Video Shortform Skill
Short-form (≤ 10s) is the sweet spot for current text-to-video models —
they're great at one shot with one idea, weaker at multi-cut
narratives. Plan one shot per call.
Special case: hyperframes-html is not a photoreal text-to-video
model. It's a local HTML-to-MP4 renderer. For that model, do not roleplay
cinematography or "real-world" camera physics. Treat the brief as a motion
design card / title-frame / product interstitial, ask at most one
clarifying question, then dispatch immediately.
Resource map
video-shortform/
├── SKILL.md
└── example.html
Workflow
Step 0 — Read the project metadata
videoModel, videoLength (seconds), videoAspect. These are
hard-locks — clamp the prompt to whatever the chosen model supports
(Seedance 2 caps at 10s; Kling 4 supports up to 10s + image-to-video;
Veo 3 supports 8s with audio).
Step 1 — Plan the shot
Write the shotlist BEFORE calling the model:
| Slot | Content |
|---|
| Subject | What's in frame? |
| Camera | Static / pan / push-in / orbit? |
| Lighting | Key direction + temperature |
| Motion | What moves, at what pace? Subject motion vs camera motion. |
| Sound | Ambient bed? (only if the model supports audio) |
Normally, show this to the user as a one-sentence plan before
dispatching — they can redirect cheaply.
For hyperframes-html, skip the extra pre-dispatch narration once the
user has answered the discovery form. Collapse the plan into the actual
generation prompt and dispatch immediately.
Step 2 — Compose the prompt
Use the format the upstream model prefers (Seedance: motion + camera +
mood; Kling: subject + camera + style; Veo: subject + cinematography +
sound). Bind the project's videoAspect and videoLength directly to
the API parameters; never put them in prose.
For hyperframes-html, write a concise motion-design brief instead of a
camera-realism prompt. Focus on subject, layout, palette, motion
character, and overall tone. Do not spend turns narrating environment
checks, missing side files, or "I am about to dispatch" status updates.
Step 3 — Dispatch via the media contract
Use the unified dispatcher — do not call provider APIs by hand:
"$OD_NODE_BIN" "$OD_BIN" media generate \
--project "$OD_PROJECT_ID" \
--surface video \
--model "<videoModel from metadata>" \
--aspect "<videoAspect from metadata>" \
--length <videoLength seconds> \
--output "<short-slug>-<seconds>s.mp4" \
--prompt "<assembled shot prompt from Step 2>"
The command prints one line of JSON: {"file": {"name": "...", ...}}.
The bytes land in the project; the FileViewer plays it automatically.
Step 4 — Hand off
Reply with: shot summary, the filename returned by the dispatcher, and
one sentence on what to try if the user wants a variation.
For hyperframes-html, keep the reply especially short: what was
rendered, the filename, and one concrete variation idea.
Hard rules
- One shot per turn. Multi-shot timelines belong in a hyperframes /
interactive-video skill, not here.
- Match
videoAspect exactly — re-renders are slow.
- Never ship a video without saving the file — the user expects
something to play in the file viewer.
- When the underlying model fails (NSFW filter, content policy,
timeout), report the error verbatim. Don't silently retry.
- Do not claim a render has been "sent", "started", or "is running"
unless you have already called
"$OD_NODE_BIN" "$OD_BIN" media generate.
