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I wanted Remotion for Rails, so I started building AnimateIt

ruby dev.to

Build It is an ATS that screens and adds context to CVs, schedules, and ranks applicants so teams and applicants can focus their time.

As part of that, I wanted to create short marketing videos using the actual product UI I had already built.

I made a video for it here (donno why it looks pixelated in dev.to):

That process made me realize something: creating product videos from a Rails app is still harder than it should be.

2. The original idea

I liked the idea behind Remotion.

Being able to create videos with code instead of dragging things around in a video editor felt exactly right for product demos, launch videos, and marketing clips.

But Remotion is built around React.

My app is not.

3. My stack

Build It is built with:

It started as a lightweight Rails frontend, not a React app.

That was intentional. I wanted to build quickly, keep the frontend simple, and avoid maintaining a separate frontend application unless I truly needed one.

4. React was possible, but it was not the point

Someone mentioned that I could use something like Inertia, or another approach, to add React to the Rails app.

That is technically true.

Rails can work with React. Inertia can work with React. There are several ways to bring React into a Rails application.

But that was not really the problem I wanted to solve.

The friction was not that I could not use React.

The friction was that I did not want to rebuild or wrap my existing Rails UI in React just to make marketing videos.

5. The pain

The frustrating part was duplication.

I already had:

  • real product screens
  • real app data
  • real styles
  • real ViewComponents
  • real Rails views
  • real UI states

But to make a marketing video, I still had to recreate too much of that somewhere else.

I did not want a separate React video project just to turn my Rails UI into video.

6. Looking around the Rails ecosystem

I found good tools for pieces of the problem.

There are Ruby gems for working with FFmpeg.
There are Rails-friendly tools for rendering HTML to PDFs or screenshots using headless Chrome.
There are services for transforming existing videos.

But I could not find what I actually wanted:

A Rails-native way to compose videos from existing Rails views, components, styles, and data.

7. The idea behind AnimateIt

That is why I started AnimateIt.

The idea is simple:

What if Rails developers could create product videos using the same tools they already use to build their app?

Instead of rebuilding screens in React, I wanted to reuse my existing Rails UI.

8. What AnimateIt is

AnimateIt is an early attempt at Remotion for Rails.

The goal is to let Rails developers create videos using:

  • Ruby classes
  • Rails templates
  • HAML or ERB
  • ViewComponents
  • app styles
  • real product data
  • browser rendering
  • FFmpeg output

9. What I want it to be useful for

I want AnimateIt to help Rails developers create:

  • product demos
  • launch videos
  • social media clips
  • feature announcements
  • onboarding videos
  • marketing videos from real app screens

Especially for indie hackers and small teams who already have the product UI built, but do not want to rebuild everything in another tool.

10. Why I’m sharing it early

AnimateIt is still early, but the problem feels real.

Rails apps already have rich UI, real data, and reusable components. It should be possible to turn those into videos without leaving the Rails ecosystem.

I’m sharing it now because I’d love feedback from other Rails developers who have tried to create product videos from their apps.

11. Links

Source: dev.to

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