--- name: create-creator-takes-h3 description: Generate an AI creator talking to camera, saying an approved script, as one continuous track — H3 Max reference-to-video through the GooseWorks fal-proxy (bills the Ads agent). Plans takes on line boundaries under H3's 15s cap, dry-runs a cost estimate, generates the first take alone so its voice can be locked and passed to every later take, joins takes with measured 0.10s dissolves, and moves each line's timing onto the words actually spoken. Use for any format with a generated creator speaking a script (split-screen, screen inserts, talking-head ads). status: active --- # create-creator-takes-h3 A generated creator who says an exact script, with one consistent face, room and voice across several takes. | Script | What | Cost | |---|---|---| | `make_character.py` | build the creator still from the user's choices, one shot | **paid** (one still, cents) | | `plan_takes.py` | split lines into takes (under 15s each) and write the prompts | free | | `run_takes.py` | generate the takes, dry run unless `--go` | **paid** (H3 Max, ~$0.16/s at 1080P) | | `join_takes.py` | join into one creator track | free | | `align_beats.py` | move line timings onto the spoken words | free | `character-prompt.json` is the realism prompt for the character still. **Do not fill it by hand.** `make_character.py` fills every slot and calls `create-image-fal`, because a hand-filled prompt left slots blank and produced the composite face the formula warns about, and different runs filled it differently. ## Run ```bash # the user's person, one command, one still. --dry-run prints the prompt and spends nothing. python make_character.py --age 34 --gender woman --ethnicity "South Asian" --hair "shoulder-length black hair, slightly frizzy at the crown, one side tucked back" --wardrobe "plain charcoal crew-neck t-shirt, slightly creased" --scene "a lived-in home office, a bookshelf softly out of focus behind her" --out work/character # writes character.png AND character.json python plan_takes.py --beats cutlist.json --character character.json --out work/takes python run_takes.py --spec work/takes/takes.json # dry run: plan + estimate python run_takes.py --spec work/takes/takes.json --only t1 --go # after the user approves python run_takes.py --spec work/takes/takes.json --go # the rest, voice chained python join_takes.py --spec work/takes/takes.json --end --out work/creator.mp4 # caption-burn: transcribe.py --media work/creator.mp4 --out work/creator.words.json python align_beats.py --beats cutlist.json --words work/creator.words.json \ --out cutlist.aligned.json --max-end ``` `character.json`, which `make_character.py` writes for you: ```json {"image": "character.png", "identity": ", , ", "environment": ", window daylight", "delivery": ". Whatever the tone, keep the face relaxed: an over-energetic read can give a constant grin and busy hands that read as AI."} ``` **The user chooses who the creator is.** Ask for age, gender and ethnicity, plus hair, wardrobe and room, then pass them to `make_character.py`. Those six are required arguments, so there is nothing to forget and nothing to invent. There is no default person: never copy a look from an example, a reference build or a demo reel. This is now enforced, not advisory. `plan_takes.py` rejects an `identity` that is still a placeholder, or that states no age, or that states no gender. It was advisory once and the docstring carried "a man in his late 20s ..." as an example: that got copied verbatim, the old non-empty check passed it, and every build produced the same unrequested man. An unspecified person is exactly the ambiguous composite face the realism formula warns about, and it is what a reviewer sees as "obviously AI". `delivery` now defaults to **calm and conversational**. The default used to be energetic, which this file already warned "can give a constant grin and busy hands that read as AI", so avoiding a known failure depended on remembering to opt out. Pass `delivery` to override. `identity` and `environment` go into every take **word for word**. Write them once from the approved still, then never retype them: a person described two ways drifts between takes. ## Choices These are the user's calls (the recipe's `choices`), never defaults of this atom: - **Creator** (`identity`) — age, gender, look. Asked of the user; no default person. - **Setting** (`environment`) — the room behind them, written from the approved still. Asked of the user. - **Tone** (`delivery`) — how they speak. Asked of the user; if missing, `plan_takes.py` falls back to a neutral conversational read and prints a note. - **Voice** — follows the creator (age, gender, accent) and is locked from t1. ## Rules 1. **Lock order: script, then character still, then takes.** Show the still before any take. A take costs dollars; a still costs cents. 2. **First take alone, then listen.** Every later take copies t1's voice (its audio is passed as `reference_audio_urls`). A robotic or mismatched voice in t1 is in every take. If the user rejects it, `--reseed t1` and generate t1 again. 3. **Voice matches the person.** Age, gender and accent follow the character. The prompt's delivery line sets the tone; change it through `delivery`, not by editing the prompt file. 4. **No square brackets in lines.** H3 speaks them aloud; `plan_takes.py` refuses them. 5. **Dialogue stays verbatim.** Takes are sent with `prompt_expansion_mode: disabled`. 6. **Takes split between lines, never inside one**, and run 0.6s past the last word. `--split-at 6.3,14.5` joins the takes exactly at those line boundaries: the screen-insert format joins where an insert ENDS, so the cut is hidden under the screen. The voice runs under inserts too, so every line (creator or product beat) is in a take. 7. **Join with a 0.10s dissolve, never 0.20s.** At 0.20s both poses show through the blend ("two pairs of hands"). Measured: 11.04 peak change at 0.10s vs 13.30 for a hard cut. 8. **One filter graph.** Joining files with the concat demuxer puts black frames at every boundary; `xfade` with a late offset silently concatenates instead of overlapping. 9. **Watch every take end to end before joining**: eyes on the lens to the last word, hands, identity, voice. A wrong still ("anchor") makes every take wrong the same way; if all takes fail alike, fix the still, not the seed. 10. **Mannerism clips are optional and need rights.** `--mannerism` passes a muted motion-reference clip. Its gaze transfers, so check the eyeline on every frame. Never use another brand's creator footage. 11. **Seeds are pinned.** Re-running an unchanged take repays for the same clip. Existing take files are skipped. ## Failure modes 1. **A hand-filled realism prompt.** `character-prompt.json` sat in this directory read by no script, with the instruction "fill its slots, generate 2-4 options, let the user pick one". Slots got left blank, every run filled them differently, and the documented workflow was iterative by design. Use `make_character.py`; it refuses a blank slot and an out-of-range age. 2. **A guard that rejects everything.** The age and gender guards in `plan_takes.py` shipped with a literal backspace byte where `\b` was meant, so every identity failed and the skill could not run at all. A guard is not tested by reading it: run it against one input it must ACCEPT and one it must REJECT. `grep -c $'\x08' ` catches this class. 3. **Iterating the avatar.** This is a template a customer runs, so the still has to land on the first generation. When it does not, fix the inputs (`--hair`, `--wardrobe`, `--scene`, or a different `--seed`, which reshuffles which three skin imperfections are asked for) rather than re-rolling the same brief; an unchanged payload with a pinned seed reproduces the same image and wastes the spend.