v1.4: learn from real films, credit the people who made them

Learn from real films, credit the people who made them

The fastest way to get better at motion is to study films people loved: the launch video everyone shared, the ad you watched three times. With v1.4 the kit gives you a way to do that openly. You bring real videos as references, measure what makes them work, borrow the grammar, and name the people you learned from, in the repo and when you post.

The rule

Every reference is credited by name and link, and only grammar is borrowed. Never assets.

Borrow (grammar)	Don't take (assets)
Rhythm: cuts per 10 s, how fast the first 3 s go, where the hold is	Their footage, frames or screen recordings
Structure: hook → reveal → proof → CTA, where the surprise sits	Their music, sound design or voice-over
A transition type, such as a match cut on a shape or a whip into a UI	Their characters, mascots, logos or copy
A camera idea, such as an over-the-shoulder dive or a dolly-out reveal	A signature look so close it could pass for theirs

The full guide is in creative/references.md.

tools/breakdown.py: a reference, broken into shots

python tools/breakdown.py launch.mp4 --id 01 --creator "@handle" --title "v2 launch" --url https://x.com/handle/status/…

It finds the hard cuts and measures the rhythm: cuts per 10 s, median, shortest and longest shot, and how many cuts land in the first 3 s. It also writes a contact sheet with one frame per shot and a draft ledger in the storyboard format. Every breakdown opens with the creator's name and link. The output goes to the git-ignored .references/ folder, so other people's work never ends up in your repo.

Credit you can't forget

1. REFERENCES.md sits next to the storyboard, with one row per reference: creator, title, link, what you borrowed and what you didn't. Start from the template.
2. ref:01 goes in the ledger notes of every shot that borrows from that reference. variety_audit.py, and the GitHub Action with it, now fails when a ref: has no credited row with a creator and a link.
3. When you post, add a credit line such as "Rhythm inspired by @handle's launch film (link). Made with saas-motion-kit." and tag them.

The /saas-motion-video skill now asks for reference videos at the brief.

Fixes

• The 100 theme sheets no longer say "all 100 themes".
• history_report.py accepts theme ids written as numbers.
• variety_audit.py reports an unreadable time instead of crashing.
• loop_check.py and deliver.sh print their usage instead of a traceback when called without arguments.

Full notes: CHANGELOG.

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TR: v1.4 ile sevdiğin gerçek videoları referans olarak kullanabiliyorsun: herkesin paylaştığı lansman filmlerini ya da üç kez izlediğin reklamları. Kural basit: her referans, yaratıcısının adı ve linkiyle anılır ve yalnızca dil ödünç alınır (ritim, yapı, geçiş türü, kamera fikri). Görüntü, müzik, karakter, logo ya da metin asla alınmaz. tools/breakdown.py bir videoyu çekimlerine ayırıp ritmini ölçüyor ve sonucu kredi başlığıyla git'e girmeyen bir klasöre yazıyor. Storyboard'da ref:01 gibi bir işaret kullandığında, yanındaki REFERENCES.md'de bir yaratıcı adı ve bir link yoksa audit hata veriyor. Paylaşırken de onları etiketle; insanlar işlerinden birinin bir şey öğrendiğini duymayı sever. Bu sürümde birkaç hata düzeltmesi de var.