Paper to Video

Convert research papers into animated explainer videos suitable for 8th graders.

Overview

This application takes a research paper PDF and converts it into an engaging, animated video explanation using:

• Mistral OCR for PDF to markdown conversion
• Claude AI for presentation planning and Manim code generation
• Manim for 3blue1brown-style animations
• ElevenLabs for text-to-speech voiceovers
• Shotstack for final video composition

Setup

1. Create virtual environment:

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

2. Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Copy .env.example to .env and fill in your API keys:

cp .env.example .env

4. Run the server:

uvicorn app.main:app --reload

5. Open http://localhost:8000 in your browser

Deploy to Render

1. Go to render.com and sign up/login

2. Click New + → Web Service

3. Connect your GitHub repo

4. Configure the service:

   • Build Command: pip install -r requirements.txt
   • Start Command: uvicorn app.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port $PORT

5. Add environment variables in the Render dashboard:

   • MISTRAL_API_KEY - Your Mistral API key
   • ANTHROPIC_API_KEY - Your Anthropic API key

6. Click Create Web Service

Your app will be live at https://your-app-name.onrender.com

Render advantages over Vercel:

• Longer timeouts (better for OCR processing)
• Persistent filesystem during instance lifetime
• Better suited for Python backends

API Endpoints

• GET /health - Health check
• POST /api/upload - Upload a PDF file
• POST /api/process/{job_id} - Process PDF through OCR
• GET /api/status/{job_id} - Get job status
• GET /api/markdown/{job_id} - Get extracted markdown

Usage

1. Upload a PDF:

curl -X POST -F "file=@paper.pdf" http://localhost:8000/api/upload

2. Process through OCR:

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/process/{job_id}

3. Check status:

curl http://localhost:8000/api/status/{job_id}

4. Get extracted markdown:

curl http://localhost:8000/api/markdown/{job_id}

Project Structure

paper-to-video/
├── app/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── main.py                 # FastAPI application
│   ├── config.py               # Environment variables
│   ├── models/
│   │   └── schemas.py          # Pydantic models
│   ├── services/
│   │   └── ocr_service.py      # Mistral OCR
│   ├── agents/                 # (Phase 2+)
│   ├── prompts/                # (Phase 2+)
│   └── utils/
├── static/
│   ├── index.html              # Frontend UI
│   ├── style.css               # Styles
│   └── app.js                  # Frontend JavaScript
├── tests/
│   └── test_ocr.py
├── render.yaml                 # Render deployment config
├── requirements.txt
├── .env.example
└── .gitignore

License

MIT License