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High-quality explainer videos can be a real advantage for any company. They make your products easier to understand, save valuable time, and help improve your internal processes.
At Banana.ch, we created a tool that allows developers and anyone who knows a process to easily create and update video tutorials with spoken audio in several languages. The tool follows a workflow inspired by software development. You build the video step by step, test it, improve it, and update it when needed. This continuous improvement makes it possible to keep the video always up to date and useful.
You don’t need a camera, actors, voice recordings, or video editing skills—just structured instructions and images captured from your software or process. The result is fast, flexible, and completely under your control.
After using and improving this tool for years to create tutorials for Banana Accounting, we’ve decided to let others try it too. We would like to understand if there is real interest, because some improvements are still needed before it can be used by a larger audience. The tool works well and is already effective—but for now, it is best suited for tech-savvy users.
We also haven’t defined the pricing yet.
Video Creation with a Software Development Approach
At Banana.ch, we understood that creating a good video tutorial is not something you do just once. It’s a process that improves step by step, just like when you develop software. But we were not happy with the tools we found. Most video tools are made for artistic work, and need special skills. They are not flexible and not made for people who just want to explain how something works.
We wanted something different. A tool made for developers, that follows the logic of software, and allows you to define—using a text-based interface—what components to use, the order of elements, the texts, and their translations. So we created our own tool. We started from the code of Banana Accounting and built something new.
It may sound strange to use accounting software to create videos, but the core of Banana Accounting resembles a spreadsheet and is very flexible. And in fact, we discovered that creating a video using clear instructions and structured data is not very different from entering accounting transactions to create a balance sheet. So, inside Banana Accounting, we created a new application, Video Maker, that uses tables and columns to enter all the information needed to build a video. Then we added the programming logic to automatically generate the video from this data.
The application works like a mix between software programming and an animation tool. It lets you create a video by putting together a sequence of captured images. You can add effects, titles, text for the images, subtitles, and speech. All the information is written in tables, and you can add texts in different languages at the same time.
When the content is ready, you press “Build,” and the tool automatically creates a video in the language you choose. First, it generates the spoken voice using AI, so you don’t need a professional speaker or to record the audio manually. The result is clear and good enough for tutorial videos.
Then, the tool adds titles, texts, and subtitles to the images. It creates short animated scenes and adds the voice. What makes this special is that each scene is automatically adapted to match the duration of the spoken text in each language. At the end, the tool puts all the scenes together and produces a complete video, with an index and transcript.
Like in software development, the first version is just the beginning. You watch the video, make changes, ask others for feedback, and quickly create a new, better version. This way of working helps you improve step by step and respond to what users really need.
Because processes change often, tutorial videos can become outdated. With this tool, the people who know the process can directly update the video, so the content stays correct and useful.
One of our main goals was to make it easy to create videos in multiple languages. The tool automatically generates speech in different languages, and each scene's length adjusts to match the voice. This makes the video feel natural in every language and significantly speeds up the translation process. There’s no need to shorten or simplify translations just to fit the timing of the original version.
Capturing the images is usually the most time-consuming part. Doing this for every language is not realistic, especially if you expect to make changes later. We found that adding translated texts and titles directly onto the original images helps a lot. It makes the video easier to understand in other languages, without the need to create new visuals for each specific language.
How It Works
Creating a Video Tutorial for a Desktop Application.
- Capture Screenshots.
Begin by capturing screenshots of the desktop application and saving them to a directory (recommended size: 1920x1080). - Fill in the Clip Table,
Enter all necessary information to create a video:- Select the image to be used.
- Apply effects to the image, such as highlighting a section, adding arrows, or circles.
- Choose the text and voice style for the speech.
- Input the text for titles and/or text-to-speech.
- Translate the text into other languages as needed.
- Build the Video.
On executing the build video command, the program performs the following tasks based on the specified language:- Adds effects, titles, and subtitles to the images.
- Generates speech files using internal or Microsoft or Google voices, as selected.
- Creates a video sequence for each image. The duration of each sequence matches the length of the speech or a duration you specify.
- Final Video Compilation.
The final video is created by combining all the video sequences.
How it works
Assuming you are creating a video tutorial for a desktop application.
- You capture screen shots and save to a directory (size 1920x1080).
- In the Clip table you enter all the information needed to create a video:
- The image to be used.
- Create effects on the image. Like highlighting a part of image, adding an arrow or a circle.
- The text and voice style to use.
- The text to be used for titles and/or for the text to speech.
- The text translated to other languages.
- You give the build video command and the program, based on the language you specify:
- It add effects, titles and subtitles to the images.
- It generates the speech files using the Microsoft or Google voices you choose.
- For each images it create a video sequence.
The duration of the sequence is the duration of the speech, or one you specify. . - A final video is crated by putting together all video sequences.
Video tutorial of the Tutorial Maker application
Create video from images, with speech, subtitles and text decorations.
- Watch the video tutorial (03:13).
The video has been created with the Tutorial Maker Application. - Watch the video tutorial in French (text has been automatically translated).
Here is the full project and files on github.com.
For tech-savvy users
The Tutorial Maker application offers advanced features specifically tailored for tech-savvy users.
The Tutorial Maker application is currently available in the Dev-Channel version and has been extended to a select group of partners. You're welcome to try it out; however, please note that it is not a fully supported product, and it requires the installation of additional components. Its features are also subject to change at any time.
Currently in its alpha phase, the application has been fine-tuned for internal use. It requires a specific setup and is still in the early stages of implementing error handling. Moreover, the interface is quite raw, and all messages are in English only. As such, it is currently best suited for tech-savvy and technically skilled users.
Please note that the structure and format of the data may change over time, and we may not always provide tools for migrating to new versions. Terms of use and pricing are also subject to change. We reserve the right to modify technical content, availability, conditions, and pricing at any time without prior notice.
We invite you to share your experience using the application and greatly value any feedback or suggestions you may have.