Wedding video

Wedding Video

Create cinematic wedding montage videos from personal photos and songs. Describe your love story in a structured config and render a professional montage with act-based narrative, Ken Burns animations, beat-synced editing, and cinematic effects.

Prerequisites

• video-toolkit installed (~/.openclaw/workspace/claude-code-video-toolkit)
• Node.js 18+
• Python 3.10+ with pip
• FFmpeg + FFprobe installed

Setup

Step 1: Install Python Dependencies

TOOLKIT=~/.openclaw/workspace/claude-code-video-toolkit
cd $TOOLKIT
pip3 install --break-system-packages librosa numpy soundfile Pillow imagehash piexif

Step 2: Create Project

cd $TOOLKIT
cp -r templates/wedding-montage projects/MY_WEDDING
cd projects/MY_WEDDING
npm install

Creating a Wedding Video

Step 1: Organize Photos

Drop photos into public/photos/ organized by category:

public/photos/
  childhood-a/       # Person A childhood/family
  childhood-b/       # Person B childhood/family
  relationship/      # Couple photos (dating, milestones)
  trips/             # Adventures, travel
  family/            # Family and friends
  proposal/          # Proposal/engagement photos

Or use the auto-import tool:

cd $TOOLKIT
python3 tools/photo_import.py \
  --input ~/Photos/wedding/ \
  --output projects/MY_WEDDING/public/photos/ \
  --config projects/MY_WEDDING/src/config/photos.json

The import tool handles EXIF date sorting, blur detection, duplicate removal via perceptual hashing, and organized directory output.

Step 2: Add Songs

cp ~/Music/slow-song.mp3 projects/MY_WEDDING/public/audio/song-1.mp3
cp ~/Music/upbeat-song.mp3 projects/MY_WEDDING/public/audio/song-2.mp3

Step 3: Detect Beats

cd $TOOLKIT
python3 tools/beat_detect.py \
  --input projects/MY_WEDDING/public/audio/song-1.mp3 \
  --output projects/MY_WEDDING/public/beats/song-1-beats.json

python3 tools/beat_detect.py \
  --input projects/MY_WEDDING/public/audio/song-2.mp3 \
  --output projects/MY_WEDDING/public/beats/song-2-beats.json

Beat detection uses librosa to extract beats, downbeats, BPM, and energy segments. The output JSON drives automatic photo placement on musical beats during high-energy acts.

Step 4: Edit Config

Edit src/config/wedding-config.ts:

import { WeddingConfig } from './types';

export const weddingConfig: WeddingConfig = {
  meta: {
    personA: 'Gina',
    personB: 'Tho',
    weddingDate: '2026-10-17',
    titleCard: {
      headline: 'Gina & Tho',
      subheadline: 'October 17, 2026',
      durationSeconds: 6,
    },
    endCard: {
      headline: 'Forever starts now',
      durationSeconds: 8,
    },
  },
  acts: [
    {
      id: 'two-worlds',
      title: 'Two Worlds',
      subtitle: 'Before they met',
      emotion: 'nostalgic',
      pacing: 'slow',
      colorGrade: 'warm-nostalgic',
      durationSeconds: 60,
      scenes: [
        {
          id: 'childhood-gina',
          type: 'photo',
          photos: [
            { src: 'photos/childhood-a/photo1.jpg' },
            { src: 'photos/childhood-a/photo2.jpg' },
          ],
          kenBurns: { motion: 'zoom-in' },
        },
        {
          id: 'childhood-tho',
          type: 'split-screen',
          photos: [
            { src: 'photos/childhood-a/teen.jpg' },
            { src: 'photos/childhood-b/teen.jpg' },
          ],
        },
      ],
      effects: { filmGrain: true, vignette: true },
      textOverlays: [
        {
          text: 'Two worlds apart...',
          position: 'bottom',
          style: { fontSize: 36, fontFamily: 'Playfair Display' },
          startSeconds: 5,
          durationSeconds: 4,
          animation: 'fade',
        },
      ],
    },
    {
      id: 'meeting',
      title: 'The Meeting',
      emotion: 'joyful',
      pacing: 'moderate',
      colorGrade: 'natural',
      durationSeconds: 45,
      scenes: [/* photo scenes */],
      transition: { type: 'fade-to-black', durationSeconds: 1.5 },
    },
    {
      id: 'adventure',
      title: 'The Adventure',
      emotion: 'energetic',
      pacing: 'fast',
      colorGrade: 'vibrant-adventure',
      durationSeconds: 75,
      scenes: [/* beat-synced photo montage */],
      effects: { particles: { type: 'confetti', density: 0.3 } },
    },
    {
      id: 'proposal',
      title: 'The Proposal',
      emotion: 'romantic',
      pacing: 'slow-dramatic',
      colorGrade: 'soft-cinematic',
      durationSeconds: 50,
      scenes: [/* proposal/engagement photos */],
      effects: { letterbox: true, depthBlur: true },
    },
    {
      id: 'tomorrow',
      title: 'Tomorrow',
      emotion: 'grateful',
      pacing: 'uplifting',
      colorGrade: 'golden-sunset',
      durationSeconds: 50,
      scenes: [
        { id: 'mosaic', type: 'mosaic', photos: [/* all favorites */] },
      ],
      effects: { particles: { type: 'golden-rain', density: 0.5 } },
    },
  ],
  audio: {
    tracks: [
      {
        id: 'slow-song',
        src: 'audio/song-1.mp3',
        startSeconds: 0,
        endSeconds: 132,
        fadeIn: 2,
        beatSyncEnabled: false,
        beatsFile: 'beats/song-1-beats.json',
      },
      {
        id: 'upbeat-song',
        src: 'audio/song-2.mp3',
        startSeconds: 132,
        fadeOut: 4,
        beatSyncEnabled: true,
        beatsFile: 'beats/song-2-beats.json',
        transition: { type: 'whoosh', sfxFile: 'audio/sfx/whoosh.mp3' },
      },
    ],
  },
  output: {
    formats: [
      { id: 'landscape', width: 1920, height: 1080, name: '16:9 Landscape' },
    ],
    fps: 30,
    quality: 'high',
  },
};

Step 5: Validate

cd $TOOLKIT
python3 tools/validate_config.py \
  --config projects/MY_WEDDING/src/config/wedding-config.ts

Checks file existence for all referenced photos and audio, timing consistency (act durations vs total audio), and config completeness.

Step 6: Preview

cd $TOOLKIT/projects/MY_WEDDING
npm start

Opens Remotion Studio. Preview individual acts or the full montage in the browser. Use this to check pacing, transitions, and color grading before committing to a full render.

Step 7: Render

cd $TOOLKIT/projects/MY_WEDDING
npx remotion render WeddingMontage out/wedding.mp4

Output: out/wedding.mp4

Step 8: Social Media Export

# TikTok/Reels (9:16)
ffmpeg -i out/wedding.mp4 \
  -vf "scale=1080:1920:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=1080:1920:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" \
  -c:a copy out/wedding-tiktok.mp4

# Instagram Square (1:1)
ffmpeg -i out/wedding.mp4 \
  -vf "crop=ih:ih:(iw-ih)/2:0,scale=1080:1080" \
  -c:a copy out/wedding-square.mp4

# YouTube (16:9, already native -- just add faststart)
ffmpeg -i out/wedding.mp4 -c copy -movflags +faststart out/wedding-youtube.mp4

Asset Manifest

Each asset (photo or video) gets a manifest entry in the config. This tells the skill what the asset contains, how important it is, and where it should appear. Instead of manually placing every photo into acts and scenes, annotate your assets and let the skill auto-place them based on tags, emotion, people, and weight.

interface AssetEntry {
  path: string;                    // relative path to file
  type: 'photo' | 'video';
  description: string;             // what's in this asset — Claude uses this for placement
  tags: string[];                  // searchable tags: ['childhood', 'gina', 'kansas-city']
  people: string[];                // who's in it: ['gina', 'tho', 'bear']
  weight: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5;     // importance: 1=filler, 3=good, 5=hero moment
  emotion: string;                 // emotional tone: 'nostalgic', 'joyful', 'intimate', 'triumphant'
  act?: string;                    // force into specific act: 'two-worlds', 'adventure', etc.
  duration?: number;               // suggested screen time in seconds (higher weight = longer)
  kenBurns?: 'zoom-in' | 'zoom-out' | 'pan-left' | 'pan-right' | 'drift';
  notes?: string;                  // special instructions: "this is THE proposal moment"
}

interface AssetManifest {
  assets: AssetEntry[];
  defaults: {
    weight: number;                // default weight for unweighted assets
    durationByWeight: {            // screen time mapping
      1: number; // 2s — filler
      2: number; // 3s — supporting
      3: number; // 4s — standard
      4: number; // 5s — featured
      5: number; // 7s — hero moment
    };
  };
}

How Weights Work

Weight	Role	Screen Time	Position	Effects
5 — Hero	The defining moment	6-8s	Beat drop, act climax, or finale	Slow zoom, full frame, extra glow
4 — Featured	Key memory	4-6s	Act transitions, emotional peaks	Ken Burns with gentle effects
3 — Standard	Good photo	3-4s	Regular sequence	Standard Ken Burns
2 — Supporting	Context/filler	2-3s	Montage sequences, fast cuts	Quick cuts in beat-synced sections
1 — Background	Nice but not essential	1-2s	Only if needed to fill time	Flash in montage or mosaic grid

Smart Placement Rules

The skill uses tags, emotion, people, and description to auto-place assets:

• Assets tagged childhood + person → Act 1 (Two Worlds), placed on the correct side of split-screen
• Assets tagged relationship + early → Act 2 (Denver/Meeting)
• Assets tagged trip or adventure → Act 3 (Adventure), beat-synced montage
• Assets tagged proposal or emotion intimate → Act 4 (The Question)
• Assets tagged family or group → Act 5 (Tomorrow)
• weight: 5 assets get placed at the emotional peak of their assigned act
• weight: 1-2 assets fill the beat-synced montage in Act 3

Example Manifest

const assets: AssetManifest = {
  assets: [
    {
      path: 'photos/gina-childhood-01.jpg',
      type: 'photo',
      description: 'Gina as a toddler in Kansas City backyard',
      tags: ['childhood', 'kansas-city'],
      people: ['gina'],
      weight: 3,
      emotion: 'nostalgic',
      act: 'two-worlds',
    },
    {
      path: 'photos/proposal-moment.jpg',
      type: 'photo',
      description: 'The exact moment Tho proposed — Gina crying happy tears',
      tags: ['proposal'],
      people: ['gina', 'tho'],
      weight: 5,
      emotion: 'intimate',
      act: 'the-question',
      kenBurns: 'zoom-in',
      notes: 'THE hero shot. Hold this for 7+ seconds at the act climax.',
    },
    {
      path: 'photos/bear-hiking.jpg',
      type: 'photo',
      description: 'Bear on the hiking trail with mountains behind',
      tags: ['adventure', 'bear', 'outdoors'],
      people: ['bear'],
      weight: 2,
      emotion: 'joyful',
    },
    {
      path: 'videos/first-dance-clip.mp4',
      type: 'video',
      description: '8 second clip of first dance practice in living room',
      tags: ['relationship', 'dancing'],
      people: ['gina', 'tho'],
      weight: 4,
      emotion: 'intimate',
      duration: 5,
    },
  ],
  defaults: {
    weight: 3,
    durationByWeight: { 1: 2, 2: 3, 3: 4, 4: 5, 5: 7 },
  },
};

Quick Asset Annotation

For users who don't want to write full manifest entries, support a shorthand CSV:

path,weight,tags,act,notes
photos/gina-kid-01.jpg,3,childhood;gina,two-worlds,
photos/proposal.jpg,5,proposal,the-question,THE moment
photos/denver-cafe.jpg,4,relationship;early,denver,where they met
videos/bear-park.mp4,2,adventure;bear,,

Generate a starter manifest from existing photos using EXIF data and basic image analysis:

cd $TOOLKIT
python3 tools/generate_manifest.py --dir photos/ --output manifest.csv

Five-Act Structure

The default wedding narrative follows five emotional acts:

Act	Emotion	Pacing	Color Grade	Typical Duration
Two Worlds	Nostalgic	Slow (4-6s/photo)	Warm Nostalgic	45-75s
The Meeting	Joyful	Moderate (3-4s/photo)	Natural	30-50s
The Adventure	Energetic	Fast, beat-synced (1-2s/photo)	Vibrant Adventure	60-90s
The Proposal	Romantic	Slow-dramatic (5-8s/photo)	Soft Cinematic	40-60s
Tomorrow	Grateful	Uplifting, building	Golden Sunset	40-60s

Customize any act or add/remove acts. The structure is a starting point -- not a constraint.

Color Grade Presets

Preset	Look	Best For
warm-nostalgic	Warm, slightly desaturated, touch of sepia	Childhood, memories
vibrant-adventure	High contrast, saturated	Travel, energy
soft-cinematic	Soft, low contrast, warm	Romance, proposals
golden-sunset	Golden overlay, warm tones	Finale, celebration
cool-dramatic	Cool, high contrast	Drama, tension
vintage-film	Heavy sepia, desaturated	Retro looks
noir	High contrast, fully desaturated	B&W drama
pastel-dream	Bright, low contrast, soft pastels	Dreamy, ethereal
natural	No grading	When photos speak for themselves

Color grades are applied via CSS filters on the <ColorGrade> wrapper component. They support interpolated transitions between acts so grade changes feel cinematic rather than abrupt.

Ken Burns Motions

Motion	Effect
zoom-in	Slowly zoom into center
zoom-out	Slowly zoom out from center
pan-left	Pan left with slight zoom
pan-right	Pan right with slight zoom
pan-up	Slow pan up with slight zoom
pan-down	Slow pan down with slight zoom
drift	Gentle diagonal movement
random	Varies per photo (deterministic seed for render consistency)

All Ken Burns animations use Remotion's interpolate() with Easing.bezier() curves. Never CSS transitions or @keyframes. The <KenBurnsPhoto> component accepts motion, scale, and custom startPosition/endPosition overrides.

Beat-Synced Editing

The <BeatSyncedMontage> component reads beat JSON from librosa and auto-places photos on beat boundaries:

1. Beat detection extracts beat timestamps, downbeats, BPM, and energy per segment.
2. Energy-aware pacing -- high-energy segments get faster cuts (every beat), low-energy segments hold photos for 2-4 beats.
3. Downbeat emphasis -- scene transitions align with downbeats (bar boundaries) for stronger visual rhythm.
4. Minimum hold time -- set minPhotoFrames to prevent cuts from being too fast (floor on beat-driven duration).
5. Photo ordering preserves config order by default. Set shuffle: true for randomized placement.

Enable beat sync only for high-energy acts (Adventure). Slow acts with beat sync feel jarring.

Multi-Song Audio

The <AudioTrack> component handles multiple songs with precise timing:

• Start/end offsets -- trim songs to specific sections via startSeconds/endSeconds.
• Fade in/out -- smooth volume interpolation at song boundaries.
• Crossfade -- overlap two songs with volume ramps for seamless transitions.
• Hard cut with SFX -- whoosh, impact, or reverse-cymbal between songs.
• Volume curves -- per-track volume envelopes via Remotion's interpolate().
• Master volume -- global masterVolume control on the audio config (default 1.0).

Song transitions should align with act boundaries. Map each act to the appropriate song segment in the config.

Effects

All effects are composable and applied per-act via the effects config property:

• Film Grain -- Use @remotion/noise noise2D()/noise3D() for procedural grain with configurable intensity (0.0-1.0). Deterministic seeded noise for render consistency.
• Vignette -- Darkened edges with configurable spread and intensity. Draws focus to center.
• Letterbox -- Cinematic 2.35:1 black bars. Applied as absolute-positioned overlays.
• Particles -- Six types: confetti, golden-rain, sparkles, snow, bokeh, dust. Use Remotion Bits ParticleSystem (npx remotion-bits find ParticleSystem) for confetti and golden-rain. Each has density (0.0-1.0) and speed controls.
• Depth Blur -- Simulated depth of field via backdrop-filter blur with mask options.
• Split Screen -- 2, 3, or 4 photos side by side with configurable gap and animation.

Stack multiple effects: { filmGrain: true, vignette: true, letterbox: true }.

Component Architecture

WeddingMontage (top-level composition)
  TitleCard
  WeddingAct (per act)
    ColorGrade (wraps entire act)
    WeddingScene (per scene)
      KenBurnsPhoto | SplitScreen | PhotoMosaic | BeatSyncedMontage | VideoClip | TextOnly
      TextOverlay (optional, per scene)
    FilmGrain | Vignette | Letterbox | Particles | DepthBlur (effects layer)
  ActTransition (between acts: fade-to-black, crossfade, title-card, whoosh-cut, @remotion/light-leaks, GL Transitions)
  AudioTrack (multi-song with beat data)
  EndCard

All components use Remotion primitives: useCurrentFrame(), useVideoConfig(), interpolate(), spring(), staticFile(), <Sequence>, <Audio>, <Img>. Never CSS animations, setTimeout, or requestAnimationFrame.

Remotion Ecosystem Packages

Install the official Remotion skills for best results: npx skills i remotion-dev/skills/skills/remotion. This provides 35 production rules covering animations, audio, transitions, text, 3D, and more.

Core Packages

Package	What it does
@remotion/transitions	fade, slide, wipe, flip, clockWipe, iris
@remotion/captions	TikTok-style word-by-word captions
@remotion/media-utils	visualizeAudio(), getAudioData(), getAudioDurationInSeconds()
@remotion/layout-utils	measureText(), fitText(), fillTextBox()
@remotion/light-leaks	WebGL light leak overlays — use for act transitions instead of fade-to-black
@remotion/motion-blur	<Trail> and <CameraMotionBlur> — use for slow-mo proposal moments
@remotion/noise	Procedural noise — use noise2D()/noise3D() for film grain instead of CSS overlay
@remotion/google-fonts	Google Fonts loading
@remotion/shapes	Geometric shape components
@remotion/paths	SVG path animation
remotion-animated	Declarative <Animated> with Move(), Scale(), Fade()

Community Packages

Package	What it does
Remotion Bits (npx remotion-bits find/fetch)	ParticleSystem (confetti, golden rain, starfields), AnimatedText (char/word/line stagger), StaggeredMotion — use ParticleSystem instead of custom CSS particles
GL Transitions (remotion-gl-transitions)	Hundreds of GLSL shader transitions from gl-transitions.com — use for cinematic dissolves between acts
remotion-confetti	Canvas-based confetti with physics

AI Services

Service	What it does	Cost
fal.ai	Single API for video gen (Veo 3.1, Kling 3, Wan 2.2). One key, all models	$0.05-0.50/sec
whisper.cpp	LOCAL speech-to-text, zero cost. Use for caption generation	Free
Suno (via KIE)	AI music with vocals — custom wedding songs with lyrics	$0.03/song

Producer Intelligence

Audio ducking: Auto-lower music volume when voiceover speaks. Use Remotion's interpolate() on volume based on voiceover audio presence. Essential for wedding videos with narration over music.

Loudness normalization: Target LUFS per platform: YouTube -14, TikTok -14, Instagram -14, Podcast -16. Post-process:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -af loudnorm=I=-14:TP=-1.5:LRA=11 output.mp4

Film grain via @remotion/noise: Use noise2D() or noise3D() for procedural film grain instead of CSS overlay. Renders consistently across frames with deterministic seeds.

Light leaks via @remotion/light-leaks: WebGL overlays for transitions between acts/scenes. Use instead of fade-to-black between upbeat acts.

Remotion Rules

These rules apply to ALL Remotion code in this project:

1. Always use staticFile() for assets in public/. Never relative paths.
2. Always use <Img> from remotion, never <img>.
3. Always use <OffthreadVideo> for video clips, never <video>.
4. Never use CSS animations or transitions. Use interpolate() and spring() only.
5. Never use useEffect for animation. Derive everything from useCurrentFrame().
6. Never use Math.random(). Use deterministic seeded random for render consistency.
7. Import transitions from specific paths, not barrel exports: import { fade } from '@remotion/transitions/fade'.

Scene Types

Type	Description
photo	Single photo with Ken Burns animation
split-screen	2, 3, or 4 photos side by side
mosaic	Grid of photos with staggered entrance
video-clip	Short video clip (use <OffthreadVideo>)
text-only	Full-screen text card (no photo)
blank	Empty scene for spacing or manual composition

Cost Estimate

Item	Cost	Notes
Local Remotion render	$0	10-20 min for a 5-min video on M1 Mac
Beat detection (local)	$0	librosa runs locally, ~5s per song
Photo import (local)	$0	All local processing
Total (local pipeline)	$0	All processing is local

Tips

1. Photo count: 40-80 photos for a 4-6 minute video. More photos means faster pacing.
2. Song length: Total song duration should roughly match total video duration.
3. Beat sync: Enable only for high-energy acts. Slow acts with beat sync feel jarring.
4. Preview often. Use npm start to check pacing in Remotion Studio before full render.
5. Photo quality: 1920x1080 minimum. Larger is fine -- Remotion scales down.
6. Text overlays: Less is more. 3-5 text moments across the whole video.
7. Act transitions: Use fade-to-black between emotional shifts, @remotion/light-leaks between upbeat acts, GL Transitions for cinematic dissolves.
8. Render time: Expect 10-20 minutes for a 5-minute video on an M1 Mac.