generating-videos

Files (4)

• SKILL.md
• eval_cases.json · evals/
• direct-route.md · references/
• storyboard-route.md · references/

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Video Generation

Turn a brief into a video.

## Workflow

### Step 1: Read the brief and the media

**Look at everything the user supplied.** Run `image_analysis` on each image and `video_analysis` on
each video. Write down what each one shows — who is in it, where it is, how it is lit, how it is
framed — so the prompt matches it instead of describing something different. Send a product URL or
photo to `analyzing-products`. Skip an image you already know: you made it this turn, or you have
already analyzed it.

**Then read the brief**: how long the video runs, what happens in it, where it will be posted, and
whether anyone speaks.

**Where the video has a product, write one description of it** and reuse it unchanged in every
storyboard — rephrasing it between calls reads as a different product.

- **Material and finish**, surface by surface.
- **Size** — its width and height, and how it sits against a hand.
- **Two to five visual anchors** — features you can verify in the product image and nothing else:
  exact colours, the shape of a closure or handle, the gauge of a chain or strap, a surface finish, a
  distinguishing mark.
- **What may be done with each part** — which parts are fixed to it, and the whole of what the moving
  ones allow. Nothing later does anything to the product that isn't on this list.

**Don't transcribe what the label says.** Spelling out the printing invites the model to redraw it,
and redrawn text comes back warped.

### Step 2: Pick the model and load its parameters

**`seedance-2.0-fast` is the default** — the general-purpose workhorse; a weak result is usually the
prompt's fault, not the model's.

**The storyboard route always runs on `seedance-2.0-fast` unless the user named a model.** The table below
decides a single clip.

Reach past the default only on a clear signal:

| Reach for another model when the brief… | Model |
| --- | --- |
| Needs one unbroken shot longer than 15 seconds, or more than nine reference images | `seedance-2.5` |
| Needs spoken dialogue with lip-sync, the tightest prompt-following, or top cinematic quality | `veo-3.1-fast` |
| Is editing an existing clip — restyle it, add or replace an element, fix on-screen text — or hinges on legible on-screen text | `gemini-omni` |
| Must hold one person or character consistent across references or several shots | `kling-3.0-pro` |
| Has an edgy or sensitive subject Seedance would refuse, or wants the fastest, cheapest draft | `grok-imagine-video` |
| Is a high-volume or cost-sensitive batch where top quality isn't essential | `wan-2.7` |

When more than one fits, work down this list and stop at the first that applies:

1. The user named a model — use it.
2. The video takes the storyboard route — `seedance-2.0-fast`.
3. Seedance refused the brief (`nsfw` / `ip`) or keeps failing — use the fallback from the table.
4. The brief matches a row above — use that model.
5. Otherwise use `seedance-2.0-fast`. If two models tie, use the newer one.


Then **call `list_video_models` for the chosen model** and read its accepted modes, aspect ratios, durations, resolutions, and media — each validates its own subset, and you need these before writing the prompt.

### Step 3: Route

Take one of four paths:

- **The video is a UGC video** — a creator or customer, as themselves, sharing their own take on a product: a review, unboxing, try-on, tutorial, testimonial or influencer endorsement → Trigger the `generating-ugc-videos` skill workflow, whether or not the brief says UGC.
- **The video is a product ad or commercial** — a produced advertisement in the brand's voice: a product-hero showcase with no one on screen, or a story or lifestyle commercial where a presenter or actor plays a role in the brand's spot → Trigger the `generating-ad-videos` skill workflow.
- **One clip covers it** — the video runs no longer than the model's longest clip, and holds one continuous shot → Read and follow the steps in `references/direct-route.md`.
- **It needs more than one clip** — the video runs longer than the model's longest clip, or the brief needs a cut between shots → Read and follow the steps in `references/storyboard-route.md`.

`list_video_models` gives the model's longest clip. Storyboard sheets are what keep a person, a place
and a product looking the same from clip to clip, and what fixes the frame on both sides of a cut, so
anything with more than one clip takes the storyboard route.

A supplied image is used one of two ways. Ask which, if the brief doesn't say:

- As the **start frame**, the video begins on that exact image.
- As a **reference**, it shows what a subject or a style looks like and the video is a new scene.

**A start frame works for one clip only, and that clip can carry nothing else** —
`start_frame_image` cannot be combined with any `reference_*` input. Where a person, a product or a
style has to match an image that isn't the start frame, pass that image as a reference and drop the
start frame.

## Edge cases

- **Safety / NSFW rejection** → name a workable stand-in for whatever tripped the filter (cover the
  wardrobe, change the setting) and resubmit. If the subject itself is the block, switch to
  `grok-imagine-video` (see **Step 2**). A second rejection: tell the user which element is blocked
  instead of retrying blind.
- **Still generating (`status: "pending"`) or the call times out** → the clip is still rendering on
  the server, **not** a failure — do **not** resubmit (that starts a second billed job). If you got a
  pending handle, call `job_status` with it to rejoin; if the call timed out with no handle, wait and
  tell the user it's still processing rather than firing a fresh generation.
- **Generic failure** (an explicit error result, not a timeout) → read the error. If it names a
  parameter or a limit, correct that and resubmit. Otherwise resubmit once; if it fails again, either
  switch to a fallback model (**Step 2**) and write to its guide, or give the user the error text
  rather than guessing.
- **Reference or frame rejected on count / mode** → the error states the model's limit or supported
  modes; adjust to it, or check `list_video_models`.
- **Unsure which model fits a named request** → call `list_video_models` and pick by `strengths`.
- **The user wants a standalone audio file, not clip audio** — a voiceover to drop on a timeline, or
  a music track or sound effect they need to place themselves. Clip audio can't give them that; it is
  baked into the picture. Send speech to `generating-audio`, and say plainly that separate music and
  effects tracks aren't generated here.
- **`error: "no_provider_configured"`** → relay the tool's `hint` (the user must set their key).

## Reference

Each route is a complete workflow. Read the one Step 3 picked, and follow it to the end.

- `references/direct-route.md` — one clip: the six modes and what each one passes, the beats, the
  prompt and the call.
- `references/storyboard-route.md` — more than one clip: the video planned as beats, built through
  storyboards and joined into one file.

From SupercmoHQ/superCMO-skills, Apache-2.0.

More from SupercmoHQ/superCMO-skills