[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":391},["ShallowReactive",2],{"project-42590290":3},{"id":4,"name":5,"line":6,"line_source":7,"title":8,"url":9,"domain":10,"maker":11,"posted_at":12,"year":13,"points":14,"comments":15,"rank_in_year":16,"shown_in_year":17,"top":18,"tier":19,"category":20,"subcategory":21,"format":22,"keywords":23,"reception":29,"sentiment":30,"stance_mix":31,"scored_comments":35,"aspects":36,"strip":44,"post_text":46,"what":47,"said":104,"maker_in_thread":222,"shape":233,"grid":237,"attempts":354,"same_week":355,"maker_shows":45,"maker_hidden":383,"reader_version":384,"card":385},"42590290","TMA","AI that generates 3blue1brown-style explainer videos","title","Show HN: AI that generates 3blue1brown-style explainer videos","https:\u002F\u002Ftma.live","tma.live","zan2434",1735944287,2025,93,46,780,3837,21,"notable","learning_science","educational video generation","web_app",[24,25,26,27,28],"manim","explainer videos","ai video generation","math animation","stem education","roasted",-0.173,{"positive":32,"neutral":33,"mixed":33,"critical":34},8,3,14,28,{"execution":37,"idea":40,"design":41},{"positive":38,"critical":39},2,12,{"positive":38,"critical":38},{"positive":42,"critical":43},1,0,[42,42,42,33,42,43,43,43,43,43,43,43,42,42,42,43,43,43,45,45,43,33,43,42,42,43,42,45,42,42,45,43,33,45,33,43,45,45,42,45],5,"I've been building prototypes of new AI learning tools for months, but I recently learned that 3blue1brown open sourced his incredible math animation library, Manim, and that LLMs could generate code for it without any fine-tuning.\n\nSo I made a tool that automatically generates animated math\u002Fscience explanations in the style of 3blue1brown using Manim from any text prompt.\n\nTry it yourself at https:\u002F\u002FTMA.live (no signup required)\n\nor see the demo video here: https:\u002F\u002Fx.com\u002Fi\u002Fstatus\u002F1874948287759081608\n\nThe UX is pretty simple right now, you just write a text prompt and then start watching the v",{"problem":48,"audience":54,"pricing":58,"motivation":59,"time_to_build":63,"stack":69,"openness":101,"stage":102,"team_size":103},{"value":49,"source":50,"evidence":51},"Hard-to-find visual explanations of specific concepts","maker",[52],{"id":53},"post",{"value":55,"source":50,"evidence":56},"Learners wanting visual explanations of STEM concepts",[57],{"id":53},null,{"value":60,"source":50,"evidence":61},"Spent 30+ minutes in AI chats on concepts that would click with a visual explanation",[62],{"id":53},{"value":64,"source":50,"evidence":65},"About 2 weeks after a first day-long prototype",[66],{"id":67,"by":11,"text":68},"42597904","Hmm the initial version of the app only took me about a day to get something working, but that version took minutes to generate a single video and even then only worked a third…",[70,74,81,85,89,93,97],{"value":71,"source":50,"evidence":72},"Gemini with grounding (LLM)",[73],{"id":53},{"value":75,"source":50,"evidence":76},"Claude (alternative LLM)",[77,78],{"id":53},{"id":79,"by":11,"text":80},"42590848","sad looks like I already hit the Gemini rate limit :( Switching to Claude!",{"value":82,"source":50,"evidence":83},"Manim",[84],{"id":53},{"value":86,"source":50,"evidence":87},"OpenAI TTS",[88],{"id":53},{"value":90,"source":50,"evidence":91},"Fly.io",[92],{"id":53},{"value":94,"source":50,"evidence":95},"Modal.com",[96],{"id":53},{"value":98,"source":50,"evidence":99},"HLS streaming",[100],{"id":53},"free","launched","unknown",{"praise":105,"objections":129,"requests":184,"questions":198,"alternatives":206},[106,122],{"value":107,"source":108,"evidence":109},"Impressive that videos generate so quickly","commenter",[110,114,118],{"id":111,"by":112,"text":113},"42590908","tunesmith","Well, I'm blown away. \"Show me how information propagates through a neural net.\" I feel like this is the one thing that's been missing from all the LLMs: actual visual…",{"id":115,"by":116,"text":117},"42590476","cr4zy","Wow, this is awesome! Thanks for building. I didn't realize there was a protocol for streaming while rendering, though I noticed sumo.ai doing something similar for audio. Gemini…",{"id":119,"by":120,"text":121},"42590757","cstigler","This is so cool! Streaming videos while the Manim code is still generating is super impressive - sure that took a lot of hacking.",{"value":123,"source":108,"evidence":124},"No signup required",[125],{"id":126,"by":127,"text":128},"42593858","beshrkayali","I have to give you props for not requiring me to sign up, I’ve seen many ShowHN posts lately that require me to unnecessarily create an account which always prompts me to close…",[130,145,160,173],{"value":131,"source":108,"evidence":132},"Content is superficial and often wrong or misleading",[133,137,141],{"id":134,"by":135,"text":136},"42594692","deng","As usual with these things: it is impressive that stuff like this can be generated so quickly at all, but the content is very superficial and often wrong or at least misleading.…",{"id":138,"by":139,"text":140},"42591023","Eddy_Viscosity2","Great but wrong answers. I asked how big tree-3 was after some helpful explaining about exponentials, it tells me its 27. This is... an underestimate.",{"id":142,"by":143,"text":144},"42594727","mistaken","It will happily explain non existing concepts as well: https:\u002F\u002Ftma.live\u002Fvideo\u002F26c9fec7-3bb7-42e5-837f-617fd5659f70",{"value":146,"source":108,"evidence":147},"Visual layout problems and overlapping text",[148,152,156],{"id":149,"by":150,"text":151},"42598813","cchance","The Manim is not great, words overlapping etc, the page itself needs a lot of work, generating and then nothing happens, and it seems in a lot of case your backend workflows have…",{"id":153,"by":154,"text":155},"42597400","h_tbob","Haha that’s funny, the beehive one lays out the hexagons as if they were squares - so they overlap and have empty space lol! But still it’s a promising concept. Btw for some…",{"id":157,"by":158,"text":159},"42590933","AndrewKemendo","I tried a few times and this is my experience 1. Doesn't work at all on Firefox 133.0.3 (64-bit) 2. Works on Chrome 131.0.6778.205 (Official Build) (64-bit) 3. No existing links…",{"value":161,"source":108,"evidence":162},"Frequent failures, rate limits and generations that stop early",[163,164,168,172],{"id":157,"by":158,"text":159},{"id":165,"by":166,"text":167},"42590825","neumann","Whether I click an existing example or type in my own it doesn't seem to work. A dialog pops up for a second saying 'generating video' and then disappears.",{"id":169,"by":170,"text":171},"42594461","IshKebab","Well, it wasn't wrong at least, it just... stopped about 1% into the explanation.",{"id":149,"by":150,"text":151},{"value":174,"source":108,"evidence":175},"Far below 3Blue1Brown quality",[176,180],{"id":177,"by":178,"text":179},"42591997","mrayycombi","Those videos are apex quality videos. You might as well ask for Nobel prize literature quality essays from ChatGPT. You can probably imitate the structure\u002Fscaffolding of a 3b1b…",{"id":181,"by":182,"text":183},"42594199","philipwhiuk","Whose voice are you 'borrowing' for this? Compared to https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=24GfgNtnjXc this video is absurdly limited…",[185,190],{"value":186,"source":108,"evidence":187},"Fix reliability and stop videos failing or stopping early",[188,189],{"id":157,"by":158,"text":159},{"id":149,"by":150,"text":151},{"value":191,"source":108,"evidence":192},"Better factual accuracy",[193,194],{"id":134,"by":135,"text":136},{"id":195,"by":196,"text":197},"42591062","krackers","I'm not really a bear on llms, but using it for explanations in this way needs a lot of caution. It's very easy to give an argument that \"seems\" right at first glance, e.g.…",[199],{"value":200,"source":108,"evidence":201},"How long did it take to build",[202],{"id":203,"by":204,"text":205},"42594144","StefanBatory","Can I ask from curiosity how long it took you to program and design this entire project?",[207,214,218],{"value":208,"source":108,"evidence":209},"MathGPT",[210],{"id":211,"by":212,"text":213},"42594805","Tiberium","MathGPT also has this (exactly in the same 3blue1brown style, so I guess they also use manim), and in my experience it does actually work better and tries to explain math and…",{"value":215,"source":108,"evidence":216},"NotebookLM",[217],{"id":134,"by":135,"text":136},{"value":219,"source":108,"evidence":220},"3Blue1Brown videos",[221],{"id":181,"by":182,"text":183},{"comments":32,"answered":33,"key":223},[224,227,230],{"id":225,"text":226},"42591465","totally fair! I like the XKCD comic as well because it hints at a potential solution - even if you can't always be correct, how you respond to critical questions can really help.…",{"id":228,"text":229},"42597943","The voice is just OpenAI’s default tts voice. I agree that Veritasium video is an incredible work and the ai version is absurd by comparison! This is mostly a proof of concept…",{"id":231,"text":232},"42590984","These are amazing examples! Thanks for all the feedback, detailed info, and persistence in trying! HN hug of death means I'm running into Gemini rate limits unfortunately :( will…",{"commenters":234,"max_depth":32,"maker_replies":32,"first_comment_mins":235,"lifespan_hours":236},35,26,153,[238,240,242,245,249,250,254,257,260,264,266,268,270,273,274,275,277,278,281,284,286,289,291,294,295,298,300,302,303,304,308,310,315,318,319,322,324,325,327,332,335,336,339,343,347,349],[134,43,42,239,135,43],"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fexecution",[142,43,42,241,143,43],"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fidea",[243,43,42,239,244,43],"42594858","wryoak",[246,43,33,247,248,43],"42599557","project\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone","potsandpans",[177,42,42,239,178,43],[251,42,43,252,253,43],"42593891","other\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone","ithkuil",[255,42,43,252,256,43],"42594639","guerrilla",[258,42,43,252,259,43],"42594748","jhghikvhu",[261,42,43,262,263,43],"42597594","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone","throwaway314155",[265,42,43,262,253,43],"42598925",[267,42,43,262,263,43],"42607018",[269,42,43,262,253,43],"42610486",[271,42,43,252,272,43],"42595205","QuantumGood",[138,38,42,239,139,43],[195,38,42,241,196,43],[225,38,43,276,11,42],"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea",[181,33,42,239,182,43],[279,33,43,252,280,43],"42594265","progbits",[282,33,43,252,283,43],"42594319","execat",[228,33,43,285,11,42],"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fexecution",[111,287,45,288,112,43],4,"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fidea",[126,45,45,290,127,43],"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fdesign",[157,292,33,293,158,43],6,"project\u002Fmixed\u002Fexecution",[231,292,43,285,11,42],[296,292,33,285,297,43],"42592079","OutOfHere",[299,292,43,285,11,42],"42592312",[211,301,42,239,212,43],7,[165,32,42,239,166,43],[79,32,43,285,11,42],[305,306,42,239,307,43],"42602112",9,"zkmon",[149,309,42,239,150,43],10,[311,312,45,313,314,43],"42598831",11,"maker\u002Fpositive\u002Fidea","drewolbrich",[316,39,42,239,317,43],"42594385","csomar",[169,39,42,239,170,43],[115,320,45,321,116,43],13,"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fexecution",[323,320,43,285,11,42],"42590509",[153,34,33,293,154,43],[119,326,45,321,120,43],15,[328,329,33,330,331,43],"42594605",16,"project\u002Fmixed\u002Fidea","htk",[203,333,33,334,204,43],17,"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[67,333,43,285,11,42],[337,333,45,338,204,43],"42612615","maker\u002Fpositive\u002Fnone",[340,341,45,338,342,43],"42653520",18,"indigodaddy",[344,345,42,239,346,43],"42593165",19,"MidhaelBollox",[348,345,43,285,11,42],"42598002",[350,351,45,352,353,43],"42593696",20,"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fnone","Snoeprol",[],[356,360,365,370,375,379],{"id":357,"name":358,"points":359,"category":20},"42634787","Atlas of Space",770,{"id":361,"name":362,"points":363,"category":364},"42624116","Tramway SDK",660,"games",{"id":366,"name":367,"points":368,"category":369},"42585009","Pimosa",526,"creative",{"id":371,"name":372,"points":373,"category":374},"42635942","Stagehand",326,"dev_tools",{"id":376,"name":377,"points":378,"category":374},"42600586","CSS Flexbox Playground",315,{"id":380,"name":381,"points":382,"category":374},"42623593","HipScript",309,false,"v2",{"id":386,"name":5,"line":6,"ai":383,"cat":20,"year":13,"points":14,"comments":15,"rec":29,"s":387,"top":18,"kw":388,"maker":11,"domain":10,"tier":19,"attempts":43,"strip":389,"url":9,"mix":390,"praise":107,"objection":131,"sub":21},42590290,-0.17,[24,25,26,27,28],"1113100000001110005503011015115035305515",[32,33,33,34],1794036666672]