stickman-video-director

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🎬 Stickman Video Director

Turn any script into viral, multi-style animated stickman videos for Faceless YouTube Channels. Fully open-source.

Start with a topic, an article, or a script. Automatically orchestrate visuals, voiceovers, captions, and sound effects into a production-ready stickman video.

⚡ 100% Free & Open-Source. No camera, no $50/mo subscriptions, and ready in minutes, not days.

Continually updated visual styles for science explainers, dark psychology, tech parables, viral lore, and storytelling channels.

10 visual styles · Tested examples · Free and open source

⭐ Star the project to catch the next style drop and feature unlocks.

Get started · Director Styles · Autopilot Styles · FAQ · Roadmap

🎬 Two ways to make your video

Want control over every shot? Choose A · Director Mode. Want a finished video without assembling scenes yourself? Choose B · Autopilot Mode. One project, two workflows.

	A · Director Mode	B · Autopilot Mode
Approach	You control production; AI plans the shots. Get storyboards and prompts, then generate clips and edit them yourself.	Give it a topic or a brief; get a finished video. Automate illustrations, voiceover, captions, subtle animation, and video assembly.
Length	Short-first, typically 30 seconds–3 minutes. Longer videos can be built scene by scene.	Long-form-first, especially narrated videos of 10 minutes or more. Also works for shorts and episodic stories.
Tools	Plan with a Skill-compatible AI assistant, generate clips in your preferred video generator (Google Flow, Runway, Luma, Kling, etc.), then assemble in CapCut or Premiere.	Run in Codex, Claude Code, or another AI coding agent that can read and write files, call tools, and execute commands to connect generation with local rendering.
Visuals	Generated animated clips, with character movement, camera direction, and interactions.	Illustrated scenes with subtle animation, using cuts, pans, and zooms to support the narration rather than generating a full-motion clip for every scene.
Output	A director's treatment, storyboards, scene-by-scene video prompts, and sound design.	A complete video file with voiceover, captions, and subtle animation.
Start	Use Director Mode	Use Autopilot Mode

Both workflows can start with a raw topic, a web link, or a full script. Customize your aspect ratio (9:16, 16:9, 1:1), narration language, and voiceover freely. The lengths above are recommendations, not hard limits.

💡 Quick Setup Note:

• Director Mode works anywhere in standard conversational AI windows.
• Autopilot Mode runs inside AI coding agents with file/terminal access (like Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, or Cursor) to automatically handle end-to-end rendering and file delivery.

🧭 Get started

For results closest to the showcase, I recommend starting with Codex. I use Codex to create and test my showcase examples for this project.

You can also install the Skill in Claude Code, Cursor, Antigravity, or other agents with file and terminal access. However, differences in models, tool configuration, and execution can lead to different results.

Send the following to your AI assistant:

Install this Skill for me:
https://github.com/kaomei/stickman-video-director

Once installed, read the installed SKILL.md right away.
Explain what each mode produces, the tools it needs, and the workflow
in plain language, with examples I can copy.
Based on what I want to make, tell me what is missing and exactly what to do next.

A · Director Mode: scene-by-scene video prompts

After installation, send this to your AI assistant and replace the placeholder with your topic:

Use Director Mode / mode A to turn the following topic, copy, or brief
into a stickman video:
[Enter a topic, paste your copy, or describe what you need]

Requirements: landscape 16:9, A3 "Prehistoric Cave" style, starting with 30 seconds.
Give me the director's treatment first. After I approve it, provide scene-by-scene video prompts.

Workflow: share your topic and brief → develop the story script → optionally approve front, side, and back character views → generate detailed storyboard prompts → manually generate clips and edit the final video

The treatment covers the story structure, scene-by-scene narration, actions, camera direction, and sound design. Copy each prompt into Google Flow or another video generator, then add captions and finish the edit in CapCut or your preferred editor.

For your first video, follow the visual production walkthrough on X (Thread with step-by-step video demos).

B · Autopilot Mode: from a brief to a long-form video

After installing in Codex, Claude Code, or another environment with file access and command execution, try:

Use Autopilot Mode / mode B to turn the following topic, article, post, news item, or brief
into a compelling YouTube video:
[Paste content or a link, or describe what you want to promote]

Requirements: 5–10 minutes, landscape 16:9, B1 "Minimal Line Art" style, with voiceover, captions, and sound effects.

Check the image generation, voiceover, and video-rendering setup first. Then give me a script and a 20-second preview with sound.
After I approve it, build the full video with visuals timed to the narration. Deliver a complete video file; I do not want to assemble scenes myself.

Workflow: share a topic, content, or brief → approve the script → approve a 20-second preview with sound → automatically produce the full video → receive the finished video file

The AI assistant plans the scenes, generates the visuals and narration, adds captions and sound effects, and renders a complete video to the voiceover's timing. You approve the script and preview; you do not have to generate and assemble every scene yourself.

On first use, it checks the required setup and walks you through anything missing. If a visual or voiceover section needs work, revise just that section and keep what you have already approved.

Optional finishing for either mode: once you confirm the final video, continue with the Thumbnail & Publishing Kit for a matching cover and upload copy—or finish here. No new mode or installation is needed.

🎨 A · Director Mode style gallery

Styles are numbered A1, A2, A3… Each includes its own animated examples.

A1: Classic Black & White

A round head and a handful of lines can make a complicated idea click. With the clutter stripped away, every gesture and visual metaphor matters: anxiety becomes a cage; attention becomes a battery running low.

• The look: Crisp black ink on white, or a more dramatic white-on-black version. A few bright accents put the important detail in focus.
• Made for: Science, psychology, personal growth, business breakdowns, and concepts that become clearer with the right visual analogy.

A1.1 · Black on white	A1.2 · White on black
Pure white canvas · Black characters	Pure black canvas · White characters

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A2: Modern Pop

Red beanie. Yellow shirt. A character you recognize at a glance. Follow them from floating tech interfaces into city streets and the wilderness, turning a tool demo or a personal turning point into a character-led story.

• The look: Minimal Tech pairs white space with glass-like interfaces and cyan light. Colorful Story adds richer settings, depth, and mood-driven lighting.
• Made for: AI tools, tech products, tutorials, personal growth, everyday experiences, and adventures.

A2.1 · Minimal Tech	A2.2 · Colorful Story
White space · Faint grid · Cyan glow	Colorful scenes · Cinematic lighting · Story atmosphere

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A3: Prehistoric Cave

No phones. No offices. So why are the cavemen still stuck working? Visually inspired by YouTube’s @Zenn0009 (200K subscribers). Drop modern problems into a world of caves, campfires, and animal skins, and watch familiar frustrations turn into absurd little stories with a sting.

• The look: Rough hand-drawn lines, earthy settings, and big reactions. Character interactions, reaction shots, and comic pauses do the storytelling.
• Made for: Workplace satire, human nature, prehistoric what-ifs, dark comedy, fables, and English-learning stories for children.

Example 1: "How Did Humans Get Their First Job?"	Example 2: "The First Discovery of Fire"
Prehistoric story · Workplace twist	Discovery of fire · Community creation

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A4: Cozy Storytelling

The message you feel you must answer. The afternoon you finally keep for yourself. Small moments in stations, bedrooms, and corner cafés give hard-to-name feelings a place to live—and viewers a chance to recognize themselves.

• The look: Colorful everyday settings, gentle light, and understated gestures. A close-up catches hesitation; a wider shot leaves room to breathe.
• Made for: Relationships, everyday emotions, personal growth, habits, and warm stories that still make room for anxiety and exhaustion.

Example 1: Message anxiety on the commute	Example 2: Making time for yourself
Subway station · Walking shots · Emotional close-ups	Outdoor café · Warm light · Everyday gestures

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A5: Historical Cartoon

Samurai have bills to pay. An Egyptian cat can steal the scene. Step into the streets, temples, and camps of the past, turning a historical detail into something a character actually has to deal with.

• The look: White round heads, bold ink outlines, and colorful period settings. Costumes, buildings, and props establish the era; reactions and playful contrasts bring it to life.
• Made for: World history, curious civilizations, everyday life in the past, historical figures, and humorous history shorts.

Example 1: Edo Japan · A samurai's everyday life	Example 2: Ancient Egypt · Cats and mummies
Edo streets · Samurai clothing · Everyday contrasts	Colorful temples · Black cat characters · History with a twist

Style and prompt contribution: Lawal Ridwan / @leksautomate.

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A6: Amber Noir

What if you woke up and everything cost ten thousand times less? The visual inspiration is YouTube's @IfverseTales (60K subscribers gained in 3 weeks). An orange-hooded figure moves through golden light and deep plum shadows, turning a casual hypothetical into a cinematic story about temptation, consequences, and unexpected turns.

• The look: Amber highlights, dark silhouettes, and layered city scenes. Character actions and restrained camera movement build curiosity without a talking presenter.
• Made for: What-if scenarios, modern fables, psychology, unexpected discoveries, and stories with a twist.

Example 1: What if everything cost 10,000 times less?	Example 2: The Era of Collapsing Prices
Renoise MCP example · 20 seconds · Narrated by Tim	Google Flow example · 8 seconds · Model-native audio

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A7: Coming soon…

New specialized director styles are currently in training. Star the project to unlock them at 5,000 Stars!

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🤖 B · Autopilot Mode style gallery

Styles are numbered B1, B2, B3… Each has its own finished examples combining illustrated scenes with subtle animation, maintained separately from the A series.

B1: Minimal Line Art

Like a friend sketching an idea as they explain it. Expressive faces, black linework, and a few colorful props turn abstract knowledge into little scenes—and product benefits into situations people recognize.

• The look: Near-white paper, lively hand-drawn marks, and purposeful headline text. Expressions, props, and subtle animation carry the explanation without crowding the screen.
• Made for: YouTube explainers, education, psychology, personal growth, workplace stories, and product introductions.

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B2: Colorful Hand-Drawn

Why does your mind get louder the harder you try to sleep? Inspired by YouTube's @PsychToonsHQ (200K subscribers), warm paper textures, soft colors, and handwritten touches turn sleeplessness, procrastination, and distraction into little stories that feel uncomfortably familiar.

• The look: Fine ink lines, colorful everyday settings, and ivory paper captions. Close-ups, illustrated metaphors, and gentle motion reveal the psychology behind a small habit.
• Made for: Everyday psychology, sleep, habits, attention, personal growth, and relatable life explainers.

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B3: Retro TV

Like stumbling across a curious late-night broadcast. Inspired by YouTube's @BradikininVideos (55K subscribers gained in 3 weeks), rounded white-and-gray characters, faint bloom, and analog texture turn an ordinary question into a satisfying discovery.

• The look: Luminous figures against dark screens, clean white text, and subtle scanlines. Scene changes and small reactions give science a playful edge—and strange events a little suspense.
• Made for: Everyday science, psychology, animal behavior, curious facts, and short mysteries.

B4: Survival Thriller

A countdown. A late-night call. A rule you must never break. Ordinary places become traps in a look inspired by YouTube's @BeanieSurvives (100K subscribers gained in 3 weeks). Round white heads, white gloves, and stark light and shadow give simple characters an unsettling world to inhabit.

• The look: Half-shadowed openings, unnerving close-ups, and threats emerging from the dark. Small changes in expression, light, and props build suspense without explaining every image.
• The sound: Brian draws you in from the opening. A quiet, continuous ambient bed carries the tension; story-driven effects make the danger audible without overwhelming the narration.
• Made for: Survival rules, urban legends, disaster escapes, and suspense with a twist.

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🖼️ High-CTR Thumbnail & Publishing Kit

Your video is only as good as the click. Once your animation is complete, orchestrate matched thumbnail art, high-CTR titles, and viewer engagement hooks in the same workflow.

An integrated finishing pack for both Director and Autopilot Mode: generates visual hooks tailored to your video's approved character and art style, complete with ready-to-publish YouTube metadata.

All thumbnail concepts are designed around proven YouTube packaging psychology: bold visual contradictions, clean silhouettes, and mobile-readable typography.

What the kit delivers:

• Thumbnail Image: One landscape 16:9 cover matched to your video’s approved character style, color palette, and core conflict. Generated directly when a suitable image tool is available and any required cost is approved.
• 5 High-CTR Title Variants: Formulated for search intent, curiosity gaps, and broad viewer appeal.
• YouTube Studio Description & SEO: Topic summary, relevant tags, and timestamps when supported by the final cut or a verified timeline.
• Pinned Comment Hook: One relevant question inviting genuine viewer discussion.
• Pre-Publish Checklist: Mobile safe zones, contrast, content accuracy, and media-rights review status. Content-ID clearance and monetization eligibility are not guaranteed.

How to trigger it:

After you confirm the final video, your assistant will ask whether you want this optional finishing pack. Say yes to continue, or skip it without delaying video delivery. No need to copy a prompt. You can also ask directly:

Generate the Thumbnail & Publishing Kit for this video:
- 1 landscape 16:9 thumbnail image matching the approved art style
- 5 YouTube title options
- A description, relevant tags, and verified timestamps if available
- 1 engagement question for the pinned comment
- A pre-publish checklist with any pending checks clearly marked

Image generation requires an available tool and any necessary cost approval; if unavailable, the assistant explains the gap and still delivers the text pack. An early request based on an approved script produces drafts, with final-cut checks pending. Download the cover and copy the text into YouTube Studio or TikTok as appropriate; nothing is uploaded or published automatically.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Is this really 100% free? Are there any hidden fees?

Yes. Stickman Video Director is 100% free and open-source under the MIT license. You can use it freely for both personal and commercial projects. Unlike proprietary SaaS platforms that charge $30–$60/month, this project has zero subscription fees. You only pay for your own third-party API usage (e.g., Google Gemini, Claude, or ElevenLabs) based on the models you choose to connect.

Q2. How do I maintain character consistency?

B · Autopilot Mode: Uses a code-driven production workflow. Character image assets are created before the video is produced and reused across scenes, so character consistency is relatively stable.

A · Director Mode: Primarily relies on text-to-video generation. If a character has a complex hairstyle, outfit, or other features that are difficult to reproduce consistently from text alone, add a stick-figure character reference image and keep using it for subsequent clips to make the results more consistent.

Q3. Which tools should I use? Do I need a specific image-generation model?

I recommend Codex for results closest to the examples. I created and tested the B Mode showcase videos in Codex; you do not need to write code yourself. Other agents can install the Skill, but differences in models, tool configuration, and execution can affect the results.

For images, I use GPT's built-in model without a separate image-generation API. Start with a short sample to check the style and results before making the full video.

Q4. Can I make a video without an existing script?

Yes. You can paste a rough idea, a shower thought, a news link, or an entire blog post. The AI director will extract the core conflict, write a compelling 3-second hook, and structure your topic into a tight 6-scene narrative arc complete with comedic timing and voiceover cues.

Q5. How does the AI ensure the video has high viewer retention and isn't boring?

Traditional AI tools just spit out literal illustrations of text. Stickman Video Director applies real visual storytelling psychology:

• The 3-Second Hook: Transforms your opening sentence into an immediate visual contradiction or curiosity gap to stop viewers from scrolling away.
• Visual Metaphors: Converts abstract boring concepts into comedic visual jokes (e.g., anxiety depicted as a shrinking hamster wheel, burnout as a 1% battery bar).
• Pacing & Comic Pauses: Inserts structured pauses, reaction shots, and sound effect cues (SFX) to mirror the comedic timing of creators like Casually Explained.

Q6. Can I monetize these videos on YouTube and TikTok?

Yes, absolutely. A major concern for faceless creators is YouTube's "Reused Content" or "Low-effort AI" demonetization policy. Because Stickman Video Director writes custom storytelling arcs, unique narrative pacing, and original visual staging, your output is completely original. Hundreds of channels successfully monetize stickman narrative videos under the YouTube Partner Program (YPP).

Q7. Do I need programming skills or an expensive GPU?

No. You do not need a high-end RTX graphics card or coding knowledge.

• Director Mode runs conversationally inside any Skill-compatible AI assistant.
• Autopilot Mode runs inside AI coding agents (like Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor) using simple conversational English. All heavy visual generation is handled via lightweight cloud APIs or procedural rendering, not your local hardware.

⭐ Road to 10,000 Stars & Creator Ecosystem

Every star fuels the next drop! Together, we’re building a 100% free, open-source studio to help solo creators run faceless channels without $50/mo SaaS subscriptions.

• 1,000 Stars: Shipped Director Mode + 5 core visual styles
• 3,000 Stars: Shipped AutoPilot Mode for 1-click video generation
• 🔥 5,000 Stars:
  • 5–10 new visual styles drop
  • 1-click batch editor for YouTube Shorts & TikTok
• 7,500 Stars:
  • 1,000+ viral YouTube script prompt vault
  • 200+ royalty-free, Content-ID safe SFX and transitions
• 10,000 Stars: Launch the official all-in-one Web Studio

🔮 Planned Visual Styles

We are actively training new specialized engines for the most requested faceless YouTube niches:

• OverSimplified History & Lore — Tiny historical figures, conquest arrows & satirical battle maps
• Stickman Combat & Speedlines — Alan-Becker-style dynamic combat, martial arts & impact frames
• Dark Psychology & Stoic Noir — Moody silhouettes, glowing eyes & 48-Laws-of-Power storytelling
• Wall Street & Silicon Valley Parody — Suit-and-tie stickmen, crashing charts & corporate roasts
• Two-Mic Podcast & Stand-Up — Snappy dialogue comedy, interview repurposing & character banter
• Internet Mysteries & Urban Legends — Eerie pencil sketches, analog glitch & Reddit mystery lore

💬 Community & Submissions

Want to suggest a style or get your channel featured? Message @CrazyKaomei on Telegram:

• Request a Style: Send a visual reference link + the niche you want to cover.
• Get Featured: Made a video with this tool? Send your link to be showcased in this README and on our official YouTube channel!

🔔 Follow @CrazyKaomei on X for daily video workflows, automation tools, and channel growth SOPs.

📄 License

Released under the MIT License. Free to use, modify, distribute, and use commercially. Keep the original copyright and license notice when distributing the project or substantial portions of it.

Provided “as is,” without warranty. See LICENSE for the full terms.