/render-split-screen-creator

name: render-split-screen-creator
description: Assemble a split-screen creator ad from a config — a two-zone vertical composite where a supplied AI-creator lip-sync take fills the BOTTOM ~48% while real 16:9 product/demo clips run uncropped in the TOP ~52%, each top clip contain-fit with a darkened blurred cover-scale fill of the same clip (never black bars), a 3px brand-color divider between the zones, the creator slice cover-fit per the per-scene VO timing, scenes hard-concatenated with the body audio being the concatenated creator VO slices, an end card held on the last sharp frame ~3s, then the ASSEMBLED cut transcribed with local Whisper (not the raw VO — concat drops inter-scene silence) and word-level captions burned in the chosen style. This is the FREE deterministic assembly + caption stage (two-zone composite + blurred fill + divider + hard-concat + end card + captions); the VO comes from create-vo-elevenlabs, the anchor from create-image-gpt-image-fal, and the whole-VO lip-sync from a paid VEED Fabric 1.0 take (a no-atom upstream input). Use for the split-screen-creator format.
status: active

render-split-screen-creator

Assemble a **split-screen creator** ad from a config: a two-zone vertical (1080×1920, 9:16, ~40s) format where an **AI creator talking-head** anchors the BOTTOM ~48% of the frame and **real 16:9 product/demo clips** run uncropped in the TOP ~52%, a 3px brand-color divider between the zones. The creator delivers the whole VO cold-to-camera and each top clip proves the claim its VO line makes. This capability is the **FREE, deterministic assembly + captions** — the two-zone composite (contain-fit + blurred-cover fill + divider + creator slice), the hard-concat, the end card, and the word-level caption burn from the assembled cut.

`scripts/config.example.json` is the worked example (Perplexity concept-10 "Bloomberg terminal", ~40s 1080×1920 9:16, 6 scenes + an end card); `scripts/PIPELINE.md` maps every config block to its source step and `scripts/README.md` documents the free assembly.

Run

This is the **FREE, deterministic** assembly + captions stage — it spends nothing. The paid inputs are separate steps — the VO (`create-vo-elevenlabs`, ElevenLabs `eleven_v3` with-timestamps, sliced into per-scene windows), the **photoreal MEDIUM chest-up** AI-creator anchor (`create-image-gpt-image-fal`, `gpt-image-2`) — shot at a natural webcam distance (headroom + shoulders, real room), **not** a plain-background close-up headshot (see the anchor note below), and the whole-VO lip-sync (a **paid VEED Fabric 1.0 @ 720p take — a no-atom step**, `image_url` = the anchor, `audio_url` = the vo mp3, ~$0.15/sec, ~$5.90 for a 39s VO; run its calls sequentially, `veed/fabric-1.0` storage-auths 403 under parallel load). Given the creator lip-sync take + the per-scene VO timing + one 16:9 top clip per scene + the scene-1 hook graphic + the end-card clip, `render-split-screen-creator` composites the two zones, hard-concats the scenes, appends the end card, transcribes the assembled cut, and burns the captions → the master. Re-cuts reuse the existing VO / lip-sync / clips and cost **$0**.

Contract (the free assembly)

• **Two-zone split, top ~52% / creator ~48%.** The TOP zone runs the real 16:9

product/demo clip **contain-fit** (uncropped), the BOTTOM zone is the creator lip-sync framed **head-to-shoulders**: scale-to-width × a small **ZOOM** (~1.15–1.2) then crop the zone with a **downward offset** so the face sits upper-middle and the shoulders enter the bottom. (A plain cover + crop-toward-top shows only the head and cuts the shoulders — and it can't rescue an anchor that was shot too close; fix the anchor distance first.) Tune zoom/offset visually against the source video's creator framing — it's a FREE re-assemble, no VEED re-run. A 3px brand-color divider separates the zones. Canvas 1080×1920, `top_height` ~998. **Keep every stacked height EVEN** (998 + 4 divider + 918 = 1920) — libx264 rejects odd dimensions.

• **Anchor = photoreal MEDIUM shot, not a studio headshot.** The lip-sync only looks as

good as the anchor. It must be photoreal/candid (real lived-in room, natural skin cues), framed chest-up at a natural webcam distance (headroom + shoulders), **not** a plain-background close-up and **not** a phone-selfie pose copied from another format (e.g. `ugc-walk-and-talk`). VEED Fabric handles photoreal fine (unlike Seedance).

• **Blurred-cover fill, never black bars.** The top clip's letterbox margins are

filled with a darkened **blurred cover-scale of the same clip** — a flat charcoal/black bar reads cheap.

• **One claim per scene, shown as it's said.** Each top clip is windowed

(`top_start`/`top_end`) to the on-message segment that proves its VO line. **Never loop a short clip** — set the window and the assembler speed-fits it to the scene (looping replays into a sparse/black tail).

• **The creator VO is the entire audio bed — no separate music.** Body audio =

the concatenated creator VO slices, timed per the per-scene `timing.json`; the lip-sync drives the mouth.

• **Hard-concat the scenes; end card on the last SHARP frame.** Hard-cut concat

(no dissolves); append the end card holding the last sharp frame ~3s. If the end-card clip fades to black, hold the last sharp second (`endcard.clip_end`), not the black tail.

• **Caption the ASSEMBLED cut, not the raw VO.** Concat drops inter-scene

silence, so the ad timeline ≠ the VO timeline; only the final cut's audio yields correct caption timing. Transcribe the assembled cut with local Whisper, build word-level cues (sentence-aware chunking), burn the ASS in the chosen style (`serif-accent`, `kinetic-pop`, …). Keep the `-precaption` cut + the `.ass` sidecar so captions restyle without re-rendering the composite. If the host ffmpeg lacks libass, render the cues as timed PIL PNG overlays (ffmpeg `overlay=…:enable='between(t,st,en)'`) at the same placement. -