Make animated explainer Shorts in Claude Code

Start here: paste this into Claude Code

Install Claude Code first if you don't have it (step 1 below). Then run these lines in your terminal: they install the skill and run the demo, so you know it works before you make your own.

Then start Claude Code in a new folder and paste this prompt with your own script in it.

Use the shorts-motion skill to make a 30-45 second vertical Short from the script below. Use the Mac voice for the narration. Pick a layout for each beat that shows what's being said, not one that decorates it. Build it, render it, run the critic, and keep fixing scenes.json until the critic passes with no warnings. Then show me the critic sheet.

Script:
[paste your script here]

How the pieces connect

Install it

Install Claude Code (skip if you have it)

Skip this if claude --version already prints a version. You need a paid Claude plan. The first time you run claude, it sends you to your browser to log in.

Install what it runs on

Python packages for the critic and the motion check, plus ffmpeg and Node (HyperFrames renders the video in its own headless Chrome, fetched the first time you build).

brew install ffmpeg node
pip3 install numpy Pillow opencv-python-headless

Put the skill where Claude Code finds it

Claude Code picks up any skill in ~/.claude/skills. Once it's there, just ask for a Short and it uses it.

git clone https://github.com/ericsnyder2025/shorts-motion ~/.claude/skills/shorts-motion

Run the demo

It voices a short example script with the Mac voice, builds an 18-second Short (big type, slides, steps, a stat, a before and after) and runs the critic. About 30 seconds. If it ends with RESULT PASS, you're set.

~/.claude/skills/shorts-motion/scripts/demo.sh ~/shorts-motion-demo

Make your first Short

Write the script out loud

Write it the way you'd say it, not the way you'd type it. 80-150 words is a 25-45 second Short. Save it as script.txt.

Get the voice and the word timings

Every graphic lands on its spoken word, so the skill needs to know when each word is said. The Mac voice gives exact timings. For your own recording, install a local Whisper and use transcribe instead.

Let Claude write the scenes

Ask Claude Code to write scenes.json with the skill. One idea per scene, 1.5 to 5 seconds each. The layouts: big kinetic type, slides (pages), numbered steps, a stat, a flow, a checklist, a before and after, a quote, a phone screen. Add your own talking-head take as the presenter if you have one.

Build, render, critique, repeat

Claude builds and renders it, runs the critic and fixes what it flags. You open the critic sheet and look at it yourself: the numbers catch the hygiene, your eye catches whether the graphic actually shows what you're saying.

What the critic fails a cut for

• Empty space: a dead region over about a fifth of the frame.
• Small text: any line under 40 px tall on a 1080x1920 frame.
• Walls of text and captions crashing into graphics.
• A tiny head when a presenter is on screen.
• The same layout twice in a row, or too few different layouts.

• Stale stretches: too long with nothing changing on screen.
• Blank frames in the middle of the video.
• It also warns on slow uniform zoom, too many push-ins and flat dead background. That's the slideshow feel. It's measured with the gate from huashu-art-motion, calibrated on our own posted videos and viral Shorts in our niches.

Try huashu-art-motion too

The skill from the first half of my video is huashu-art-motion by alchaincyf: open source (MIT), 36 art styles and 9 explainer formats, with almost 4,000 GitHub stars in its first eight days (as of Oct 14).

Its kinetic type is really good, and its quality gate is the part I borrowed: shorts-motion vendors it, with credit, to catch slow zoom. Its docs are mostly in Chinese, and its best-looking Kurzgesagt-style shots come from custom scene code, not the one-prompt clips.

npx skills add alchaincyf/huashu-art-motion

Mistakes to avoid

• Fixing the HTML instead of the spec. Edit scenes.json and rebuild; the generated page gets overwritten.
• Silencing the critic. An allow skips a rule for one scene and needs a reason. Use it for the rare real exception, not to get a green light.

• Zooming everything. Hold still while a graphic builds and move on the reveal. A slow push on every scene is exactly what reads as a slideshow.
• Numbers you can't back up. Put a number on screen only if it's real, and label anything made up as an illustration.

The official docs behind every claim

• shorts-motion
• huashu-art-motion
• HyperFrames
• Claude Code: skills

What each page backs up is listed at the end of the full guide.

That's the setup

Same script, a critic that won't let the slideshow through, and the whole thing runs on your Mac. Clone it, run the demo, then make one from your own script.

Want help setting this up? Receipts Group builds these systems.

Open the full guide as a page (every file in full, plus the table of contents).