Graphic Gif

graphic-gif

Generates an animated looping GIF from CSS animations or an AI image-to-video API. Output: animation.gif.

Unlike every other graphic- skill that outputs a static PNG or PDF, this skill outputs an animated .gif. Uses CSS @keyframes animations captured frame-by-frame via Playwright and the Web Animations API (Option A, default), or an AI image-to-video pipeline via Kling (Option B).

Critical Rules (read before every generation)

1. Default is css-animated. Never use ai-generated unless explicitly requested.
2. Canvas is 800×800px square. All clamp() values computed at 800px (1vw = 8px).
3. Single self-contained HTML. All CSS inline in <style>. Font CDN <link> only external dependency.
4. Never dump HTML in chat. Save to file, show summary only.
5. Frame capture uses Web Animations API seeking. NOT setTimeout loops, NOT animation-delay tricks.
6. Exact frame count: Math.floor(duration_seconds * fps) frames. The frame at t=duration_ms MUST NOT be captured — it duplicates t=0 and causes a visible stutter at the loop point.
7. No placeholder boxes. CSS-generated visuals only. No "image goes here" elements.
8. Simpler palettes = smaller files. Use: clean-slate, terminal, electric-burst, brutalist.
9. No animation-delay for stagger. Bake stagger into @keyframes percentages — frame seeking handles timing.
10. Commit to design direction before writing CSS. Tone, signature element, motion style, unforgettable detail — all decided before first line of code.

Step 1: Intake

Required: prompt (content description AND motion brief)

Optional with defaults:

If prompt is missing or lacks motion description, ask exactly:

"What should the GIF show? Describe the content AND the motion (e.g., 'Stats count up: 73% of buyers read 3+ pieces of content before purchase. Typewriter effect, one character at a time. Style: terminal. 3 seconds, 12fps.')

Key settings (all optional, defaults shown):

• animation_type: css-animated (default) or ai-generated
• duration: 3.0 seconds
• fps: 12
• loop: true
• style: clean-slate (options: clean-slate / terminal / electric-burst / brutalist)
• dimensions: 800x800
• optimization: balanced (options: quality / balanced / filesize)"

If all required info is present → skip directly to Step 2.

Step 2: Internal Architecture (never shown to user)

For css-animated:

1. Choose animation type from: fade-in, slide-in, typewriter, counter, pulse, loop-scroll
2. Read references/animation-library.md — find the chosen type's full HTML/CSS spec
3. Read references/style-presets.md — load the chosen style's CSS token block
4. Calculate frame count: Math.floor(duration_seconds * fps) — write this number down
5. Commit to design direction:

For ai-generated:

1. Generate base still frame HTML (poster-style layout for the canvas)
2. Export as PNG using screenshot
3. Call Kling API: POST https://api.klingai.com/v1/videos/image2video with image_url and prompt describing the motion
4. Poll for job completion
5. Download video → convert to GIF with ffmpeg:

   # Two-pass palette for best color quality
   ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "fps=12,scale=800:800:flags=lanczos,palettegen=stats_mode=diff" palette.png
   ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i palette.png -vf "fps=12,scale=800:800:flags=lanczos,paletteuse=dither=bayer:bayer_scale=5" output.gif

Step 3: HTML Generation (css-animated path)

Read references/animation-library.md and references/style-presets.md before generating.

Canvas base — required on every GIF:

*, *::before, *::after { margin: 0; padding: 0; box-sizing: border-box; }

body {
  width: 800px;
  height: 800px;
  overflow: hidden;
  background: var(--bg);
  font-family: var(--font-body);
}

.canvas {
  width: 800px;
  height: 800px;
  position: relative;
  overflow: hidden;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
}

Animation rules:

• animation-fill-mode: forwards (or both) on ALL animated elements
• Timing functions per type:
  • typewriter → steps(N, end) where N = exact character count
  • counter → linear
  • fade-in → cubic-bezier(0.22, 1, 0.36, 1) (ease-out)
  • slide-in → cubic-bezier(0.34, 1.56, 0.64, 1) (spring overshoot)
  • pulse → ease-in-out with animation-iteration-count: infinite
  • loop-scroll → linear with animation-iteration-count: infinite
• For one-shot animations (fade-in, slide-in, typewriter, counter): animation-iteration-count: 1 — looping happens at GIF level
• No animation-delay — stagger is baked into @keyframes percentages

Typewriter N calculation: Count every character including spaces, punctuation, numbers:

• "73% of buyers" = 14 characters → steps(14, end)
• "Hello, World!" = 13 characters → steps(13, end)

Counter CSS @property (required for counter type):

@property --num {
  syntax: '<integer>';
  inherits: false;
  initial-value: 0;
}
.counter {
  animation: countUp var(--duration) linear forwards;
  counter-reset: num var(--num);
}
.counter::after { content: counter(num); }
@keyframes countUp {
  from { --num: 0; }
  to   { --num: var(--target); }
}

Loop-scroll: content MUST be duplicated:

<!-- 4 original items + 4 duplicate items -->
<div class="ticker-track" style="--item-count: 4;">
  [item1][item2][item3][item4][item1][item2][item3][item4]
</div>

translateX(0 → -50%) with linear infinite.

Design quality rules (from commit in Step 2):

• Named signature element MUST be present in CSS/HTML (not just described)
• Typography: weight contrast minimum 2:1 (e.g., 700 vs 400) between display and supporting text
• Background: no pure white #fff for dark styles — use the preset's exact --bg value
• For terminal style: add scan-line overlay ::after with repeating-linear-gradient at opacity: 0.03
• For brutalist: thick border 4px solid #000 or 4px solid var(--accent) on key element
• Unforgettable detail: if it requires an extra element — add it now