Layers is a free web-based tool that empowers anyone to create beautiful, animated code snippet videos. Inspired by sites like Carbon, Layers features a customizable code editor, support for popular languages, various aspect ratios, and texture super sampling for high-resolution animations. With Layers, you can also adjust the orientation and perspective of your code snippets, allowing for dramatic compositions that can be used for more advanced editing, motion graphics, and content creation.
This is really useful for YouTube creators who make coding tutorials — animated snippets look way better than static screenshots. Does it support exporting as GIF or only MP4?
Easy and nice to generate videos, I was always using static code snippets to share some code. One small thing I'd add is allowing to modify the angles typing it in the number, it would be easier to change to a specific angle if needed
Rendering animated code snippets with consistent syntax highlighting across multiple themes while keeping file sizes reasonable is genuinely non-trivial. We've used Carbon for static previews in docs but always hit a wall when we needed motion for demos. Is the animation rendering Canvas-based or CSS-driven? And how are you handling the export encoding pipeline to keep file sizes small?
Hello again!
I built Layers to solve a problem I often face in video editing (especially for tech-related content) - having to screen-cap code editors or animating them from scratch.
Screen-capping is quick, but requires manual typing (which comes with a lot of retries). Traditional motion graphics approach (like After Effects) is high-fidelity but comes with a steep learning curve (an lots of time!). I built Layers to empower anyone to produce high-fidelity, animated code snippets in a matter of seconds.
Layers gives you control over the code editor style, handles the animation of typing code (characters per second and delay), and gives you background colour options depending on your use case (keying, cropping, or quick posting to social).
Layers is free, and will always be free.
I plan to add features over time, but would love to hear from others how I might be able to improve the overall utility. Right now, Layers is designed for desktops, as I figured that is where the majority of this kind of work is done, but if there is interest in a mobile version I will put it on the roadmap :)
About Layers on Product Hunt
“Create beautiful animated code snippet videos for free”
Layers launched on Product Hunt on May 27th, 2026 and earned 103 upvotes and 13 comments, placing #8 on the daily leaderboard. Layers is a free web-based tool that empowers anyone to create beautiful, animated code snippet videos. Inspired by sites like Carbon, Layers features a customizable code editor, support for popular languages, various aspect ratios, and texture super sampling for high-resolution animations. With Layers, you can also adjust the orientation and perspective of your code snippets, allowing for dramatic compositions that can be used for more advanced editing, motion graphics, and content creation.
Layers was featured in Developer Tools (513k followers), Animation (2.4k followers) and Video (1.8k followers) on Product Hunt. Together, these topics include over 74.7k products, making this a competitive space to launch in.
Who hunted Layers?
Layers was hunted by Sebastian Ko. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
Want to see how Layers stacked up against nearby launches in real time? Check out the live launch dashboard for upvote speed charts, proximity comparisons, and more analytics.
Sebastian Ko
This is really useful for YouTube creators who make coding tutorials — animated snippets look way better than static screenshots. Does it support exporting as GIF or only MP4?