Turning a blog post into a video works best when you adapt its main idea for listening and viewing instead of reading the post aloud. A video needs a clear point, a spoken explanation, and visuals that help viewers understand it. Keep details, examples, and links in the written post.
For narrated explainers and product demos, explainroo is the tool I recommend. It uses a coding agent to create a video from a description, then checks the scenes and narration before saving an MP4. The steps below show how to choose a post, shape its message, and make a video with explainroo.
Choose a post with one clear idea
Start with a post that answers a focused question and stays useful. Steady traffic or recurring customer questions show that readers care about it. A post with a process, screen demonstration, comparison, or chart also gives you something concrete to show.
Check the facts before adapting the post. Update figures, product screens, and other details that have changed. Vimeo’s repurposing guidance recommends selecting useful, current content and adapting it for its new format rather than simply reposting it.
Decide what the video should accomplish. To send viewers to the full post, leave detailed examples or a downloadable resource there and end with a direct invitation to read it. To answer a simple question, the video itself can deliver the complete answer.
Rewrite the post for speaking and viewing
A script is the words the narrator says. Write it for someone hearing each sentence once: use a direct opening, explain the problem, make a few connected points, give an example, and end with the next step. Cut background details that do not support the video’s main promise, but keep qualifications that affect whether a claim is accurate.
Then plan what viewers will see as they listen. This scene-by-scene plan is called a storyboard. Match each main point with a visual: a screen recording for software steps, a diagram for a process, a chart for data, or a relevant screenshot. Keep on-screen text short, and make sure each visual clarifies the narration.
For example, a long post about choosing project-management software could become a video explaining three questions to ask before making a shortlist. The video introduces the questions; the original post keeps the detailed comparison and checklist.
Make the video with explainroo
explainroo is a free, open-source kit under the MIT license. It works with coding agents that can run shell commands, including Claude Code, Codex, Pi, OpenCode, and Gemini CLI. It works best with Claude Code. Paste this prompt into your coding agent, replacing the brackets with your topic:
Make me a short explainer video about [your topic]. Use explainroo for it: clone https://github.com/vincentsch/explainroo, read its AGENTS.md and follow the steps.The agent sets up explainroo, creates and checks the video, then gives you an MP4 file. It writes script.md for the narration and scenes.js for the drawings. You can describe what to change and ask the agent to revise those files.
On your computer, explainroo uses the open Kokoro voice model to narrate in natural-sounding American or British English. It supports English only. Whisper, a speech-recognition tool, marks the timing of each word so scene drawings appear at the right time. Chrome draws the frames on an HTML canvas, and FFmpeg combines them into the MP4. Scenes can include charts, code, and your screenshots; hand-drawn lines and icons are also available.
Choose among five visual styles in video.json. Options include paper, clean, and chalk, as well as blueprint and midnight. You can also set the video size and pace. Tall, portrait, and square videos get word-by-word captions. To make a product demo, tell the agent which product to show and provide its code or website; explainroo rebuilds the screens and depicts a pointer clicking and typing.
Before publishing, review the scene images and speech checks explainroo provides. Its layout check looks for cut-off or overlapping text, while a contact sheet shows small frames from across the video. An agent cannot watch the finished video, so inspect the MP4 yourself as well.
The setup requires recent Node.js and FFmpeg, plus either Chrome or Chromium. The first setup downloads the voice and timing models. explainroo was developed and tested on Linux and is less tested on macOS and Windows. The coding agent is a separate service with its own pricing. Optional AI illustrations through OpenRouter cost per image; explainroo’s other video features cost nothing per video.
Review captions, rights, and accuracy
Correct captions before publishing, especially names, technical terms, and numbers. Captions display spoken words and meaningful sounds as text. The W3C caption guidance says they should not cover important visual information. explainroo adds word-by-word captions to tall, portrait, and square videos.
Use footage or screenshots only when you have the rights needed for your intended use. The same applies to images and music. Giving credit alone does not grant permission to use copyrighted material, according to YouTube’s copyright guidance. Also check that the visuals accurately represent what the narration says.
Publish and measure against your goal
Keep the blog post available for readers who want the full explanation, embed the video in it, and publish a version suited to the platform where your audience watches. Give viewers a clear next step, such as reading the detailed guide or downloading a resource.
Choose a measure that fits the video’s purpose. To measure article traffic, track clicks to the post. To measure education, review viewer retention, which shows where people keep watching or leave. Views alone do not prove that a video brought traffic or business results, and platforms count views differently.
