design-motion
The facts
Its description
Design motion: animate an approved design into a seamless MP4 and GIF loop. (gstack) Triggers: animate this design; make a showcase loop; turn the design into a video
The description the agent reads to decide when to use it. Phrases the author says should start it.
When it starts
Someone who already has a finished design — an approved mockup from /design-shotgun, a finalized HTML page, a URL, or a Figma link — and asks to animate it into a looping MP4/GIF would trigger this skill; the description and triggers are all about animating a design that already exists, not about making one.
Things a person might say (the model's guesses)
- “animate this design”
- “make a showcase loop from the approved mockup”
- “turn the design into a video and a looping gif”
A model's summary of when it is used.
Tools it may use, or may not
allowed-tools: Bash, Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep, AskUserQuestion
Tools it may use while it runs without asking you first.
Runs scripts
bin/gstack-skill-start, scripts/question-registry.ts, bin/gstack-question-preference, bin/gstack-question-log, bin/gstack-skill-end (first 5 of 16 lines)
Scripts the text names. Found by matching words, so treat them as pointers.
Files it mentions
sections/fidelity.md, sections/motion.md, sections/figma.md
Files the text names, such as ones to read or write. Found by matching words, so treat them as pointers.
Stops for a person
4 lines stop to ask a person
Lines that stop and wait for a person before going on. Found by matching words, so treat them as pointers.
What it leads to
- calls design-html when nothing is found or named as the design to animate line 156
- calls design-shotgun when nothing is found or named as the design to animate line 156
Other skills this one hands off to, calls, requires or offers instead, as a model read them.
Names skills outside this collection
- ai-design-skills motion.md, line 122
Skills the text names that are not in this collection, as a model read them.
Licence
MIT, from LICENSE
The terms its author shares it under, which let it be shown here.
Other files in this skill (5) Close
The text
Most marks come from matching words in the file, so treat them as pointers.
<!-- AUTO-GENERATED from SKILL.md.tmpl — do not edit directly --> <!-- Regenerate: bun run gen:skill-docs -->
Raw lines 1 to 21Boilerplate, lines 22 to 78. The same text appears in 45 other files here. Close
Telemetry (run last)
After workflow completion, log telemetry with ONE command. OUTCOME is success/error/abort/unknown; SESSION_ID and TEL_START are the values the preamble's skill-start output echoed. It also drains the artifacts-sync queue (the former skill-end sync step — do not run gstack-brain-sync separately).
PLAN MODE EXCEPTION — ALWAYS RUN: This writes telemetry to $GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/analytics/, matching preamble analytics writes.
~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-skill-end --skill "design-motion" --outcome OUTCOME \
--session-id "SESSION_ID" --tel-start "TEL_START" --used-browse USED_BROWSE \
--error-message "ERROR_MESSAGE" --failed-step "FAILED_STEP" 2>/dev/null || trueReplace OUTCOME and USED_BROWSE (yes/no) before running; substitute SESSION_ID/TEL_START from the skill-start echoes. ERROR_MESSAGE/FAILED_STEP are "" unless outcome is error. If the command is missing (stale install), skip telemetry — it never blocks the workflow.
/design-motion: Showcase Loops from an Approved Design
You turn a finished design into a loop that proves it is alive. The viewer must see the exact design working: the frame loads from empty, each visual acts out what it does, and the loop returns to the design and repeats without a seam.
exact frame → empty state → smooth load → one story per visual → seamless repeat.
Raw lines 79 to 110
Section index — Read each section when its situation applies
This skill is a decision-tree skeleton. The steps below point to on-demand sections. Read a section in full before doing its step; do not work from memory.
| When | Read this section |
|---|---|
| rebuilding the frame in Step 2 — the per-source rebuild, background, layout and the page's capture contract | sections/fidelity.md |
| building the motion in Step 4 — the choreography kinds, one story per visual, the loop cycle, easing and the defaults | sections/motion.md |
| the source is a Figma link and Step 0 printed FIGMA_TOKEN: set — the REST reference render and the layer export table | sections/figma.md |
Raw lines 111 to 123
Motion doctrine (gstack rules that win over the motion values)
- Showcase or website decides the motion budget. A showcase is an artifact: the motion is the content, so every visual gets its story. On a website gstack's rule holds: one authored motion moment per page. Animate the one section whose visual most needs explaining; ask before animating a second.
- Content never hides behind animation timing. On a website the section renders complete with no script, under reduced motion, and before the intro fires. The intro is an enhancement that starts on an IntersectionObserver, never an opacity-0 block waiting for scroll.
- Only what the design has moves. No added loading lines, glows, gradients or gradient text, no new copy (showcase accents excepted). Helpers a story needs (a cursor, a duplicate row) match the design and are absent from the still.
- No bounce. Curves never pass 1 (the catalog's bounce-easing tell). Never
scale(0)an object; only lines and bars grow from zero. - Pulses, marquees and blinking carets are showcase-only accents on elements that are live indicators, inputs or logo rows in the design. A shipped website keeps none of them running (catalog: pulsing-dot, marquee, blinking-cursor).
- **Animate
transform,opacity,filterandclip-pathonly** (plus a mask angle orstroke-dashoffsetfor sweeps). Blur stays at 14 px or less. Website transitions stay in gstack's 50 to 700 ms range; showcase timing is slower on purpose.
Step 0: Setup and source detection
SLUG=$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-slug --get SLUG 2>/dev/null)
GSTACK_STATE_ROOT=$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-paths --get GSTACK_STATE_ROOT); : "${GSTACK_STATE_ROOT:?gstack-paths failed; reinstall with ./setup or /gstack-upgrade}"
setopt +o nomatch 2>/dev/null || true
_APPROVED=$(ls -t "$GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/projects/$SLUG/designs/"*/approved.json 2>/dev/null | head -1)
[ -n "$_APPROVED" ] && echo "APPROVED: $_APPROVED" || echo "NO_APPROVED"
_FINALIZED=$(ls -t "$GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/projects/$SLUG/designs/"*/finalized.html 2>/dev/null | head -1)
[ -n "$_FINALIZED" ] && echo "FINALIZED: $_FINALIZED" || echo "NO_FINALIZED"
[ -f DESIGN.md ] && echo "DESIGN_MD: exists" || echo "NO_DESIGN_MD"
[ -n "${FIGMA_TOKEN:-}${FIGMA_ACCESS_TOKEN:-}" ] && echo "FIGMA_TOKEN: set" || echo "NO_FIGMA_TOKEN"
[ -e "${GSTACK_FFMPEG:-$(command -v ffmpeg)}" ] && echo "FFMPEG: ready" || echo "NO_FFMPEG"
~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-browser-ensure --quietPick the source (the user's explicit choice wins):
- An approved /design-shotgun PNG. Resolve it with
~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-design-approved "<APPROVED path>"; on "approved image ... is missing", say so and offer /design-shotgun. Never substitute another image. - **A /design-html
finalized.html.** The design already exists as live HTML. - A URL the user names. A page behind a login: ask for a screenshot and treat it as a PNG.
- A Figma link, only when
FIGMA_TOKEN: set. Without the token, ask for an export PNG instead.
Nothing found and nothing named: ask once which design to animate, offering /design-shotgun or /design-html to make one.
BROWSER_UNAVAILABLE or native Windows (capture needs WSL, macOS, Linux): nothing renders; give the fix, build page.html and stop before the first capture call. NO_FFMPEG: say ffmpeg is needed for the checks and exports (macOS brew install ffmpeg, Debian/Ubuntu sudo apt-get install -y ffmpeg), build the page, render its Step 3 still for a visual check, and stop.
Set up the run directory:
SLUG=$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-slug --get SLUG 2>/dev/null)
GSTACK_STATE_ROOT=$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-paths --get GSTACK_STATE_ROOT); : "${GSTACK_STATE_ROOT:?gstack-paths failed; reinstall with ./setup or /gstack-upgrade}"
_MOTION_DIR="$GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/projects/$SLUG/designs/<name>-motion-$(date +%Y%m%d)"
mkdir -p "$_MOTION_DIR"
echo "MOTION_DIR: $_MOTION_DIR"Replace <name> with a kebab-case name for the design. Later blocks write that printed path for <motion-dir>. Everything this run writes goes there: page.html, reference.png, the capture in cap/, and the exports.
Step 1: Intake and the motion plan
Decide the context first: inside a site's codebase, or when the request names a page, it is a website; a design with no site is a showcase. Unclear: ask once.
Gather in one AskUserQuestion, only what the source does not settle: the context, which visuals should act out a story, the deliverables (showcase default: all three exports; website: the animated section in the site's code, exports only when asked), and whether a camera move is wanted (default none). Anything left: assume it and say so in one line.
Then state the plan before building:
- Context: showcase, or website with each section and what it gets (intro and story, intro only, nothing). Text-only sections get nothing.
- Layout: app frame (which joined surfaces stay static) or separate cards (which cards rise in), and each clip shape.
- Background: kept exactly, or what cannot be reproduced.
- Choreography: load order and the entrance kind per element group.
- Stories: one sentence per visual saying what it acts out.
- Cycle: length and phases (default 12 s: build 0-2.4, stories 2.4-11.0, dissolve 11.0-11.6, empty 11.6-12.0).
Step 2: Rebuild the exact frame
STOP. Before rebuilding the frame in Step 2 — the per-source rebuild, background, layout and the page's capture contract, Read ~/.claude/skills/gstack/design-motion/sections/fidelity.md and execute it in full. Do not work from memory — that section is the source of truth for this step.With FIGMA_TOKEN: set and a Figma source:
STOP. Before the source is a Figma link and Step 0 printed FIGMA_TOKEN: set — the REST reference render and the layer export table, Read ~/.claude/skills/gstack/design-motion/sections/figma.md and execute it in full. Do not work from memory — that section is the source of truth for this step.Raw lines 187 to 196Step 3: Verify the still
Render the rebuilt page's still and the reference at 2x, then compare:
~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-motion-capture.ts "<motion-dir>/page.html" --size <frame-size> --still "<motion-dir>/still-2x.png" --scale 2
~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-motion-encode compare "<motion-dir>/reference.png" "<motion-dir>/still-2x.png" --blur 1.2Aim above 35 dB for the frame (--crop w:h:x:y per container: above 30 dB; text-heavy containers retest at --blur 2.5). Read both images for structure: a glow too high, wrong stacking, a missing stroke. Fix structure, never sub-pixel offsets. A flat PNG source gets a visual comparison and a plainly stated limit instead of a dB target.
Step 4: Motion
STOP. Before building the motion in Step 4 — the choreography kinds, one story per visual, the loop cycle, easing and the defaults, Read ~/.claude/skills/gstack/design-motion/sections/motion.md and execute it in full. Do not work from memory — that section is the source of truth for this step.Raw lines 208 to 212Step 5: Capture
The page must expose the capture contract (fidelity section): ?capture stops requestAnimationFrame, exposes window.__start(), window.__tick(dt) and window.__lt, and sets window.__mark on state changes.
~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-motion-capture.ts "<motion-dir>/page.html" --size <frame-size> --cycle <cycle-seconds> --out "<motion-dir>/cap" --mask '[data-motion-clip]'It steps a fake clock in whole milliseconds averaging 1000/60, records 15 PRE frames before __start, one full cycle from frame PRE − 1 (the empty state), and 10 frames past it. It writes cap/frames/, cap/still.png, cap/mask.png and cap/capture.json, and prints CAPTURE_OK. The mask paints every element marked data-motion-clip (each clip container, per the fidelity section). MOTION_CONTRACT_MISSING: add the capture mode and rerun.
Step 6: Motion checks (before any export)
~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-motion-encode check "<motion-dir>/cap" --layout <app|cards>The phase defaults follow the cycle: dissolve at cycle − 1.0 s, empty beat from cycle − 0.4 s, intro landed at 2.4 s. When your plan's phases differ, add --dissolve-at, --empty-from and --intro-end in seconds. One MOTION_CHECK: line each, then MOTION_RESULT: clean or <n> failed:
- seam: the window's first frame equals the frame one cycle later.
- empty-beat: every empty-beat frame equals the frame before
__start; catches JS state the reset missed, which the seam cannot see. - rest: the last frame before the dissolve equals
still.png: every story came back to the design. A story that leaves an inlinetranslate(0)on an element fails this; clear the inline style at rest. - overflow: outside the mask, nothing moves. App frame: every frame equals the empty first frame. Cards: every story frame equals the still.
--mask-grow <px>covers shadows.
Read cap/contact-sheet.png for ghosting, pops, content moving ahead of its card, and stories too timid to see. Fix, recapture and recheck, at most three rounds; then report what still fails, unexported. FFMPEG_MISSING: relay its install line and stop.
Step 7: Export and report
On a session's first design, show the contact sheet before exporting so the direction is cheap to correct.
~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-motion-encode export "<motion-dir>/cap" --name <name> --pad '<hex-color>'It writes <name>-x.mp4 (H.264, 60 fps, CRF 15, long side up to 1920), <name>-loop.gif (960 px wide, 20 fps) and <name>-800x500.gif. For the 800×500, frames with wide empty borders (most card and bento frames) crop to the content with about 40 px of margin at exactly 1.6:1 (add --crop w:h:x:y in capture pixels); a frame its content fills is fitted and padded with --pad; a photo background always crops. A heavy GIF lowers --gif-fps or --small-fps (12) before its size.
Report: still fidelity (frame and worst container PSNR), each check's result, the three files with size, dimensions, frame rate and duration, and anything not reproduced exactly, named plainly. Offer to copy the exports into the project.
Raw lines 238 to 249Important Rules
- The design is the brief. Stories start and end on the exact design; the still equals the reference.
- Never encode before Steps 3 and 6 pass, or before the user accepted a named exception.
- Use the configured state root. All motion artifacts go to
$GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/projects/$SLUG/designs/. - Never record in real time. Only the capture contract and the fake clock produce frames.
- The background never moves, blurs, fades or recolours.
- Never print, echo or commit a Figma token.
From garrytan/gstack at 3f79d81, 2026-11-01. Skills read by DeepSeek V4.1 Flash on 2026-11-04. Summary and techniques by Claude Opus 5.5 on 2026-11-06.