Video rules

The goal is a video that looks designed by a person with taste, not assembled from the default AI toolkit. Restraint beats motion: if everything moves, nothing stands out.

This skill says what to show and what to avoid. motion-direction says how to make it move like a real motion-design film (camera, depth, transitions, two-pass workflow with styleframes), and sound-design covers audio. Use all three.

1. Decide before designing

Write these four lines at the top of the plan. If one is missing, ask.

• Goal: one action (sign up, book a demo, install, understand).
• Audience: one group (developers and CEOs need different videos).
• Message: one sentence. If it needs "and", cut something.
• Placement: where it plays. This sets length, aspect ratio and pacing (see section 9).

2. Story

Lead with the outcome or the problem, never the logo.

• Viewers decide in about 3 seconds. Spend them on the problem, not the brand.
• One clear workflow beats a feature list. Feature overload is the main failure, more than low polish.
• Hooks: one promise, present tense, simple words, nothing you can't back up.

3. Don't: the generic AI look

Each of these is fine once, on purpose. Together they read as "made by a template".

• Opening with a logo animation or "Hi, welcome to…"
• Near-black background + white text + purple/indigo accent + Inter. Use the real brand palette and fonts.
• Glow, bloom, lens flares, floating particles or bokeh as decoration. (One motivated light sweep or a brief burst behind a result is fine; see motion-direction.)
• Spring overshoot "pop-in" on every element, every element staggered. (Overshoot is for confirmations only.)
• The same soft fade between every scene.
• A self-drawing underline or highlighter swipe in every scene. Max one per video, two if long.
• Word-by-word yellow-keyword captions bouncing in (the CapCut/Hormozi preset). If captions are needed, use calm 2–4 word chunks held 600–900 ms.
• Rotating 3D laptop/phone mockups as filler.
• Fake cursors wandering around, arrows and boxes on everything.
• Count-up numbers for things that aren't the key stat.
• Generic upbeat stock music with no sound effects, or sound generated from code (sine beeps, noise "whooshes").
• Flat slides: text and boxes fading in on a still background, no camera, no depth. That reads as a slideshow, not a film.
• AI-generated footage of the product itself, or anything showing features the product doesn't have.
• Raw, full-screen dashboards that are unreadable on a phone.

4. Do: text and motion

• Fonts: one or two. Big enough for a phone. Strong contrast.
• Words on screen: 7 or fewer at a time. One idea per screen.
• Hold time: text stays readable at least 1.5 s after it lands.
• Emphasis: one key word per line, by colour or weight. Pick one emphasis technique per video (underline, highlighter, strike-and-replace, or colour pop) and use it only where it carries meaning.
• Motion language: one easing family for the whole video (e.g. expo-out). Calm entrances: mask reveal, blur-to-sharp, short slide. Motion only where it explains something.
• Camera and depth: give the film a camera (push-ins, arcs, parallax across 3+ depth planes). Build it as described in motion-direction.
• Transitions: mix them and give each a reason. Hard cut on a beat, match cut (a shape becomes the next scene), zoom into the element that matters, wipe with a brand shape. Never the same transition every time.
• Pacing: something changes every 2–4 s (a cut, a zoom, a new element), but no scene is busy.

5. Product UI

• Show the real product. Rebuilt/stylised UI is fine if it matches what exists.
• Crop and zoom into the part that matters. Spotlight it, dim the rest.
• Make UI responses snappier than real life (about 3×), not slower.
• A cursor only when it teaches something: large, with a click ripple and a soft click sound.
• One success moment (a check, a finished state) after the key action. End on calm and relief, not a feature pile.

6. Data

• One number per screen, held 1.5 s or more. Round it (2.4×, not 2.387×).
• Count-ups use tabular (fixed-width) digits so they don't jitter.
• Bars grow from zero and are labelled directly (no legend). Never cut the axis to exaggerate.
• Every number must be real and sourced. Put a small source line on screen ("Measured on …, 2026").
• Never imply a comparison you haven't measured.

7. Audio

Follow the sound-design skill. In short: a soft music bed the user picked, a real recorded sound for every visible click, keystroke, toggle, landing, success and camera move, one impact for the big moment, about -14 LUFS with true peak ≤ -1 dBTP, and an audio sample approved by the user before the full render. Never synthesise music or effects in code. The video must still work muted; README and website-hero versions ship silent. Burn in captions if there's a voiceover (calm 2–4 word chunks) and ship an SRT.

8. Brand and CTA

• Brand colours and fonts everywhere. Same motion style from first scene to last.
• Full logo only on the end card (optional small corner mark elsewhere).
• CTA is specific ("Install in one command", "Start free, no card") and the URL is large and readable.
• End card: logo, one line, CTA, URL. Nothing else.

9. Length and formats

• Formats: 16:9 (YouTube, web), 1:1 (feeds), 9:16 (Reels, TikTok, Shorts). Keep text out of the platform's button zones (right edge and bottom on vertical).
• 1080p minimum. 30 fps for most, 60 fps for smooth UI and cursor motion.
• Custom thumbnail: the outcome or a face, 3–5 words.
• Make cutdowns (15 s, 6 s) from the main video instead of one video everywhere.

10. Checklist before rendering

Answer each with yes. Fix anything that isn't.

• The first 3 seconds show a problem or result, not a logo.
• One goal, one audience, one message, written down.
• Every claim and number on screen is true and measured.
• No glow, particles, or default dark-purple look. Real brand palette and fonts.
• At most one underline/highlight technique, used once or twice.
• Transitions are mixed and each has a reason.
• No screen has more than 7 words. Every text holds 1.5 s or more after landing.
• Readable on a phone (check a frame at 390 px wide).
• sound-design checklist passed: music bed, a sound for every action, measured loudness, sample approved.
• motion-direction checklist passed: directions → beat sheet → styleframes approved; camera and depth; one signature transition.
• Captions burned in if there's speech.
• Ends on one specific CTA with a readable URL.
• Rendered in every format the placement needs.