✒️ Introduction
Creating captivating videos with engaging narratives can be time-consuming and complex. It may even end up unprofessional. Ever try outsourcing a narration/voiceover to someone? Get ready to cough up a good amount of money for that. What if there was a way to simplify this process using AI? And cheaper too?
Meet Memoire, an AI-powered tool designed to create narrated videos in minutes. Whether you're a content creator, a marketer, or just someone who loves sharing stories, Memoire is here to transform your ideas into stunning videos effortlessly.
In this article, I'll walk you through Memoire, showcasing its features, the challenges faced during development, and the exciting possibilities it offers.
✍🏽 Problem Statement
My parents often ask me to create videos for their businesses and products, a task I used to handle until they discovered slideshow apps 😅. However, they still wished for a professional voiceover to enhance their videos. At one point, my dad even paid a radio presenter he knew $50 for a single voiceover, which I then had to sync with the video. This process was not only time-consuming but also costly.
With Memoire, the cost and effort are significantly reduced. For the same $50, Memoire can generate over 3,000 media files, including AI-generated descriptions and voiceovers. This means my parents (and others) can produce high-quality videos with professional voiceovers and rich descriptions without breaking the bank. Memoire makes professional video creation accessible and affordable for everyone.
🔐 Key Features
Full-Featured Authentication: Memoire ensures security and user experience with its robust authentication system powered by NextAuth, allowing only verified users to access the app. The system includes beautifully designed emails for account verification and password resets, enhancing both functionality and user engagement.
Upload Media and Generate Descriptions: You can upload your photos, and Memoire will generate accurate and engaging descriptions for them. If the description is missing important context, you can easily add your input and regenerate a more fitting description.
Media Transitions: Elevate your video storytelling with Memoire's diverse media transitions, offering options like "fade," "wipeleft," "slideup," and more. These transitions provide a professional touch, ensuring smooth and visually appealing scene changes in your videos.
Sortable Media List: Uploading photos in batches can sometimes lead to an unpredictable order of completion. With Memoire, you can easily drag and drop media boxes to arrange them in the order you prefer.
AI Script Generation: Memoire uses Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro model to generate scripts for your videos. This ensures high-quality, contextually relevant scripts that enhance your video narratives.
AI Audio Generation with Selectable Voices: Powered by OpenAI's TTS-1 model, Memoire offers customizable voices for your narrations. Choose from Echo, Alloy, Fable, Onyx, Nova, and Shimmer to find the perfect voice for your project.
Project Settings: Customize your project by adding a description, which helps the AI generate better scripts. You can also change your project's aspect ratio and frame rate to suit your needs.
In-Browser Output Generation: Memoire uses FFmpeg WASM to generate video outputs directly in your browser. Although this process is currently a bit slow, performance optimizations are underway to improve it.
EDIT: I've switched the preview rendering to a cloud provider, StreamPot. It cut down generation time by 75% 🤯. I'm currently working on a canvas-based version for instant previews while I'll use StreamPot for downloading the video.
AI Music Generation: Memoire leverages Meta's Music Gen model to generate background music for your videos. This feature is still a work in progress and is not available for public testing yet.
AI Powered Subtitle Generation: Using OpenAI's Whisper model, Memoire can generate subtitles for your videos. This feature is also in development and will be available soon.
🌍 Potential Impact
Memoire has the potential to reform the video creation process for a wide audience:
Content Creators: Simplifies the video production process, allowing creators to focus on their content rather than technical details.
Educators: Facilitates the creation of educational videos with engaging narratives and visuals.
Businesses: Enhances marketing and communication efforts by enabling the production of high-quality promotional videos.
Individuals: Empowers anyone to create professional videos for personal projects or social media.
🛠️ Tech Stack
FrontEnd: TypeScript, Next.js, DND Kit
BackEnd: Next.js API Routes, Server Actions, Prisma
Styling: Tailwind CSS
Rate Limit: Upstash
Authentication: Next Auth
AI Models: Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro, OpenAI's TTS-1, Meta's Music Gen, OpenAI's Whisper
In-Browser Processing: FFmpeg WASM
Memoire uses a modern tech stack to ensure a smooth and responsive user experience. By integrating various tools and frameworks, I aimed to build a robust and scalable application.
🎨 UI/UX
I placed a strong emphasis on user experience and interface design. The goal was to create a tool that is not only powerful but also intuitive and enjoyable to use. Key aspects of the UI/UX include:
Clean and Modern Interface: A visually appealing layout that is easy to navigate.
Intuitive Controls: Simple drag-and-drop functionality for organizing media.
Customization Options: Flexible settings to tailor the project to specific needs.
💪 Challenges Faced
AI Integration: Integrating AI services for narration and script generation was a significant challenge. Ensuring that the AI produces high-quality output required extensive testing and fine-tuning. I also ran into rate limits while I was testing aggressively.
User Experience: Creating an intuitive and user-friendly interface was crucial. I spent a considerable amount of time designing and iterating on the UI to ensure it meets users' needs while being aesthetically pleasing. This was a lot tougher for me because I didn't have a designer to work with for free 😅.
📸 Screenshots
🔗 Project Link
Link: https://dub.sh/MemoireDemo
💻 Code Repository
Link: https://git.new/MemoireRepo
✨ Conclusion
Memoire is designed to simplify video creation. By harnessing the power of AI, I've made it possible to produce high-quality narrated videos in minutes for dirt cheap. Whether you're looking to create content for social media, marketing campaigns, or personal projects, Memoire has you covered.
I'm excited to see what you'll create with Memoire. Feel free to share your feedback and let me know how I can improve. Stay tuned for more updates and features!