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Skill · #324 trending skills repo

Make Short

nocodehack/make-short

Free Claude Code skill: make animated YouTube Shorts (2D characters in a 3D Blender world) with a critic agent.

Blender & 3DMedia & games
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Install the skills

npx skills add nocodehack/make-short

Installs into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode and the other agents it finds on your machine.

Inside this repo

1 skill

make-shortMake an animated YouTube Short end to end (9:16, bean characters in a painted Blender world) from one idea. Claude measures a reference clip, writes a paradox story, records or generates the voice, builds the shot list and acting, checks stills by numbers AND by eye, renders natively, mixes sound, t/

Documentation

README

View on GitHub ↗

🎬 make-short

Make animated YouTube Shorts with Claude Code

Cartoon characters in a 3D world, a voice, captions and sound, built in Blender with code,
then scored by a fresh critic agent so you know exactly what to fix.

A Short made with make-short: a bean soldier in a painted 3D army camp

Free · MIT · runs on your own PC · never posts without you

▶️ Watch the full tutorial · ⚙️ Install · 🧭 How it works · ❓ FAQ

✨ Before → after

The first full render passed every automatic check and still looked like a horror movie. A fresh critic scored it 4.2 / 10. After critic-driven fix rounds the same Short scored 7.9 / 10.

❌ First render: critic 4.2 ✅ After the fix rounds: critic 7.9
First render: magenta night, red ground Final render: sunny camp, readable character

Critic score per round, 4.2 to 7.9

🧭 How it works

Measure, voice, build, critic, post, with a loop from critic back to build

Step What Claude does You do
1. Measure Breaks a Short you love into numbers (shots, locations, colour, brightness) and its story into steps Pick the reference
2. Story Writes a paradox story: hook, escalation, "You see…", payoff, twist. Fact-checks the real history Approve the story
3. Voice Uses your own recording (free) or ElevenLabs, then times every word. The voice is the clock Record, or set your own key
4. Build Writes the shots, acting and Blender scenes with code. Big Shorts use a team of agents with a CONTRACT.md Approve the plan
5. Gate Renders a still per shot and checks it by numbers and by eye Say "render"
6. Critic A fresh critic agent scores the render against a rubric, with the exact second of every lost point Check its notes
7. Fix Fixes only the confirmed problems, renders again Repeat until you're happy
8. Post Optional: Blotato posts it private, after showing you exactly what it will send Type go
Opus manager with four Sonnet workers: look, char, world, shots
A team of agents. Opus manages, four Sonnet workers build the look, the characters, the world and the shots.		 Claude grades its own work 6.5, a fresh critic grades the same render 4.2
Never trust a self-score. Claude gave its own work 6.5. A fresh critic gave the same render 4.2.
1,015 characters, about 1,000 ElevenLabs credits per take
Know the voice cost first. ElevenLabs is about 1 credit per character; the skill tells you the count before generating.		 Live run: a 15-second Short about Civil War hardtack
Live test from zero. One idea (Civil War "tooth dullers") → a finished 15 s Short in about 30 min. First critic score 6.2.

⚙️ Install

Claude Code only. This skill runs Blender, Node and ffmpeg on your own computer, so it does not work as a claude.ai Skills upload (the folder is also too large for it). Install it in Claude Code as shown below.

You need (Windows, the scripts run in Git Bash):

Tool Version Install
Claude Code latest claude.com/claude-code
Blender 5.x blender.org/download
Node.js 22+ winget install OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS
Python 3.10+ winget install Python.Python.3.12
ffmpeg recent, on PATH winget install Gyan.FFmpeg
Git Bash any winget install Git.Git
Whisper (free voice route) any python -m pip install openai-whisper
GPU one Blender can use (EEVEE) a 60 s film renders in about 21 min on a gaming laptop

Easiest: open Claude Code and paste: Install the skill from https://github.com/nocodehack/make-short into my Claude Code skills folder. Claude downloads and installs it. Then restart Claude Code.

Or by hand (PowerShell):

git clone https://github.com/nocodehack/make-short
Copy-Item -Recurse -Force .\make-short "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude\skills\make-short"

Reopen Claude Code, then type:

/make-short a 15 second Short about why soldiers called hardtack "tooth dullers"

Full details, and the fix for the most common error, are in INSTALL.md. Run section A of CHECKLIST.md once on a new PC.

💸 What it costs

Real numbers from the live 15-second run:

  • Claude: 26 minutes of work used about 3% of a 5-hour limit and 1% of the weekly limit on the Max 5x plan, about $5 at API prices. On Pro, expect roughly five times that share of your limits.
  • Voice: free if you record yourself. ElevenLabs used 202 credits for the 15 s narration.
  • Extra fix rounds are where most of the usage goes, so how far you push is your choice.

🛡️ Built-in rules

  • Nothing is posted unless you type go. Uploads go out private first.
  • API keys never touch the chat. They live in your own terminal ($env:ELEVENLABS_API_KEY, $env:BLOTATO_API_KEY).
  • No self-scoring. Only an independent critic scores, and every lost point comes with a timestamp you can check.
  • Honest claims. The skill never says "one prompt" or "fully automatic": you approve the story, the plan and the render.
  • Original characters only: a generic world, no borrowed IP.
  • It learns. Every mistake becomes a written rule in references/lessons.md, so the next Short starts smarter.

📁 What's inside

make-short/
├── SKILL.md           the steps Claude follows
├── INSTALL.md         prerequisites + install
├── CHECKLIST.md       first-run checks
├── references/        story rules, character rules, lessons, contract + brief examples
├── v3/                the Blender engine (scenes, characters, shots, gate, render, voice, critic rubric)
│   └── example-60s/   a complete 60 s example project (story, contract, shots, acting)
├── scripts/           voice, posting (Blotato), QA helpers
└── engine/ template/  the legacy 2D route

❓ FAQ

Can I upload it to claude.ai Skills? No. It runs Blender and scripts on your computer, so it needs Claude Code (desktop app or terminal). Open Claude Code and ask it to install the skill from this repo's link (see Install).

Can I make Shorts on my phone? No. Blender runs on a computer (Windows for these scripts).

Do I need to know Blender? No. Claude writes the Blender Python scripts. You only look at the stills and the render.

Can I use my own voice? Yes, and it's the default (free). Record the narration and the skill times every word locally with Whisper.

How good is the first try? Our live run started at a critic 6.2 in about 30 minutes. Each critic and fix round on top improves it; the can Short climbed from 4.2 to 7.9.

Does it post for me? Only if you connect Blotato and type go. It shows the exact post first and uploads it as private.

Mac or Linux? It's built and tested on Windows. The Blender and Node parts are cross-platform, but the paths and scripts assume Windows + Git Bash.

Made by NoCodeHack · MIT License · third-party credits in THIRD-PARTY.md