I wanted to see if I could build a fully automated promotional video generator using only free, open-source tools. No GPU, no cloud rendering credits, no paid APIs. Just Python, FFmpeg, and some creativity.
What I Built
A pipeline that takes a product description and outputs a 15-second promotional video clip:
- Pillow renders 1080x1920 frames with gradient backgrounds, typography, and pricing
- gTTS (Google Text-to-Speech) generates Spanish/English narration
- FFmpeg composites the image + audio into an MP4 video
- Telegram Bot API delivers the final output for review
The Stack
- Python 3 + Pillow for image generation
- gTTS for free text-to-speech
- FFmpeg for video encoding (libx264, ~2MB per 15s clip)
- Cron for scheduling
- Telegram Bot API for delivery
Results
- Each 15-second promo video takes ~5 seconds to render
- File size: ~1.7-2 MB per clip
- Total cost: $0 (all tools are free)
- No GPU required (CPU-only pipeline)
Free Tools Used
- Pillow (Python image library)
- gTTS (Google Text-to-Speech)
- FFmpeg (video encoding)
- Blockscout (free blockchain explorer)
- Telegram Bot API (notifications)
I run KeyTrix — a shop for premium developer tools and AI automation resources.
Links:
