Launch HN: Cardboard (YC W26) – Agentic video editor(usecardboard.com)
80 points by sxmawl 4 hours ago | 34 comments
- flyingcircus3 32 minutes agoHere's an agent skill that lets you do similar things: https://skills.sh/remotion-dev/skills/remotion-best-practice...
- popalchemist 49 minutes agoImpressive UI. I assume you must be doing some kind of RAG + audio/video transcription on all the media. What's RAG architecture did you go with?
- barefootford 2 hours agoReally impressive work guys! It seems like YC has funded a few companies attacking this but I think you all might have the best approach so far. Behind the scenes is the agent just editing using text/annotated timelines? I feel like the move is probably text for roughcut/narrative, then a vlm for digesting the initial roughcut, then adding broll and fixing timing issues. Feel free to steal my FCP xml generator. https://github.com/barefootford/buttercut[-]
- sxmawl 2 hours agohappy that you liked our approach! also, i think it's a better idea to just give agent these tools and let it figure out its course of actions than giving it a specific workflow to work on - it seems like the world keeps reminding us the bitter lesson [http://www.incompleteideas.net/IncIdeas/BitterLesson.html] more frequently these days
will definitely check the XML exports, ty :)
- moralestapia 3 hours agoThis is amazing (I'll add you on LinkedIn).
I recently started making videos for a loved one that lives far away, I started using CapCut and this is the kind of thing I was thinking "I wish it did that".
I'll definitely try it out. Congrats!
[-]- sxmawl 3 hours agothat's really cool!
lmk if i can help in any way :)
- michaelevensen 1 hour agoLove this idea! I built something similar last year https://www.usecrossfade.com and know how difficult this is to get right - I'm rooting for you guys![-]
- ishandeveloper 1 hour agoThank you! You're right, there are so many subtle things to get right, appreciate the kind words. Crossfade's landing page looks slick btw![-]
- michaelevensen 1 hour agoThanks! Yeah, it can just quickly spiral into this massive product when you take video editing which has a base level of features you sort of expect and add on a whole new paradigm like AI-assisted. But really like your approach!
- WaylonKenning 2 hours agoFunnily, this was an issue for myself so I built an open source AI video editor - https://github.com/waylonkenning/aidirector
Cardboard looks really well polished, well done!
[-]- sxmawl 2 hours agodamn that's really cool, you ship fast!
- moinism 2 hours agoWow! congrats on the launch guys. client-side rendering is incredible, really. I saw your product somewhere and have it as an open tab in my chrome for ~2 weeks :D
I also saw another YC company, Mosaic, doing something similar. But your approach of chat-based editing is a lot closer to what I'm building. Shameless plug: I'm also working on a chat-based media processor. https://chatoctopus.com
But you guys are way ahead! will be looking at you for inspiration.
[-]- sxmawl 1 hour agomosaic's approach is also v fresh. curious about the flow after a user q/a with an asset in chatoctopus?
and ig it's time to revisit that chrome tab :)
- jimmis 2 hours agoExcited to see AI integrations into more non-text-related applications (coding, spreadsheets, proofreading etc). As someone who only occasionally needs to edit videos for product / feature reels, I'd happily ask an AI to "sync the narration to the video, cut away irrelevant footage, and add transitions". The convenience of being able to automate simple, repeatable tasks in creative software via ai is something that gets overshadowed a lot by the agentic coding discussions. I can only imagine the nightmare it would be for a tool like Premier to integrate effective ai features, so new ai-in-mind tools really feel like a necessity.
Great website and good luck!
[-]- sxmawl 2 hours agoyou understood well what we are building. non-text domains certainly have additionally challenges and we're working on making it reliable without learning curve.
also, appreciate the kind words on the site — give Cardboard a spin next time you need a product reel!
- joshribakoff 2 hours agoVery cool idea. If your product is about video, please fix your video players. I cannot even seek on my touch screen.[-]
- ishandeveloper 1 hour agomy bad, I didn't test it enough on touch devices. Just pushed a fix, appreciate you flagging it!
- sxmawl 2 hours agoah, ty for notifying about the mobile player. on it!
- rd 3 hours agoWho do you think your target customer is? Curious to know if you think the money is in short form, traditional YouTube videos, or even movie studios one day.
Great website btw. The onboarding was very pleasing
[-]- sxmawl 3 hours agothere's value in all the categories you mentioned — we're not focusing on feature filmmakers right now.
target customers usually fall under one of these - marketers / creators / founders
- telesilla 38 minutes agoHelpful for those who care less about the craft and more about a quick outcome. Werner Herzog said that he watches his footage a few times, takes extensive notes then edits based on his notes. That's how he crafts such extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime stories. But for those who are working on commercial or home movies, why not use AI to build a narrative? It can be like throwing dice and the outcome could be OK. Maybe even good.
Regardless, having a tool that knows the content of your footage is a huge time saver. Good luck with the product.
- RobotToaster 2 hours agoThe 10gb file size is going to be limiting for anyone shooting prores or raw.[-]
- sxmawl 2 hours agoyeah, i agree. we're actively working on bumping that up. it was 5GB last week
for now, an intermediate solution is to splice and upload.
- danieltk76 3 hours agoWe use Cardboard at Vulnetic and it is an incredible product. The founders are easily accessible, and it has definitely made it easier to film feature update videos. I can't recommend them enough.[-]
- sxmawl 3 hours agoglad i'm able to help, i really enjoy working with you!
- jhatemyjob 2 hours ago> We built a custom hardware-accelerated renderer on WebCodecs / WebGL2, there’s no server-side rendering, no plugins, everything runs in your browser (client-side).
Aight imma head out. Holy moly.
[-]- sxmawl 2 hours agohaha xD
- TimCTRL 2 hours ago$60...eh