A Pencil-Drawn Piano Duet with a Cat
A 45-second, AI-assisted piano animation turns one hand-drawn room into a gentle character story.
Starter prompt / by Refs
The creator shared no short prompt. This is ours for making a film like it with Claude.
Compose a gentle 45-second solo piano piece, then animate it in JavaScript on a square 2160×2160 canvas. Write the music as note data, render the audio with a sampled or synthesized piano, and drive every motion from the same note timings. Give the whole frame a colored-pencil look with hatched strokes, paper grain and a warm lamp glow: {CHARACTER} sits at an upright piano, notes appear on the sheet music as they sound, and a sleepy cat reacts. Capture frames headlessly and mux with ffmpeg.Field notes / why it works
The opening frame establishes the orange player, cat, piano, score, and lamp before a pullback at 1.5 seconds reveals the entire stage. Across only four detected shots, the cat's move from the piano top to the keyboard around 31–37 seconds supplies a quiet payoff, followed by the performer's smile and an opening-like close view at 44 seconds.
Plate 01 / The format in one breath
A small, nearly wordless character plays an original piano miniature inside a hand-drawn room. The promise is immediate: watch a charming performance and wait for the companion's quiet interruption and the returning smile. Music, small character movements, and changes in framing carry the story; there is no explanatory narration.
Why it works
- The first frame already contains the orange performer, piano, score, lamp, and black cat; the format is legible before the first 1.5 s framing change.
- A close view gives way to the full instrument at 1.5 s, then character and cat gestures renew attention around 21.9, 30.8–36.9, and 41.8 s without breaking the mellow music.
- Only 4 detected shots in 45 s leave room for the melody; the ending returns to the smiling close view and the handwritten product name at 44.4 s.
Plate 02 / Format card
| Platform · aspect · length | X · square 1:1 · 720×720 source · 45.0 s · 24 fps |
| Pace | 4 detected shots, 3 cuts, 4.0 cuts/min; 7 interior visual steps, about 13.3 picture changes/min; 11.25 s mean shot |
| Script | No reliable spoken script. The 17-word automatic transcript reads like a music hallucination and has low confidence; treat spoken WPM as inapplicable. |
| Voice | None audible/reliably evidenced; tell the story through music and gesture. |
| On screen | 100% illustrated, fixed eye-level view of an upright piano, with close and wide crops. |
| Captions | None. A thin, hand-lettered product word appears on the score panel; it is a prop/brand mark, not subtitles. |
| Sound | Gentle solo piano throughout; measured integrated loudness −16.0 LUFS, true peak −1.6 dBFS; rough 80 BPM estimate has low confidence. |
| Structure | Immediate tableau → pull back to full room → cat approaches/interrupts → cat settles beside player → smiling return and brand mark. No spoken CTA. |
Pro / 13 plates + recipe
The first plates are open. The full dissection is Pro.
Get the timed shots, type and sound specs, and the runnable recipe.
Open the full blueprint- Plate 03 / The hook, frame by frame (first 3 seconds)Pro
- Plate 04 / Structure (beat sheet)Pro
- Plate 05 / Shot grammarPro
- Plate 06 / Visual style guidePro
- Plate 07 / Voice and deliveryPro
- Plate 08 / Sound designPro
- Plate 09 / PackagingPro
- Plate 10 / Script templatePro
- Plate 11 / Production planPro
- Plate 12 / PromptsPro
- Plate 13 / Edit recipePro
- Plate 14 / QA checklistPro
- Plate 15 / Make it yoursPro
- Recipe / runnable promptPro