Text Message Ad

Text-Message Ad Maker

Builds a short (~15s) vertical video ad styled as an iMessage conversation: someone texts a friend about a problem, the friend recommends the product with a link card, and the video ends on a branded end card with a CTA. Output is a self-contained animated HTML file plus a 1080×1920 MP4 with synthesized send/receive sounds.

Intended use: marketing creative and product demos only. The conversations are fictional dramatizations between invented characters — a recognizable ad format, not an attempt to pass off a real conversation. Never use real, identifiable people as the characters, never present the exchange as a genuine testimonial, and add a "Dramatization" line to the end card if a platform requires disclosure. Do not use this skill to fabricate conversations meant to deceive (fake evidence, impersonation, etc.).

Workflow

1. Collect the brand inputs

Read references/brand-checklist.md and gather what it lists from the user: logo, product name/price/domain, the customer pain point, one proof point, the expensive alternative for the price anchor, and an accent color. It also contains the color-theming pattern, copy voice rules, and caption formulas.

2. Write the conversation

7 visible messages is the sweet spot for ~15s. The canonical beat structure (matching the template):

Keep each bubble under ~90 characters. Follow the positive-framing rules in references/brand-checklist.md.

3. Create the HTML

Copy assets/template.html (blue theme, placeholder copy in [brackets]) and string-replace: contact name + avatar letter, timestamp, all bubble texts, link-card preview text + meta title + domain, end-card brand name / tagline / price anchor / CTA text, and the theme colors per references/brand-checklist.md. Replace the .logoimg base64 data URI with the user's logo (trimmed, on white, base64-embedded). The HTML autoplays with a replay button — deliver it alongside the MP4 so the user can edit and re-record later.

4. Render the MP4

Requirements: Playwright + Chromium, ffmpeg, Python with numpy (all present in the Claude environment).

Write a timeline config JSON:

{
  "html": "/abs/path/to/ad.html",
  "framesDir": "/home/claude/frames_myad",
  "durationMs": 15000,
  "ts": 400,
  "shows": [900, 2000, 3500, 4700, 5900, 7200, 8100, 9600, 10900],
  "hides": {"1": 3500, "6": 9600},
  "endcard": 12700,
  "rowKinds": ["send", "typ", "recv", "recv", "recv", "send", "typ", "recv", "send"]
}

• shows[i] = ms when row i appears (rows in DOM order). hides = when typing rows disappear (usually the moment the next bubble appears).
• These default timings work for the canonical 9-row structure; scale them if the conversation is longer/shorter. endcard ≈ last message + 1800ms; durationMs ≈ endcard + 2300ms.
• rowKinds drives the audio: send = outgoing swoosh, recv = incoming ding (bubbles and link cards), typ = soft pop, none = silent.

Then:

node scripts/render.js config.json          # deterministic frame stepping (audio-sync exact)
python3 scripts/make_audio.py config.json   # writes .wav
ffmpeg -y -framerate 30 -i /%04d.png -i .wav \
  -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a aac -b:a 128k \
  -shortest -movflags +faststart output.mp4

Why frame-stepping instead of screen recording: the renderer pauses each CSS animation at an exact negative delay per frame, so the video timeline matches the config exactly and the audio lands sample-accurate on every bubble.

5. Verify before delivering

View 2–3 frames (an early bubble, the link card, the end card) or check pixel stats (accent-color and white-plate pixel counts) to confirm the theme and logo rendered. Confirm MP4 specs with ffprobe (1080-wide, ~15s, h264 + aac). Deliver both the MP4 and the HTML.

6. Captions (if asked, or offer)

Use the caption formulas in references/brand.md for YouTube (title + description + hashtags) and Instagram (hook-beat caption + lowercase hashtags).