Motion

Direct a code-first animation job. The model writes a deterministic program. A headless browser paints each frame. ffmpeg encodes the master. Do not ask a video model to invent pixels for type, UI, or product geometry: letters melt and grids warp.

British English throughout (colour, organised, towards, artefact).

Intake

Infer the job type when it is obvious. Otherwise ask one question listing the types:

What are you doing: a new piece (brief), pick an engine, build or render, timing and easing, character animation, sound, critique a render, export for X, a long or overnight session, or quote a client?

Then read only the 1–2 references in the table. Never load all references up front. Do not invent a parallel pipeline.

Routing

Add references/export.md when quoting a product reel (masters and duration). Add references/critique.md when an overnight run will iterate.

Full-piece pipeline

When making a complete piece, walk the stages in order. Read each reference only when that stage is reached:

1. Brief — references/brief.md
2. Engines — references/engines.md
3. Maths — references/maths.md. If a character or mascot is on screen, also read references/principles.md
4. Render — references/render.md
5. Sound — references/sound.md if the piece needs audio
6. Critique — references/critique.md
7. Export — references/export.md

Add references/harness.md for a long unattended run. Add references/pricing.md for paid work.

The first render is a sketch. Quality comes from the critique loop, not from a one-line prompt. Viral "single prompt" posts usually hide a long brief, examples, and a render contract.

Standing rules

These apply to every job. References repeat the details.

• Animation is render(t) with t in seconds. Ban setTimeout, setInterval, and any use of the wall clock or requestAnimationFrame timestamps to decide what is on screen. Live preview may use rAF only to call render.
• One self-contained HTML file (or one Remotion composition) per piece. Pin CDN libraries to an exact version.
• One hero per shot. Rank secondary motion 1, 2, 3.
• Ban the defaults: purple or blue gradients, glow, bloom, lens flares, generic particle fields, fade-and-slide-up on every element, everything centred, text that moves while it is being read.
• Springs are closed-form. Do not Euler-step. See the formula caveat in references/maths.md.
• Source spring presets were read from an image; prefer damping-ratio targets. Source client prices disagree with each other; see references/pricing.md.
• Do not use a video-diffusion pass on UI, type, or logos. Abstract background texture is the only place it is allowed.

Default lab layout

motion-lab/
  render.mjs
  motion.js
  scene.html
  frames/
  out/
  sources/
  drafts/
  published/

Standing rules (seekability, no timers, 120 BPM grid, this layout) live in a root project-instructions file. Ephemeral brief details stay out of that file. Full capture and encode commands are in references/render.md.

Quick path for a first piece

1. Prove the pipeline with the minimal seekable scene in references/render.md.
2. Fill the eight-field brief in references/brief.md, including the banned list and the render contract.
3. Render, contact-sheet, and run two critique rounds before calling it done.
4. Encode for the platform in references/export.md.

Credits

• Florence (@flxrnc)
• damkin (@damkina7)

Article titles, for provenance only:

• Florence, Opus 5.5 Motion Lab: Make Claude Animate Like a Studio, https://x.com/flxrnc/article/2105311836190978392
• damkin, Autonomous Motion Studio on Claude Opus 5.5: From seek(t) Architecture to Your First $500 Reel, https://x.com/damkina7/article/2107924159397560795