hyperframes/skills/embedded-captions/references/bespoke-vs-presets.md

Bespoke design vs. presets — when to override, when to clone

The 5 preset styles (intro / phrase / emph / dream / crown) and the 3 templates (wall-embed, corner-column-crown, portrait-header) are scaffolds, not rules. The best renders we've shipped all override presets for specific groups because typography is a per-scene decision, not a general rule.

If you only use presets, your render will look generic. If you only copy existing renders, your skill won't adapt. The right workflow is:

1. Decide the shape first (template choice, plane position, blend mode).
2. Check if a canonical example is close enough → clone and tweak words + timings.
3. Otherwise start from presets → override per-group via custom_css.

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Canonical example renders

Full HTML for two validated renders is in references/example-renders/:

File	Scene	What makes it work
memory-wall.html	Introspective monologue, right-side foam wall, mid-tone	Right-aligned cascade, per-group bespoke sizes (cap-1 78 italic / cap-2 66 italic + right hanging-indent / cap-3 72 upright / cap-4 90 uppercase). mix-blend-mode: screen for the dark-ish foam.
champion.html	Podcast interview, cluttered bookshelf, 1920×1080	Upper-left column + center-stage crown. Tuned preset class sizes (cap-intro 52 / cap-phrase 60 / cap-emph 70 / cap-crown 140). screen blend reads the shelves through text.

When a new scene matches one of these closely (similar framing, similar subject-center, similar backdrop type): clone the HTML and only replace the GROUPS array + word timings. Don't re-derive the design from presets — you'll lose the specific choices that took many iterations to validate.

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When presets are wrong

You'll reach for presets like "style": "emph" when what the scene really needs is:

"This cap is at position N and deserves its own treatment"

memory-wall.html uses cap-1 / cap-2 / cap-3 / cap-4 — position-indexed, not role-indexed. Each one is a bespoke design for a specific phrase at a specific point in the arc:

• cap-1 (soft opener, 4 words): 78px italic 600 — feels like a whisper
• cap-2 (dreamy modifier, 3 words): 66px italic 500 + padding-right: 44px — hanging indent creates ragged right-edge stagger
• cap-3 (turn, 2 words): 72px upright 700 — the syntactic pivot, no italic
• cap-4 (climax, 4 words): 90px uppercase 900 — three lines cascade right-aligned

phrase/emph/intro can't express "this cap has a hanging indent" or "this cap is the syntactic pivot". When that matters, invent your own class names:

{
  "template": "wall-embed",
  "custom_css": "
    .cap-1 { font-size: 78px; font-weight: 600; font-style: italic;
             letter-spacing: -0.01em; }
    .cap-2 { font-size: 66px; font-weight: 500; font-style: italic;
             padding-right: 44px; }
    .cap-3 { font-size: 72px; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.015em; }
    .cap-4 { font-size: 90px; font-weight: 900; letter-spacing: -0.03em;
             text-transform: uppercase; line-height: 1.0; }
  ",
  "groups": [
    { "id": "cg-0", "style": "1", "words": [...] },
    { "id": "cg-1", "style": "2", "words": [...] },
    ...
  ]
}

The "style": "1" field becomes class="cap-1" on the element — any string works, no validation.

"The template's blend doesn't suit this backdrop" → pick a different template, do NOT override

Cinematic mode does not override colour or blend. A template's mix-blend-mode + fill are locked DNA — make-composition.cjs ignores plan.cap_color / blend_mode / text_shadow / text_filter. Selecting a template commits to its look; the only agent-authored things are layout (planes/positions) and per-group typography.

So use the caption-region luminance to choose a template that already fits — never to recolour one:

Region luminance	What fits	Why
< 60 (dark / low-key)	a cream + screen template (cinematic-cream, memory-wall, champion, portrait-header)	light text glows, picks up the scene
60–180 (mid-tone)	a cream + screen template still reads (add a scrim via Standard if marginal)	text picks up texture
> 180 (bright: window, pale wall)	none of the cream/screen Cinematic templates — they wash out	→ use Standard mode (opaque rail, set per the chosen template) instead

If the scene is bright and the cream/screen look washes out, that's the signal to switch to Standard mode (which sets opaque colour in the HTML), not to recolour a Cinematic template into something it isn't.

"Hanging indent / outdent / letter-width tweak"

These are per-group affordances you'll occasionally need. Express via custom_css:

#cg-2 {
  padding-right: 44px;
} /* right-aligned: shrinks right edge, creating left outdent */
#cg-2 {
  padding-left: 44px;
} /* left-aligned: offset right start */
.cap-emph .w:first-child {
  font-size: 110%;
} /* oversize first word only */

The #cg-N selector always works because make-composition.cjs writes <div id="cg-N" ...> for every group.

"Caps should accumulate (flex stack) instead of swap"

All three templates default to position: absolute on .cap inside their plane — caps stack at one spot and only the active one shows (single-caption swap). This is correct for portrait-header and corner-column-crown, where each caption replaces the last.

memory-wall uses flex column accumulation — captions pile up like a poem. The template doesn't default to this, so override via custom_css:

.wall-plane {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: flex-end; /* or flex-start for left-aligned */
  text-align: right;
  gap: 14px;
}
.wall-plane .cap {
  position: static; /* un-do template's absolute */
  top: auto;
  right: auto;
  max-width: 100%;
}

With this + staggered in / out times, cap-0 fades in at t=0.2, cap-1 at t=2.55 (below cap-0 in flex order), cap-2 at t=4.90 (replaces both as they fade out together at t=4.85) — this is how the memory-wall poem pages work.

"Font size doesn't match the scene"

Template preset sizes are tuned for a specific column width + frame size. Don't fight them — override:

"custom_css": ".cap-intro { font-size: 52px; } .cap-phrase { font-size: 60px; }"

Then check typography-presets.md § Font-size scales with column width for what to aim at given your plane's actual dimensions.

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The clone-and-tweak workflow

For a new video that's clearly similar to an existing canonical example:

# 1. Scaffold the project
hyperframes init <project> --non-interactive --video <video.mp4>

# 2. Matte + transcribe
node scripts/matte.cjs <project>
node scripts/transcribe.cjs <project>

# 3. Copy the canonical HTML instead of writing plan.json
cp references/example-renders/memory-wall.html <project>/index.html

# 4. Replace GROUPS array with the new transcript's grouping (hand-edit index.html)

# 5. Render directly (skip make-composition.cjs since we're not using plan.json)
bash scripts/render-and-composite.sh <project>

This skips the preset-based plan.json entirely. Use when:

• Subject framing, shot composition, and backdrop type are similar to the example
• You just need to swap the words and timings
• The bespoke typography from the example is what you want

Don't clone when:

• Subject position differs significantly (e.g. centered vs off-center)
• Scene luminance / blend-mode needs are different
• You want to experiment with new typography

In those cases, start with plan.json + custom_css and iterate.

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Rendering history

render-and-composite.sh now snapshots index.html + plan.json into <project>/history/ with a timestamp before every render. If the user says "the previous one was better", diff against the latest snapshot:

ls <project>/history/
diff <project>/history/index-20260422-203947.html <project>/index.html

This lets you recover a design you iterated away from, without re-reading the agent transcript.