> ## Content Index
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> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Can AI Generate a Professional Book Trailer?
- URL: https://www.philsimon.com/can-ai-generate-a-professional-book-trailer/
- Published: 2026-10-12T13:18:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-12T13:17:59.000Z
- Description: I geeked out big time revisiting a question I asked 16 months ago.
- Author: Phil Simon
- Tags: Low-Code/No-Code, AI, The Nine, GitHub, Open Source, Video

Not a day goes by that I don't noodle with artificial intelligence in some way. For example, last June, I used NotebookLM to generate [two podcasts](https://www.philsimon.com/adventures-in-multimodal-ai/) based on a chapter of [*Low-Code/No-Code*](https://www.philsimon.com/book-low-code-no-code/). It also churned out [a respectable book trailer](https://www.philsimon.com/more-multimodal-ai-adventures/) based on its synopsis. The results impressed me, but AI is rapidly advancing, I wondered: 

How much have AI multi-modal capabilities improved the last 16 months? 

I decided to answer this question by giving a few new open-source video-creation tools a spin in Claude Code. Could they generate compelling book trailer for my latest effort, [*The Nine*](https://www.philsimon.com/book-the-nine/)?

Let's find out.

## Brag

I began with [Brag](https://github.com/latent-spaces/brag?ref=philsimon.com). As expected, installing it was easy:

```
/plugin marketplace add latent-spaces/brag
/plugin install brag@brag
```

By way of background, I'm on Anthropic's Pro plan. To minimize the tokens required to create the trailer, I ultimately went with [Brag's slim version](https://latent-spaces.github.io/brag/?ref=philsimon.com#slim). I then entered the following prompt in Claude Code:

I'd like to try `/brag-slim` on www.philsimon.com/book-the-nine. 

Maybe a minute later, the following Brag/Claude offspring appeared on my computer:

Brag First Attempt

Impressively, Brag *independently* provided the assets it used to create the video:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8f/b5/8fb5e321-49a6-4cf5-8a28-c6f6d5417e54/content/images/2026/10/brag-files.jpeg)

Files for First Brag Video | Click on the image to enlarge it.

Brag also provided an editable markdown file of its video timeline with timestamps:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8f/b5/8fb5e321-49a6-4cf5-8a28-c6f6d5417e54/content/images/2026/10/markdown-file.jpeg)

Brag Auto-Generated Markdown File | Click on the image to enlarge it.

#### Technical Details

𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚜𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝙲𝚕𝚊𝚞𝚍𝚎 𝙲𝚘𝚍𝚎 

Built complete motion graphics pipeline using page scraping, PIL font rendering, scene-based animation with easing functions, and procedural audio synthesis (44.1kHz stereo, harmonic oscillators, feedback comb-filter reverb). Created 45-second H.264/AAC video (1920×1080, 30fps) with 8-scene timeline (hook, companies, forces, book, Kirkus quote, investor praise, outro) using only math and wave modules for audio. Produced video assets: brag.mp4 (21.5s original, extended to 45s), poster thumbnail, narrative breakdown, and distribution copy sourced entirely from published page text.

### Initial Results

Was the Brag trailer perfect? Not even close. The first few seconds of the video don't make a hell of a lot of sense. Brag truncated a sentence from the book's description:

Executives and managers at these organizations are trying to turn back the clock to 2019.

Minor gaffes aside, Brag in 2026 produced a better video than NotebookLM did in June 2025\. 

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### A Second Attempt

How would Brag do when I prompted it to expand its original trailer?

See for yourself:

Brag Second Attempt

My efforts ran me a modest number of tokens:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8f/b5/8fb5e321-49a6-4cf5-8a28-c6f6d5417e54/content/images/2026/10/usage.jpeg)

Claude Code Tokens Used to Create Brag Videos | Click on the image to enlarge it.

Brag is not the only GitHub repos out there. Far from it. I knew that other ones were worth exploring.

## HyperFrames

Ever [curious](https://www.philsimon.com/the-curiosity-dividend/), I next decided to kick the tires on [HyperFrames](https://github.com/heygen-com/hyperframes?ref=philsimon.com). It walked me through some prompts. Soon a freakin' storyboard appeared. I could edit it before rendering the video.

> I knew other skills were worth exploring.

In a word, *wow*.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8f/b5/8fb5e321-49a6-4cf5-8a28-c6f6d5417e54/content/images/2026/10/storyboard_converted.jpeg)

HyperFrames Storyboard | Click on the image to enlarge it.

HyperFrames even displayed the rendered video a local, browser-based editor with different tracks:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8f/b5/8fb5e321-49a6-4cf5-8a28-c6f6d5417e54/content/images/2026/10/video-editor.jpeg)

HyperFrames Editor c| Click on the image to enlarge it.

Here's its first version:

🤖

Although HyperFrames used considerably more tokens than Brag, I still remained within my session limit.

Mind blown. I still prefer the original, human-generated 2023 video. Here's the rub, though: the 2023 trailer cost $1,000\. 

Final 2022 Trailer

I suspect that a proper videographer could take both my Brag and HyperFrames videos and add a little spice. Maybe I'd drop $200 to get something comparable to the 2023 trailer.

[Seriously, Apple?The behemoth’s latest operating systems don’t remotely live up to the hype.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8f/b5/8fb5e321-49a6-4cf5-8a28-c6f6d5417e54/content/images/icon/300br-1-4ae55d7d-e7e2-489a-8b33-cad4170cda91.png)Phil SimonPhil Simon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8f/b5/8fb5e321-49a6-4cf5-8a28-c6f6d5417e54/content/images/thumbnail/a_disappointed_man-54c16df7-571f-4e48-b85d-1c8716949a28.jpg)](https://www.philsimon.com/seriously-apple/)

## Simon Says

I began this post by posing simple question. Answering it leaves me confident of things. First, the ability to quickly and easily create cheap content means far more [AI slop](https://www.philsimon.com/ai-slop-paradox/). Second, a year from now, AI-generated videos will put my efforts today with Brag and HyperFrames to shame. Even when the AI bubble crashes, plenty of open-source tools will remain and flourish. 

## Feedback

What say you?