The person brings a story (or a beat), a webcam and themselves; or a read they already recorded. You deliver a news spot of them as the anchor in a TV studio: the set behind them, a broadcast chyron with their name and the headline, a ticker, in 16:9 and 9:16. No green screen is needed; the matte is made from the footage. About a dollar of stills; everything else is local. Record the story, the picks and the spend where you keep the job's notes.
Steps
- The story (
llm-source-a-news-story): picked with the person,source/article.mdwritten. Skip it for a comic spot about their own news (a launch, the office's team); the facts still come from what they tell you. - The script (
guide-make-a-script-from-source): an anchor's read opening on the hook (llm-write-a-hook), then the story's facts, the anchor's sign-off; the name strap's and headline's words written with it. Gate: the script and the strap copy. - The read: the person records it on their webcam, several takes are fine; face lit
from the front, a still camera, a plain wall behind if they have one. Then the best
takes (
guide-cut-best-takes, route A). Gate: the rough cut. - Cut them out (
python-track-face-and-hands): the person cutout, free. Look at a sheet of it over magenta and over the set (its Check it): a light wall leaves a pale rim round the hair on a dark set, and where hair or a gap by the neck lets the room through, repair the matte there, or pay forbirefnet-matteon that span. - The set (
guide-design-a-set,nano-banana-design-empty-set): an empty news studio at the delivery's size, a desk edge low in frame, a video wall or a window with the story's city behind, room on one side for the strap. A real city or venue followsguide-depict-real-people-and-places. Optional: an opener, the title over the city still with a slow push and a short sting. Gate:review_chooseof two sets. - Compose (
hn4a-compositor): the set, then the presenter cutout scaled up and raised until they sit at the desk the way an anchor does (head about a third from the top, shoulders cut by the desk), then the chyron (hn4a-compositor-chyron): kicker, bug, the headline strap, the name strap as they introduce themselves, LIVE and a place for any "on the scene" part, the ticker full from its first frame. Captions, if wanted, above the chyron (guide-caption-a-video). Gate: the live spec (hn4a-compositor, Live spec, then render) with stills at each strap. - Deliver 16:9 and, from the same build with
--vertical, 9:16; loudness to −16 LUFS, −14 for social (ffmpeg-normalize-loudness); per the core skill.
Choices this workflow makes
- A matte from the footage, not a key. Webcam reads aren't shot on green; the free matte held on a close-up, and a key would eat skin and hair.
- The presenter bigger than the webcam framed them. At the webcam's own scale they sat small and low in the set; scaled 1.18× and raised 100 px (on 1280×720) they read as an anchor.
- The ticker scrolls from the first frame, already full of items: a crawl that started empty and filled in read as a mistake.
- The jokes live in the straps and the crawl for a comic spot ("ANCHOR, REPORTER, ENTIRE STAFF"); the read stays straight.
Dead ends
- Broad colour removal to clean the matte: it ate into skin. A narrow seam of the wall by the neck was fixed with a local smooth repair of the matte's edge on that span only.
- A paid video matte that wasn't available in the connection: the free local matte did the job; check the model exists before planning on it.
- A first title that claimed more than had happened (a series "victory" before it was won): titles say only what the source says.
- The first 0.8 s of the read showed the person settling in their chair: the studio reveal starts after it, the opener's music carrying into the first words.
Worked example
A comic sports-desk segment from two webcam recordings (119 s and 70 s, 1280×720 at 30 fps, their sound starting 0.26 and 0.21 s in), the person as both the studio anchor and the reporter on the scene.
| Part | Picture | Over it |
|---|---|---|
| Opener | the city's skyline at dusk, generated, slow push | the headline and "SPECIAL REPORT", a sting |
| Studio | the anchor at the desk, cut out, 1.18× and raised | kicker, station bug, the headline strap, then the name strap; the ticker |
| On the scene | the same person against a stadium exterior | the name strap again with a joke sub line, LIVE and the place |
| Back to the studio | the anchor's wrap | "BACK TO THE STUDIO", the ticker running out |
The rough cut was 10 pieces from both files, the pauses kept where the jokes needed them. Notes on the way: the ticker had to start full; the presenter larger and centred at the desk; a seam of wall by the neck repaired. Stills about $0.06–0.09 each; the matte, cut and graphics ran locally.
