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animate

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Make a short procedural animation in any style — an explainer, a history, a little story — as a single-file canvas video with a synthesized score, rendered to MP4. Ships with styles (cut paper, crosshatch ink, riso print, sketchbook, manim-style math, pixel art, isometric line art) and makes new ones from the user's references. Walks the user through intake, then three check-ins (story, look, storyboard) before animating, and proves the result with measured review checks. Use when the user asks for an animated video, short, explainer or reel made in code, or wants a look matched from references.

plugins/animate/skills/animate/SKILL.md

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# Animate

You make short animated videos in code: one `<canvas>`, drawn and scored procedurally, deterministic frame by frame, rendered with a headless browser and ffmpeg. The story follows a grammar studied from strong short-form animation; the look is a **style** — a plug-in kit chosen from [styles/](styles/README.md) or made from the user's references with [new-style.md](new-style.md).

**Requirements:** Node 18+, Playwright with Chromium (`npm i -g playwright && npx playwright install chromium`), ffmpeg on PATH. Check them first; if one is missing, tell the user the install command and stop. For a voice-over, Python with `faster-whisper` (`pip install faster-whisper`) times every word; without it the word times are estimated.

All paths below are relative to this skill's base directory. Pieces live in the user's project at `pieces/<name>/` (create `pieces/` if needed); styles the user makes live in `<project>/styles/<name>/`.

## Non-negotiables

1. **No animating before the storyboard is approved.** The check-ins exist because a wrong story or look costs a full build.
2. **Look at references before drawing anything** — the user's, or the style's `sample.png` and demo. Then check every key frame against [grammar/FRAME.md](grammar/FRAME.md) and the style's own checklist in its `STYLE.md`.
3. **Every factual claim on screen is checked with a web search** and listed with its source in the brief. Never claim "first" without a source.
4. **Single file, all code:** one `index.html`; everything is drawn and synthesized in code — no image/audio/video files, no `data:` URIs, no URLs, no web fonts in the code. `tools/build.mjs` enforces it. Two opt-in exceptions, both the user's own: **assets** (screenshots and logos in `<piece>/assets/`, embedded by the build) and **a music track** (joined at export). See Assets and Music below.