News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by michaelaubry on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @04:58PM (#24054419)
I quit my job over a year ago. Been bootstrapped on savings. I picked up a gig last year and only made $30K in 2019.

Hoping my efforts pay off.

Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by tiffanyh on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @10:31PM (#24056709)
Unsolicited suggestion.

Hit up Courtland at Indie Hackers. He has a podcast and your story would be a perfect fit.

Should help drive some traffic your way as well

Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by michaelaubry on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @12:57AM (#24057381)
Love Indie Hackers.

I wonder how many guests get featured on there from cold outreach. It would be worth a shot. I enjoy being a guest on podcasts.

Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by conductr on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @10:00AM (#24060810)
Check out the IH articles/interviews with veed.io , definitely a market for this type of product
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by dceddia on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @05:40PM (#24054780)
Nice job! It looks like a ton of effort. What's the tech stack for something like this? All homegrown? I've wanted to mess around with screencast editing but programmatic video stuff in general seems daunting.
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by michaelaubry on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @07:06PM (#24055470)
Yes it's daunting. You have to love it to be able to get through the hard times.

I am using React.js to build the UI and manage state.

Using FFMPEG and a combination of other rendering techniques on the backend.

Shout outs to

Vercel AWS React team

Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by ricahe2559 on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @12:02AM (#24057151)
FFMPEG is super powerful. Michael, do you take screenshots on a headless browser and stitch them using FFMPEG? At least, that's what I have done for a hobby project.
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by michaelaubry on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @12:59AM (#24057403)
FFMPEG IS GOAT haha.

It took me awhile to understand how the I/O streams worked, and the complex filters worked, but once you get it there is a lot of power in your hand.

Yeah I did that initially but then I found a better technique. There are some pieces using that method and it's a fantastic approach until you reach 30 fps over the course of a 10 min video.

Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by gamerfreakish on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @05:50AM (#24058932)
Do you mind sharing what the technique is?
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by dceddia on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @07:54PM (#24055792)
Awesome. React is my jam, hit me up if you need anything.
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by michaelaubry on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @01:01AM (#24057410)
Nice. Hit me up on Twitter and lets talk @michaelaubry
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by MathCodeLove on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @02:50AM (#24057966)
I'd love to hear more about your backend structure. Would you mind going into a bit more detail on it?
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by rememberlenny on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @05:42PM (#24054789)
I signed up. This is immediately useful and totally worth the cost. Loving the easy video captioning.
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by michaelaubry on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @06:54PM (#24055378)
Hell yeah!!
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by thecupisblue on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @09:43PM (#24056467)
Amazing work man! This looks and feels great!

Dropped it on producthunt, hope you get some boost there!

Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by etewiah on Thursday August 06, 2020 @03:08AM (#24068772)
I think it really sucks when someone suddenly puts your product on producthunt before you're ready. You only get one chance there so please please producthunt hunters, think about reaching out to creators BEFORE you do this....
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by michaelaubry on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @01:13AM (#24057474)
Holy shit this is awesome. Wow thank you!

Can I buy you a coffee or lunch? Hit me up on Twitter @michaelaubry that is very thoughtful of you :)

Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by thecupisblue on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @06:37AM (#24059199)
All good man, added you as a maker, accept the invite and promote it! It deserves to be seen more! :)
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by michaelaubry on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @04:30AM (#24058502)
Also what does dropped it on PH mean?
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by thecupisblue on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @12:45PM (#24062832)
It means your product is hunted, so you can join in as the maker and share it. The more people upvote it, the more visibility it gets on the front page of producthunt. It was a really popular startup launching ground before, now it's just meh, but can still get some nice leads :)
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by statictype on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @09:18PM (#24056300)
I’m sure it will. How long did you spend working in this before the first release?

(Is this the first release)

Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by michaelaubry on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @09:48PM (#24056490)
This is certainly the first time I've broadcasted it to a larger audience.

Back in April I started cold calling (IG DMs) and got a paying customer. Been working with them closely and I tend to enjoy product more than marketing.

Now I am just saying screw it let's ship and if things break oh well. It's not like I am launching a rocket into space.

Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by Copenjin on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @03:31AM (#24058170)
I don't even need to make videos but this is so polished I'd like to try it out anyway, great work.
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by michaelaubry on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @04:29AM (#24058498)
haha thanks for the kind words
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by 29athrowaway on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @11:33PM (#24057027)
This looks very polished. Good work, man.
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by michaelaubry on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @01:16AM (#24057484)
Ingredients

Blood, time, sweat, and a lot of tears. Your words mean a lot to me, just to hear this after 10 months of grind is a happy feeling.

I am ready to get back to work though. The grind don't stop, just getting started.

Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by 29athrowaway on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @02:43AM (#24057933)
Best of luck, I hope it pays off.
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by michaelaubry on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @04:30AM (#24058505)
Thanks :)
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by ActsJuvenile on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @11:21PM (#24056964)
How many people do you have on your team?
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by michaelaubry on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @01:15AM (#24057479)
Mowgli and I https://storycreatorapp.com/about

I have a loving girlfriend Rachael and another dog Millie. They're extremely supportive.

I am looking to expand the team. Working on getting some angels on the team to put in some capital. So that I can hire people more talented and smarter.

Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by xenospn on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @05:56PM (#24054906)
Looks awesome! BTW, the 'About' page has a missing image (I'm assuming it's you).
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by michaelaubry on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @06:23PM (#24055136)
I think there is an issue on mobile. Should work on desktop. I think the CSS doesnt have a height set or something.
Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by factotvm on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @10:34PM (#24056722)
I don't see it on desktop, which means I don't get to see Mowgli and I'm pretty disappointed about that.

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_6) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/13.1.2 Safari/605.1.15

Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by michaelaubry on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @01:18AM (#24057488)
Have no fear Twitter is here. https://twitter.com/michaelaubry/status/1288516866617405441/...

This is when he got rice all over his nose haha. Carbs are important for engineering focus.

Re:Show HN: I built an After Effects for dummies by xenospn on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @11:30PM (#24057014)
I'm on desktop.