Beginner's guide

How to direct animation with Claude Code

You don't need to know how to animate to direct a scene. You need to decide what happens, what the audience sees, and how it should feel. Claude Code handles the code, but it can't read your mind.

What directing means

An animator moves things. A director decides why they move. "Make a cool dinosaur animation" gives Claude Code almost nothing to work with, so it has to guess. "The dinosaur spots a falling meteor, freezes, then runs left in panic" tells it what happens and what the moment means.

1. Start with one short moment

Don't begin with a whole film. Pick one moment of about five seconds with a beginning, a change, and an end. Write it in one sentence before you open Claude Code. If you can't describe it simply, the scene isn't ready yet.

2. Break the moment into beats

A beat is one change in the scene. Listing beats gives Claude Code a clear order to follow:

1. The dinosaur walks in, relaxed.
2. It stops and looks up.
3. It freezes for half a second.
4. It runs off the left side of the screen.

3. Direct the camera

Say where the audience is watching from. A wide shot shows where the character is. A close-up shows how it feels. A slow push toward the character builds tension. Choose the camera for a reason, and change it only when the story needs it.

4. Give timing in numbers

Words like "fast" and "slow" mean different things to different people. Use seconds instead: "Walk for 2 seconds, pause for 0.5 seconds, then run for 1 second." Pauses matter too, because they give the audience time to notice what changed.

5. Describe the feeling of the movement

Characters feel alive when their movement shows who they are. Tell Claude Code how the character moves: heavy or light, nervous or confident. Mention the small details as well, like a body that leans before a run or a tail that keeps moving after the character stops.

6. Give notes, not new instructions

Your first version won't be perfect. That's normal. Watch it, then change one or two things at a time, the way a director gives notes:

• Weak note: "Make it better."
• Strong note: "The freeze is too short. Hold it for one second, and have the eyes move first."

A prompt you can copy

Create a 5-second character animation. A small pixel dinosaur walks in from the right, looking relaxed, for 2 seconds. It stops and looks up. It freezes for 0.5 seconds, then runs off the left side of the screen in 1 second. Use a wide shot and a slow camera push during the freeze. The walk should feel light and bouncy, and the run should feel panicked.

Get the Dinoctor plugin

Dinoctor is a free Claude Code plugin for character animation, coming soon. Join the list and we'll email you when it's ready.