Product Video
Turn a product and a goal into a complete Product Video Production Spec — one chosen video concept, a beat-by-beat shot list with timings, an animation and pacing plan, and generation-ready keyframe prompts. The governing principle: one video communicates one thing. Every beat either builds toward the single message (the reveal, the benefit, the transformation) or it gets cut. You produce the plan and the keyframes; rendering the motion happens downstream.
When to use / when not to
- Use for product-centric motion content: reveals, feature showcases, product-in-action, transformations, 360 spins.
- If the video is fronted by a person (presenter, testimonial, UGC) → use
skills/creative/talking-head. - If the video will be rendered programmatically in Remotion (UI demos, code tutorials, data viz) → use
skills/creative/remotion-script-writer; you can still run this skill first to define concept and beats, then hand the beat sheet over. - If the user needs static assets (posts, banners) →
skills/creative/social-graphics. - If there is no brand style guide yet and the user cares about brand consistency → run
skills/creative/creative-strategistfirst; its style guide feeds this skill.
Intake
Ask in one tight batch, only what's missing:
- Product — what is it and what's the one thing the video must communicate (new launch? a feature? a benefit? a before/after)?
- Where it runs — TikTok/Reels/Shorts, product page, YouTube pre-roll, trade show loop? (This decides aspect ratio, duration, pacing.)
- What the viewer should do after — the CTA.
- Brand style — is there a
skills/creative/creative-strategiststyle guide or existing brand assets to match?
Infer from context instead of asking: aspect ratio from platform, mood from product category, style from any existing brand materials in the project. Don't stall: if the product and goal are clear, state your assumptions for the rest ("Assuming Reels, 12s, vertical, energetic — say otherwise") and proceed.
Workflow
1. Choose the video type (decision rule, not a menu)
| If the message is… | Type | Duration | Beat structure |
|---|---|---|---|
| "This exists / it's new" | Reveal | 5–15s | hidden/obscured → reveal animation (fade, slide, rotate) → hero shot |
| "It does these 2–4 things" | Feature Showcase | 15–30s | feature 1 highlight → feature 2 → feature 3 → full product |
| "Here's the benefit in use" | In Action | 10–20s | product in environment → product being used → outcome shown |
| "Look at the change" | Transformation | 10–15s | before state → morph → after state |
| "Just show the object" (e-commerce, listings) | 360 Spin | 5–10s | continuous smooth rotation, clean background |
Commit to one type with a one-line reason. Offer a single backup only if two genuinely fit. Never showcase more than 4 features — cut to the strongest.
2. Set pacing from platform
- Fast (5–10s, quick snappy cuts): social feeds, ads, anything skippable. Hook in the first 2 seconds.
- Medium (10–20s, smooth transitions): product pages, marketing site, email embeds.
- Slow (20–30s, deliberate luxurious moves): premium/luxury products, storytelling. Only choose slow if the product's price point earns the patience.
Aspect ratio by placement: 9:16 vertical (TikTok/Reels/Shorts/Stories), 16:9 (YouTube, web hero), 1:1 or 4:5 (feed posts). These map directly to --aspect-ratio values in the CLI.
3. Pick one animation style
Match to brand personality — pick exactly one and use its phrase verbatim in every keyframe prompt so frames stay consistent:
| Brand feel | Style | Prompt phrase |
|---|---|---|
| Elegant, calm | Smooth Fade | "smooth fade transitions, gentle pacing, elegant" |
| Modern, energetic | Dynamic Slide | "dynamic slide transitions, elements slide in, energetic pacing" |
| Cinematic, bold | Zoom & Rotate | "zoom and rotate moves, dynamic pacing, cinematic" |
| Sophisticated, fluid | Morphing | "smooth morphing transitions, fluid animation, sophisticated" |
| High-tech | Particle Effects | "particle effects, product materializes/dissolves, high-tech" |
4. Write the beat sheet
Break the duration into 3–6 beats. For each beat: time range, what's on screen, camera/motion, and the transition out. Every beat must advance the single message; the last beat always holds the product + CTA for ≥2 seconds.
5. Write keyframe prompts
One keyframe per beat (two for a transformation's before/after). Each prompt = subject + state at that beat + the animation-style phrase + lighting + the same style/lighting descriptors across all frames (consistency is what makes frames read as one video). All keyframes use identical background and lighting descriptions unless the beat explicitly changes location.
If FAL_API_KEY (or FAL_KEY) is set, generate the keyframes now with the repo CLI — model fal-ai/nano-banana-pro via docs/fal_api.py:
bashpython docs/creative_cli.py custom \ --category "video-keyframes" --name "beat-1-hero" \ --prompt "<keyframe prompt>" --aspect-ratio 9:16 --resolution 2K
If no key is set, deliver the prompts as ready-to-run commands. Note: nano-banana-pro generates still keyframes only — the motion between them is produced downstream (Remotion, a video generation tool, or an editor).
6. Self-check against the quality bar, then deliver the spec.
Required output format
Always deliver this structure:
markdown# Product Video Production Spec — [Product] ## Overview - **Message (one sentence):** ... - **Type:** Reveal | Feature Showcase | In Action | Transformation | 360 Spin — [one-line reason] - **Platform / placement:** ... · **Aspect ratio:** ... · **Duration:** ...s · **Pacing:** Fast/Medium/Slow - **Animation style:** [style + verbatim prompt phrase] - **CTA:** ... ## Beat sheet | # | Time | On screen | Camera / motion | Transition out | |---|------|-----------|-----------------|----------------| | 1 | 0–3s | ... | ... | ... | | 2 | 3–7s | ... | ... | ... | (final beat: product + CTA, held ≥2s) ## Keyframes ### KF-1 (beat 1) — [label] > [full nano-banana-pro prompt] `python docs/creative_cli.py custom --category "video-keyframes" --name "kf-1" --prompt "..." --aspect-ratio [ratio] --resolution 2K` (repeat per beat; identical style/lighting descriptors across all) ## Audio direction - Music: [genre/energy matched to pacing] · Sound design: [key moments] · VO: [none, or one line per beat] ## Production notes - [render path: Remotion via skills/creative/remotion-script-writer / video gen tool / editor] - [anything beat-specific: logo timing, text overlays, loop point for trade-show/spin videos]
Quality bar (check before delivering)
- One message; if you can't state it in one sentence, restart at step 1.
- Hook lands within the first 2 seconds for Fast pacing, 4 for Medium.
- Beat count 3–6; no beat shorter than 1.5s; timings sum exactly to the stated duration.
- Every keyframe prompt contains the same animation-style phrase and the same lighting/background descriptors (unless the beat changes location) — inconsistent frames are the #1 failure mode.
- Prompts specify "smooth", "fluid" motion language — never leave motion quality implicit.
- CTA present in the final beat, held ≥2 seconds.
- No invented performance claims ("this format gets 3x engagement") — pacing/duration guidance above is heuristic, label it as such if asked.
Integration
skills/creative/creative-strategist→ feeds in: the style guide (colors, mood, lighting language) that all keyframe prompts must obey.skills/creative/product-photography→ feeds in: existing hero-shot prompts/lighting setups reused as the video's hero frame for consistency.skills/creative/image-generation→ consumes: keyframe prompts, if the user wants deeper control over generation than the CLI one-liners.skills/creative/remotion-script-writer→ consumes: the beat sheet + keyframes, when the video will be rendered as a Remotion composition.skills/creative/social-graphics→ consumes: hero keyframes as source imagery for supporting static posts.
