---
name: hyperframes-creative
description: Non-animation creative direction for HyperFrames videos. Use for design spec (frame.md / design.md) handling, palettes, typography, narration, beat planning, audio-reactive visuals, composition patterns, and brand / style decisions. For atomic motion patterns and scene blueprints, use `hyperframes-animation`.
---
**Plugin installs:** Before setup or freshness commands, follow [plugin execution rules](../hyperframes/references/plugin-installation.md) when this skill is inside a HyperFrames plugin. Standalone installs keep the update instructions below.
# HyperFrames Creative
Brand, pacing, style, narration, and composition direction. Use after the technical contract from `hyperframes-core` is in place.
For motion patterns, scene blueprints, transitions, and CSS marker effects, use `hyperframes-animation` — this skill is intentionally non-animation.
> **Read these two FIRST for any non-trivial composition — they override web instincts:**
>
> - `references/house-style.md` — "interpret the prompt, generate real content," the lazy-default list, and the background/foreground layer recipe. This is what turns a literal restyle into a _concept_.
> - `references/video-composition.md` — video-medium scale, depth, and foreground detail. It explains how to avoid empty web-page layouts without imposing a universal element count.
>
> Skipping these is the single biggest cause of generic, web-page-looking output. They are not optional rows in the routing table below — for anything beyond a one-line edit, open both before you choose colors or write HTML.
## Workflow
1. If a project has a design spec, **read it first** and treat its frontmatter tokens as brand truth (colors, fonts, spacing, tone, constraints). Which file to read (precedence `frame.md` → `design.md` → `DESIGN.md`) and how to parse it (frontmatter = normative, prose = context) are defined once in [`references/design-spec.md`](references/design-spec.md) — resolve and load per that doc.
2. If no design spec exists and the user asks for visual direction, choose a route:
- Ready-made frame-preset (optional) → `frame-presets/` (adopt a `FRAME.md` as `frame.md`; see `references/design-spec.md`)
- Named style or mood → `references/visual-styles.md`
- Fast defaults → `references/house-style.md`
- Interactive selection → `references/design-picker.md`
3. For multi-scene work, plan beats and rhythm before writing HTML → `references/beat-direction.md`. For scene transitions, jump to `hyperframes-animation/transitions/`.
4. For motion-heavy work, read `references/motion-principles.md` (high-level guardrails), then go to `hyperframes-animation` for atomic rules.
## Routing
| Topic | Read |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- |
| Adopt a ready-made frame-preset as `frame.md` (optional) | `frame-presets/` · `references/design-spec.md` |
| Default palettes, motion, typography, lazy defaults to question | `references/house-style.md` |
| Named style presets, mood-to-style routing | `references/visual-styles.md` |
| Palette-specific color tokens | `palettes/*.md` |
| Composition patterns — PiP, text-behind-subject, title card, slide show | `references/composition-patterns.md` |
| Stats / infographic presentation | `references/data-in-motion.md` |
| Structured expansion for open-ended prompts | `references/prompt-expansion.md` |
| Video-medium density, scale, color, frame composition | `references/video-composition.md` |
| Per-beat direction, rhythm planning, transition timing | `references/beat-direction.md` |
| Post-authoring spec verification (colors, type, corners, spacing, depth) | `references/design-adherence.md` |
| High-level motion guardrails and GSAP-quality rules | `references/motion-principles.md` |
| Font selection, pairings, rendered-video type guardrails | `references/typography.md` |
| Story doctrine — hook language, value-before-evidence, storyboard-as-proposal, source-traceable visuals | `references/story-spine.md` |
| Script pacing, tone, openings, number pronunciation | `references/narration.md` |
| Precomputed audio bands mapped to motion | `references/audio-reactive.md` |
## Scripts
- `scripts/contrast-report.mjs` — inspect contrast warnings from rendered frames.
- `scripts/extract-audio-data.py` — pre-extract audio bands for audio-reactive compositions.
- `scripts/package-loader.mjs` — support script for bundled creative tooling.
`contrast-report.mjs` resolves helper packages from the current project first, then can bootstrap the bundled HyperFrames package version. Set `HYPERFRAMES_SKILL_PKG_VERSION=<version>` only when running the skill outside the bundled CLI/skill install and you need to pin that bootstrap version explicitly.
Run with explicit paths, for example:
```bash
python <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/extract-audio-data.py <audio-file>
```
Animation analysis (`animation-map.mjs`) lives in `hyperframes-animation/scripts/`.
## Boundaries
- Do not override `hyperframes-core` technical rules.
- Do not require a design system for a minimal technical composition.
- Do not add extra scenes, narration, music, captions, or transitions unless the request calls for them or you first propose the expansion.
- Keep recipe references task-specific; do not read every reference for simple edits.