Vibe coders are exploiting the animation community

Due to the rise of AI coding assistance and 'vibe coding' we have seen the sudden emergence of new apps for many categories, but especially for animation and video.

Normally that would not be a bad thing, but the difference here is unlike traditional app development vibe coders are often trying to earn a fast buck, they are not concerned with building true high quality software, and it is likely that if they make or don't make some money they will abandon their applications within a year or two.

Here are some tell tale signs of how to recognise a vibe coder who is trying to earn a quick buck:

- They say “I’m a real programmer. I write it all by hand!” But their posting history going back years has nothing about app development or programming and none of them know how to animate well (or at all).

- All of the vibe coders I have seen so far claimed they are “Tired of big companies ripping us off”. But the vibe coders were not customers of the most popular animation apps anyway. They are pretending to be angry at big companies because they think it will make them look heroic and noble. They are behaving like two-faced politicians, not developers or artists.

- They don’t patiently research how each function or tool is supposed to work. Their apps are full of bugs and incorrectly applied functions but they publish the app anyway.

- They say they are against subscription apps developed by companies with many employees, but they are subscribed to ChatGPT or Claude and don't hire any anyone to help them.

- When the bugs are criticised they claim the app is in beta. But they are selling the app as a commercial application and claiming it competes against the most widely used professional apps.

- They published unsigned apps, which threw up bad virus warnings. Every one of them did the same thing and could not wait a few days for certification. Desperation and rushing to publish means they were 100% vibe coding everything. If they were coding by hand then they can wait a few days for their apps to be signed.

- One of them has gone as far as paying minor influencers and buying bots to hype their app. The astroturfing was clear because an app with so many obvious bugs would not have a following at all.