Make an animated film with Claude, no video AIno video AI

# Goal

Set up this computer so Claude Code can make short animated films with Lemo-Opuscar, a free skill by Lemomo (github.com/lemomo-ai/lemo-opuscar). Claude draws every frame in code and adds the story, voice, music and sound effects. No video AI is used. When you finish, the human can type one line like "Make a 30-second film in the watercolor style about ..." and Claude makes the film.

# Rules for you (the AI)

- Detect the operating system first (macOS, Windows or Linux) and use only the commands for that system.
- Check whether each tool is already installed and new enough before installing it. If it is, say so and skip that step.
- Never overwrite existing files, folders or settings without asking the human first.
- The skill and every tool here are free. Claude Code itself needs a paid Claude plan (Pro or above) or API credits. If the human does not have that, stop and tell them.
- Ask the human only for things only they can do (signing in to Claude, approving an install prompt, typing their computer password).
- If a step fails, stop and explain the error in plain words. Do not guess or try random fixes.

# Steps

## 1. Claude Code

Lemo-Opuscar is built for Claude Code. The styles are tuned for Claude Opus 5.5, and other models may not reproduce them well.

Check:

```
claude --version
```

If it is missing, tell the human to install it from https://claude.com/claude-code and sign in with their paid Claude account, then come back to this file.

## 2. Node 20 or newer, ffmpeg 7 or newer, Python 3.11 or newer

The skill needs these three. The agent installs everything else on first use.

Check:

```
node --version
ffmpeg -version
python3 --version
```

Install or upgrade only what is missing or too old:

- macOS (needs Homebrew; if `brew` is missing, ask the human before installing it from https://brew.sh):
  ```
  brew install node ffmpeg python@3.12
  ```
- Windows:
  ```
  winget install --id OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS -e
  winget install --id Gyan.FFmpeg -e
  winget install --id Python.Python.3.12 -e
  ```
  Then tell the human to close and reopen the terminal.
- Linux: use the package manager for Node and Python. Ubuntu 24.04 ships ffmpeg 6.1, which is too old, so use a static ffmpeg build from https://johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/ instead.

Verify: Node prints v20 or higher, ffmpeg prints version 7 or higher, Python prints 3.11 or higher.

## 3. Install the Lemo-Opuscar skill

These two commands come from the official README:

```
claude plugin marketplace add lemomo-ai/lemo-opuscar
claude plugin install lemo-opuscar@lemolab
```

Verify: `claude plugin list` shows `lemo-opuscar`.

On first use the skill downloads its guides, tools and style prompts to `~/lemo-opuscar`. Each film's project goes in the folder Claude Code was started from.

# Final check

Make an empty folder for films (for example `~/films`), and tell the human to open Claude Code in it and type:

```
/lemo-opuscar:lemo-opuscar
```

It asks which language to use and what they want to make. Or they can ask directly, for example:

```
Make a 30-second film in the watercolor style about a rainy evening in my city. Make it vertical, 1080x1920, for Instagram Reels.
```

Tell the human:

- The default output is horizontal 1920x1080 at 24 fps. For Reels or Shorts, ask for vertical 1080x1920 in the request.
- One film takes about 30 to 60 minutes. Leave Claude Code running until it finishes.
- The narrator voice is English by default. To use your own voice or another language, give Claude your own recording.
- The finished video is saved inside the film's project folder.
- All 66 styles can be seen at https://lemomo-ai.github.io/lemo-opuscar/

# Cost

- Lemo-Opuscar, its voice, music and sound tools: free (MIT licence).
- Claude Code: needs a paid Claude plan (Pro or above) or API credits.
- Each film uses a fair amount of usage (the README says "a fair amount of tokens"), so a long film can use a big share of a plan's limit.

Make a 30-second film in the watercolor style about a rainy evening in my city. Make it vertical, 1080x1920, for Instagram Reels.