Voiceover — word-for-word narration that times the animation

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name: voiceover description: Narration, sound effects and music beds in the voice the studio set up (ElevenLabs, Qwen3-TTS on this machine's GPU, or the owner's own voice from the recording booth): lines from the approved script, checked takes, one voice track and a word-timing map the animation follows. Use for any narrated animatic or final, a re-take, or sound design.

Voiceover

The approved script is spoken word for word, and the narration is the clock the animation is timed to.

VO=.claude/skills/voiceover/vo.mjs
node $VO check                                   # which engine, voice and model; credits; the rules for this engine
node $VO speak voice/lines.json                  # every line, checked, retaken if words go missing
node $VO speak voice/lines.json --only b03-1     # just the lines you fixed
node $VO build voice/lines.json                  # voice/voice.wav + voice/timing.json

0. Which voice?

node $VO check says what the owner set up in Settings (you don't choose the engine or the voice):

• elevenlabs: the voice, model and settings are chosen; the key is in your environment (never print it). check shows the plan and credits. On the free plan the audio is non-commercial and must credit ElevenLabs: say so in your submission note.
• qwen: Qwen3-TTS on this machine's GPU through ComfyUI (free, local). If check says ComfyUI or the suite isn't ready, that's a mfx needs-you.
• none: no narration. If the brief asked for one, ask at the next gate whether to go on-screen-text-only (the default) or wait while the owner sets a voice up. Never use a robotic system voice.
• own: the owner narrates in their own voice. Write voice/lines.json exactly as below (short lines; put delivery notes as a [tag] at the start, which the owner sees as direction; skip IPA and v4 tricks, a person reads script). node $VO speak voice/lines.json then lists the lines still to record and prints the mfx needs-you text that sends the owner to the recording booth (the web studio, mortiflix record, or importing files). Send it and stop. When they resume, speak passes and build makes the track, timed per line. If you change a line after it was recorded, speak asks for that line again.
• The owner's own recording in input/ (one long file, any engine): use it instead (cut it into lines as clips, then build).

Don't change the voice or the model yourself: they're the owner's choice. Suggest a change in the handoff if one would clearly be better.

1. Write voice/lines.json

One entry per sentence or breath group (under ~600 characters; short lines are cheap to retake):

[
  { "id": "b01-1", "text": "[warm, unhurried] Every city has a heartbeat.", "script": "Every city has a heartbeat.", "gap_after": 0.5 },
  { "id": "b01-2", "text": "Ours runs on \"/ˈbaɪsɪkəlz/\".", "script": "Ours runs on bicycles." }
]

• text is what the voice reads; script is the same words spelled normally (needed whenever text has tags or IPA: the check compares against it). gap_after is the pause after the line (default 0.4 s; longer between beats).
• Ids follow the script's beats (b01-1), letters, digits and dashes.
• Write numbers, dates and money the way they're said ("twenty twenty-six", "four point five percent").

Directing ElevenLabs Eleven v4 (eleven_v4, the default)

• Audio tags in square brackets steer delivery: [warm], [measured, curious], [whispers], [sighs], [excited], [quick, light pace]. One at the start of a line; another only where the mood really turns.
• Describe the voice, not a sound. v4 also makes sound effects, so [rain] or [applause] can come out as a noise. Write [soft, hushed voice], not [quiet room]. The check flags any non-speech sound in a take.
• Punctuation and capitals: ellipses add pauses and weight, CAPITALS add emphasis. No SSML: v4 ignores <break> and <phoneme> (they can be read aloud).
• Pronunciation: IPA between slashes inside quotes, "/ˈkoʊmæl/", with the normal spelling in script.
• v4 has only stability and similarity (set in Settings); there's no style or speed: direct pace with tags and punctuation.
• Each line is sent with its neighbours' text, so the delivery flows across lines.

Other ElevenLabs models (if the owner chose one): eleven_multilingual_v2 has style and speed settings and takes <break time="1.0s" /> pauses (up to 3 s); eleven_flash_v2 takes <phoneme> tags. Don't use tags v4-style on them.

Directing Qwen3-TTS (local)

• Delivery comes from the instruction the owner set (1.7B model); the line is read as plain words. Tags and IPA are dropped before speaking (script is read when present), so spell hard names the way they sound in script.
• 10 languages (English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, French, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian).

2. Speak and check

speak makes each line, listens to it with speech to text (ElevenLabs Scribe v2, or Qwen3-ASR locally), and keeps it when at least 92% of the words match the script with no 3-word run missing or added, and no stray sounds. A line that fails is retaken with a new seed (up to --max-takes, default 3); the best take is kept either way. ElevenLabs lines run several at once (the plan's limit minus one); local lines run speak-all, then listen-all, because the two models take turns on the GPU.

• Results: voice/clips/<id>.(mp3|wav) + <id>.json (engine, take, seed, the transcript, word timings), every take in voice/takes/, and voice/speak-report.json.
• A line that keeps failing: fix the input, don't re-roll. Split a long sentence, spell out a number, add IPA (ElevenLabs) or a sounds-like spelling (local), then speak --only it.
• Listen to the first two lines before making the rest: pace, pronunciation, tone. The check catches missing words, not taste.

3. Build

build joins the clips with their gaps into voice/voice.wav (48 kHz mono) and writes voice/timing.json: every line's start and end, and every word's start and end when the check measured them ("timing": "words"), otherwise the line only. Turn the times you animate to into frames (Math.round(seconds * fps)) in video/src/timing.ts, and copy voice.wav into video/public/. Never cut inside a word: cut in the silences.

4. Sound effects and music (ElevenLabs, when switched on)

node .claude/skills/voiceover/sound.mjs sfx "soft glassy whoosh, left to right" --seconds 1.2 --out sfx/whoosh.mp3
node .claude/skills/voiceover/sound.mjs sfx "low city ambience, distant traffic" --seconds 20 --loop --out sfx/city.mp3
node .claude/skills/voiceover/sound.mjs music "warm minimal synth bed, 90 bpm, hopeful" --seconds 45 --out music/bed.mp3

Sound effects: 0.5–30 s, --loop for seamless ambience, --influence 0–1 (how literally it follows the prompt). Music: instrumental unless --vocals, 3 s to 10 min. Note every prompt in assets/SOURCES.md.

5. Mix

Music about 18 dB under the voice while it speaks; it can come up in the gaps. The final mix: -14 LUFS, true peak ≤ -1 dBTP (final-pass skill).

6. Record

Write voice/VOICE.md: engine, voice, model, settings, tags used, pronunciation fixes, rejected takes and why.