Talking Explainer skill

---
name: talking-explainer
description: Talking Explainer - turn a topic into a narrated 16:9 (1920x1080, 60fps) motion-design explainer where a TALKING cartoon presenter (real lip sync - six mouth shapes driven by the voice, poses on cue words, blinks) explains it in the user's own voice, with short basic-English kinetic text on screen, in a sleek APPLE product-page look (white light, Geist type, glass cards, critically damped springs, Solar icons, a lens spine), a camera push-in and an emphasis beat on every scene, and the user's own brand (logo open, corner logo, end card with their call to action). Hook-first script in the user's speaking style -> they record the take -> storyboard -> parallel scene workers -> render with word-sync and zone proof. MUST USE when the user says "talking explainer", "talking mascot", "make the mascot talk", "lip sync explainer", "explainer with a talking character", or asks for an explainer video where the presenter speaks. Also covers: making the user's OWN talking character from 3 image prompts, swapping a finished film's voice take or language (retime, not rebuild), a PORTRAIT 9:16 TikTok / Reels / Shorts cut of a finished film (port, not rebuild), and "how it works" walkthroughs with real apps and real logos. Runs on the explainer-kit + spatial-film skills installed next to it.
---

# Talking Explainer

The voice is the clock, the presenter TALKS (lip sync), every idea is an everyday picture first, every scene has a
zoom and an emphasis moment, the look is Apple, and the film carries the user's brand. Worked example: "REA -
Reverse Engineer Anything" (129.0s, 12 scenes) - `references/example/` (SCRIPT, STORYBOARD, RETIME).

Paths used below:
- `<skill>` = this skill's folder. `<kit>` = `<skill>/../explainer-kit`. `<engine>` = `<skill>/../spatial-film`.
- `<home>` = `TALKING_EXPLAINER_HOME` or `~/.talking-explainer`; profile = `<home>/profile/` (shared with explainer-kit).
- `<py>` = the `python` command saved in `<home>/config.json` by setup-check (`py -3.12` on Windows, `python3` on macOS).

Run every film script from the film project root. Scripts are proven code - run them, never regenerate them. Judge
scenes by contact sheets, never by reading scene HTML in the main session. Workers get file PATHS.

## Setup (first run only)

No `<home>/profile/brand.json` yet = run explainer-kit's **Phase S** (setup-check, brand interview + `profile.mjs
init`, `voice.md`, music). Its brand interview sets the presenter's name (`--presenter`). Two more things for this
skill, asked in the same interview:
- **The opener and closer lines** in `voice.md`, word for word, with the user's first name (the hook opener is
  "<claim>? Is it true? <name> here, from <brand>... let's break it down.").
- **The presenter:** the bundled talking demo (a deadpan cartoon guy with glasses), or their own character - see
  "Your own talking character" below.

## Defaults (do not re-ask)

- **Narration** in the profile's language, in the user's style from `voice.md`. **On-screen** = short basic English
  (~6 words per headline line). Length is free if the message lands (~150-160 wpm on a natural take).
- **The user records the take** from the script (their ElevenLabs voice clone or their own mic). Phase 1 hands
  over the script as paste-ready paragraphs and WAITS for one MP3. Generating it through the API instead
  (`<engine>/scripts/el-tts.py`, key in env `EL`, never on disk) only when they ask.
- **Opener = hook first:** open on the topic's most surprising claim as a question, then the opener line from
  `voice.md`. The topic's NAME comes in paragraph 2. Closer = the closer line from `voice.md` + the profile's `cta`.
- **Concept topics** get ONE everyday analogy told literally (REA: a cafe's secret latte recipe). **"How it works"
  topics about the user's own tool or system** get a walkthrough of the real thing instead - `references/real-apps.md`.
  So do **third-party tools and platforms**: name the real products, walk the real request flow, and use the
  platforms' own copy, settings and numbers read off their live pages. Default to the walkthrough for any tech topic.
- **Short cut (<= 30s):** ~2.6 words/s, 4 paragraphs = 4 frames (hook + ident / name / the one picture / close),
  a one-line closer, 2 workers x 2 scenes.
- **Issue / news topics:** research the live reporting first (local outlets + one deep piece), then write it
  balanced: every claim gets its owner in the voice ("according to the agency...", "critics say..."), the fear gets
  its real scale, then a numbered grey-areas run where official statements contradict each other or a key detail
  is not public, a fair upside paragraph, and a takeaway of questions to ask - never a verdict. Anything only a
  search summary said (the page itself failed to load) stays in SCRIPT.md's facts block marked "Unverified, NOT
  voiced". 16 frames / ~700 words is fine for these.
- **Script from a pasted transcript:** keep the source's facts and its order of ideas, rewrite every line in the
  narrator's voice (never translate it line by line), and cut the source presenter's own parts ("I built...", code
  demos, their name). Long pastes get truncated around 50k characters: name where the cut fell in SCRIPT.md, then
  fill the missing part from the standard mechanism, checked like any other claim. Save the paste to
  `references/source-transcript.txt` on day one, and keep the source's named people and milestones.
- **Real people = person cards, never name tags:** portrait (duotone photo or illustrated likeness) + name + one-line
  role + year. List every named person with their scene in SCRIPT.md under "People on screen".
- **Look = Apple:** white light (`#F5F5F7` ground), Geist with size-specific tracking, faked glass (`.ap-glass` -
  never `backdrop-filter` inside the 3D rig), `.ap-window` / `.ap-dark` panes, critically damped `sp()` springs
  (`back.*` banned), restraint (one idea per frame, pulses <= 1.1), a blue LENS spine. Colour = meaning, rewritten