Learn Remotion: Create Animated Video with HTML, CSS & React

Revolutionizing video creation: Forget specialized software and years of training! Now, web developers can leverage their existing HTML, CSS, and React JS expertise to craft stunning animated videos using Remotion. This innovative JavaScript toolkit empowers developers to build complex animations using familiar coding techniques.

This article explores Remotion, guiding you through its capabilities and showcasing practical examples. The complete code is available on GitHub.

Key Highlights:

• Leverage Existing Skills: Remotion utilizes your existing JavaScript, HTML, and CSS knowledge, eliminating the need for traditional video editing software.
• Streamlined Setup: Easy installation via npm gets you creating videos quickly.
• Familiar Development Paradigm: Employ familiar web development concepts like React components, props, and state for enhanced reusability and flexibility.
• Powerful Animation Support: Utilize helper functions like interpolate and spring to create dynamic and engaging video content.
• Real-time Preview: An integrated browser-based player allows for real-time video preview and debugging.
• Comprehensive Guide: This article provides detailed instructions and code examples suitable for both beginners and experienced developers.

Remotion: The Why and How

Remotion, developed by Jonny Burger, lowers the barrier to entry for video animation. Traditional video creation demands specialized software and extensive training. Remotion opens this field to a broader audience by utilizing the skills of JavaScript developers. This approach also enables innovative workflows like automated video generation based on parameters or integrated build pipelines.

Getting Started

Remotion offers a straightforward setup using npm. Ensure you have Node and npm installed (refer to the Node installation guide for assistance, and the Remotion installation guide for Linux-specific instructions). Create a new project:

npm init video

Name your project (e.g., my-video), navigate to the project directory, and start the default video project:

cd my-video
npm start

A browser window will open (or navigate to http://localhost:3000/) displaying a real-time video player for previewing and debugging your creations. Examine the demo example provided by Remotion for initial guidance.

A Simple Animation: "Hello, World!"

Let's create a basic animation of the text "Hello, World!". Delete the existing example code (the src folder) and create a Demo directory within src. Inside Demo, create Demo.js:

npm init video

Create Hello.js and Title.js within the Demo directory (code as in the original article). Create demo.css (code as in the original article). Finally, create src/index.js:

cd my-video
npm start

Run the animation: ./node_modules/.bin/remotion preview src/index.js or update your package.json's start script.

Building a Star Wars Animation

Building upon the "Hello, World!" example, let's create a Star Wars-style intro. This involves creating a starry background and scrolling yellow text. Create the necessary files and folders as described in the original article. The code for src/starWarsIndex.js, src/StarWars/starWars.js, src/StarWars/starsBackground.js, src/StarWars/starWars.css, and src/StarWars/starsBackground.css is provided in the original article. Remember to install lorem-ipsum: npm i lorem-ipsum. Add the "start:starwars" script to package.json.

Advanced Features (Brief Overview)

Remotion offers advanced features beyond these examples:

• Data Fetching: Fetch data during build time using hooks like continueRender and delayRender for dynamic video content.
• Parameterized Rendering: Pass data via build commands for automated video generation.
• Asset Imports: Import images, videos, and audio files.

Conclusion

Remotion empowers web developers to create professional-quality animated videos using their existing skills. Explore its capabilities and unlock the potential of code-based video animation. The complete code for both examples is available on GitHub. Share your creations on Twitter! The FAQs section from the original article remains relevant and is omitted here for brevity.

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