Yesterday a clever build shipped on r/PromptEngineering. Step 2 is the twist.
What’s new
A builder named u/SykoDak1ng released MotionBrief, an open-source Claude skill for planning motion design and video projects. If you’ve ever asked Claude for a motion graphics concept, you know the problem. You get either vague mood-board poetry or a plan that has nothing to do with how After Effects works. Typical output reads like “dynamic, energetic transitions with a modern feel,” which tells an animator nothing. You can’t build a timeline from that. MotionBrief fixes it by making Claude write the brief the way a creative director would: scene by scene, with numbers attached, and with the vocabulary your team already uses.
The twist
This isn’t a prompt you paste and hope for the best. It’s a skill, so it lives in your local Claude environment and shapes how Claude scopes the project every time you use it. You don’t have to re-explain your standards each session or remember a long prompt template. The unexpected part is what it removes. It keeps Claude focused on pacing, rhythm and visual cues, and cuts the fluff. Your brief comes out in the language animators actually work in:
- Scenes broken down by timestamps, visual actions and transitions, for example “0:00 to 0:03, logo mask-reveals from the left, hard cut on the beat”
- Technical specs like frame rates, aspect ratios and easing types (yes, “ease-in-out” and not just “smooth”)
- Composition notes and effect callouts you can hand straight to whoever opens the timeline, such as layer order, motion blur, camera moves and where text should land
Think about what that changes in practice. A freelancer receiving this kind of brief can start blocking out keyframes immediately instead of sending three rounds of clarifying questions. A client reading it can see exactly where the 15 seconds go and push back on a specific scene instead of saying “it feels off.”
One commenter summed it up: finally, someone who understands that “easy ease” isn’t a typo. If you’ve worked in motion, you’re nodding right now.
Mini-workflow
- 🔗 Grab the repo from github.com/YahyaLendani/motionbrief-claude-skills and follow the setup instructions in it. Skim the skill file itself while you’re there. It’s the quickest way to see what Claude will be told to prioritize.
- 📁 Drop the skill into your local Claude setup. The author says it’s lightweight and works like their earlier Opus Tuner tool.
- 🎬 Describe your project the way you’d tell a client: what it is, how long, where it’s going to run. Add the brand tone, any footage or assets you already have, and a reference piece you like if you’ve got one.
- 📝 Let Claude return the structured storyboard with timestamps, transitions and specs. Read it once top to bottom for flow, then a second time for the numbers.
- ✅ Check the numbers against your real project settings before you open your animation software. Frame rate, resolution and total duration should match your composition exactly.
Pro tips
- Give Claude your target platform up front. Aspect ratio and frame rate follow from that, and it’s the first thing a brief gets wrong when it’s left out. A vertical 9:16 social cut at 30 fps needs different pacing than a 16:9 broadcast spot at 24 fps, and the scene count changes with it.
- Treat the first output as a draft storyboard. Push back on any timing that feels rushed, then ask for a revision. A good follow-up is “give me the same brief with a slower middle section” or “tighten the opening to under two seconds.” Targeted edits beat starting over.
- Tell Claude what software you’re working in. A brief for After Effects, Cavalry or Blender will call out different tools, and naming yours keeps the effect callouts realistic instead of generic.
- Hand the finished brief to a client or teammate as a shared reference, so everyone is reading the same scene list. When feedback comes in, point to a scene number or timestamp instead of arguing about the overall vibe.
- Save briefs that worked. After a few projects you’ll have a small library of your own, and pasting a past brief in as an example helps Claude match your level of detail.
Why it’s worth a look
The repo is free and open source, and the author is actively asking for feedback, pull requests and feature ideas. It was posted to r/motiondesign too, so animators are likely to chime in with real production edge cases, which is exactly what a skill like this needs to get sharper. If you do video editing, animation or creative direction, this is a cheap experiment. Install it, run one real project through it, and see whether your briefs get tighter. The test is simple: count how many clarifying messages you normally send or receive before work starts, then compare. If that number drops, the skill has paid for itself.
Got a motion workflow you’ve already tuned with Claude? Try MotionBrief on your next project, then tell the author what changed. And if it saves you time, drop a star on the repo.
I built MotionBrief: An open-source Claude skill to generate perfect motion design briefs
by u/SykoDak1ng in PromptEngineering