Videobuilder.io – My Honest Review (No Affiliate Links)

Videobuilder.io is a recently released cloud-based app to create ‘3D & Animation videos’ (according to the makers). Since I bought the app on the first day of its release, I want to write a quick review (with advantages & limitations) of Videobuilder.io app from my experience of having worked with it for a couple of days, so that you can make an informed decision.

The most important thing – the jaw-dropping low price of around $30 USD (when I bought) and $35 USD (at the time of writing this article) does not include rights to sell the videos. If you want full rights to make and sell videos to clients with 3D avatars & text-to-speech, which is important for many, be prepared to buy their deluxe & agency plan also.

I paid around $130 USD (one-time first-day launch pricing) for Regular, Deluxe & Agency plans. Once I bought the regular plan, the other two were upsold to me immediately afterward. I was told that I will get extra templates every month, I can make videos for a longer duration (which is 6:00 min for the Agency plan – for the regular plan it’s 10x lower, it seems) and I can sell videos with 3D avatars to clients.

Now let me come to the actual utility. I am surprised that a 3D animation video maker app doesn’t support keyframing!! It does support tracks (similar to layers) which will allow you to create a basic animation/movie using the built-in photos, videos, background, 3D avatars, music, etc. But I feel keyframing is extremely critical for an animation app. Hope they’ll include this feature in the near future. Also, you cannot draw/move objects over time.

There are a few intros, outros, text effects and other templates that are useful. But right now there are just around ten to fifteen in each category. I would prefer a more exhaustive collection. Their other product (Viddyoze – I assume it is theirs) has a much better collection. They have promised to include a few more templates each month – let’s see.

I am really impressed with the 3D avatars, text-to-speech technology and lip syncing. If you have some application for this, buy this product without hesitation. Since I do, I don’t regret my purchase and am not going to use the 30-day money back guarantee. But if you want to make custom animations, I am not sure how helpful this app would be. The timeline supports just basic animation.

I am impressed with the text to speech feature and the voices included with this app are quite good. I wish the 3D avatars could be exported using a transparent background. Of course, I can upload my own videos (after compressing them with HandBrake) but I prefer working on other apps for animations.

Professional explainer videos will demand voice-overs by professionals, but since my videos are of a more casual nature, I am fine with the polished robotic voices. They have included multiple speakers in many languages, which is great. I wish I could export just the voice without the avatar.

I am using this app in conjunction with two more video creation apps – one desktop-based and the other cloud-based. Frankly, I like the desktop app more because there are no delays associated with uploading/ downloading/ rendering, etc. But most apps nowadays work in the cloud and we are expected to get used to the delays. However, Videobuilder didn’t freeze while I was working on it – I have experienced a few that have, before. I mailed the support on when one of my videos were not rendering. It was sorted in a few hours. So the support, at least for now, is responsive.

Altogether, a decent app for the launch special one-time price (Agency plan). I wish they were frank upfront about all the three plans they offer, cost, limitations. Why intimate clients about the limitations of the basic plans in the last minute? Also, I guess it’s fine to ignore the exact time left for the offer to end, on their launch page. The launch offer is still On even after a couple of days now while the timer indicated 1.5 hours left for me!!

If you are creating and selling videos, and if you have an application for the 3D avatars to narrate a few parts instead of using just text, this app will be useful to you.

Destination Infinity