Embody: Skill for Claude Code

Visual Aesthetics

Make rendered image and motion output read clearly, intentionally, and with craft: deliberate composition, camera, lighting, palette, motion, and finish. This skill is about what appears on screen, not node or network layout.

Operator and parameter names in this skill are verified against the official Derivative docs (TD 2025+). Anything you add beyond them still follows td-python.md -> Verify Before Claiming.

When to Load This Skill

Load before building or refining any network whose purpose is visual output: generative art, VJ visuals, shaders, render scenes, projection content, UI visuals, or captured TOP output. Pair it with capture_top to evaluate the actual result against the rubric at the end.

Output-first: show the work in the backdrop

Before building any TOP chain, create the terminal Out TOP named out1 and position it per network-layout rules. Immediately call set_op_flags(op_path, display=True) on out1. A TOP with its Display flag on renders as the network editor backdrop when the pane's Display > Backdrop TOPs option is enabled; TD defaults this on. As soon as any stage produces pixels, wire the current chain end into out1. Keep out1 wired while iterating, including while replacing, inserting, or bypassing intermediate nodes. The user should watch progress live behind the network, not wait for a final capture. The final deliverable stays terminated in out1, matching the existing output terminal convention. Use capture_top on out1 for verification passes.

The Working Loop (mandatory)

1. Write a 3-line intent brief before creating any operator: the subject (what the eye lands on first), the mood and palette (name one from Color, or design one), and the motion character (calm drift / pulsing energy / mechanical precision / still). If the user's request doesn't specify, propose a brief and build to it. Never start assembling operators with no target look -- that is how default-looking output happens.
2. Build in passes, in this order: composition + camera blocking -> lighting + value -> color -> motion -> finishing. Get each pass reading correctly before decorating the next. Post cannot rescue a weak composition; color cannot rescue a weak value structure.
3. Capture and judge after every pass: capture_top the OUTPUT TOP and actually look at the frame. Judge it against the brief AND the self-check rubric. NEVER declare a visual task done without capturing and assessing the frame -- a clean network is not success; a good-looking, correct frame is.
4. Judge motion over time, not from one still. For anything animated: (a) let time-evolving systems SETTLE before judging -- feedback and particle systems need dozens-to-hundreds of frames, and an early capture misreads as empty or thin; (b) verify it actually animates: capture, let real seconds pass, capture again -- the frames must differ; (c) judge motion character across 3-5 captures spread over the cycle, including both sides of a loop wrap (the wrap must be invisible); (d) for audio-reactive work, capture at a peak AND at silence -- the silence floor must still look composed; (e) emergent looks (e.g. feedback painting) invert the pass order: build the process, run it, judge the accumulated frame.
5. If the captured frame is black or empty, diagnose before continuing: (a) display/render flags on the output op; (b) for 3D, that a camera, a light, and geometry with render/display on all exist; (c) the chain terminates in a cooking Null; (d) no bypass flag is on; (e) resolution is not 0; (f) alpha/premultiply if the image seems present but invisible.
6. Iterate with the smallest knob set: adjust the fewest upstream controls (see the Fix-It Map at the end), re-capture, re-judge.