I built a pipeline that turns a script into a hand-drawn cartoon explainer. Two samples, and I'll make one for your project.

Yesterday my YouTube video was a robot standing next to number cards. It was accurate and nobody would watch it. So I rebuilt the pipeline the way the channels people actually watch do it: paper-white backgrounds, a fixed character who reacts, a cut every few seconds, a camera that zooms in on the number that matters, and a sound on every action.

Two samples, both made from a Markdown storyboard:

And the 18-second demo project that ships inside the package, rendered by the engine with no manual editing (three shots, one Markdown storyboard, eight generated poses of one character):

How it works

• Storyboard is Markdown: one ## shot per 5–20 seconds with NARRATION: (what the voice says), ACTION: (what moves), CAM: (zoom/pan), SFX: cues.
• Backgrounds are AI-generated ink sketches, one per location, exported at 1920×1080. Eight locations cover a whole video.
• Characters come from one character sheet: I pass the sheet as the reference image to an image model and ask for each pose (thumbs up, crying, running, typing…), key out the white background, and animate the cut-outs: idle breathing, squash on landings, pose swaps timed to the narration. 18 poses cover a whole video.
• Camera is a crop keyframed per shot, with a shake on impacts.
• SFX are synthesized (pop, stamp, thud, whoosh, tick) and placed at the action times, then mixed under the voice with loudness normalization.
• Render: PIL frames piped to ffmpeg, per shot, then concatenated. A 3-minute video renders in about 8 minutes on a laptop and re-renders only the shots you changed.

The character sheet is the part a human still has to make (mine is a one-page sheet with expressions, poses and colours). Everything after that is prompts and code.

I'll make one for your project

If you have a README, a launch post or a changelog you'd like as a 60–90 second cartoon like the ones above:

• You send the text (or a link). I write the storyboard, you approve it, I render.
• 1080p, no burned subtitles unless you want them, your own character if you have one or my cast if you don't.
• Delivered in 48 hours after storyboard approval. $149, same price as my other done-for-you offer. If it's late, it's free.

Order here: https://payhip.com/b/BzSRC (it's my done-for-you listing; answer the first intake question with "explainer video" and your link, or just reply to the receipt). Or reply below with the link first and I'll tell you in the thread whether it's a good fit before you pay.

If you'd rather run it yourself: the engine, the cut-out character module and the prompt kits are a $49 package here: https://payhip.com/b/A2wa8

Numbers in my videos are real because I keep a rule: no invented stats, no invented quotes. Same rule for yours; if your post says "10x faster", the video says what you measured.

Comments

[Kevan]

Hey ssapable, I read your post about the cartoon explainer pipeline. I'm a solo founder too and stuck on the same problem with my own tool, so I'm curious: where did those first ones come from, if you know?

[ssapable]

Sorry for the slow reply. The first ones came from me, not from inbound: I picked people's project posts here on DEV, made a short cartoon for their project without asking, and left it as a gift in the comments. People were nice about it and a few talked back, but none of it turned into a paid order, so I wouldn't call it a solved problem. The useful part was the conversations, not the reach.

[Kevan]

That's an interesting experiment. You found a way to start conversations, even if they didn't turn into paid work. That's an important distinction. FounderPulse is built around finding relevant conversations where your product could genuinely help, rather than creating something for people at random. Do you think the main issue was that people liked the gift but didn't need the service, or that there wasn't a clear next step toward a paid project?

[ssapable]

Honestly a bit of both, but mostly the first. The cartoons went to people showing off their own projects, not people looking for an explainer, so liking it and needing it were two different things. And I never put a price or an ask in those comments, so there was no next step either. I can't really separate the two from what I have, which is maybe the lesson.

[ssapable]

Mostly the first, I think. Every reply was some version of "this is fun," and none said "I've been meaning to get a video made." They were builders sharing their own projects, not people shopping for an explainer. The next step was vague too, which didn't help. But if nobody needs the thing, a clearer button just gets a clearer no.