claude-faceless-shorts-creator skill

---
name: make-short
description: Build a fully-synthetic vertical short (1080×1920, ~40s) end-to-end from a topic — script + beats.json, linked TSX beats over a persistent canvas, phone-scale QA, render, ElevenLabs voice with exact word-synced captions, SFX audition, optional music bed. Use when the user wants to "make a short", "create a shorts video", build a TSX short for a niche (chess, math, algorithms, dev tips, Excel…), add voice/captions to a short, or continue the short-N series in this repo. This is the 100%-TSX track — for video-model pixels use make-ai-short, for the paper-collage documentary look use make-vox. Defers raw TSX crash rules to vidtsx-2d-generator and SFX taste to suggest-sfx + brand §7.
---

# make-short — fully-TSX vertical shorts, end to end

Everything is code: no footage, no stock. One short = one Remotion composition fed by a
beats contract, with voice and SFX layered on after render. Proven across the 12 example
shorts in `shorts/`. The idea bank + niche ranking lives in **`IDEAS.md`** — read it when
picking a topic, and grow it when brainstorming.

Run everything from the **repo root**. Tools are stdlib-only Python 3.10+; `ffmpeg`/`node`
must be on PATH; API keys live in `.env` (see `.env.example`).

## Artifact contract

```
shorts/short-N-<niche>/
  script.md        — hook, beat sheet table (time | on screen | VO), production notes
  beats.json       — machine contract: format, vo[] (text+start/end+words), beats[], niche timeline
  voice/           — per-line TTS clips + voice.wav        (gen_voice.py)   [gitignored]
  sfx-plan.json    — cue sheet on the global timeline       (mix_sfx.py)
  output/          — short-N-sfx.mp4 (+ music auditions)                    [gitignored]
remotion/src/shots/short-N/
  ShortN<Name>.tsx — THE composition (registered by npm run gen)
  vo.gen.ts        — AUTO-GENERATED VO with exact word times (never hand-edit)
```

Shared kit: `remotion/src/lib/shorts.tsx` (Captions, Kicker, BigTitle, Stamp, PauseCard,
StatChip, ProgressBar, ShortsBackdrop, SAFE areas, prog helper). Niche libs so far: `lib/chess.tsx`,
`lib/math.tsx`, `lib/algo.tsx`, `lib/sheet.tsx`, `lib/piano.tsx`, `lib/prob.tsx`, `lib/map.tsx`,
`lib/orbit.tsx`, `lib/chart.tsx`, `lib/story.tsx`… **Add at most ONE new niche lib per short**,
generic enough for a series.

## Stage 1 — script + beats

Beat grammar (~38–42s): **HOOK** (0–3.4s, frame 0 FULLY composed — the payoff already visible,
no fade from black) → **SETUP** → optional **QUIZ** (PauseCard, ~2.5s — drives comments) →
**REVEAL** in 2–4 steps, each synced to a VO word → **TWIST** → **LOOP** (last frame == frame 0,
dissolving the payoff back into the intro so it replays seamlessly).

**Outros — no fluff.** NEVER end on an old-school engagement-CTA — no "what should I do next?",
no "comment below", no "which one should I break down". They read as dated. End on the PAYOFF
line, and let the visual LOOP blend back into the intro — the loop-into-intro *is* the ending.
Prefer a clean visual dissolve/reset that lands the last frame exactly on frame 0. If a seamless
loop genuinely isn't possible for a topic, just end on the payoff with no filler. Don't pad the
tail: trim the composition so it ends shortly after the payoff, not seconds of dead air.

VO rules: ~100 words total, estimate line windows at **~2.7 words/sec with slack to the next