Creating Videos
Own the full lifecycle: research when needed, concept and script, source and create assets, produce footage/audio, edit the video, review it, and deliver the final export. Do not stop after a script, storyboard, or rough cut when the user asked for a finished video. Read the production workflow, then load only the specialist guides that fit the request:
- New idea, factual topic, or current claims: research and scripting.
- Supplied footage to recap, adapt, or dub: source-based video.
- Supplied reference video to analyze: reference-video analysis.
- Presenter or talking head: presenter workflow.
- App or website walkthrough: app-capture guide, including fixed-scale UI framing and readable scroll captures.
- Animation, generated visuals, or a motion-led treatment: creative modes and visual direction.
- Promotional, brand, social, or footage-led work: visual storytelling and stock sourcing. Choose an execution route with production tooling.
Use the editing skill and its review checklist for post-production. When the user only wants changes to an already assembled video, start with the editing skill instead.
Check the available browser, research, capture, audio, editing, and rendering tools early. Choose a feasible route based on actual access and capability. Continue useful stages if a tool is missing; clearly state the blocker and provide the best available deliverable without claiming that an uncreated video is finished.
For a film-like or footage-led brief, plan shots from actual source media before building layouts. A succession of text cards, screenshot pans, or a moving progress bar does not fulfill that brief. Review a rendered passage containing real action and at least one edit before scaling production. Static frames establish art direction; they do not establish motion or editorial quality. Tutorials and diagrams may hold when viewers need time to understand them.
For narrated promos, plan several distinct, script-matched visuals within longer sentences. Do not reuse one background clip under a run of changing titles or screenshots. Describe each shot's visible action and why it supports that precise beat; check the adjacent sequence for repeated source, screenshot, crop, and composition. Use deliberate phrase/action changes at a pace viewers can follow, while allowing interfaces and disclosures time to read. See visual storytelling.
Required production record
Maintain these project artifacts as they become available:
- A brief describing purpose, audience, intended feeling or viewer outcome, destination, length, format, style, and call to action.
- Research notes and a source ledger for factual or current claims; clearly mark when research is not needed.
- A checked script, treatment, storyboard, and shot/scene plan suited to the format.
- An asset/rights record, production timeline, and edit manifest when useful.
- A reviewed final export, editable project, caption/transcript sidecars when useful, and concise review notes.
Working rules
- For personal stories, understand the human meaning before choosing pace, music, or visual effects. Keep memories truthful and do not invent events.
- For factual, documentary, product, or client work, separate verified facts from inference and flag unresolved claims. Do not fabricate evidence, interfaces, testimonials, or quotations.
- Match the concept to the actual source material. Generated visuals are illustrative unless verified; do not present them as captured evidence.
- Protect privacy and identity. Use approved material and permissions for people, voices, music, fonts, stock, and generated assets.
- Prefer local/free tools when they meet the brief. Confirm actual provider capability, cost, access, and rights before using them.
- Never start a paid job, subscription, or trial without the user's explicit approval.
- Creating a video does not authorize publishing, sending, or uploading it.
- Review the rendered export with the editing skill's checklist before delivery.
Typical deliverables
Deliver the requested format plus the editable project, captions/transcript, asset/source notes, and review notes when useful. Keep temporary renders and source assets in a separate project directory. State the actual review method and any unavailable checks.