effectcraft

EffectCraft — headless motion graphics

EffectCraft is ArtCraft's compositing/motion app (comps, layers, 731 commands, 300+ effects). pi-craft provisions the headless effectcraft-cli on first use (no desktop app). Choosing between apps, the discover → execute → save → verify loop, the hand-off formats and the MCP policy live in craft-studio (an alpha overlay for FilmCraft is mov ProRes 4444 with rgba channels — this skill produces it).

What it is for / formats

Compositions of text, shapes, footage and effects with keyframes, expressions and text animation presets. Project file: .ecproj. Renders h264 hevc av1 prores webm gif, image sequences png jpeg tiff exr, audio wav aiff; a single still via render-frame (png). For finished video editing use FilmCraft, for a still raster edit PhotoCraft.

CLI dialect

pi-craft effectcraft exec <args…> passes the arguments to effectcraft-cli. Project flags come before the subcommand (--empty, --project F.ecproj, --save, --save-as F).

effectcraft-cli commands [--filter TEXT] [--enabled] [--json]   # list ids; --json adds the parameter schema
effectcraft-cli exec <id> --params JSON                         # one command ("exec --list" = commands)
effectcraft-cli run <id> <json> [<id> <json> …]                 # several, in order (each id followed by its JSON)
effectcraft-cli script FILE.jsx [F.ecproj] | --eval CODE        # After-Effects-style JS object model (project, comps, layers)
effectcraft-cli info | props <comp> <layer> [--flat] | get <comp> <layer> <path> [--time S] | set <comp> <layer> <path> <value> [--time S]
effectcraft-cli render [--comp C] --out FILE --format F [--prores 4444] [--channels rgb|rgba] [--resolution half] [--start S --end S]
effectcraft-cli render-frame [--comp C] --time S|--frame N [--max-side PX] --out F.png [--transparent]

• <comp>: id or name, - = the active comp. <layer>: id, #n (index) or name. Property paths are slash paths from props --flat (e.g. transform/opacity, transform/position).
• run takes JSON as the next argument, not --params: run comp.new '{…}' layer.newText '{…}'. Each command prints its result ({"comp":1}, {"layer":2}) — keep ids for later steps.
• Text animation presets: layer.applyTextPreset '{"preset":"fadeUpCharacters"}' (also typewriter, blurIn, trackingIn, dropInLines, …); it applies to the last layer when layer is omitted.
• Keyframes: prop.addKey '{"layer":"Name","path":"transform/opacity","time":1,"value":100}'.