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papercut-build
Build and render a papercut episode from a storyboard with the library. Scaffolds the project, builds scenes with parallel agents, assets and audio, renders the mp4, then harvests reusables. Use for "build the reel", "scaffold an episode", "rebuild scene 4", "render it".
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1. Native installer
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Do not guess an installer command or replace an existing version without reviewing the diff.
2. Complete package recommended
Download the ZIP when available. It includes SKILL.md plus the references, security notes and version metadata.
No complete ProSkills package is published for this listing yet.3. Prompt-only
Copy the prompt above when the agent can read the stable page or when you want to adopt the workflow without installing a skill.
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Download SKILL.md only if your client requires a single file. The complete ZIP is safer for a full installation because it preserves the references and release context.
No path installs or executes anything by itself. Your agent still needs access to the project files. Before updating, compare the installed version and review the diff.
// RATINGS
// README
papercut-explainer
Make short vertical explainer reels that look like layered construction paper, with the coding agent you already use doing the work: Claude Code, OpenCode, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, Copilot and any other tool that reads Agent Skills.
The bundled example reel (examples/hello-reel), rendered from this repo. Silent placeholder voice, real captions, camera and cuts.
This repo is two things that work together:
- Nine agent skills (the open
SKILL.mdformat, so they load in most coding agents; see Works with) that run the whole pipeline: strategy, hook, script, storyboard, voice, build, QA, and an installer. Ask for a reel, or run one stage on its own. - A Remotion library the skills build on: a paper-cut component kit, 24 backdrops, 17 camera moves, 10 scene transitions, film-look layers, 79 sound effects and 8 music beds, plus the scripts that tie them into an episode.
You describe the video ("explain this repo in 25 seconds"). The skills research it, write a script on a fixed spoken spine, plan every camera move and cut, make or fake the voiceover, and build the scenes in Remotion. You review stills and the final cut.
Contents
What is in the box · Install · Use it · Examples · How the workflow runs · Voice · Customising · Requirements · Cost · Troubleshooting · Limits · Licence
What is in the box
| Skills | papercut-explainer (router), papercut-setup, papercut-strategy, papercut-hook, papercut-script, papercut-storyboard, papercut-voice, papercut-build, papercut-qa |
| Subagent | papercut-scene, a scene builder with only file and shell tools, so parallel scene agents start small |
| Backdrops | 24 paper-diorama sets at 1080×1920 with measured floor lines (sheet) |
| Camera | OrbitCamera + Depth, SnapZoom, Crane, CrabTrack, DollyZoom, RackFocus, ForegroundPass, PullBack, FreezeFrame, PovMask, TimeRamp, DutchTilt, TiltShift, FocusPulse, FocusHunt, Handheld, CameraPush |
| Cuts | whip, zoomThrough, pageTurn, tearAway, tapePull, stampCut, infiniteZoom, popUpBook, keyhole, burnAway, chained with CutSeries |
| Film look | gate weave and flicker, moving felt fibre, lens dirt, lamp flicker, halftone, graph paper |
| Overlays | taped headline banner, word-by-word torn caption tags, hook title, real-screenshot proof card with marker circles |
| Kit | 188 exports in library/papercut/kit: paper primitives (Paper, Slab, Disc, Pill, Card), a base critter with accessories, prop sets, rough UI rebuilds, a comment-keyword CTA scene |
| Sound | 79 synthesised SFX and 8 music beds, picked by name, rendered with Web Audio (no audio files to license) |
| Tools | scaffold, cue sheets, cached renders, QA contact sheets, catalog generator, placeholder narration, optional local TTS setup |
Each camera move and cut, with its props and when to use it, is in library/papercut/CATALOG.md (sections paper/camera.tsx and paper/transitions.tsx).
Install
You need Node 20+, npm, ffmpeg, rsync and Python 3. Any coding agent in Works with is the front end.
With npx skills (skills only, fastest):
npx skills add 0xS4N4TG/papercut-explainer
This installs the nine skills into your agents' skill folders (the CLI supports about 80 agents). It does not fetch the Remotion library or the scripts. Open your agent and say "set up papercut-explainer": papercut-setup clones the repo, asks how much you want (Minimal, Standard, Full) and installs it. Add -g for a user-wide install, --skill papercut-hook to take one skill.
With git (everything, including the library):
git clone https://github.com/0xS4N4TG/papercut-explainer
cd papercut-explainer
./install.sh
The installer asks how much you want to set up and does only that.
| Mode | What you get | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Minimal | The skills, the scene-builder subagent and the config file. Strategy, hook, script, storyboard and style prompts work. Nothing renders. | seconds |
| 2. Standard | Minimal, plus: a dependency check, the Remotion agent skills, a Python venv for QA sheets, and a self-test that scaffolds a project, typechecks it and renders a still. You can build and render full reels with a placeholder voice (silent, or macOS say). | about 0.7 GB (the first project's node_modules) and a few minutes |
| 3. Full | Standard, plus local voiceover: a Qwen3-TTS venv, the model download, an ASR backend for word timings, and a smoke test that generates a line and checks the audio. | 4–6 GB more (1.5 GB venv plus a 2.3 or 4.2 GB model) |
| 4. Custom | Pick any of: skills, deps, remotion-skills, pytools, tts, verify. | varies |
You can move up later: ./install.sh --mode custom --components deps,remotion-skills,pytools,verify.
Non-interactive and scoped installs:
./install.sh --mode standard --yes # no questions
./install.sh --mode full --tts-model 0.6B --yes # lighter voice model (2.3 GB)
./install.sh --mode minimal --project ~/code/my-videos # skills for one project only
./install.sh --mode minimal --copy # copy skills instead of symlinking
./install.sh --dry-run --mode full # print what would happen
./install.sh --doctor # check what is installed
./install.sh --uninstall # remove the links it made
By default the installer looks for coding agents on your machine (--target auto; Claude Code if it finds none) and symlinks the skills into each one's skills folder, so a git pull updates them. Pick harnesses yourself with --target claude,codex,gemini (names in Works with), or --target all. The installer writes ~/.config/papercut-explainer/config.env with PAPERCUT_LIB and the Python paths it created; the library scripts and the skills read it. It never installs system packages (it prints the brew or apt line instead), replaces an identical existing skill folder (such as one from npx skills add) and moves a different one to ~/.config/papercut-explainer/backups/ instead of the skills folder, and does not touch your shell profile.
The scene-builder subagent (papercut-scene, which builds the scenes in parallel) is written as a copy per harness, in that harness's own format, with the model you choose. Rerun the installer to change it; papercut-setup asks.
./install.sh --mode minimal --target claude,opencode,codex --yes # defaults: Claude sonnet, others inherit the session model
./install.sh --mode minimal --target claude --claude-model opus --yes # opus | sonnet | haiku | inherit | a model id
./install.sh --mode minimal --target opencode --opencode-model anthropic/claude-sonnet-5-5 --yes
./install.sh --mode minimal --target codex --agent-model codex=<model-id> --yes # any harness with file subagents
Prefer to let the agent do it? Open your agent in this folder and say "set up papercut-explainer". The papercut-setup skill detects your agents, asks which mode and which scene-agent model you want, confirms any large download, runs the installer with the right flags and checks the result.
Install by hand: symlink or copy each folder in skills/ into your agent's skills folder, then export PAPERCUT_LIB="$PWD/library". For a subagent file, copy `agents/papercut-scene.
// HOW IT'S BUILT
KEY FILES