guided-testimonial-video by bintzgavin/helios-skills

You may be operating inside the brand's repository, or working from an external context.

Do not guess brand identity. Either analyze the codebase or research the provided URL.

EXECUTION PIPELINE

STEP 1 — Gather Context

⛔ STOP. Ask the user these two questions:

"Are we inside your brand's repository, or would you like to provide a URL (e.g. your marketing site) so I can research your brand online?"
"Would you like generated background music? If yes, you'll need an ELEVEN_LABS_API_KEY in your environment. You can get one at https://elevenlabs.io → Profile → API Keys."

Wait for the user to respond to both questions.

Do not attempt to read .env files or verify keys yourself. Trust the user's responses.

If the user provides a URL, use it for brand research in STEP 3 instead of analyzing the codebase. If the user declines music, skip STEP 4 and STEP 5.

STEP 2 — Ensure Helios Runtime Dependencies

Install required packages:

npm install @helios-project/core @helios-project/renderer @helios-project/cli

You will render using DOM mode.

STEP 3 — Extract Brand Intelligence From Repo

If the user provided a URL instead of a repo, fetch that URL and extract the same brand signals from the live site. Skip codebase-specific items (Tailwind config, design tokens, etc.) and focus on visible brand elements.

Analyze:

• Tailwind config or CSS variables • Global stylesheets • Design tokens • Logo assets • Favicon • Testimonial sections or components • Review/rating displays • Customer logos or partner sections • Trust badges or certification marks • Social proof patterns (counters, stats, logos) • Marketing copy and value propositions • CTA structure

Construct internal brand profile:

• Core value proposition • Target audience • Tone of voice (warm, authentic, trustworthy) • Visual density • Primary palette • Accent palette (warm tones for trust) • Typography character • Social proof strategy (quotes, stats, logos, or combination)

All creative decisions must align with this.

STEP 4 — Generate Original Music (Skip if no music)

Use ElevenLabs with existing ELEVEN_LABS_API_KEY.

Generate instrumental track matching:

• Warm, uplifting tone • Gentle build to emotional peak • Inspiring but not aggressive • Target runtime

Save audio locally.

STEP 5 — Analyze Audio With ffmpeg (Skip if no music)

Extract:

• BPM • Beat timestamps • Downbeats • Energy peaks

Create beat timing map.

Quote reveals must land on downbeats. Name/title reveals should align to beats.

STEP 6 — Read Motion Design Rules

Before producing the creative specification, read and internalize:

skills/guided/motion-design-rules

Every rule in that skill is mandatory for this composition.

STEP 7 — Produce Creative Specification

You are a senior creative director and brand trust architect designing for Helios using motion.dev.

Input example: make a 30 second testimonial video

Output:

• One structured creative specification • Wrapped in a single code block • No explanation outside it

The specification must include:

• Duration • Aspect ratio (16:9) • Brand summary • Motion language (warm, elegant, deliberate) • Beat synchronized scene breakdown • Exact timestamps • Voiceover (optional — may use text-only approach) • On screen text (quotes, attribution, stats, CTA) • Visual composition (quote cards, avatars, star ratings, customer logos) • Explicit motion.dev animation behavior • Transition logic (gentle fades, soft slides, subtle scale) • Layering order (background texture → quote card → avatar/photo → attribution → stats) • Audio direction • Asset requirements • Typography hierarchy (quote text large, attribution smaller, stats prominent)

Use motion.dev compatible terminology only.

Testimonial structure requirements:

• Opening brand moment or context setter (2-3 seconds) • Quote 1: Full quote with attribution • Quote 2: Full quote with attribution (if duration allows) • Social proof stats (numbers, ratings, customer count) • Closing CTA with brand mark

Each quote segment: • Quote text animates in (typewriter or fade-in by line) • Brief pause for reading • Attribution appears (name, title, company) • Optional: customer company logo or avatar

STEP 8 — Implement DOM Based Helios Composition

Using the creative specification:

Create a composition.html file that:

• Uses HTML + CSS + motion.dev • Implements animations using WAAPI / CSS / motion.dev • Aligns quote reveals to downbeats • Uses elegant quote card typography • Includes quotation mark decorative elements • Includes generated audio file • Has exact duration

Expose Helios runtime:

import { helios } from "@helios-project/core";

window.helios = helios;

helios.bindToDocumentTimeline({
  autoSyncAnimations: true
});

Requirements:

• window.helios must be defined • helios.bindToDocumentTimeline() must be called • autoSyncAnimations: true must be enabled • All CSS and WAAPI animations must sync correctly • No randomness • Deterministic timing • Quotes must remain readable for minimum 4 seconds each • Star ratings should animate sequentially

STEP 9 — Render Using Official Helios CLI (DOM Mode)

Render with:

npx helios render ./composition.html -o output.mp4

Requirements:

• 16:9 aspect ratio • Correct duration • Audio attached • CSS and WAAPI fully synchronized • High quality MP4 output

Output file must be:

output.mp4

RUNTIME RULES

If duration ≤ 15 seconds Show 1 quote + 1 stat + CTA. Prioritize the strongest quote.

If no duration specified Default to 30 seconds.

Maximum 3 quotes for any duration. Quotes must be real or representative — never fabricate. If no testimonials exist in the repo, use placeholder structure with clear labels.

Never restate the original prompt. Never explain reasoning. Creative specification must be output inside a single code block only.