stuck on the Video (And How to Skip It)
The pattern is predictable: you spend a weekend with Claude, ship something real, post on Twitter, get some replies — and then someone asks for a "proper demo video" before they'll share it or invest time into it.
The tools people usually recommend at this point (After Effects, Premiere, DaVinci) are genuinely hard. After Effects alone takes weeks to learn. The templates on stock sites require AE to run. Even CapCut tutorials assume you know what a timeline is.
AutoAE is different because it's not a video editor. It's a motion graphics generator. You pick a template, drop in your content (logo, screenshot, one line of text), hit preview, then download the clip. The clip is 5–15 seconds. You stack a few of them around your screen recording. Done.
The whole concept: AutoAE makes the snippets that make your screen recording look like it cost money.
Step 1: Record Your Screen First (5 Minutes)
Before you open AutoAE, capture your raw demo footage. You need 60–90 seconds of your product actually working — not a slideshow, not a Figma mockup.
The simplest path:
Loom (free): Record your screen + voice, shareable link instantly
QuickTime (Mac, free): Clean recording, no watermark, exports as .mov
Screen Studio (Mac, paid): Adds automatic zoom effects around click events — looks noticeably more polished without extra editing
One non-negotiable: show the product doing the thing it does. If your app summarizes emails, show it summarizing an email. If it generates reports, show one being generated. Don't show a landing page. Don't show your Notion docs. Show the product.
Keep the raw recording under 90 seconds. You're going to trim this later.
Step 2: Brand Opener — Dynamic Logo Reveal (3 Minutes)
Open AutoAE, search for SaaS Launch S2 Pt.1 — Dynamic Logo Reveal.
This template opens with four lines of text building in sequence — designed to let you introduce your brand and value prop in the first 5 seconds before anything else appears. Replace the placeholder text with:
Line 1: Your product name
Line 2: What problem it solves (8 words max)
Line 3: Who it's for
Line 4: The outcome they get
Example for a vibe-coded invoicing tool:
Invoify
Stop chasing clients for payment
For freelancers and small agencies
Get paid. Automatically.
Export this clip. It's your video's first 5–7 seconds.
Step 3: Product Headline — Minimal Text Reveal (2 Minutes)
After the opener, you need a beat that anchors your core claim — one clean statement before the product actually appears.
Search for SaaS Launch S2 Pt.9 — Minimal Text Reveal.
Three lines. Extreme minimalism. The animation itself does the heavy lifting — your job is to fill in the shortest, most specific version of your product's promise.
Good examples:
"One prompt. Real invoice."
"Built with Claude. Shipped Friday."
"700 freelancers. Zero late payments."
Bad examples (too vague):
"The future of invoicing"
"AI-powered workflow automation"
"Simple. Fast. Powerful."
If you wrote it in 30 seconds, it's probably too generic. The right text for this template is the sentence you'd use if you had 3 seconds to explain your product to someone who's never heard of it.
Step 4: Show the Product — UI Interaction (3 Minutes)
This is the core of your launch video. Search for SaaS Launch S2 Pt.3 — UI Interaction.
The template shows a cursor interacting with a UI — button press, screen transition, reveal of a key product moment. Replace the placeholder UI with a screenshot of your best product screen.
A few rules for picking which screen to use:
Show the output, not the input. If your app generates a report, show the finished report — not the form where users fill in data.
One screen only. Don't try to explain the full product. Show one moment of "oh, that's what it does."
Avoid setup screens. Onboarding flows, account creation, settings pages — all of these feel like work. Show the payoff.
This clip is your 8–15 second demo moment. In a ProductHunt launch, this is what people screenshot and share.
Step 5: Credibility Moment — Social Proof (2 Minutes)
If you have any numbers at all — users, beta signups, waitlist size, upvotes, a testimonial — this template turns them into a proper credibility beat.
The animation uses data indicators and a global expansion visual. You're not showing a spreadsheet — you're showing momentum.
What if I just launched and have no numbers?
Use the number you do have. "127 beta users" is more credible than "thousands of users." "82 waitlist signups in 48 hours" is a real number. "3 paying customers in week one" is honest and concrete.
If you genuinely have zero data, skip this template and use the time saved to tighten your screen recording instead.
Step 6: Assemble in CapCut or VEED (5 Minutes)
At this point you have:
A screen recording (60–90 sec raw)
4 short animation clips from AutoAE (5–15 sec each)
Open CapCut (web version is free) or VEED. The assembly is simple:
Trim your screen recording to the best 30–45 seconds
Stack the clips in this order: Logo Reveal → Text Reveal → Screen Recording → UI Interaction → Social Proof
Adjust audio: add a background track (Lo-fi or ambient — CapCut has free options) at 20% volume
Export at 1080p
Total video length target: 60–90 seconds for ProductHunt / LinkedIn. 15–30 seconds for Twitter and Reels — cut the recording, keep the openers.
Speed adjustment happens here, not in AutoAE. If any AutoAE clip feels slow, speed it up to 1.2x in CapCut. AutoAE exports a static clip; the tempo is yours to control in the editor.
If...Then Launch Video Decision Guide
If you're posting on ProductHunt: Use all 5 steps above. Lead with the Dynamic Logo Reveal. ProductHunt viewers expect polish — the motion graphics opener signals you're serious.
If you're posting on Twitter/X: Cut to 30 seconds max. Skip the Social Proof template if you don't have numbers yet. Lead with the screen recording, bookend it with the Text Reveal. Native video gets 3x more reach than a link.
If you're pitching in a DM or cold email: Export just the UI Interaction clip (15 seconds). Embed it as a GIF or link to a Loom. Full launch videos in unsolicited emails rarely get watched.
If your app has no visual UI (e.g., an API or CLI tool): Use the Text Reveal and Logo Reveal templates to frame the value prop, then show terminal output or a simple web dashboard you built as a front-end wrapper. If there's genuinely nothing visual, a well-written tweet thread will outperform a video for this product type.
If you built this specifically with Claude: Say so in the video's caption, not the video itself. "Built with Claude Code, shipped in 72 hours" in the tweet text hits differently — it's a credibility signal without being a distraction from the product.
FAQ
Can I use AutoAE for free to make a launch video?
AutoAE has a free plan that lets you preview and export with a watermark. If you're posting on ProductHunt, LinkedIn, or Twitter where you're asking people to trust your product, the watermark hurts more than the $9.90/month Starter plan costs. One month is all you need to get the launch video done.
Do I need any video editing experience to do this?
No. You're downloading 4 short clips and stacking them in CapCut's free web editor. If you can drag files into a folder, you can assemble this video.
How long should a vibe-coded app launch video actually be?
60 seconds is the ceiling for most platforms. ProductHunt can handle up to 90 seconds if the product is genuinely complex. For social media, aim for 30–45 seconds. Shorter is almost always better — every second of video is a second where someone can click away.
What if my product changes after I make the launch video?
Make a new one. With AutoAE templates, the total time to make a new video is 20 minutes, not a day. Treat each major product update as a new video opportunity — it's also a good reason to post.
Can I use AutoAE clips for paid ads?
Yes. AutoAE's paid plans (Starter and above) include commercial licensing. The clips you export can go into paid social ads, YouTube pre-rolls, or any other paid placement without additional licensing fees.
AutoAE is used by 700,000+ creators globally. The Season 2 SaaS Launch Kit was designed specifically for product launches and is available at autoae.online.
