Tool Open source
Whiteboard Animator is a CPU-only Python package and command-line tool that converts a finished whiteboard-style image into a hand-drawn reveal video. It can write detected text word by word, trace outlines, fill shapes with brush strokes, and decompose branched line art into sequential pen paths; narration audio can pace the drawing, and multiple scenes can be concatenated into one MP4. It is the render engine behind the Whiteboard format at Kinoslide.
The engine identifies connected non-white pixel components and uses a bundled CRAFT text detector to distinguish text from drawn shapes. It orders components using relationships such as containers before contents, shapes before labels, reading order for text, and attachment of small dots to glyphs. It assigns reveal times based on component area or a region plan, then follows skeletons and outlines with reveal fronts, brush strokes, or sequential paths before streaming frames to FFmpeg. Rendering requires no GPU, API key, training, or model beyond the bundled text detector; an optional Gemini-based region-detection feature requires a Gemini extra and GOOGLE_API_KEY.
The package provides the `whiteboard-animate` CLI and a Python API, requires Python 3.10 or later plus FFmpeg and ffprobe, and is distributed under the MIT license. It is intended for clean marker-style drawings on white backgrounds rather than photos, gradients, or textured backgrounds.
1 use taken from transcripts — each links to the moment in the video.
Converts a finished whiteboard-style image into a video that appears to draw it stroke by stroke. It detects text, orders the drawing, and can synchronize strokes with narration.
1 in the library.