papercraft-stop-motion-explainer

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SKILL.md (first lines)

# Papercraft Stop-Motion Explainer

Create a complete papercraft stop-motion explainer package from a science, education, or knowledge topic. The output is a production-ready creative plan: style rules, character and set design, asset planning, prompts, storyboard structures, motion language, sound direction, negative prompts, and review criteria.

Use this Skill when the user wants a tactile handmade explainer style: layered paper, cardboard cutouts, miniature diorama, stop-motion puppet movement, pop-up-book staging, paper props, and physical shadows. The default assumption is that the user wants a complete explainer video package. Prompts, storyboards, asset plans, and motion notes are reviewable production assets inside that complete process, not isolated deliverables unless the user says so.

When this Skill proceeds from planning/prompting into actual video generation, use MiniMax-H3 as the default video generation model. Treat MiniMax-H3 as the default unless the user explicitly selects another available model or MiniMax-H3 is unavailable.


## Canvas Document Delivery Rule

For complete video packages, production plans, storyboards, or any long multi-section planning output, write the full production document to the canvas as a text document. In the chat reply, give only a brief summary, the document filename, and the next recommended action. Do not paste long production plans, large storyboard tables, full prompt libraries, or full checklists into the conversation unless the user explicitly asks to see them in chat.

Use chat for concise guidance and decision points; use the canvas document as the source of the detailed plan. When the user asks to revise the plan, update the existing canvas document rather than creating a duplicate unless a new version is intentionally needed.

## Visual Depth and Papercraft Motion Priority

Every visual plan, preview prompt, video prompt, and review pass must prioritize both layered image depth and unmistakable papercraft stop-motion qualities.

Required visual-depth emphasis:

- Build scenes with clear foreground, midground, background, and far-background planes.
- Use foreground occluders such as paper leaves, clouds, frames, curtains, props, or cutout silhouettes to create depth.
- Keep the main knowledge object or focal action in a readable middle plane.
- Add background parallax, small environmental motions, and layer separation instead of flat static backdrops.
- Use circular, diagonal, tunnel, pop-up, or cross-section compositions when they help the viewer read depth.

Required papercraft stop-motion emphasis:

- Make all visible objects feel physically made from paper: layered cardboard, cut edges, paper fibers, folds, seams, tabs, brads, joints, pull-tabs, sliders, rotating discs, and visible thickness.
- Motion should feel frame-by-frame and hand-manipulated: small stepped movements, tiny pauses, slight rebounds, hinged gestures, sliding paper mechanisms, page flips, pull-tab reveals, and paper pieces settling.
- Background elements should also be paper mechanisms when possible: paper clouds sliding on rails, paper moons/discs moving on tracks, layered scenery shifting in parallax, paper leaves falling, paper lamps swaying, and cardboard doors opening.
- Avoid smooth CG motion, plastic 3D surfaces, flat vector backdrops, overly static backgrounds, and large character motion that breaks the miniature stop-motion feel.

## Lightweight Request Bypass

If the user explicitly asks for only one production asset, do not force the full 18-step package workflow. Route directly to the relevant step while preserving the papercraft style rules.

Use these shortcuts:

- Single-image prompt only: run STEP 1, STEP 2, STEP 9, and STEP 17.
- Image-series prompts only: run STEP 1, STEP 2, STEP 10, and STEP 17.
- 5-second image-to-video prompt only: run STEP 1, STEP 2, STEP 11, and STEP 17.
- Storyboard only: run STEP 1, STEP 2, STEP 12, STEP 13, STEP 14, STEP 15, and STEP 16.
- Creative directions only: run STEP 1, STEP 2, and STEP 3.

Use the full phased confirmation workflow only when the user asks for a complete video package, a full production plan, or does not specify a narrower deliverable.

## Interaction Rule: Confirmation Cards Between Phases

After each major phase, pause and ask the user with a selection card before moving forward. All polling, multi-choice decisions, confirmations, continue/revise/stop gates, and user decision points must use cards rather than plain text asking the user to reply with a number. The card must give practical next-step choices, not an open-ended question. After the creative directions phase, the next confirmation card must ask the user to choose the target video duration before detailed character, scene, preview, prompt, or storyboard work continues.

Use choices like:

1. Continue to the next phase with the current direction.
2. Revise the current phase before continuing.
3. Switch to one of the other creative directions.
4. Jump to a specific production asset: visual preview images, single-image prompt, image-series prompts, 5-second image-to-video prompt, or storyboard.
5. Stop here and export the current package.

Keep each card short. Include the recommended option first when the current result is strong. This staged confirmation protects the full-video workflow: the user can adjust each asset before it becomes the basis for the next step.

## STEP 1: Understand the Input

Analyze the user's topic and production goal. Preserve the user's domain words and do not simplify the science into a different topic.

Output a concise understanding block:

- Topic or knowledge point
- Target audience: children, general audience, classroom, social media, brand education, or specialist audience
- Intended duration: 15s, 30s, 60s, or unspecified
- Platform or format when stated
- Required output type: single image, image series, 5-second image-to-video prompt, storyboard, or full package
- Core learning outcome: the one sentence the viewer should remember
- Visual metaphor: how the concept becomes a paper object, model, puppet, layer, path, or mechanism

If crucial information is missing, choose reasonable defaults instead of stopping: general audience, 30-second short, horizontal 16:9 video by default unless the user specifies another ratio, and one paper narrator plus one core paper model.

## STEP 2: Summarize the Style DNA

Before designing the video, state the style rules that must stay consistent.

Include these traits:

- Handmade papercraft stop-motion look
- Miniature paper diorama or shadow-box stage
- Layered cardboard cutouts with visible thickness
- Matte tactile paper textures, fibers, folds, seams, torn or cut edges
- Paper puppet characters built from separate overlapping parts
- Real physical drop shadows between layers
- Multi-plane foreground, midground, background, and far background
- Macro miniature photography, slight depth of field, and 2.5D parallax
- Educational labels, arrows, cards, and simple symbols made from paper
- Clear foreground / midground / background / far-background depth, with foreground occlusion and readable parallax
- Background layers with paper-mechanism motion, not static painted scenery
- Stop-motion motion language: stepped movement, tiny pauses, slight rebounds, hinged joints, pull-tabs, sliders, rotating discs, paper pieces settling

Explain the reason: the paper medium turns abstract science into touchable objects and makes layered explanation easy to understand. The scene must feel physically built and animated frame by frame, not merely illustrated in a paper-like texture.

## STEP 3: Propose 3-5 Creative Directions

Generate 3 to 5 distinct concepts. Each direction must explain the same topic through a different visual metaphor or narrative structure.

For each direction, provide:

- Title
- Core idea
- Explainer angle
- Paper visual metaphor
- Best duration
- Best audience or platform
- Signature visual moment
- Risk or limitation

After presenting directions, ask the user to choose both the creative direction and the target duration. Duration options should be concise: 15s quick version, 30s standard version, 60s full version, or custom duration. Do not proceed into detailed assets until a duration is chosen.

Recommended direction archetypes:

1. Pop-up-book journey: each page reveals one layer of the concept.

From YLKC269/MR-Next, Apache-2.0.

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