Animated Timeline Video Generator

Nobody Cares About Your Boring Timeline Slides

Look, I've sat through enough presentations to know what happens when someone throws up a slide with dates and bullet points. Phones come out. Eyes glaze over. People start thinking about lunch. But show them something that moves? Something that actually looks good? Suddenly everyone's paying attention. That's why I made this thing.

How to Use This Without Screwing It Up

Type a year. Add a colon. Write what happened. Hit enter. Do it again. That's the whole process. My mom figured it out in like 30 seconds, and she still calls me to ask how to attach photos to emails.

The Format Is Dead Simple

Here's what works: 1995: Started my first job - see? Year, colon, what happened. Don't overthink it. I've seen people try to get fancy with it and mess everything up. Just stick to the format.

Keep your descriptions punchy. Nobody wants to read "The revolutionary introduction of a groundbreaking technological device" when you could just say "iPhone released" and be done with it. Shorter is better. Always.

Why These Specific Colors

Yellow and green on black. Picked those because they work everywhere. Tried red once - looked terrible on Instagram. Blue? Disappeared on dark backgrounds. These neon colors pop no matter where you use them. Plus they give off that cool cyberpunk vibe without trying too hard.

People Are Making Cool Stuff With This

Teachers Finally Getting Student Attention

Got an email from a history teacher last month. She'd been drawing timelines on her whiteboard for 15 years. Made one video with this tool, showed it to her class. Kids actually stopped talking and watched. She was shocked. I wasn't - moving stuff beats static stuff every single time.

Startups Impressing Investors

This one startup put their company milestones into a timeline video for their pitch. Instead of yet another slide deck that looks like everyone else's, they had this glowing animated thing. One investor specifically mentioned it. They got funded. Now I'm not saying the timeline video is why they got money, but it definitely didn't hurt.

Family Reunions Got Way Better

Someone made a timeline of their grandpa's life - birth, marriage, kids, career stuff, retirement. Played it at his 80th birthday. The room went totally silent watching it. Way more emotional than flipping through a photo album. Several relatives asked for copies.

What You're Looking At on That Preview

That canvas thing on the right? That's your video playing in real-time. The line draws itself left to right. Dots pulse and glow. Text fades in smooth. Whole thing loops so you can check if it looks right. Catch typos before you download.

The Loop Thing Explained

Preview runs 20 seconds and repeats forever. Gives you time to really look at it. Make sure spacing works. Check if any text is too long. The actual video you download is 10 seconds though - perfect length for social media before people scroll away.

Downloading Your Video

Click generate. Browser thinks for maybe 10 seconds. Video downloads automatically. Done. No accounts to create. No emails to verify. No "upgrade to premium" nonsense. Just a WebM file sitting in your downloads folder.

WebM Works Pretty Much Everywhere

YouTube takes it directly. Video editors like Premiere and DaVinci handle it fine. Most social platforms accept it. Your computer probably plays it without additional software. Phones too.

Converting to MP4 If You Really Need To

Some old systems want MP4. Fine. Go to CloudConvert or any free converter site. Upload WebM. Download MP4. Takes less time than making coffee. I do this all the time for clients stuck using ancient PowerPoint versions that freak out over modern file formats.

Stop Making These Mistakes

Putting 15 events on there: Looks cluttered and horrible. Five to seven events max. More than that and everything's squished together like sardines in a can. Make multiple videos if you've got tons of dates.

Writing entire sentences: "The company achieved its first major milestone" - too long. Try "Hit first milestone" instead. Save the paragraphs for your blog post.

Jumping around in time: 2010, 1995, 2023, 1987 - what are you doing? Put them in order. Timelines go forward. That's literally the point of a timeline.

Missing that colon: Format is "Year: Thing" - the colon isn't optional. Leave it out and the tool has no idea what you're trying to do. Nothing appears. You get confused. Bad time for everyone.

Why I Built It This Way

Canvas Made Sense

Tried CSS animations first. Looked choppy and amateurish. Considered requiring video editing software downloads. Too complicated - nobody would use it. Canvas gives you smooth animation right in the browser. Best of both worlds.

Quality vs File Size

Exports at whatever your screen resolution is, which these days is probably pretty good. Set the bitrate at 5 Mbps because that keeps files small enough to upload quickly but good enough that it doesn't look like garbage from 2005. Tested a bunch of different settings - this one hit the sweet spot.

Making Yours Look Better

Try placeholder text first. Use "Event A, Event B, Event C" to check spacing and timing. Once you know it fits nicely, swap in your real content. Saves you from typing everything twice when you realize six events looks better than eight.

Make a few versions. Seriously. Sometimes removing one event makes the whole thing flow better. Sometimes adding one fills awkward empty space. Takes two minutes per version to find out which one works best.

Watch it loop at least twice before generating. First watch you're excited about the animation. Second watch you actually notice that typo in the third event that's been sitting there the whole time.

Copy your event list into Notepad or something. You'll want it later. Everyone makes variations once they realize how easy this is. Save yourself the retyping.

Where This Actually Helps

Social media people making content about historical events or company growth. Teachers who want their students to actually watch instead of spacing out. Business folks tired of boring presentations that all look the same. People making family videos that relatives might actually sit through.

Best part? Zero skill required. Can't draw? Doesn't matter. Never touched video editing software? Who cares. Don't know Photoshop? Irrelevant. You just need years and events. Tool does literally everything else - animating, coloring, timing, exporting. You bring the content. Technology handles making it look good. That's the whole deal.