Repo, PDF, Deck, or Recording: Which Source Should You Give Poko Motion?

Poko Motion will accept a code repository, a PDF, a slide deck, a screen recording, or a live website as the starting point for a video. That flexibility is useful, but it also means the same project can turn out very differently depending on what you feed it first. Poko doesn't treat these five source types as interchangeable inputs to one generic pipeline - each one gets discovered, summarized, and styled in its own way, and that choice shapes the entire video before a single scene gets built.

If you've ever handed Poko the "wrong" source for what you actually wanted, it's usually not a bug - it's a mismatch between the source type and the video style it's built to produce. Here's how each one actually works.

Poko Motion Doesn't Treat Every Source the Same

Before any scene gets planned, Poko runs source discovery specific to what you handed it: pulling real UI and copy from a repository, capturing a live page from a URL, extracting structure from a PDF, or using a screen recording as literal footage. That discovery step feeds a compact source summary that the rest of the build works from, which is why the source you choose has more influence on the final video than most people expect.

Giving Poko Motion a Code Repository

A repository is Poko's most detailed source, because it can go straight to the actual product code rather than relying on a screenshot or a description.

What Poko pulls from a repo

From a codebase, Poko discovers the real feature folders, component files, copy strings, styling tokens, and layout structure, then builds real UI mockups from that — not invented dashboards or generic SaaS cards standing in for your product.

Best use case

A repo is the right call when you want a video that shows your actual product accurately: a feature announcement, a walkthrough of a real workflow, or a launch ad that needs to show the real interface rather than a stylized approximation of it. If your product's story starts in code or documentation rather than a slide deck, our developer's guide to turning API docs and repos into a demo video walks through that path in more detail.

Giving Poko Motion a PDF

A PDF is treated differently from every other source type: uploading one automatically locks the project into Poko's research-explainer video style, rather than prompting you to choose.

Why PDFs auto-lock the research-explainer style

The assumption baked into that default is that a PDF is a paper or report, so Poko skips the style-choice step and goes straight to a slower, voiceover-led format built around a problem, method, key result, and takeaway, rather than a trailer-paced ad.

Best use case

Use a PDF when the source material genuinely is a research paper, whitepaper, or long-form report you want explained rather than sold — this source-style pairing isn't built for a product PDF you want turned into a fast, punchy ad.

Giving Poko Motion a Deck

A slide deck sits closer to a repo or a URL in how it's handled: rather than auto-locking a style the way a PDF does, a deck goes through the normal setup step where you choose between a motion ad or a walkthrough for the video style.

How it differs from a PDF

Because a deck is already structured as discrete slides with a message per slide, Poko can lift that existing structure directly into scene beats, which tends to make decks a fast source to work from compared to unstructured documents.

Best use case

A deck works well when you already have a pitch, an investor update, or a sales narrative organized the way you want it told, and you just need it turned into something that plays instead of something that gets clicked through. For a closer look at that workflow, see how to turn a pitch deck into a motion video.

Giving Poko Motion a Screen Recording

A screen recording is the one source type that gives Poko literal footage to work with, rather than something it has to reconstruct or capture itself.

Recording-backed A-roll

Instead of rebuilding your UI as a mockup, Poko can lay real recorded footage in as A-roll and build motion, captions, and narration around it, which keeps every interaction and animation in the video exactly as it happened on your screen.

Best use case

Recordings are the strongest choice when the point of the video is proving a workflow works exactly as shown, live - onboarding content, a support explainer, or a demo where authenticity matters more than polish.

Giving Poko Motion a Live URL

A URL gets captured much like a repo: Poko pulls the real rendered page rather than working from a description of it.

What capture pulls

URL capture extracts the live layout, copy, and visual tokens from the actual page, which is useful when your product's source code isn't available to Poko but the live site is a faithful representation of the product.

Best use case

A URL is the practical stand-in for a repo when you want product-accurate visuals but don't have (or don't want to hand over) the codebase itself - a landing page becomes the reference for a launch or marketing video.

How to Decide Which Source to Use

The fastest way to choose is to work backward from the video you want. Need a fast, product-accurate ad or demo and have the codebase handy? Use the repo. Only have the live site? Use the URL. Have a research paper or report that needs explaining, not selling? Use the PDF, and expect the slower, narrated style automatically. Already have a pitch built as slides? Use the deck. Need to prove a real workflow exactly as it happened? Use a recording.

The Takeaway

Poko Motion's five source types aren't just different file formats accepted by the same funnel - each one changes what gets discovered, how the video gets styled, and what the final result is capable of proving. Picking the source that matches your actual goal, before you even get to styling or scenes, is the single biggest lever for getting a video that looks and feels right on the first pass.