launch-video

Launch Video & Visuals

This skill covers the creation of visual and video assets for product launches. These are the highest-impact assets you'll create — a great demo video or GIF stops the scroll, communicates value faster than words, and gets shared. A bad one can actively undermine the launch by making the product look confusing or unpolished.

The media hierarchy

For most launches, the decision of what to create follows this order:

1. Demo video — Shows the product in action with context. Best for explaining how something works.
2. Animated GIF or screen recording loop — Shorter, auto-plays inline on social. Best for showing a specific interaction.
3. Annotated screenshot — Static, fast to produce, good for showing a specific state or feature.
4. Diagram or illustration — For architecture, concepts, or things that can't be screenshotted.

In general: use video when the flow matters, GIF when a single interaction communicates the value, and screenshots when one specific state is the point.

Demo video

Length by platform

Platform	Target length	Hard limit
Product Hunt	60-90 seconds	3 minutes
Landing page hero	60-90 seconds	2 minutes
X/Twitter embedded	30-45 seconds	2 minutes 20 seconds
LinkedIn	45-90 seconds	10 minutes
YouTube (full demo)	3-5 minutes	—

The platform hard limits aren't just technical — engagement drops sharply beyond them. A 4-minute PH video is effectively no video.

Script structure (for short-form demo)

Keep this to 5-7 beats:

1. Problem (5-10 seconds) — State the problem being solved. One sentence. Not a long setup.
2. Introduce the solution (5-10 seconds) — Name the product and the core value prop.
3. Demo: happy path (30-60 seconds) — Show the primary use case working end-to-end. This is the heart of the video.
4. Key capabilities (10-20 seconds) — 2-3 quick cuts showing secondary features. Keep it fast.
5. Proof point (5-10 seconds) — A metric, customer quote, or benchmark. One slide or voiceover line.
6. CTA (5 seconds) — One action. "Try it free at [URL]" or "Sign up at [URL]."

Avoid: long intros, animated logos (audiences click away), slow product startup screens, and anything that doesn't show the product doing something.

Recording tips

• Use a demo environment, not production. Clean data, no embarrassing customer info, reliable state.
• Slow down deliberate interactions. People follow cursor movements better when you move intentionally, not at normal working speed.
• Record at 2x your target resolution. Record at 2880×1800 or 1440×900 (Retina), then downscale for delivery. This gives you zoom room and looks sharper.
• Hide everything extraneous. Close Slack notifications, hide browser bookmarks bar, use a clean browser profile. Distractions in the recording erode trust.
• Capture more than you'll use. Record full workflows and cut in post. It's faster than re-recording because you missed a beat.

Voiceover vs. silent

Both work. The choice depends on context:

• Voiceover: Warmer, more explanatory, works better on YouTube and landing pages. Requires a clean recording environment and good audio quality. Bad audio is worse than no audio.
• Silent with text overlays: Works better on autoplay-with-mute contexts (social feeds). Faster to produce. Requires clear on-screen labels.

If you're unsure: record the demo silently, add text overlays for key moments, then decide whether to add voiceover based on the platform.

Tooling

• Screen recording: Loom (quick), Screen Studio (polished output, good for marketing), QuickTime (raw), OBS (full control)
• Video editing: CapCut (fast, easy), DaVinci Resolve (professional, free), Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere
• Motion design / logo animations: After Effects, Motion (Mac), Jitter (web-based)
• Captions/subtitles: Descript (also good for editing by transcript), Captions app, Rev
• Programmatic video: Remotion (React-based — see section below)

Programmatic video with Remotion

For teams that ship fast and don't want to wait on a motion designer for every launch, programmatic video lets you write React components and render them as MP4 files. The video is code: version-controlled, parametrized, and iteratable without a timeline editor.

When to use programmatic video

Works well for:

• Launch announcement clips (15-45 seconds) for social media
• Product walkthrough videos showing UI in action
• Feature highlight reels with text overlays and screenshots
• Data-driven videos (benchmark comparisons, growth metrics)
• Templated videos you'll reuse across launches (just swap content)

Less suited for:

• Cinematic brand videos requiring complex motion design
• Founder narrative videos with live footage
• Videos that need extensive custom illustration or 3D

For major Tier 1 launches, you might combine approaches: programmatic video for social clips and a professional motion designer for the hero video.

Remotion setup

npx create-video@latest my-launch-video
cd my-launch-video
npm start  # Opens Remotion Studio for preview

Key concepts:

• Composition: A video is a React component with a defined duration (in frames) and framerate
• useCurrentFrame(): Hook that returns the current frame number — use it to drive animations
• Sequence: Component that offsets its children in time — use it to sequence scenes
• spring(): Animation utility for natural-feeling motion (ease-in/out)
• Assets: Images, screenshots, and audio go in the public/ folder

Scene planning template

Before writing code, plan the video scene by scene:

Field	Description
Scene #	Sequential number
Duration	Seconds (e.g., "3s")
Purpose	What this scene communicates (one sentence)
Text content	Exact text that appears on screen
Visual elements	Screenshots, icons, code snippets, diagrams
Animation style	Fade in, slide from left, typewriter, scale up, etc.
Transition out	How this scene exits (fade, cut, slide)

Code patterns

Sequenced scenes:

<Sequence from={0} durationInFrames={90}>
  <HookScene />
</Sequence>
<Sequence from={90} durationInFrames={120}>
  <DemoScene />
</Sequence>
<Sequence from={210} durationInFrames={90}>
  <CTAScene />
</Sequence>

Text reveal:

const frame = useCurrentFrame();
const opacity = interpolate(frame, [0, 20], [0, 1], {
  extrapolateRight: 'clamp',
});

return <h1 style={{ opacity }}>Your primary value prop here</h1>;

Iteration workflow

1. Plan scenes using the template above
2. Collect assets — screenshots, logos, product images → public/ folder
3. Write or prompt the first draft — get the structure and content right
4. Preview in Studio — watch it through, note timing and visual issues
5. Iterate — adjust timing, animation, and content. Usually takes 2-4 rounds
6. Render — npx remotion render src/index.ts MyComposition out/video.mp4
7. Check platform specs — verify resolution and file size work for your target platform

GIFs and short loops

GIFs auto-play on most platforms and are ideal for showing a single interaction — a UI state change, a CLI command output, an API response. They're faster to produce than video and often more effective for social posts.

When to use GIF vs. video

Use GIF when:

• The entire value can be communicated in 3-8 seconds
• You're showing a single UI interaction, not a workflow
• The asset will be embedded in a tweet or README where video playback is less reliable

Use video when:

• The value requires context (problem → solution)
• The interaction takes more than 8 seconds to demonstrate
• You need audio

Recording GIFs

• Capture at 2x, downscale to target resolution
• Keep under 5MB for web performance (use palette reduction or fewer frames)
• Loop seamlessly — the start and end state should match so the loop doesn't jar
• Tool options: CleanShot X (recommended for Mac), Kap, Giphy Capture, Gifski (for converting video clips)

Optimizing GIF file size

• Reduce color palette (256 → 128 or 64 colors for many UI recordings)
• Drop frames (30fps → 15fps is rarely noticeable in UI recordings)
• Crop aggressively — show only what's changing, not the whole screen
• Convert to MP4 with autoplay/loop instead of GIF when the platform supports it (MP4 is ~10x smaller than equivalent GIF)

Screenshots

Screenshots are underused in launches. A well-composed screenshot with clear annotation communicates a feature faster than a paragraph.

Composition

• Show the product in a meaningful state — not an empty screen, not a loading state, not a screen full of dummy data that makes features hard to see
• Use a clean environment — browser without tabs, dark or light mode consistently applied, no personal data visible
• Highlight the relevant area — callout boxes, arrows, or highlights direct attention to what matters

Annotation tools

• CleanShot X (Mac) — captures, annotates, and exports in one flow
• Skitch — simple annotations
• Figma / Sketch — for more polished product shots with custom styling

Browser framing

For web products, use a browser frame to make screenshots look intentional rather than raw. Tools like Screely, Browserframe, or custom Figma templates add a browser chrome overlay.

Multiple screenshots for feature grids

Landing pages and Product Hunt galleries often need 3-5 screenshots showing different aspects of the product. Plan these as a set:

• Each screenshot shows a distinct capability
• Consistent visual treatment (same zoom level, same browser theme, same annotation style)
• Tell a progression: entry → key action → result

Asset checklist by tier

Tier 1

• Demo video (60-90 seconds, suitable for PH and landing page)
• Short social cut (30-45 seconds from the same recording)
• 3-5 annotated screenshots for landing page and PH gallery
• 1-2 GIFs for social posts (showing key interactions)
• Open Graph image for blog post and social link previews

Tier 2

• 1-2 GIFs or short screen recording
• 2-3 screenshots for landing page section
• Open Graph image

Tier 3

• 1 screenshot
• Optional: short GIF if the change is visual

Open Graph images

Every piece of content that gets shared as a link (blog post, landing page, changelog entry) should have a custom Open Graph (OG) image. The OG image is what appears when the link is pasted into Twitter, Slack, iMessage, or LinkedIn.

• Size: 1200×630px
• Content: Product name + primary value prop. Treat it like a billboard — readable at small size
• Consistency: Use a template so all your launch content has a cohesive look
• Tools: Figma template, Vercel OG (code-generated), Bannerbear (automated)

Video specs by platform

Platform	Resolution	Max length	Format	Notes
X/Twitter	1280×720 or 1920×1080	2:20	MP4 (H.264)	Autoplay muted — add captions
LinkedIn	1920×1080	10 min	MP4 (H.264)	Square (1080×1080) works well in feed
Product Hunt	1920×1080	90 sec	MP4	Keep under 50MB
Website hero	1920×1080	No limit	MP4/WebM	Consider autoplay loop (no audio)

Companion skills

• launch-strategy — determines which assets are needed for the launch tier
• launch-tweet — the GIFs and videos go in the tweet (attached, not linked)
• launch-landing-page — the demo video and screenshots go on the page
• launch-distribution — per-platform format requirements