/render-vo-anchored-motion-listicle

name: render-vo-anchored-motion-listicle
description: "Assemble a narrated motion-graphic listicle video ad from a config: a voiceover (cloned or cast, in the chosen tone) reads a numbered list while N animated web-graphic beats in one branded design system (alternating tiles, big numerals, callouts) are rendered frame by frame and timed to the voiceover's words. Optional B-roll windows (a brand clip, an AI clip or a motion graphic) give the eye a break, and captions appear only inside those windows, with the voiceover mixed over a low music bed. Free, deterministic assembly; the voiceover, music and any AI clips come from create-vo-elevenlabs, create-music-elevenlabs and create-video-fal. Use for the vo-anchored-motion-listicle format."
status: active

render-vo-anchored-motion-listicle

Assemble a **narrated motion-graphic listicle** ad from a config: a spoken voiceover carries a numbered listicle (hook + N points + CTA) and every visual beat is anchored to the VO's word-level timestamps. Each beat is a **web-animated hyperframe** (an HTML page + the Web Animations API driven by `window.renderAt(t)`) rendered to video frame-by-frame with Playwright, all in ONE branded design system (alternating background tiles, big hero numerals, body type, decorative accents, callouts). Optional color-graded **breather windows** give visual breath, and captions burn **only on the B-roll windows**. The shipped master is pure motion-graphic + VO — there is NO lipsync (the still headshot is kept only for a future lipsync variant). This capability is the **FREE, deterministic assembly** — the Playwright beat render, the ffmpeg concat, the window-masked caption burn, the VO+music mix, and the final composite.

`scripts/config.example.json` is the worked example (Truehour "doctor-educator" listicle, ~66s 1080×1920 9:16 at 25fps) — copy its structure, never its creative values; `scripts/PIPELINE.md` maps every config block to its source step and `scripts/README.md` documents the free assembly.

Choices

The creative calls are made upstream (the format recipe's `choices`, asked of the user) and arrive in the config; this assembly just renders what it is given. The demo's values are examples only.

• **narrator** — who voices it (cloned real person or cast voice) → `voice.mode` / `voice.voice_id`.

The demo used a cloned doctor-educator.

• **tone** — how the read sounds → the script + the VO. The demo used authoritative expert.
• **list_angle** — mistakes + fix, tips, myths vs facts, signs you need X… → the script + `beats[]`.

The demo used expert tips with mistake → fix beats.

• **visual_style** — the motion-graphic look in brand colours → `design.name` / `callout_style` /

`accents` / `background_tiles`. The demo used EDUCATOR_MOTION with glass-pill callouts.

• **music** — the bed style → `music.prompt` (`none` = mix the VO alone). The demo used a warm lo-fi

bed at ~0.18.

Run

This is the **FREE, deterministic** assembly stage — it spends nothing. The paid inputs are separate capabilities — the spoken VO (`create-vo-elevenlabs`, a cloned or cast voice, `eleven_v3` + `atempo`) whose word-level timestamps (Groq `whisper-large-v3` word-level) set the timeline; the low music bed (`create-music-elevenlabs`); and any AI breather clips (`create-video-fal`, trimmed + color-graded; brand clips and motion-graphic breathers are free). There is no free stock-footage source. Given the VO + `words-flat.json` + the N authored hyperframe beats + the color-graded B-roll windows + the brand wordmark SVG, `render-vo-anchored-motion-listicle` renders each beat frame-by-frame via Playwright (all beats at fps 25), concats the beats + B-roll, burns the window-masked captions, mixes the VO under the low music bed, and composites → the master. Re-cuts reuse the existing VO / beats / B-roll and spend nothing.

Contract (the free assembly)

• **The spoken VO carries the listicle — it sets the timeline.** The cloned/cast VO is the

spine; Whisper-transcribe it to word-level timestamps and anchor every beat reveal to those word times. There is no on-camera human and NO lipsync in the shipped master.

• **Beats are web-animated hyperframes, rendered deterministically.** Each beat is an HTML page + the

Web Animations API driven by `window.renderAt(t)`; Playwright screenshots it frame-by-frame and ffmpeg encodes it. This is NOT i2v — it is deterministic web motion graphics.

• **ALL beats share the same fps (25).** A mismatched-fps beat stutters at the concat seam. Render

every beat and every B-roll window at fps 25.

• **ONE design system across every beat.** A single `_shared.css` (palette + type + alternating

tiles + accents + callout style) so N beats read as one designed reel; alternate only the background tile, keep numerals / body / accents / callouts consistent.

• **Periodic color-graded B-roll windows for breath.** Trim + color-grade each breather (brand clip,

AI clip, or motion-graphic) to the palette (fps 25). These windows are the ONLY captioned windows.

• **Captions ONLY on the B-roll windows.** On the motion-graphic beats the on-screen type IS the

caption — burning Whisper captions there double-stacks text. Build the caption ASS from the VO word timings, kept only inside the B-roll windows, 2-word chunks, closing a cue on any >0.4s word gap. The ASS `Format:` header MUST carry a `Name` field — without it the leading-comma bug eats the first field and captions silently drop. 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.

• **Low music bed under the VO.** The VO is the spine; the ElevenLabs Music bed (style from the

music choice; skipped if `none`) sits ~0.18 vol under it. No ducking needed at that level.

• **Never AI-render the brand lockup.** The CTA / end beat composites the brand's real wordmark,

never text-in-diffusion.

• **FFmpeg composite, deterministic, FREE.** Render eac