mc-graphics

The approved beat table comes in; rendered overlays go out. The outcome is a graphics/ folder of ProRes 4444 alpha renders plus graphics/HANDOFF.md, consumed by the composited preview and by the creator in their editor, neither of which has this conversation in the room. That sets the bar: every overlay sits on its beat's timing, carries only final content, takes every color and font from {brand-path}/tokens.json, and has passed both render_verify.py and your own eyes before the creator sees it. This is the expensive stage, so nothing here is a draft.

Resolution rules

• Bare paths resolve against {video-path}, the current video project at {projects-path}/<slug>/.
• {skill-root} → this skill's installed directory; files in it always carry it ({skill-root}/references/motion-recipes.md).
• {project-root} → the project working directory.
• {skill-name} → the skill directory's basename.

On Activation

1. Load the studio config (uv run {project-root}/_bmad/scripts/resolve_config.py --project-root {project-root} --key modules.manticore; empty means mc-setup has not run: stop and route the creator there). Resolve paths values against {project-root}.
2. Read project.json (confirm approvals.beats is a date, stage graphics), beats/beats.md, beats/STORYBOARD.md, the format profile, and {skill-root}/engines/<engine>.md for each engine the table names.
3. Read {brand-path}/tokens.json. If it does not exist, tell the creator it is missing and that theming every overlay in the creator's colors and fonts cannot happen without it, then route to mc-setup and stop.
4. Read {brand-path}/production-bible.md. If it does not exist, tell the creator it is missing and that the styling contract beyond tokens.json (overlay aesthetic, motion feel, image-type policy, placement rules) cannot happen without it, then route to mc-setup and stop.
5. Confirm the beat table passed its anchor placement gate: beats/anchor-check.json exists and reports "ok": true. Missing or failing is a stop, hand back to mc-beats. Every overlay here is positioned by a beat time, so authoring against unverified times spends the expensive stage on graphics that land off their phrases. This skill never runs mc-beats' scripts; it only checks the artifact.

Engine workspaces

Engine workspaces live at {engines-path}/<engine>/; initialize on first use per the engine README, installing the latest published version at that moment and recording what it resolved. For HyperFrames, refresh its Agent Skills now (npx hyperframes init); mc-setup installs them, but install them here if setup was skipped or predates them (npx skills add heygen-com/hyperframes --all --full-depth, or npx hyperframes skills update for the core set).

Source before authoring

For each beat, reach first for a fitting HyperFrames block or installed skill across the whole catalog and its footage-facing effects (npx hyperframes add, existing brand-themed blocks in the engine workspace), per {skill-root}/engines/hyperframes.md. For simple moves on a finished still (fly-in and fly-out, staged builds), prefer the ffmpeg recipes in {skill-root}/references/motion-recipes.md; where a recipe's default move and the Production Bible's motion feel disagree, the bible wins, because the recipes are mechanics and the feel is the creator's. Author from scratch via the html lane ({skill-root}/engines/html.md) or the design-prompting loop ({skill-root}/engines/design-prompting.md) only when nothing fits. Everything themes through tokens.json; no hardcoded colors or fonts.

Build and verify

Build per engine in the project's graphics/ folder, running the loop: edit, lint, preview, draft render (CRF 28), single-frame verify, final render. The shipped toolkit does the mechanical parts: {skill-root}/scripts/html_to_png.py (exact-size HTML render, separate --guides pass, alpha verify) and {skill-root}/scripts/snug_frame.py (native-aspect photo framing).

Verify every final render with uv run {skill-root}/scripts/render_verify.py, passing expectations explicitly: --pixfmt per the delivery target, --expect-dur from the beat's dur, --expect-fps and --expect-res from the format profile, or --meta pointing at the comp's meta.json render contract carrying the same keys. Then look at the extracted frames over checkerboard; a render without checked frames is not done.

When a composition calls for a whoosh, hit, chime, or bed (the animation-feel conventions in the Production Bible say when), route through the mc-audio service skill, never into its folder, and deliver the wav into graphics/ next to the overlay it belongs to, with its timing noted in HANDOFF.md.

Self-review before the creator sees anything

Zoom-inspect every asset in the batch: read every string, check edges and alpha fringes, and hold each one against the Production Bible's aesthetic language. Fix what fails before presenting.

Handoff and advance

Write graphics/HANDOFF.md: per beat, the rendered file, its timeline position (from the beat table), track suggestion, and any editor notes.

graphics/ now holds rendered overlays, so renders/preview.mp4 must re-render with them composited. That render belongs to mc-cut, and this skill never runs another skill's scripts: hand back to mc-pipeline, which routes through mc-cut's composited preview re-entry before the next stage skill runs. The same hand-back applies whenever a later overlay fix re-renders anything in graphics/.

Then update project.json artifacts, advance stage per the profile (usually assets, or package where assets is absent), and report, naming the composited preview hand-back so it is not skipped.

Rules

• The beat table is law. A composition that wants different timing goes back through the creator, not silently changed.
• Overlay exports are ProRes 4444 with alpha; anything else is a bug.
• Relevance gate: a viewer pausing at the anchor frame must see WHY this graphic is on screen. One that needs the storyboard to explain it fails.
• Transcript fact-check: any claim-bearing graphic (numbers, dates, quotes, names, titles, announcements) is checked against the transcript verbatim before render. Never invent an announcement, statistic, or quote the speaker did not say.
• Never guess external references. Video IDs, channel names, people's names, and spellings come from a source, from the project's people-glossary when one exists, or from asking the creator.
• Deliverable images never contain placeholder or helper text: no lorem ipsum, no "TODO", no safe-zone markers, no annotation arrows. Guides go in a separate --guides render plus a written spec.
• QC sweep: when the creator corrects one asset, treat the correction as a defect CLASS. Audit the whole library for the same defect and fix every instance before re-rendering anything.
• Never shrink or letterbox the source video to make room for graphics. Composite over the full frame in detected safe zones (find the talking-head region and place around it); photos get snug native-aspect frames, never uniform letterboxed panels.
• New reusable compositions get promoted to the engine workspace and noted in the format profile's Templates section.