› Tool guide · best done with a grown-up
Turn a script into a video. With VideoGen.
VideoGen is an AI tool that takes something you wrote— a few sentences, an outline, a whole script — and turns it into a narrated video with footage, voice, and captions. It's one of our favorite ways for young builders to ship something real in an afternoon.
Free to start. A parent should set up the account and sit in for the first video — see the note for families below.
› What it actually is
A video editor that does the boring parts for you.
Making a video the old way means recording clips, hunting for footage, lining up audio, and dragging tiny blocks around a timeline for hours. VideoGen flips it: you give it a script, and its AI handles the scripting polish, finds matching media, adds a voice, and assembles a draft — going from idea to video in a few clicks. Then you edit the draft in your browser until it feels like yours.
Why we like it for builders: the hard part of video stops being the software and goes back to being the idea. A kid with a good story and a clear script can make something genuinely watchable — and learn how AI tools fit into a real creative workflow while they're at it.
› The walkthrough
Script to finished video, in five steps.
This is the whole loop. Do it once on a short, silly idea first — the steps are the same whether the video is 30 seconds or 10 minutes.
Start with a script
VideoGen builds videos from words. Write a few short sentences — or paste an outline, a blog post, or a topic — and let its AI workflow turn it into a scene-by-scene plan. The clearer the script, the better the video.
Let AI assemble the rough cut
From your idea, VideoGen scripts, finds matching footage and images, and stitches a draft together — what they call going from idea to video in a few clicks. You get a real timeline to start from instead of a blank screen.
Add a voice
Pick from 200+ AI voices in 50+ languages, or record your own. This is the narration step — read your script aloud in your head first, then choose a voice that fits the mood. Captions and one-click translation are right there too.
Edit until it feels like yours
Swap clips, retime scenes, change words, add captions or an AI avatar — all in the browser, no software to install. Changing a line of narration just means regenerating that line, not re-recording everything.
Export and share
Download the finished video or share a view link. Because everything is repeatable, the next video — episode two, a remix, a different language — starts from the workflow you already built.
Ready to make one?
Open VideoGen, paste a two-sentence idea, and follow the five steps above. Free to start.
Open VideoGen› Tips for a video that doesn't look AI-made
The script is 90% of the result.
Almost every "the AI video looks weird" problem is really a script problem. Fix the words and the video fixes itself.
Write the script like you talk
VideoGen reads your words literally. Short, spoken-sounding sentences make far better narration than long, formal ones. Read it out loud — if it's a mouthful for you, it'll be a mouthful for the AI voice.
One idea per scene
Break the script into small beats. A scene that tries to say three things at once gets a confusing clip. A scene with one clear idea gets a clean, matching visual.
Say what you want to see
Concrete nouns help the AI pick footage. "A robot arm sorting colored blocks" finds a better clip than "technology." Picture the shot, then describe it.
Make the first one short
A 30–60 second video is the perfect first project. You'll learn the whole loop — script, voice, edit, export — fast, then make the next one longer once the steps feel easy.
› For families
A grown-up sets it up. Then build together.
VideoGen is a general-purpose tool made for adults, so the account should belong to a parent or guardian, and the first video is best made side by side. That's also just more fun — picking the voice and laughing at the first rough cut together is half the point.
It's the same approach we take inside Hi, Bot: AI access is mentor-mediated and age-appropriate, so kids learn judgment and craft instead of being dropped into an unrestricted tool alone. If you want to know how we think about that more broadly, our safety page lays it out.
Good habit to teach:if you publish an AI-made video, say so. A one-line "made with AI" in the description builds trust — and it's exactly the kind of honest-builder move we want kids practicing early.
› For builders who want to go further
There's an API, too.
Once the studio feels easy, an older kid who codes can call VideoGen from a program. The API generates media one piece at a time — images, video clips, voiceovers (text-to-speech), sound effects, and avatar clips — so you can wire AI video into your own app or workflow.
The 60-second version
- 1.Grab an API key from the VideoGen developer dashboard.
- 2.Install a client — there's an official TypeScript SDK (
@videogen/sdk) and a Python one. - 3.Call a tool like
generate-video-clipwith a prompt, then poll (or use a webhook) for the finished file. Jobs run async, so you ask, wait, and collect the result.
Full reference lives in the VideoGen API docs. Keep your API key in an environment variable — never paste it into code you share.
Write two sentences. Make a video.
The fastest way to understand VideoGen is to make one tiny video. Open it, paste an idea, and follow the five steps.
Transparency: the "Try VideoGen" links use our referral, so Hi, Bot may earn a small commission if your family subscribes — at no extra cost to you. Prefer not to use it? Go straight to videogen.io. We only guide tools we'd actually hand a young builder.