take-on-me

Take On Me

You are making a 15–30 s silent animated short from a story idea. Every mark on screen is a procedural pencil or marker stroke drawn into one <surface> of a Diffusion Studio project. No footage, images, AI-generated pictures, fonts, or libraries. The film is artistic, not physically accurate: motion follows animation principles and emotion, never simulation.

What makes it "Take On Me" is not the pencil alone, it is the two worlds and the crossing between them:

• Colour world ("toon") — home. Flat colour fills and a steady, slightly wobbly black marker line. No hatching, no grain on the line.
• Sketch world ("pencil") — the other side. Soft graphite on pale lavender paper, drawn on twos, every drawing a fresh attempt so the lines boil. Tone is hatching, never fills.
• Crossovers are the point. A pencil thing inside the colour world sits on its own patch of paper (a reflection, a hand reaching out, a souvenir). The only colour inside the pencil world is light leaking in from home.

Inputs

IDEA:      one to three sentences
DURATION:  seconds (default 20)
MUST SHOW: optional — specific moments or a final image

Don't interrogate the user. If the idea has no portal, antagonist, or ending, invent them and say so in the brief.

Files in this skill

Path	Use
references/story.md	How to turn the idea into a two-world shot list. Read before writing the brief.
references/look.md	The non-negotiable rules of both looks, the timing, the acceptance checklist. Read before drawing anything.
references/engine.md	The pen API and how to build characters as rigs of solid forms.
template/	Starting project: engine.ts (never redesign it), index.tsx, package.json (24 fps export), and a shots.ts look test.
example/fish-heist/	A finished 25 s film. brief.md is the model for a brief, shots.ts for staging and crossovers, cast.ts for character rigs that draw in either world.

Diffusion Studio

The app's tools arrive over MCP (open, check, capture, logs, …) or as the dapi CLI (dapi capture = capture). If neither is available, point the user to diffusion.studio to download the app and install its MCP server; if tools answer "The app has no window", ask the user to bring the app up.

The docs ship with the app at /Applications/Diffusion Studio.app/Contents/Resources/docs and win over anything written here. Read skills/editor.md, reference/jsx/surface-paint.md, reference/jsx/lifecycle.md, reference/jsx/variables.md, and reference/tools/{open,check,capture}.md once per session.

Process

1. Brief. Read references/story.md, then write brief.md in a fresh project folder (default ~/Movies/Diffusion Studio/<slug>): the premise in two lines, the two worlds and what crosses over, the shot list as a table (# · time · world · framing · what happens), status, open decisions. Every cut on a multiple of 0.5 s. Tell the user the shot list in a few lines and keep going.
2. Project. Copy template/* (including .gitignore) into the folder, set name in package.json and the scene name in index.tsx, and open it. capture scene film at 0.5, 2.5, 4.5 — you should see the look test (toon ball, pencil ball, pencil ball on a paper patch in the colour room). If it doesn't match references/look.md, fix that before any story work.
3. Pass 1 — blocking. Replace the look test with the real shot table. All shots, rough: staging, timing, readable silhouettes. Put characters and sets in cast.ts as rigs that take { x, y, s, toon?, …pose }; keep shots.ts to staging and acting. After each shot: check, then capture 3–4 times inside it.
4. Pass 2 — detail. Character design, acting (anticipation, squash, settle), backgrounds, energy marks (speed lines, bursts, scribbles). Fix the biggest visible problem first.
5. Pass 3 — look. Boil check per pencil shot: capture two consecutive drawings (2 and 2.09) — background clearly different, subject nearly the same. Twos check: 2 and 2.04 identical. Walk the checklist in references/look.md.
6. Keep brief.md's status current. Never export to verify — capture is the same render. Export only when the user asks.

Hard rules

• Composition time is the only clock: the picture is a pure function of drawing = floor(time × 12). No Math.random(), Date.now(), requestAnimationFrame, frame(), or async setup. Use the seeded R you are handed.
• Everything visible is drawn inside the one surface. No <text>, <html>, <rect>, <image>, <video>, <effect>, transitions, or generate.*. The one exception: a music track the user supplies is an <audio> clip next to the surface, and cuts land on its beats. Never use the actual a-ha recording unless the user confirms they hold the rights.
• Hard cuts only, and they live in the shot table, not on the timeline. 1–3 s per shot; change framing every cut.
• No on-screen text unless MUST SHOW demands it — then hand-letter it with the pen.
• engine.ts is topic-independent. Add a primitive only when a shot truly cannot be drawn without it, and keep the existing ones untouched.
• The film is an homage, not a copy: borrow the language (sketch world, comic-panel frames, the hand reaching out, helmeted pursuers, the tear in the wall), never trace frames or draw the real performers' likenesses.