Manim Explainer Videos

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Making an animated explanation of a math or computer science concept
• Visualizing how an algorithm runs step by step
• Animating an equation derivation with geometric intuition
• Turning a research paper's main idea into a short explainer video

Example prompts

• “Make a Manim video explaining why the derivative of sine is cosine.”
• “Animate binary search on a sorted array with clear pauses between steps.”
• “Plan the scenes for a three-minute explainer on how gradient descent finds a minimum.”
• “Render a Manim animation of our system architecture, one component at a time.”

Requirements

• Python 3.10 or newer
• Manim Community Edition (`pip install manim`)
• A LaTeX installation
• ffmpeg

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

1. 1Plan (plan.md)
2. 2Code (script.py)
3. 3Render
4. 4Stitch
5. 5Review

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 0d240dd. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Ships 1 file in scripts/, which the agent can run.

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • ffmpeg
  • pip

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use pip, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Manim Explainer Videos loads about 3.1k tokens when it runs, and up to ~25k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 18 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,086 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~18

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~3.1k

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~25k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); the scripts in this folder are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from Prismer-AI/PrismerCloud at commit 0d240dd, republished under its MIT licence (© Prismer-AI). 1,086 words, ~3,056 tokens.

name

prismer-manim-video

description

Manim CE animations: 3Blue1Brown math/algo videos.

scope

common

category

creative

version

1.0.0

author

SHL0MS, Hermes Agent

license

MIT

platforms

linux, macos, windows

metadata.nativeReplaces

manim-video

metadata.requiresExplicitGrant

true

PLAN --> CODE --> RENDER --> STITCH --> AUDIO (optional) --> REVIEW

project-name/
  plan.md                # Narrative arc, scene breakdown
  script.py              # All scenes in one file
  concat.txt             # ffmpeg scene list
  final.mp4              # Stitched output
  media/                 # Auto-generated by Manim
    videos/script/480p15/

MONO = "Menlo"  # define once at top of file

Text("Fourier Series", font_size=48, font=MONO, weight=BOLD)  # titles
Text("n=1: sin(x)", font_size=20, font=MONO)                  # labels
MathTex(r"\nabla L")                                            # math (uses LaTeX)

from manim import *

BG = "#1C1C1C"
PRIMARY = "#58C4DD"
SECONDARY = "#83C167"
ACCENT = "#FFFF00"
MONO = "Menlo"

class Scene1_Introduction(Scene):
    def construct(self):
        self.camera.background_color = BG
        title = Text("Why Does This Work?", font_size=48, color=PRIMARY, weight=BOLD, font=MONO)
        self.add_subcaption("Why does this work?", duration=2)
        self.play(Write(title), run_time=1.5)
        self.wait(1.0)
        self.play(FadeOut(title), run_time=0.5)

manim -ql script.py Scene1_Introduction Scene2_CoreConcept  # draft
manim -qh script.py Scene1_Introduction Scene2_CoreConcept  # production

cat > concat.txt << 'EOF'
file 'media/videos/script/480p15/Scene1_Introduction.mp4'
file 'media/videos/script/480p15/Scene2_CoreConcept.mp4'
EOF
ffmpeg -y -f concat -safe 0 -i concat.txt -c copy final.mp4

manim -ql --format=png -s script.py Scene2_CoreConcept  # preview still

# WRONG: MathTex("\frac{1}{2}")
# RIGHT:
MathTex(r"\frac{1}{2}")

label.to_edge(DOWN, buff=0.5)  # never < 0.5

self.play(ReplacementTransform(note1, note2))  # not Write(note2) on top

self.play(Create(circle))  # must add first
self.play(circle.animate.set_color(RED))  # then animate

© Prismer-AI, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 20 other files (scripts, references) in sdk/cloud/catalog/skills/prismer-manim-video of Prismer-AI/PrismerCloud.

• SKILL.md
• LICENSE
• LICENSE.hermes
• PROVENANCE.md
• README.md
• references/animation-design-thinking.md
• references/animations.md
• references/camera-and-3d.md
• references/decorations.md
• references/equations.md
• references/graphs-and-data.md
• references/mobjects.md
• references/paper-explainer.md
• references/production-quality.md
• references/rendering.md
• references/scene-planning.md
• references/troubleshooting.md
• references/updaters-and-trackers.md
• references/visual-design.md
• scripts
• … and 1 more

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 0d240dd

Used in 2 other repositories

We found 2 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 2 other GitHub owners. This page covers the copy in Prismer-AI/PrismerCloud, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

• NousResearch/hermes-agentskills/creative/manim-video
• johnson7788/MultiUserClawhermes-agent/skills/creative/manim-video