hyperframes/skills/music-to-video/references/template-catalog.md

Template catalog — the selection menu (Step 3)

Reverse-engineered, asset-free group templates. This file is the only thing the planner reads to pick one — you do not open the template's index.html to choose. One template realizes one group of a frame (a frame may stack several groups; the brand spine unifies them).

How to pick. For each group, read its frame's pacing + mood + the one-line music situation from the skeleton, then scan Reach for it when + Best span below and take the closest fit. If nothing fits, free-compose from motion-primitive-catalog.md — that is a first-class choice, not a failure.

Brand comes from frame.md, not the template. Templates ship their own demo palette (theme / palette / color params). Fill those params from the project's frame.md (the chosen preset's colors + fonts) so every group reads as one piece — the template supplies the motion + layout, the preset supplies the look.

Params are listed so you can fill content slots in the storyboard. Exact semantics + defaults live in each template's index.html (data-composition-variables) — the frame-worker reads those at build time; you only name the values.

Pacing tag: every template below is beat_cut except held-message-living-field (phrase_flow). Never put a beat_cut template on a phrase_flow frame.

Group duration discipline

Template choice is per group, not per frame. A frame longer than a template's Best span should usually split into multiple groups at real audiomap anchors (SURGE, DROP, roll edge, hard_stop, phrase edge) instead of stretching one template across the whole frame.

• Best span below is the active treatment span: the part where the template's system is doing meaningful motion. A short readable hold at the end is fine; a long empty tail means pick another group.
• Frames over ~6s usually need 2+ groups. Beat-cut exceptions are rich programs with real sub-phases (poster-tile-mosaic, sometimes card-flyby); phrase-flow exceptions use held-message-living-field.
• Roll templates are one-roll tools. If a frame has two rolls or a drop between rolls, split it into two groups.
• Do not extend by slowing every tween. Preserve the template's motion feel, then fill extra time with a hold / palette change / new group.

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card-flyby

• What — a depth column of cards rolls forward through perspective; each landing beat tumbles the next card into the front slot with a solid colored wipe, the old front falls toward camera, dwells shrink card-to-card so the deck accelerates into a held final card.
• Reach for it when — a stream of discrete onsets that accelerate (gaps shrinking / a build into a downbeat) and you want to flash a sequence of items — titles, projects, posters, tiles — one per hit, climaxing on a held card.
• Best span — 4-6.5s for 4-7 landings plus a short final hold; split at the next downbeat if it wants to run >7s.
• Params — theme, bgColor, cards, landings, yaw

held-message-living-field · phrase_flow

• What — a readable mark (logo / word / title) held dead still over a soft, color-shifting blurred field; only the field breathes.
• Reach for it when — a calm / sparse stretch with an onset desert — energy present but few or no onsets (a held pad or riser); you have one word or mark to hold and let breathe.
• Best span — 6-16s; this is the long-group exception. Under 4s feels underdeveloped; over ~20s needs a state change or another group.
• Params — markText, titleText, tagText, palette, flowSpeed, duration

held-text-strobe-burst

• What — a dead-still word whose letters flip through texture-filled frames (texture-clipped fill + per-frame tint + bg color) every ~3 frames, in short bursts pinned to a roll.
• Reach for it when — a dense, hard-hitting roll / fill and a single word you want to strobe through textures for a few bars. (Ships texture-mask PNGs under assets/.)
• Best span — 1.2-3.5s; strobe fatigue starts fast, so cap at ~4s and cut to a cleaner system.
• Params — markText, fontStyle, markScale, idleColor, idleInk, frames, strobePlan, decor, duration

intro-kinetic-cascade

• What — a line laid out as a sequence of big editorial phrases (each a stacked poster with one enlarged hero word), revealed word-by-word on its anchors, hard cut between phrases, climaxing on a phrase that slides in with a swappable ringing icon (bell / cursor / sparkle / emoji / SVG).
• Reach for it when — an intro / opening statement: a short line to land word-by-word as big type, climaxing on one keyword + an icon. Medium-or-more energy, steady grid.
• Best span — 3.5-7s for 2-4 phrase beats; if the statement needs more time, make the next clause a new group.
• Params — theme, icon, phrases, climax

logo-split-lockup-pulse

• What — a two-part mark joined at center splits left↔right to open a gap, grows a center word-lockup one word per onset (key word lands on the downbeat surge), snap-closes on a hit, then pulses with the beat.
• Reach for it when — a short logo / brand sting (not a typed sentence): fast dense onsets + a sustained roll bed to pulse on, with a left/right bracketing mark.
• Best span — 2-4s; at >4.5s it reads like a sting stretched too long. Follow with a separate held-lockup / next idea group.
• Params — bgColor, markColor, textColor, leftMark, rightMark, word1, word2, word3, word4

poster-tile-mosaic

• What — a packed mosaic of different-sized colored tiles that tessellate to fill the frame (no overlap), driven by interchangeable beat-synced operations: staggered enter/exit, locked global recolor, snake-fill + overlay.
• Reach for it when — many discrete, individually-placeable onsets (a hit for every tile move) with distinct sub-phases you want articulated differently (accumulate → recolor-on-roll → fill-then-drop). A dense section best held as one rich tile program rather than split.
• Best span — 4-7s, up to 8s only when the program has clear sub-phases. If the music changes regime, split even if the tile system could continue.
• Params — bgColor, tiles, bands, gap, showText, labels, program

roll-flipbook-word-cycle

• What — a hi-hat roll drives a centred word that flips every 16th-note through a word list; optionally the flicker resolves and locks into a final phrase.
• Reach for it when — a fast sustained-fill roll (hundreds of hits/min, ~16th-note) with no single readable message — fill the roll with a rapidly-cycling word flipbook.
• Best span — 1.2-3.8s, one roll into one resolve. Two rolls, or a drop between rolls, means two groups.
• Params — bgColor, textColor, accentColor, flipWords, resolveText, periodChar

split-anchor-word-slot

• What — a held left anchor column of fixed-word rows beside a torn-paper word-slot box on the right, driven by beat-synced operators: anchor lock-in, slot word-group cycle (in/out + per-line color), full-scene background flip, per-beat jitter, box-zoom exit wipe. Row count + number of flips are data.
• Reach for it when — a short section with a held idea (a brand / name to anchor on the left) and a stream of onsets popping separate words on the right, plus a dense run to ride a shake on and a strong downbeat to wipe out into.
• Best span — 3-6s; above ~6.5s the fixed anchor goes stale unless the right slot enters a new group/program.
• Params — bgColor, anchors, theme, showText, program

typewriter-phrase-keyword-shuffle

• What — words type in one-per-onset to spell a phrase, then one keyword cycles typefaces on the beat while everything else holds dead still.
• Reach for it when — a steady grid with a continuous onset stream (no desert): a phrase to type out, then a keyword to shuffle. The inverse of held-message-living-field (which wants an onset desert).
• Best span — 2.5-5s; if the phrase cannot type and shuffle inside ~5s, reduce words or split the sentence across groups.
• Params — bgColor, textColor, accentColor, lead1, lead2, lead3, keyword, periodChar