blender-video-recreate

Blender reference-video recreation

Recreate what can be observed: timing, framing, screen-space motion, contacts, camera path, and action continuity. Do not pass the source video through a style filter and call that a 3D reconstruction. Monocular footage does not uniquely determine depth or hidden geometry; label estimates and optimize them for the approved camera views.

When to Use

Use when the user supplies a readable video or bounded clip and wants its action, staging, or camera movement rebuilt as an editable Blender white model. Do not use for a prose-only concept, look development on an existing approved animation, or VSE-only editing.

Prerequisites

• A locally readable or explicitly authorized reference video, target time range, desired changes, output root, and acceptance priorities.
• A Blender control route capable of scene inspection and mutation. If unavailable, report the missing route; installing or enabling one is a separate action.
• A declared frame rate and delivery size. Preserve source timing by default; do not silently retime it to convenient frame counts.
• Read reference-analysis.md before inferring the shot table. Read white-model-production.md before scene mutation.
• Read generation-handoff.md only when downstream model-video generation is in scope.

Workflow

Step 1. Probe the actual media and extract representative frames around shot boundaries, action beats, contacts, occlusions, and camera-direction changes. If the media cannot be decoded, stop instead of reconstructing from its title or description.

Step 2. Produce shot-plan.md with source timestamps and exact project frames. Record per shot: composition, subject scale and screen position, environment anchors, articulated action beats, prop state, contact order, camera intent, observed facts, and estimates.

Step 3. Establish scale, floor, stable subject ids, one object for each continuous prop, and an editable articulated proxy or rig. For domain work, hand off by installed skill name:

• blender-scene-assembly for objects and collections;
• blender-character-rigging and blender-character-animation for articulated performance;
• blender-cinematography for lens, framing, path, and handheld response;
• blender-quality-validation for contacts, floor penetration, gait, prop handoff, and visibility.

Install missing domain skills with npx skills add full-aigc-skills/blender-skills --skill <skill-name>; never depend on sibling relative paths.

Step 4. Block coarse action and camera first, then refine contacts and transitions. Recreate the source action order and cumulative imbalance rather than resetting the character after every hit or beat. Keep effects, textures, sound, and final styling out of white-model acceptance unless the user explicitly includes them.

Step 5. Render a cheap complete preview. Compare source and reconstruction at representative frames and motion intervals using acceptance-checklist.md. Correct bounded timing, composition, sliding, same-side gait, penetration, prop discontinuity, or camera loss; do not use aesthetic differences to excuse geometric or temporal errors.

Step 6. Save the editable .blend, white-model video, shot-plan.md, comparison.md, and acceptance record. If authorized generation is requested, prepare prompts.md, choose an actually available provider route, and keep its result acceptance separate from Blender acceptance.

Validation

Return an evidence packet containing source hash and probed properties, target segment, project FPS/frame range, Blender scene and preview paths, inspected intervals, representative frame pairs, measured validation results, unresolved estimates, and artifact hashes. Use PASS, FAIL, or UNVERIFIED per layer: media analysis, Blender structure, motion/contact, camera/composition, encoding, and optional generated video. A successful encode is not motion approval.

Use examples/validation.md for the minimum result shape.

Rules and Capability Boundaries (Inapplicable Scenarios)

• Do not claim exact 3D recovery from one view or invent unreadable action.
• Do not replace articulated characters with sliding single primitives when limb motion or contact order is part of acceptance.
• Do not overwrite the only source or approved .blend; save a new version or transaction.
• Do not upload reference media, incur a charge, or submit a remote task without the required authorization and budget envelope.
• Windows foreground Blender and real paid-provider behavior remain UNVERIFIED until tested in that environment; portable instructions are not runtime proof.

Gotchas (Common Issues and Recovery)

• Ambiguous depth: match screen-space landmarks and parallax, then document the chosen depth.
• Foot sliding or same-side gait: fix root speed, planted-foot intervals, and opposing limb phase.
• Prop teleport at release/catch: retain one prop and verify world transforms before/after the constraint switch.
• Camera looks smooth but misses contact: validate visibility at the exact impact frames.
• Remote timeout: query the stored task id; never resubmit merely because the client timed out.
• Repeated defect after two bounded repair rounds: preserve the best version and report the exact interval and remaining deviation instead of looping indefinitely. See examples/recovery.md.