By the time you finish reading this, your first product demo video could be rendering.
No video editing software. No timeline scrubbing. No stock footage hunting. You paste a URL and VidGen builds a complete product demo video for you — voiceover, subtitles, background music, the works. Then you tweak what you want and render.
This tutorial walks through every step, from zero to finished MP4. If you have a website, you can follow along right now.
Step 1: Paste Your Product URL
Go to the VidGen homepage. You'll see the hero text: "Paste your URL, Get website video in minutes."
Below it is a single input field with the placeholder https://your-website.com. Type your product's URL there.
Then click Generate.
If you're not signed in, the button says Sign in to Generate instead. Click it, and a Google sign-in modal appears. After you authenticate, you're back on the homepage — now logged in. Click Generate for real.
That's the entire setup. One URL. One click. You're already past the hardest part of making a product demo video.
Step 2: Let the AI Build Your First Draft
After you click Generate, a progress bar appears. You don't need to pick templates, select fonts, or drag anything around. Just wait.
Here's what VidGen is doing while the bar moves:
- Opens your site in a headless browser — loads the actual page, not a cached screenshot
- Reads the page structure — finds headings, feature sections, CTAs, and images using a DOM probe
- Captures key sections — takes full-resolution screenshots of the important parts
- Writes narration copy — generates headline and subhead text for each scene based on what it found on your page
- Picks background music — matches a BGM track to your product's industry and mood
The whole thing takes about 1 to 2 minutes. When it finishes, you're automatically taken to the editor.
You didn't write a single word of copy. You didn't pick a single frame. The AI built a complete first draft of your product demo video.
Step 3: Preview and Tweak Your Video
The editor has three areas:
- Left — a live video preview with playback controls. Press play to watch your video.
- Right — the Scene Editor sidebar. This is where you tweak individual scenes.
- Bottom — a timeline strip showing every scene in order.
What's a "scene"?
Your video is made of scenes. Each scene is one screen of content: a screenshot, some text overlay, and (optionally) voiceover. The intro, each product feature, and the outro — all separate scenes.
Click any scene in the timeline to select it. The sidebar shows that scene's content, and the preview jumps to where that scene starts.
Editing text (and voiceover)
Each scene has a Main Title textarea. The placeholder reads: "Main text -- shown as subtitle AND spoken as voiceover..."
One text field does double duty. Whatever you type here appears as on-screen text AND gets spoken as voiceover. Change the text, and both update together. There's no separate caption editor to keep in sync — because there's only one source of truth.
After you edit the text, click Generate Main to produce a new AI voiceover from your updated text. The preview voiceover uses a lightweight TTS engine so you can test quickly; the final render uses ElevenLabs for production-quality audio. You'll notice the quality jump when you render — that's normal.
Some scenes also have a Sub Title field (for two-phase scenes — more on that below). Same deal: one text, both subtitle and voiceover.
Swapping images
Every scene shows the screenshot VidGen captured. If you want a different image — a mockup you made, or a different screen — click Upload New. Accepts PNG, JPEG, and WebP.
What if I mess something up?
You can't break anything. Every edit auto-saves after 2 seconds. You'll see a brief "Auto-saved" flash each time. Retype, swap images back, change your mind — it all just works. There's no "Save" button to forget to click.
Step 4: Pick Format and Render
In the editor header, you'll see two buttons: 16:9 and 9:16.
- 16:9 — landscape, 1920×1080. For YouTube, landing pages, Product Hunt, embeds.
- 9:16 — portrait, 1080×1920. For TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts.
Pick the one you need. Then click Render.
Rendering takes 2 to 5 minutes. You'll see progress in the header. When it's done, a success banner appears with a View on Dashboard link.
That's the full creation flow to create a product video with AI: paste, wait, tweak, render. You now have a finished product demo video.
Step 5: Download Your Video
Click View on Dashboard (or navigate to your dashboard anytime). You'll see your video in a list with four buttons:
- Play — watch it in the browser
- Download — save the MP4 to your computer
- Edit — go back to the editor
- Delete — remove it
Download your video within 48 hours. Videos are automatically deleted from the server 48 hours after generation. This isn't a trick to upsell you — it's a storage policy. Grab the file and keep it locally, or upload it to YouTube, your CDN, wherever. Once it's on your machine, it's yours.
Beyond the Basics
The five steps above get you a finished video. Here's what else you can do if you want more control:
Timeline reordering
The bottom timeline shows all scenes. You can rearrange them to change the order — put the most impressive feature first, or move the CTA earlier.
Two-phase voiceover
Some scenes support two phases. Phase one shows main text with a smaller image. Phase two transitions to sub text with a full-width image. If a scene has the Sub Title field, it's a two-phase scene. Fill in both, generate both voiceovers, and the video automatically switches mid-scene.
Deleting scenes
Don't need a scene? Click Delete Scene in the sidebar. The video recompiles without it.
Aspect ratio switching
You can switch between 16:9 and 9:16 at any point. The preview updates to show how your content looks in the new format. Landscape and portrait render separately, so you can produce both from the same project.
Free vs. Pro
The free tier gives you full 1080p at 60fps with every editing feature — including AI voiceover, BGM, and both aspect ratios. The only difference is a 3 to 5 second "Made with VidGen" branded outro appended to your video. For most use cases, this is fine. (For more on when free works and when to upgrade, see our guide to free AI product videos.))
Pro is $15/month with 30 credits and a 2-day free trial — no branded outro. One credit = one video generation. Need just a few more videos without a subscription? Credit Packs are $3 for 3 credits, and they never expire.
Your First Video Doesn't Need to Be Perfect — It Needs to Exist
A rough product demo video beats a perfect product demo video that's still in your head. VidGen gives you a complete first draft in under two minutes. Tweak the text. Swap a screenshot. Render.
You can always refine later. But you can't refine something that doesn't exist yet. Go make it.
FAQ
Do I need to install anything to create a product video? No. VidGen runs entirely in the browser. No downloads, no extensions, no software to install.
Can I use a staging URL or localhost? VidGen loads your URL in a headless browser, so it needs to be publicly accessible. Localhost won't work. Use a live site, a Vercel preview deploy, or any URL that resolves without authentication.
How do I create a promo video for my app with AI? Paste your app's URL into VidGen, click Generate, and the AI builds a complete product demo video — screenshots, voiceover, subtitles, and BGM. Edit the AI-generated copy if needed, then render. The whole process takes about 5 minutes.
What if my site changes after I generate the video? VidGen captures your site at generation time. If you redesign later, generate a new video. The old one stays as-is.
Can I edit the voiceover separately from the subtitle text? No — and that's intentional. In VidGen, each text field controls both the on-screen subtitle and the voiceover. This keeps them always in sync. Change the text, regenerate the voiceover, and both update together. No more subtitle-drift.
How long are my videos stored? 48 hours. Download your MP4 before then. After 48 hours, videos are automatically deleted from the server.