Show HN: AI Comic Builder – turn a script into an animated video local

1 point

3 months ago

I built a self-hostable pipeline that takes a screenplay (or a one-line idea) and produces a finished animated video — no coding required, no SaaS subscription.

  The pipeline:                                                                                                         
  1. Write or AI-generate a script                                                                                      
  2. Extract characters → generate turnaround reference sheets (for visual consistency)                               
  3. Split the script into shots with camera direction and motion descriptions
  4. Generate keyframes (first + last frame per shot) with continuity chaining
  5. Interpolate each shot into a video clip
  6. Concat everything with FFmpeg, burn subtitles

  Each stage can be triggered individually or in batch, so you stay in control.

  Tech:
  - Next.js 16 App Router + SQLite (self-contained, zero infra)
  - Bring your own keys: OpenAI, Gemini, or Seedance for text/image/video
  - Docker one-liner: docker run -p 3000:3000 -v ./data:/app/data twwch/aicomicbuilder:latest
  - No accounts — browser fingerprint (SHA-256 of UA/screen/timezone) is the user identity, so multiple people can share
   one instance with full data isolation

  Why I built it: Existing video generation tools are either single-shot (one prompt → one clip) or fully opaque
  pipelines. I wanted something that exposed every step so I could iterate on prompts, swap models mid-project, and
  understand what's actually happening.

  The hardest part was the continuity chain — the last frame of shot N becomes the first frame of shot N+1, which keeps
  characters visually consistent across cuts without fine-tuning.

  GitHub: https://github.com/twwch/AIComicBuilder

  Demo video in the README. Would love feedback on the pipeline design and whether the fingerprint-as-auth tradeoff
  makes sense for this use case.

The pipeline: 1. Write or AI-generate a script 2. Extract characters → generate turnaround reference sheets (for visual consistency) 3. Split the script into shots with camera direction and motion descriptions 4. Generate keyframes (first + last frame per shot) with continuity chaining 5. Interpolate each shot into a video clip 6. Concat everything with FFmpeg, burn subtitles Each stage can be triggered individually or in batch, so you stay in control. Tech: - Next.js 16 App Router + SQLite (self-contained, zero infra) - Bring your own keys: OpenAI, Gemini, or Seedance for text/image/video - Docker one-liner: docker run -p 3000:3000 -v ./data:/app/data twwch/aicomicbuilder:latest - No accounts — browser fingerprint (SHA-256 of UA/screen/timezone) is the user identity, so multiple people can share one instance with full data isolation Why I built it: Existing video generation tools are either single-shot (one prompt → one clip) or fully opaque pipelines. I wanted something that exposed every step so I could iterate on prompts, swap models mid-project, and understand what's actually happening. The hardest part was the continuity chain — the last frame of shot N becomes the first frame of shot N+1, which keeps characters visually consistent across cuts without fine-tuning. GitHub: https://github.com/twwch/AIComicBuilder Demo video in the README. Would love feedback on the pipeline design and whether the fingerprint-as-auth tradeoff makes sense for this use case.