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name: video-animate description: >- Animate a video once the previz, characters, moodboard, script and sound exist. Decide per element whether code, AI video or both makes it, pick Seedance 2.5 or another model per shot, run a cheap 480p pass before paying for quality, choose one long generation or short clips, roll takes that differ only in performance, cut picture to the locked track, and generate plates the next agent can add motion design to and edit. Built from working AI filmmakers, vendor guides, sync standards and the film and animation canon, with frame counts, prompts, a take checker and a database directory. Use for "animate my previz", "Blender to Seedance", "three.js to video", "grey box to video", "which model for this shot", "Seedance or Kling", "long take or short clips", "480p draft", "animate to the beat", "cartoon timing", "music video from my previz", "footage ready for motion design". Not for building the previz (threejs-animatic, varg-previz), making the sound (video-sound) or the final edit (varg-video-editing). license: MIT metadata: author: vargHQ version: "1.0.0" openclaw: requires: anyBins: - python3 - ffmpeg homepage: https://github.com/vargHQ/skills/tree/main/video-animate compatibility: >- Works in any agent with a shell. scripts/take_check.py needs Python 3 and ffmpeg (standard library only). Generation needs the varg MCP connection (https://mcp.varg.ai/mcp) or a VARG_API_KEY. Prices are in credits, checked 2026-11-03: confirm each with estimate_cost before spending. allowed-tools: Bash(python3:) Bash(ffmpeg:) Bash(ffprobe:) Bash(curl:) Read Write Edit

Video animate

You already have the hard parts: an approved previz in Blender or three.js, characters, a moodboard, a script and locked sound. This skill turns them into footage. One idea runs through all of it: give each variable one owner, and change it in the layer where changing it is cheapest and most exact.

| Layer | Owns | Why | |---|---|---| | Previz | camera, blocking, timing | Free and exact. Change one thing and nothing else moves | | Video model | look, performance, skin, cloth, weather, crowds | Plausible, but every call re-rolls whatever you left open | | Code | text, numbers, UI, logos, charts, captions | Right to the character and the frame, every render | | Edit | sync, final rhythm, cadence, retiming | Free, reversible, re-rolls nothing |

Something missing? Go back first: find-references, video-moodboard, video-script, character-passport, video-sound, then threejs-animatic or varg-previz. No previz at all and only 1 to 3 simple shots: approve a still per shot and use image-to-video (varg-video-prompting).

What the evidence says

• Simple blockouts beat detailed ones. In nemopi's same-structure test, half-finished 3D leaked CG into 10 of 15 shots and colour-coded blocks into 0 of 15 (https://x.com/nemopi/status/2076877246497976329, self-reported, Seedance 2.0). ByteDance agrees: "Simple, coarse-grained 3D clay-model video generally works better as a reference." (https://docs.byteplus.com/en/docs/ModelArk/2607689). Nobody has compared a fully lit render against grey.
• A cheap pass pays, but a plain re-run is a new take. Seedance Draft to final correlated at 0.950 to 0.988 on five clips; a direct 1080p control scored 0.257 against the same draft (https://blog.segmind.com/seedance-2-5-draft-final-5-clips-tested-and-the-real-cost-math/, a reseller's test). The same seed at two resolutions: "These are not the same shot at two sizes." (https://blog.segmind.com/advanced-seedance-2-5-prompts-5-expert-patterns-tested-2026/). varg has no Draft option yet, so step 6 below gives today's path.
• Long or short depends on the job. Shimura's 30 s clips reached the screen at 32.2%, his 5 s clips at 3.3%, for finished cuts averaging 2.5 s (https://x.com/ucmulleryu/status/2092572054872784904, self-reported). Chris Capel: "short generations hold a performance better than long ones" (https://x.com/PJaccetturo/status/2116160709180723486, Dreamina partner). Both are right: harvest long, obey short.
• Three takes earn their cost. Cuts given 3 takes reached the screen at 22.3%, cuts given 1 at 8.8% (https://x.com/ucmulleryu/status/2091821264302412030, self-reported).
• Sound on every cut is not what pros do. In 7 launch films a salient hit sits near a visual event 29% of the time, against 27% by chance (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Leonxlnx/earshot/main/docs/launch-video-sound.md). About 85% of hard cuts carry no sound of their own (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Leonxlnx/cinetic/main/skills/cinetic/references/sound.md). Launch films only; music videos differ.
• Treat all of this as months-old practice. The method spread from June 2026. No named expert publishes a full routing rule, most data is one person's report, and no test runs one previz through all the main models. The rules below marked [inference] are our synthesis. references/evidence.md has what is proven, what is not and seven cheap tests that would settle the biggest calls.

Advice you will hear, tested

| You will hear | Verdict | Use this instead | |---|---|---| | Make a cheap version first, at 480p | Holds, with a change | Cheap pass first, always. Judge staging, camera, timing and shot order at 480p, never faces, hands or small text. Only Draft mode binds the take to its final | | One long generation for a long shot, short clips for different shots | Holds, with a change | One run per location and light state. New run when the place or light changes, when a shot will need many retakes, or when the edit may move the cut | | Something changes every 2 or 3 seconds | Holds, with a change | Something new happens every few seconds at the format's rate. New information, an action, a camera move or a sound event count. A transition effect does not. Vary the intervals | | Every motion has a cause | Holds | Name the cause in the same sentence, with a time. Every sound has a cause in the story. A camera move needs one too | | Sound hits land on cuts | Does not hold | Hits land on the moments that matter. Most cuts ride on the music. With no music, every cut needs sound | | Sync within 5 ms | Does not hold as a target | Place sound by script to the sample, accept to the frame. One frame at 24 fps is 41.7 ms. Past 40 ms early or 60 ms late is a defect (EBU R37) | | 3 takes that differ only in timing and camera | Does not hold on a generative model | Try timing and camera variants in the previz, where they are free and exact, and pick one. Then roll 3 takes with those locked, varying only the performance |

The work, in order

Each step writes one file. At every STOP, show it and wait. Steps 1 to 3 are free.

1. Route every element

Go through the shot list and ask of each element, stopping at the first yes (routing.md): must it be exact? is its motion defined by a rule? will it be versioned or looped? is it a rigid hero object filling the frame? must a hit land within a frame or two of the track? must an AI plate register with a code layer while the camera moves? must its physics be correct rather than plausible? Otherwise it is a face, hair, cloth, weather, crowd or photoreal world: hybrid, with the previz as video reference plus images.

Writes shots.md: per shot, what code makes and what the model makes. Same failure twice later: split the shot or build it in 3D. More batches rarely fix a structural failure.

2. Direct it in the previz

Timing and camera are decided here, because here they cost nothing. Render 2 or 3 variants of a hard shot if useful, and pick one. Then add the craft.

• A cause for every motion. Each motion gets a chain: cause, anticipation, action, effect on others, settle (Disney via Stanchfield, Blair, Lasseter; animation.md). Key anticipation and overshoot in the previz, because prompts carry them poorly. No held pose under 6 frames (Goldberg).
• Ask less of the camera. Most signature moves of the masters lower AI risk: ration close-ups, hold the first camera move for the reversal, crop in on the same axis instead of generating a new shot, let shots shorten into the peak (cinema.md). Models fail most on zoom, arc and roll, and on camera moves during action.
• To the track. Write cuts and events against beats.json. Vary shot lengths: "three-second clip after three-second clip" is Dave Clark's name for the failure (https://every.to/podcast/transcript-how-a-hollywood-director-uses-ai-to-make-movies, paywalled, not re-checked). For a song, pick a mode per section and declare any off-grid cut (music-video.md).
• Leave room for what comes next. Block the subject off-centre where a title will go, keep a plain wall free, and put graphics in simple or static shots (post-ready.md).

STOP: show the previz with the track.

3. Build the reference clip and group the runs

Model only what must be copied [inference]: position, scale, camera and timing always, limb poses only when contact or silhouette is the point, surface never unless the final look stays CG. Flat unlit solids, grey by default, flat ID colours when subjects of similar value share a frame, and always a written mapping of shape to subject. Export at 1280x720 or higher and at least 24 fps. Finished looks go in as images, one job per reference.

Group shots into runs (drafts-and-takes.md):

| Job | Generate | |---|---| | Harvest: coverage or dialogue you will cut up | 15 to 30 s, 2 to 4 beats. Only the best seconds must work | | Obey: previz-locked or audio-locked timing | 4 to 11 s (varg's working range, no published threshold), about 3 strong beats | | Same place and light, no cut will move | One multi-shot run: light and identity hold. Interior cuts have no handles | | New place or light, many retakes likely, a cut that may move | Its own run | | Prepared oner or in-camera transition in one world | One generation, "No cuts", timed segments, about 10 to 15 s | | Transition between two worlds | Two generations with a designed join on a whip, wipe or foreground pass |

Add a 0.5 to 1 s tail to each run [inference]. Add one clean wide and 1 or 2 safety inserts per location, so they get priced with everything else. A cut between whole seconds stays in @video1, because prompt times are whole seconds. Writes runs.md.

4. Pick a model per run and price it

Seedance 2.5 is the default for a performance on a clay reference. Pick something else in five cases (models.md): a reference it will refuse; no faces and a tight budget (minimax_h3_max_3d_to_video, built for Blender video up to 15 s); finished stills that must not change (kling_v4 keyframes); editing an existing clip or cheap B-roll (wan_3); or code does it better.

Typical credits for 5 s out with 5 s of clay in, our arithmetic from the catalog:

| Route | 480p | 720p or 768p | 1080p | |---|---|---|---| | Seedance 2.5, byteplus:dreamina-seedance-2-5-260628 | 64 | 139 | 342 | | Seedance 2.5, piapi:seedance-2.5 (not labelled video-to-video on the live spec, so test one first) | 124 | 289 | 660 | | MiniMax H3 Max 3D to Video | 90 | 105 | 145 | | Kling 4 reference (no input fee assumed) | n/a | 79 | 118 | | Wan 3 reference (no input fee assumed) | 25 | 50 | 100 |

Plain seedance_2_5 picks a route by itself, so pin the route on clay shots. Listing a route does not prove it runs: the first paid take after the yes proves it. If BytePlus fails, the fallback for clay is fal:bytedance/seedance-2.5/reference-to-video, which has blocked realistic faces, so price it again.

Decide per run how it will finish, because that sets the takes in step 5: keep the approved take and upscale it, or re