You can make a 45-second animated explainer ad with Claude Code and a handful of skills. No video editor is involved. The first one took about 30 minutes, because the skills for each step already existed.
The workflow below is the one we used for a skincare brand's explainer. You write the brief and review the output. The agent does the technical work.
What you need
- Claude Code
- Skills for each stage (storyboard, keyframes, animation, stitching). The Gooseworks skills cover these:
npx gooseworks install --all - Access to an image model, a video model and a voice model
- ffmpeg on your computer
The steps
1. Write the concept brief
Handwrite a short brief, then iterate on it with the agent. It covers the concept, the characters, the visual style and the script. Ask the agent to collect raw materials too: brand context, product images and the end card.
2. Prepare a moodboard
Once the script looks right, have the agent generate:
- Character reference images
- Voiceover samples for each character or narrator
- A storyboard, scene by scene, as a grid
- A few keyframe scenes
3. Generate a keyframe for every scene
The agent uses the character references from step 2 so each scene looks like the same cast. Review this step properly. In our run we skipped a second round and saw some character drift and a weak product diagram. Fix those here, because every later step builds on the keyframes.
4. Animate keyframes into clips
Start with two to four representative scenes. If the preview looks right, generate the rest. This keeps a bad style choice from costing you the whole video.
5. Stitch the video
The agent assembles the clips with hard cuts, then adds:
- A music score and sound effects
- Clips synced to the voiceover
- Captions
- Timing and pacing fixes
6. Watch the final cut and review it
Have the agent watch the video twice. First as a video editor, looking for technical errors such as mismatched voiceover and visuals or AI artifacts. Then as your ideal customer. The agent catches more than you will on a first pass, and it fixes what it finds.
7. Capture what you learned
Ask the agent to extract the lessons from the run and update the skills. This is what makes the second video faster than the first. Skills are code, so every correction you make once stays fixed.
What to check before you run it
- Character consistency across scenes
- Product visuals match the real product
- Voiceover timing against the captions
- The end card shows the correct logo and offer
Try it
Goose Ads and the video skills are open to try at gooseworks.ai/ads. If you would rather not run the workflow yourself, ask Goose for a video ad and pick a format.