v2.5.0: VideoExpress Prompt 1.0, Grok support, what's new on update, and Consistent Character corrected

v2.5.0: VideoExpress Prompt 1.0, Grok support, what's new on update, and a Consistent Character correction

VideoExpress Scripting 2.5.0 and the first release of its companion skill, VideoExpress Prompt 1.0.0. New rules for seated action, Lipsync HD gestures and misread words, a correction to how Consistent Character is used, a narrower numbers rule, one new style, and Grok as a third platform.

New companion skill: VideoExpress Prompt 1.0.0. A step-by-step wizard for one prompt: a start image, a clip, or an image and its clip, or an improved version of a prompt you already have. It asks about one aspect of the shot at a time (look and style, what happens, dialogue, sound, camera, light and image, negatives) and applies the same prompt rules, multishot format, style sheets and lip-sync methods as VideoExpress Scripting. Use it for a single shot; use VideoExpress Scripting for a whole multi-clip video. It installs from the same marketplace (install guide); builds are in claude-prompt/ and chatgpt-prompt/.

Grok support. Grok uses the platform-neutral ChatGPT build. In the Grok app (free trial and paid plans only), ask Grok to install the skill from its GitHub folder link and answer yes to regular update checks; the local Grok Build CLI can use npx skills add instead (install guide). Give Grok the folder link, not the repo's home page, which also holds the Claude builds.

What's new on update. At the start of a new project the skill asks whether you'd like a short summary of what's new in the installed version, then offers headline additions, this time VideoExpress Prompt with a link to install it (skipped if it's already installed). The notes live in references/changelog.md, and every release is listed in the new CHANGELOG.md, which the plugin manifests now link to.

Corrected: Consistent Character in clips. VideoExpress hasn't changed: Consistent Character has only ever affected Create Image, and Create Video ignores its tick and reference slots. Earlier versions of the skill wrongly treated it as affecting clips.

• A video prompt's [REFERENCE USE] now names only the start image, the exact opening frame. The template, worked example and bible no longer tell the model to use supplied reference images in a clip.
• The browser workflow no longer sets Consistent Character or its slots before Create Video.
• Turning Consistent Character off for shots with no characters is stated as a start-image setting.
• Removed: the claim that face references turn clips realistic, which was never tested. The style anchor rule is unchanged.

References and pose. A reference in either slot can carry its pose and props into the image, though it doesn't always; a pose stated in the prompt overrides it. State the pose and how each prop is held.

Sitting and walking to a mark. VE doesn't model collision or which way furniture faces: a character sat down through a café table, and a chair turned toward the water was still drawn facing its table, so he sat on it sideways.

• Use a seat with no front (a crate on its end, a stool, a low wall, a bollard) with clear space around it and nothing beside it on the path. It sat correctly in six of six takes.
• A seat or mark the character walks to must be clearly nearer the camera than them in the start image, with visible ground between, and the walk short (1–2 s). When it was level with or behind them, they walked past it in every take.

A gesture under a Lipsync HD line. The Lipsync dialog's Video Prompt does steer one directed gesture, described in frame terms: which arm by frame side, how high, the target third of the frame, when it starts, a hold while they speak, and the return to the opening pose. Points at six frame zones each landed. Multi-step action under a line is untested; give it its own clip.

Tagged start-image prompts. Start images can use [SUBJECT], [FRAMING AND POSITION], [BACKGROUND], [LIGHT AND STYLE] and [NEGATIVES] tags as well as prose. In testing the tagged form held subject, props, framing, background, light and negatives as well as prose, with no tag text in the image. Keep one form throughout a pack.

Misread words. When VE mispronounces a word in a spoken line, respell it inside the quotes ("Skrip-ting") and keep a plain-English note on the sound in [ACTION], outside them. IPA or a note outside the quotes alone didn't change it; never put IPA inside the quotes.

Numbers. The blanket "digits only in labels" rule is replaced. In testing, digits in ages, durations, distances and counts produced no numerals in the frame, in the start image or the clips. The rule now covers text-bearing objects only: describe signs, screens, labels and holograms as abstract shapes and light, and end every [NEGATIVES] with "no text, no letters, no numbers". Counted events ("blinks three times") are still out.

Chaining inside VE. Clips chain from VideoExpress's Save Last Frame, with no trimming or retiming outside VE. Plan the framing so a clip ends where the next one begins; where a chain risks detail drift, the skill flags it once and you decide.

New style: Graffiti (graffiti.md). Aerosol spray-paint toon with caricatured characters on a street-mural ground. Demo clip to follow. That makes 45 Creative mode styles.

Where it changed. SKILL.md, bible.md, camera-and-motion.md, light-sound-dialogue.md, multishot-template.md, prompt-rules.md, browser-workflow.md, project-intake.md, styles/README.md, styles/anime-1990s-cel.md, the new styles/graffiti.md and changelog.md, plus the manifests, READMEs and CHANGELOG.md.

Upgrading. Marketplace installs pick this up on their next sync; install VideoExpress Prompt from the same marketplace. If you use the zip, remove the old skill and upload the new one. Prompt packs are worth updating before their next generation: take any "use the supplied reference image of …" wording out of video prompts' [REFERENCE USE], so it names only the start image.

Release packages. videoexpress-scripting-claude.zip, videoexpress-scripting-chatgpt.zip, videoexpress-prompt-claude.zip and videoexpress-prompt-chatgpt.zip, each with the skill folder at the zip root.

Both builds (Claude, ChatGPT) of each skill are identical in substance. Scope remains VideoExpress 3.5 and later.