video-shotcraft Turns Claude Code into a Cinematic Product Video Studio

A product launch video usually means a motion designer, a deadline, or both. video-shotcraft is a 9k-star agent skill that turns Claude Code or Codex into a motion-design studio: point it at your product and it storyboards, animates, and sound-designs a cinematic promo with Remotion — real page captures, 2.5D camera moves, beat-synced cuts, and film-grade sound effects included.

Why This Skill Matters

The library is concrete rather than vibes. It ships 157 shot recipe cards — each documenting purpose, energy, suggested duration, parameters, implementation notes, and known pitfalls — alongside 214 motion previews covering 214 styles, with tuned Remotion TSX implementations of every card. There is a production methodology layer too: capture scripts, visual QA criteria, BGM beat-sync analysis, and sound-design guidance backed by 149 SFX across 16 scene categories plus 5 BGM options.

What makes it unusually practical is the validated starting point: an included template called Ink Press — a complete 36.2-second, 1920×1080, 30fps product promo in a paper-ink-amber style with 10 shots, 2.5D real-page camera moves, title cards, and a pinned cinematic SFX pass. The README calls using it the fastest, most reliable path to a finished film; the 38-second Gallery intro on the repo page was itself produced with the skill.

Installation

The most direct way, per the README: hand the repo link to your agent.

Install this skill for me: https://github.com/Vincentwei1021/video-shotcraft

Or install with the skills CLI:

npx skills add Vincentwei1021/video-shotcraft

Manual install clones the repo and links it into your agent's skills directory:

git clone https://github.com/Vincentwei1021/video-shotcraft.git
cd video-shotcraft
ln -s "$(pwd)" ~/.claude/skills/video-shotcraft   # Claude Code
# or
ln -s "$(pwd)" ~/.codex/skills/video-shotcraft    # Codex

Real Workflow: Produce a Promo from the Template

1. Make the request, naming the template:

Use video-shotcraft to make a promo for my product with the Ink Press template.

2. The agent swaps in your product's screenshots, copy, and branding, then reproduces the template's structure — storyboard, shot implementation, sound design — with your material.
3. Review the delivered film. If you want to keep editing, the Motion Workbench opens in your browser (node workbench/scripts/open.mjs <project>): the film decomposes into shot, transition, caption, and SFX tracks, and you can retime, trim, restyle, and export with Remotion. Preview and render are frame-identical per the README.

Real Workflow: Design Shots Card by Card

When you want bespoke motion instead of a template, name the cards:

Use video-shotcraft to create a promo for my desktop product.
Use the deck-deal-flyin and row-embed shot cards to present this feature.
Design a product close-up inspired by spotlight-hero-card.

You can browse all 214 motion previews in the online Gallery first and pick shots by name before starting.

Tips

• Rendering on a headless Linux box hits three documented walls: pass --concurrency=1 on low-core machines, use a chrome-headless-shell binary instead of full Chrome, and add --browser-executable if the CDN is blocked.
• The toolkit primarily targets web and desktop product promos; individual shot cards also fit feature demos, brand films, and launch videos.
• After delivery the film can export as an editable JianYing (CapCut CN) draft — per-shot retiming, native text tracks, separate audio — verified on JianYing Pro 11.2 for macOS.
• Many shot recipes were distilled by studying the motion language of well-known product films and re-implemented from scratch; no footage or brand assets from those films are included.

When Not to Use This

Remotion has its own license: free for individuals and small teams, while companies may need a paid license — a real cost check before you render a campaign. If your video needs live action, talking-head narration, or footage you cannot capture as page screenshots, this toolkit is not the tool. And if you expect a one-prompt finished film with no review loop, the methodology assumes iteration: storyboard, shots, and sound design are steps you steer, not a slot machine.

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