cinematic-cutscene

cinematic-cutscene — Locked-Look Story Beat in 5-10 Seconds

A cutscene is a non-interactive video clip the game plays back at a fixed moment — opening, story beat, character intro, ending. Quality is dominated by two things: continuity (the character on screen looks like the character in the game) and shot length (every clip past 10s drifts in identity, hands, and physics). This skill enforces both — generate a reference image first to lock the look, then image-to-video each shot, then chain shots in sequence rather than asking the model for one long take.

If the user wants 5 seconds of marketing footage, that's video/trailer-shot. If they want a 3-second seamless background loop, that's video/animated-loop. This skill is for narrative beats with a defined start, middle, and end — usually with dialogue or VO.

When to use

• "Generate the opening cinematic for the game."
• "I need a cutscene where the witch turns to the player and warns them about the curse."
• "Make a 10-second character intro for the boss."
• "Add an ending sequence after the player defeats the dragon."
• "Cinematic where the village burns and the protagonist runs."
• The user has a defined moment with story content — not a vibe loop, not a marketing splash.

When NOT to use

• "5-second slow-mo combat shot for the trailer" — video/trailer-shot.
• "Looping splash screen background" — video/animated-loop.
• "Animated logo backdrop on the title screen" — video/animated-loop.
• Real-time in-engine cinematic with the actual gameplay characters and camera — that's a Godot AnimationPlayer / Timeline job, not generated video. Route to onyx:scene-composition.
• Voice-only narration over a static image — generate the dialogue with onyx_generate_audio and use a static TextureRect, no video needed.

Steps

1. Read the soul file and any prior cutscenes

Read .onyx/GameSoul.md
onyx_search_assets(query="cutscene", filter={ kind: "video" })
onyx_search_assets(query="<character name> reference", filter={ kind: "image" })