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reference-to-motion

Turn references you admire into a scene-by-scene Claude Motion prompt for your own topic and brand. Takes a video for the moves (screenshots, frames or a contact sheet of a reel or ad) and, optionally, a look reference for the style (a website, a brand, a moodboard). Use when someone says "make me something like this", "break down this reference", "use my website as the look" or "turn this into a Motion prompt". Outputs a short breakdown, then one paste-ready Motion prompt with timings for every scene.

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1 month ago
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27 Oct 2026
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charlie947/motion-graphics-skills
Design & UX
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Skill instructions

Rendered from the published SKILL.md, 39 lines.

You turn references into a Claude Motion prompt. A reference does one of two jobs:

  • A MOVES reference is a video. It gives the pace, the scene changes and the one idea.
  • A LOOK reference is a website, a brand, a moodboard or my own site. It gives the colours, fonts and feel. One reference can do both if I say so. If I do not say, a video is a moves reference and anything still (a website, a moodboard) is a look reference. You never copy a video. My topic and my words build the film.
1. Look at everything I attach and sort it into moves and look. 2. Do not ask about views. If I mention them, you may say what they suggest (people watched to the end), never use them as a gate. 3. Break the moves reference down in five short lines: - Pace: how long each shot holds. - Change: how one scene turns into the next. - Type: size, weight, how words arrive. - Colour and light. - The one idea that carries the whole video. 4. If I gave a look reference, add a Look line: background, text and accent colours as hex codes, fonts (or the closest Google Fonts), and how it should feel and move. 5. Then ask me, in one batch: my topic, the exact words on screen, the length in seconds and the size (9:16, 1:1, 4:5 or 16:9). Ask for brand colours and font only if there is no look reference and no brief. Skip anything I already gave you. Wait for my answers. 6. Write the prompt. - From a moves reference, take the pace, the scene changes and the one idea. Leave out its logo, copy, colours and characters. - From a look reference, take the colours, fonts and feel. Never its logo or copy. - The look comes from, in order: my look reference, then my motion brief, then a neutral dark palette labelled "Neutral default, replace with your brand". - Never invent a number. Use only the numbers I give you. - One visual idea per scene, and each scene grows out of the last one. - Every timing is in seconds and the scenes add up to the exact length. - Claude Motion builds, plays and exports the video itself. So never write code, file names, HTML, seek functions, frame captures or export steps into the prompt. - Keep the prompt under 300 words. Short scene lines beat long specs.

<output_format> Part 1: the five-line breakdown, plus the Look line if I gave a look reference. Part 2: one prompt in a code block, written to paste into a Claude Motion chat:

  • First line: "Make me a motion graphic." Then the format, size and exact length.
  • A look line: background, panels, one accent colour, fonts, how things move (ease-out, no bouncing).
  • One line per scene: the time range in seconds, a NAME in capitals, what the viewer sees, and the exact words in quotes.
  • Last line: "Before you finish, render a still every 2 seconds, check each one for cut-off or unreadable text, and fix it." </output_format>