# The Cinematographer

Describe your video in one sentence and Claude hands back a real rendered MP4, with animation, captions and sound design, no editor and no API key.

## What it does

The Cinematographer is a Claude Code skill that turns one written sentence into a finished, animated video. You're not filling in a template. Claude writes the actual animation code, generates its own sound effects and music from scratch, renders the whole thing with Remotion, then pulls still frames out of the finished file to check its own work before handing it back to you.

Give it a one sentence brief, something like "a 15 second promo for my bakery's new sourdough," and you get back a real rendered file, full HD, with gradient backgrounds, animated captions and a glowing call to action button, timed and layered the way a motion designer would build it by hand.

The skill supplies the animation craft, springs, staggered timing, color grading, film grain, and a render, inspect, fix, re-render loop, so Claude checks its own output instead of handing you something broken. Rendering a real video takes a few minutes, it's not instant.

## Who it is for

Anyone who currently pays a freelancer or agency for short promo clips, product explainers, animated captions, or social video intros, and would rather describe what they want in a sentence and get a real file back. It replaces the back and forth of briefing a motion designer for a simple clip.

## What it is and what it runs in

- **It's a skill.** A markdown playbook plus reusable animation code and design rules Claude reads and follows, no app to download.
- **It runs in Claude Code, and in Claude Desktop.**
- **It's free.** No API key, no paid account, and no Remotion license needed, Remotion itself is free and open source.

## Before you start

- Claude Code installed and working on your machine
- Node.js installed. If you don't have it, download it from nodejs.org
- git installed, to pull the skill's files down

## Install

Open Claude Code (or your agentic tool) and run these two steps.

### Step 1: Get the skill's code

This downloads the skill's files onto your computer.

```
git clone https://github.com/haidrrrry/claude-remotion-skill.git
```

### Step 2: Add the skill to Claude Code

This copies the skill folder into the directory Claude Code reads skills from, so it is available in every project.

```
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r claude-remotion-skill/remotion-motion-graphics ~/.claude/skills/
```

## Run it

Tell Claude Code what video you want, in one sentence:

```
Make a 15 second promo video for my bakery's new sourdough loaf, warm colors, upbeat music, end with "Order today"
```

Claude builds a small video project for that brief, writes the animation, creates the sound effects and music, then renders it. Before handing it over, it pulls a few still frames from the finished video and checks them, fixing anything that looks off. You get back a full HD MP4 file, ready to post.

## Troubleshooting

**The render comes back blank or looks unfinished.** The skill's own workflow is render, inspect frames, fix, re-render. Tell Claude to pull frames and check its own output again, that loop is built into the skill's rules, not an extra step you have to invent.

**`npm run render` fails or Remotion throws an error.** Confirm your Node.js version is reasonably current. Remotion needs a working Node install to render video at all.

**Claude renders without checking its own frames first.** Per the project's own instructions, that means the skill wasn't actually loaded. Double check the folder sits at `~/.claude/skills/remotion-motion-graphics` and try a simple test brief again.

## Credit

Built by haidrrrry (https://github.com/haidrrrry/claude-remotion-skill), MIT license, 120 stars. Free and open source.