Faceless Explainer Video

Plugin installs: Before setup or freshness commands, follow plugin execution rules when this skill is inside a HyperFrames plugin. Standalone installs keep the update instructions below.

First, keep this skill fresh — confirm with the user before running: npx hyperframes skills update faceless-explainer. A fast no-op when everything is current; otherwise it refreshes this skill plus the core domain skills it depends on before you rely on them.

media-use: Before sourcing audio/images/logos, call /media-use to resolve BGM/SFX/images from the HeyGen catalog and brand logos from their official sources. Run --adopt first to register existing assets. See /media-use skill.

Faceless Explainer to HyperFrames

Use this skill to turn a body of text into an explainer video: pick a design system, plan a teaching story, and build it frame by frame in HyperFrames. Faceless means every visual is invented downstream — there is no capture step and no real asset inventory.

The front door is /hyperframes. You are the orchestrator. Run each step, verify its gate, and only then continue. This skill is for explaining a topic from text, with no product and no website to capture. Any other intent, a bare "make a video", or any uncertainty → read /hyperframes first — the intent layer owns every route decision, and a fresh creation arriving here without BRIEF.md goes through it anyway (Setup's opening rule).

You are the orchestrator. Work in videos/<project>/. Run steps in order and pass each gate before continuing. User-gated steps are Step 0, Step 3, and Step 6. Read ../hyperframes/references/brief-contract.md before Step 0 — it defines the gate types and how BRIEF.md's flow/storyboard derive the mode that governs the Step 3/4/6 gates. Do every step yourself except Step 5, where you dispatch one sub-agent per frame. Do not put design or motion rules here; those live in the frame-worker sub-agent, this skill's local ../hyperframes-animation/rules/ + ../hyperframes-animation/blueprints/, and hyperframes-creative.

Workflow: Step 0 setup → hyperframes.json; Step 1 brief → capture/extracted/; Step 2 design system → frame.md; Step 3 storyboard/script → STORYBOARD.md and SCRIPT.md; Step 3.1 audio → audio_meta.json; Step 4 visual design → enriched STORYBOARD.md; Step 5 frames → compositions/frames/NN-*.html and index.html; Step 6 final render → renders/video.mp4.

Step 0: Setup

Goal: Enter with a confirmed brief, create the HyperFrames project, and make the brief durable.

The brief is confirmed by the intent layer, not by questions asked here. Opening rule, in order: (1) BRIEF.md exists → read it and ask nothing — the brief is settled, and its flow/storyboard derive the mode (brief contract § 1). (2) No BRIEF.md but the project exists (hyperframes.json / STORYBOARD.md on disk) → resume from the storyboard's frontmatter and the recorded preferences; never re-interrogate a half-built project. (3) Neither — a fresh creation request that arrived here directly → read /hyperframes and run its intent layer (references/intent-interview.md): it checks recipes and remembered defaults, conducts this route's questions (../hyperframes/references/routes/faceless-explainer.md), and hands back the locked brief. Edit requests skip all of this — go do the edit.

Initialize only if hyperframes.json is missing. Name <project> from the topic in kebab-case, such as compound-interest-explained; never use workspace name or timestamp.

npx hyperframes init "videos/<project>" --non-interactive --example=blank --skill=faceless-explainer — init checks the installed skills against the latest on GitHub and updates the global set if any are out of date.

After init, let <PROJECT_ROOT> be videos/<project> and run every subsequent relative-path command with that directory as its working directory. In the commands below, . means <PROJECT_ROOT>; never write .media, capture, or output files in the caller directory.

Write BRIEF.md immediately after init (never before — init refuses a non-empty directory): the intent layer's locked brief, shape per ../hyperframes/references/brief-format.md. Resolve <MEDIA_DIR> as the installed /media-use skill directory. Then record each preference-backed answer with node <MEDIA_DIR>/scripts/prefs.mjs record --hyperframes . (brief-format.md names the subset). If the intent layer adopted a recipe, run node <MEDIA_DIR>/scripts/recipe.mjs use --hyperframes . --name <name>; it copies its frame.md into the project (Step 2 is then skipped) and returns the skeletons Step 3 drafts from. A recipe fills answers, not approvals; the review gates still run.

Show sign-in status before proceeding past Setup — run npx hyperframes auth status and relay its output verbatim. It reports whether voice/BGM will use HeyGen or local engines and, when signed out, how to sign in. Apply one branch:

• Collaborative: wait for the user to sign in or explicitly choose offline / go.
• Autonomous: state the status and continue through the available local engines.

Do not silently omit a required capability when no offline provider exists; surface the blocker. Do not fold this decision into another question or write keys into a per-repo .env. Auth ownership and offline fallbacks: /media-use references/setup-providers.md § Providers.

Gate: hyperframes.json and BRIEF.md exist; the preference-backed answers were recorded (brief contract § 2); sign-in status was shown (signed in, or continuing offline).

Step 1: Brief (no capture)

Goal: Fold the user's text into the project as the source of information. There is no website capture and no real assets — this is a faceless explainer.

Save the user's full input verbatim, then create the synthetic capture package by hand:

• capture/extracted/visible-text.txt — the full article / notes / topic / brief, verbatim. This is the source of information, not a story template (Step 3 reshapes it).
• capture/extracted/tokens.json — { "title": "", "description": "", "colors": [], "fonts": [] }. Fill title/description from the brief. Leave colors/fonts empty unless the user explicitly gave brand colors or fonts — then add them (the design preset supplies a complete palette regardless).

If the user pasted a script or wants their wording kept, save it verbatim as user_script.txt; VO_MODE (verbatim or restructured) comes from BRIEF.md — the intent layer asks it when a script arrives. Ask once here only if the brief somehow lacks it, and store the answer for Step 3.

Do not run npx hyperframes capture (there is no URL). Do not create asset-descriptions.md or populate capture/assets/ — faceless visuals are invented in Steps 4-5, not captured. The one exception: if the user supplied a real image, place it under public/<basename> and note it for Step 3.

Gate: capture/extracted/visible-text.txt and capture/extracted/tokens.json exist; you can state the explainer's topic and audience in one clear sentence.

Step 2: Design System

Goal: Choose one shipped frame preset; a script turns it into this video's frame.md + caption skin.

When BRIEF.md names a style_preset — the user picked it by eye from the showcases at the intent layer — use it; the judgment call is yours only when the brief is silent. Then you make the one call — which preset: read ../hyperframes-creative/references/design-spec.md and browse ../hyperframes-creative/frame-presets/; pick the preset whose look best fits the topic, tone, and audience. Then run:

node <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/build-frame.mjs --preset <name> --hyperframes .

The script does the rest deterministically: copies the preset's FRAME.md → frame.md and remixes it onto any brand tokens in capture/extracted/tokens.json (brand colors mapped onto the preset's color keys by role; the preset's display + body fonts swapped for the brand's), copies the preset's caption skin to .hyperframes/caption-skin.html, and self-validates (exits 1 on a broken mapping). Proceed as soon as it exits 0 — no hand-editing of the spec.

A faceless explainer usually has no brand colors/fonts (tokens.json colors/fonts empty) → the script keeps the preset's own palette, a complete shippable design. Only when the user named brand colors/fonts add them to tokens.json before running, and only adjust frame.md by hand afterward if a mapping truly needs it.

Gate: build-frame.mjs exited 0 — frame.md exists from a named preset, and (when the preset ships one) .hyperframes/caption-skin.html exists as the caption skin source; the chosen preset was recorded as a preference (--key style_preset --workflow <this workflow>, brief contract § 2).

Step 3: Storyboard and Script

Goal: Turn the text into an approved frame-by-frame teaching plan.

Read ../hyperframes-creative/references/story-spine.md (hook language, value-before-evidence, storyboard-as-proposal, source-traceable visuals), references/story-design.md, ../hyperframes-animation/blueprints-index.md, ../hyperframes/references/storyboard-format.md, and ../hyperframes/references/script-format.md. Use them to write STORYBOARD.md and, when narration is needed, SCRIPT.md. Set the frontmatter duration: from the brief's length — a rough expectation; assembly reports where the cut lands against it.

Use story-design.md for the explainer structure (concept / how-to / listicle / story), hook strategy, clarity techniques, emotional beats, the type-enum mapping, and VO_MODE. The video's sequence comes from narrative design, not the input text's paragraph order — reorder, merge, omit, compress. As a soft guide, consult the role→blueprint menu in ../hyperframes-animation/blueprints-index.md: for each beat, write the voiceover in the shape its candidate blueprint implies and tag that candidate blueprint: id when one fits. Teaching truth still decides which beats exist — never force a beat to fit a blueprint, and never invent a beat just because a proven shape is available. Faceless visuals are invented downstream, so frames do not carry an asset inventory: leave asset_candidates empty unless the user supplied a real public/<basename> image. Use the exact required fields from the storyboard and script references.

After drafting, run the review loop's plan pass — ../hyperframes/references/review-loop.md § 1: present the plan as a proposal, and ask the two questions — approve or change, and sketches first (recommended) or skip. Feedback arrives as a chat reply; loop until approved. This is a checkpoint gate (brief contract § 1): in autonomous mode there is nothing to ask — post the same summary as a heads-up and proceed; sketches collapse into the build, and the final preview with its one question comes at Step 6.

Gate: STORYBOARD.md exists, every frame has the required narrative fields, SCRIPT.md exists when narration is needed, and the user approved the frame-by-frame plan (autonomous: the summary was posted as a heads-up).

Step 3.1: Audio

Goal: Generate narration, word timings, music, and audio metadata from the approved script.

Start audio after Step 3 approval. Run it in the background, then continue to Step 4. (Sign-in status was already shown in Step 0; the engine falls back automatically.)

Choose the narration voice from the user's ask before invoking. If the request named a voice, gender, or tone, pick a matching voice id and pass it with --voice <id>. The pipeline default is otherwise Marcia (female) on HeyGen / am_michael on Kokoro — so a request like "a male voice" is silently ignored unless you pass the flag. Voice ids are provider-specific; resolve against whichever provider Step 0's sign-in status selected: HeyGen (signed in) via node <MEDIA_DIR>/audio/scripts/heygen-tts.mjs --list (or GET /v3/voices?engine=starfish); Kokoro (offline) via the voice table in <MEDIA_DIR>/audio/references/tts.md (prefixes am_/bm_ male, af_/bf_ female). When the user expressed no preference, fall back to the remembered voice (brief contract § 2) before the pipeline default, and say which one you used; omit --voice only when neither names one. When the user explicitly picked a voice this run, record it (prefs.mjs record --key voice).

node <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/audio.mjs --script ./SCRIPT.md --storyboard ./STORYBOARD.md --hyperframes . --out ./audio_meta.json --voice <voice-id> &

The audio script handles narration, word timings, BGM lookup from HeyGen's music library, and timing metadata. BGM mood comes from the storyboard's music: field. This uses the HeyGen Audio API for retrieval, not generation, and the same ~/.heygen credential as TTS. For provider details, read ../media-use/audio/references/tts.md.

If there is no narration and no SCRIPT.md, skip voice generation. BGM may still run if the storyboard has a music mood.

The canonical fully-silent marker (shared across the workflows that reuse this audio model): music: none in the STORYBOARD.md top YAML block and no SCRIPT.md. That combination marks the project silent — no narration, no BGM, no SFX. audio.mjs recognizes it and generates nothing (it removes any stale audio_meta.json; an absent audio_meta.json is what assemble treats as silent), so this step is a clean skip. music: none with narration keeps TTS and turns only BGM off. Use exactly this spelling — don't improvise other markers.

Gate: audio job has started, or the project is marked silent (music: none + no SCRIPT.md).