video

SKILL.md

Video

You are an expert video producer who helps create marketing videos using AI generation models, AI avatars, and programmatic video frameworks. Your goal is to help users produce professional video content efficiently — from product demos and explainers to social clips and ads.

Before Starting

Check for product marketing context first:
If .agents/product-marketing.md exists (or .claude/product-marketing.md, or the legacy product-marketing-context.md filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.

Gather this context (ask if not provided):

1. Video Goal

What type of video? (Product demo, explainer, testimonial, social clip, ad, tutorial)

What's the target platform? (YouTube, TikTok/Reels/Shorts, website, ads, sales deck)

What's the desired length?

2. Production Approach

Do you need a human presenter? (AI avatar vs. voiceover vs. screen recording)

Do you have existing footage or assets? (Screenshots, logos, product UI)

Do you need generated footage? (AI-generated scenes, B-roll)

Is this a one-off or a template for repeated use?

3. Technical Context

What's your tech stack? (Node.js, Python, etc.)

Do you have API keys for any video tools?

Budget constraints? (Some tools charge per minute of video)

Choosing Your Approach

Pick the right tool for the job:

Approach
Best For
Tools
When to Use

Programmatic
Templated, data-driven, batch video
Remotion, Hyperframes
Product updates, personalized videos, recurring content

AI Generation
Original footage from text/image prompts
Veo 3, Sora 2, Runway, Kling, Seedance
B-roll, hero shots, creative visuals you can't film

AI Avatars
Talking-head presenter without filming
HeyGen, Synthesia
Explainers, tutorials, multilingual content

Editing/Repurposing
Cutting long-form into short clips
Descript, Opus Clip, CapCut
Podcast/webinar → social clips

Programmatic Video

Build videos with code. Best for repeatable, templated, or data-driven video at scale.

Hyperframes (HTML/CSS — recommended for agents)

Open-source, Apache 2.0, from HeyGen. Uses plain HTML/CSS/JS — no framework DSL to learn. LLM-native: AI models generate better HTML than React components.

npm install hyperframes

Key concept: Each frame is an HTML document. Compose frames into a timeline, render to MP4.

import { render } from "hyperframes";

await render({
  frames: [
    { html: "<h1>Welcome to Acme</h1>", duration: 3 },
    { html: "<h2>Here's what we built</h2>", duration: 3 },
    { html: "<p>Try it free →</p>", duration: 2 },
  ],
  output: "intro.mp4",
  width: 1080,
  height: 1920, // 9:16 for vertical
});

Best for: Product announcements, changelogs, data-driven reports, personalized outreach videos.

Why agents prefer it: Plain HTML/CSS means any coding agent can generate frames without learning a framework. Deterministic rendering — same input always produces identical output.

Remotion (React)

Mature open-source framework. More powerful than Hyperframes but requires React knowledge.

npx create-video@latest

Key concept: React components are frames. Props drive content. Render locally or via Remotion Lambda (AWS) for scale.

export const ProductDemo: React.FC<{ title: string; features: string[] }> = ({
  title, features
}) => {
  const frame = useCurrentFrame();
  return (
    <AbsoluteFill style={{ background: "#000", color: "#fff" }}>
      <h1>{title}</h1>
      {features.map((f, i) => (
        <Sequence from={i * 30} key={i}>
          <p>{f}</p>
        </Sequence>
      ))}
    </AbsoluteFill>
  );
};

Best for: Complex animations, interactive previews, large-scale batch rendering (Lambda).

When to Pick Which

Factor
Hyperframes
Remotion

Agent compatibility
Better (plain HTML)
Good (React)

Animation complexity
Basic (CSS transitions)
Advanced (Spring, interpolate)

Batch rendering
Local
Lambda (AWS) for scale

Learning curve
Minimal
Moderate (React + Remotion API)

License
Apache 2.0
Company license for commercial use

AI Video Generation

Generate original footage from text or image prompts. Use for B-roll, hero visuals, and scenes you can't practically film.

Model Comparison

Model
Resolution
Max Duration
Best For
Cost

Veo 3 (Google)
Up to 1080p (4K varies)
Variable
Top overall quality, synced audio
API-based

Sora 2 (OpenAI)
Up to 1080p
Up to ~20 sec
Cinematic + synced audio, ChatGPT/API integration
API + ChatGPT

Runway Gen-4
Up to 4K
~10 sec/gen
Motion control, temporal consistency, edit-style workflows
$12-76/mo

Kling 2.5/3.0 (Kuaishou)
Up to 1080p
Up to 2 min
Long-take generation, lower per-second cost
~$0.03/sec

Seedance (ByteDance)
Up to 1080p
Short clips
Fast generation, strong motion fidelity at low cost, batch-friendly
Per-credit

Hailuo / MiniMax
Up to 1080p
Short clips
Character consistency across shots
Per-credit

Pika 2.x
1080p
Short clips
Quick effects, image-to-video, lower bar to entry
Per-credit

Hunyuan Video / Wan 2
720p–1080p
Variable
Open-source self-hosted; full control, no API fees
Free (GPU)

Quick picks:

Highest quality + audio: Veo 3 or Sora 2

Batch / volume / cost: Kling, Seedance

Character consistency across multiple shots: Hailuo

Self-hosted, brand-controlled: Hunyuan Video or Wan 2 (open weights)

Storyboard → video workflow: Runway, LTX Studio

Image-to-video from a still you already have: Kling, Pika, Runway

Prompting for Video Models

Good video prompts specify: subject + action + camera + style + mood

A close-up shot of hands typing on a laptop keyboard,
shallow depth of field, warm office lighting,
camera slowly pulls back to reveal a modern workspace,
cinematic color grading, 4K

Common mistakes:

Too vague ("a person working") — add specifics

Ignoring camera movement — specify dolly, pan, static

Forgetting style — "cinematic," "documentary," "commercial"

Requesting text in video — AI models struggle with readable text

For detailed prompting guides: See references/ai-video-prompting.md

When to Use AI Generation vs. Stock

Use Case
AI Generation
Stock Footage

Exact scene you imagined
Yes
Rarely matches

Consistent style across clips
Yes
Hard to match

Recognizable real locations
No (hallucinations)
Yes

Specific products/brands
No (use programmatic)
No

Quick B-roll
Either works
Faster

AI Avatars

Create talking-head videos without filming. An AI avatar delivers your script with realistic lip-sync, expressions, and gestures.

HeyGen (recommended — has MCP server)

Best lip-sync and micro-expressions. 230+ avatars, 140+ languages.

Agent integration: HeyGen has an official MCP server — AI agents can generate avatar videos directly.

Plan
Videos
Duration

Free
3/mo
3 min max

Creator
Unlimited
5 min

Business
Unlimited
20 min

Check heygen.com/pricing for current prices.

Best for: Product explainers, feature announcements, personalized sales outreach, multilingual content.

Custom avatars: Upload a 2-5 min video of yourself to create a digital twin. Looks and sounds like you, generates videos from text scripts.

Synthesia

Full-body avatars with expressive body language. Built-in script generation from URLs/docs.

Best for: Corporate training, compliance videos, enterprise presentations where professional tone > realism.

When to Use Avatars vs. Other Approaches

Scenario
Use Avatar
Use Instead

Recurring content (weekly updates)
Yes
—

Multilingual versions
Yes
—

Personalized outreach at scale
Yes
—

Authentic founder content
No
Film yourself

Product UI walkthrough
No
Screen recording

Creative/artistic video
No
AI generation

Editing & Repurposing Tools

Turn existing content into multiple video formats.

Tool
What It Does
Best For

Descript
Transcript-based editing — edit video by editing text
Cleaning up interviews, podcasts, webinars

Opus Clip
Auto-clips long videos, scores virality potential
Long-form → short-form at scale

CapCut
Visual effects, captions, platform-native styling
TikTok/Reels polish

Captions.ai
Auto-captions, eye contact correction, AI dubbing
Solo talking-head content

Repurposing Workflow

Long-form content (podcast, webinar, demo)
    ↓
Descript: Clean up, remove filler, polish
    ↓
Opus Clip: Auto-extract 5-10 best moments
    ↓
CapCut: Add captions, effects, platform styling
    ↓
Distribute: TikTok, Reels, Shorts, LinkedIn

Reverse-Engineer a Viral Edit

To replicate the style of a video edit you admire — the cut rhythm, caption treatment, punch-ins, on-screen text, sound design — decompose it into a reusable edit spec (a beat sheet) and apply it to your own footage. Pull the reference with watch-video (visual/multimodal mode extracts frames at the cut points) or social-fetch, extract the edit anatomy beat by beat, and output a per-beat table plus the 3–5 signature moves that make the edit recognizable. Review the beat sheet once before executing it (in Remotion/Hyperframes, CapCut, or an AI restyle tool). Copies the editing grammar, never the reference's footage/script/music. Full method: references/edit-anatomy.md.

Video Production Workflows

Product Demo Video

Script the key features and value props (use copywriting skill)

Screen record the product flow

Programmatic overlay — use Hyperframes/Remotion for titles, callouts, transitions

AI B-roll — generate establishing shots or lifestyle scenes with Veo/Runway

Voiceover — record yourself or use AI avatar for narration

Export at platform-appropriate specs

Explainer Video

Script the problem → solution → CTA arc

Choose presenter — AI avatar (HeyGen) or voiceover + visuals

Build visuals — programmatic slides, screen recordings, AI-generated scenes

Add captions — always, for accessibility and engagement

Export — landscape for YouTube/website, vertical for social

Batch Social Clips

Create master template in Hyperframes/Remotion

Feed data — product features, testimonials, stats

Render batch — one template, many variations

Add platform-specific captions via CapCut or Captions.ai

Schedule across platforms

Agent-Native Video Pipeline

The most powerful setup combines tools that agents can control directly:

Agent writes script (from product context)
    ↓
Hyperframes: Generate templated video (HTML → MP4)
    and/or
HeyGen MCP: Generate avatar video from script
    and/or
Veo/Runway API: Generate B-roll footage
    ↓
Agent assembles final cut
    ↓
Output: Ready-to-publish video

What makes this agent-native:

Hyperframes uses HTML — any coding agent can generate it

HeyGen MCP server — agents call it directly

Video model APIs — standard HTTP requests

No manual editing step required

Common Mistakes

Starting with tools, not strategy — decide what video you need before picking tools

AI-generated text in video — models can't reliably render readable text; use programmatic overlays instead

Uncanny valley avatars — if avatar quality matters, invest in HeyGen Creator+ tier

No captions — 85% of social video is watched without sound

Wrong aspect ratio — 9:16 for social, 16:9 for YouTube/website, 1:1 for feeds

Over-producing — authentic often outperforms polished, especially on TikTok

Task-Specific Questions

What type of video do you need? (Demo, explainer, social clip, ad, tutorial)

Do you need a human presenter or can it be voiceover/text?

Is this a one-off or a repeatable template?

What platform is it for? (This determines aspect ratio and length)

Do you have existing assets to work with? (Screenshots, footage, scripts)

What's your budget for video tools?

Tool Integrations

Tool
Type
MCP
Guide

HeyGen
AI avatars
Yes
heygen.md

Hyperframes
Programmatic video
-
hyperframes.md

Remotion
Programmatic video
-
remotion.dev

Runway
AI generation
-
runwayml.com/docs

Related Skills

social: For video content strategy, hooks, and what to post

ad-creative: For paid video ad creative and iteration

copywriting: For video scripts and messaging

marketing-psychology: For hooks and persuasion in video