Creative Direction Skills — Brief → Moodboard and Brief → Scenario
A new project lands. The brief is two paragraphs. The team's instinct is to open the generator and start cooking visuals — because that's the part that looks like work. Twelve hours later there are 200 image generations and no through-line: no one has decided what world this lives in or what story the shots are telling, so each generation chases a different impulse. The pre-prompt half — direction-finding and scenario-writing — was skipped, and the cost compounds shot by shot.
What follows is the Creative Direction Skills pack: two Claude Code skills that own the pre-prompt half of the pipeline before any generator is touched. They sit one step earlier than the A.O.C. application skills — those skills assemble the prompt; these skills decide what the prompt is for.
brief-to-moodboard converts a brief into an 8-direction moodboard plan (identity, environment, color, light, texture, typography, motion, sound) — each direction with 2 keywords and 1 concrete reference name. brief-to-scenario is a two-stage cascade: a creative-director layer that expands the idea in prose, then a technical-architect layer that translates it into a 6-shot scenario using the 7-element shot structure. Both are below verbatim.
How the two relate
| Stage | Primary skill | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Brief → visual direction | /brief-to-moodboard | 8-direction plan with refs |
| Brief → shot list | /brief-to-scenario | 6-shot list in 7-element structure |
They commonly compose: moodboard first (sets the world), scenario second (sets the shots inside the world). Either can also run standalone.
Skill 1 — /brief-to-moodboard
---
name: brief-to-moodboard
description: From a project brief, produce an 8-direction moodboard plan covering identity, environment, color, light, texture, typography, motion, and sound. Each direction has 2 keywords + 1 reference name (photographer, film, or artist). Use when the user says "build a moodboard", "directions for the brief", "make a moodboard", or starts a new visual project from scratch.
---
Brief → Moodboard
Helper skill for kicking off a new visual project. Turns a brief into an 8-direction moodboard plan, off of which references and test shots get built.
Sources
- Active project:
wiki/projects/<name>.md. If unnamed — ask. - Client:
wiki/entities/<client>.md(if linked from project).
Step 1 — Parse the brief
From project + client entity, pull:
- Tone of voice
- Target audience
- Brand visual code (if documented)
- Output formats (video / series / poster / key visual)
If a category is empty — don't guess, ask one question.
Step 2 — 8 directions
For each category, output:
- 2 keywords (adjectives or short images)
- 1 concrete reference (photographer / film / artist / musician)
Categories:
| # | Category | Describes | |---|---|---| | 1 | Identity | Characters / product / subject | | 2 | Environment | Setting, locations, spaces | | 3 | Color | Palette and temperature | | 4 | Light | Sources and character of light | | 5 | Texture | Materials, surfaces, grain | | 6 | Typography | Typefaces, type style | | 7 | Motion | Pace, plasticity, camera movement | | 8 | Sound | Sound design and music character |
Step 3 — Save
Save to wiki/projects/<name>/moodboard.md with frontmatter:
---
type: moodboard
created: YYYY-MM-DD
updated: YYYY-MM-DD
project: <name>
version: 1
---
Append to log.md.
Step 4 — Next step
End by suggesting:
"Want to immediately assemble a key visual from the first identity direction? I'll apply
typed-key-visual— takes a couple of minutes."
Output format
## Context
<1–2 lines on project, client, tone of voice>
## 8 directions
### 1. Identity
**Keywords:** <kw1>, <kw2>
**Reference:** <name>
### 2. Environment
...
What you DON'T do
- Don't generate reference images — only name them.
- Don't give more than 8 directions. The limit is the form. If categories feel insufficient, that's a brief-clarification signal, not a license to expand the moodboard.
Skill 2 — /brief-to-scenario
---
name: brief-to-scenario
description: Two-stage creative direction cascade — take a brief or rough idea and produce a production-ready shot list. Stage 1 expands the idea as a creative director (drama, emotional arc, visual metaphor). Stage 2 translates into a 6-shot list using the studio's 7-element structure (subject / action / environment / light / lens / mood / palette). Use when the user says "write a scenario", "expand the idea", "make a shot list", or similar.
---
Brief → Scenario
Two-stage cascade: first think as a creative director, then as a technical architect. Don't conflate the stages.
Stage 1 — Creative Director layer
Take the idea from brief or explicitly named by the user and expand it as a creative director, no technical details:
- Drama (setup → rise → resolution)
- Viewer's emotional arc
- Central visual metaphor
- Tone and pacing
Length: 250–450 words. Prose, not lists.
Check: if the text can be read and the clip imagined visually — Stage 1 is done. If it's already shot descriptions with cameras — go back and rewrite.
Stage 2 — Technical Architect layer
Read wiki/concepts/seven-element-shot-description.md (if available). Translate Stage 1 into a 6-shot scenario using the structure:
For each shot, output 7 elements:
- Subject: who/what is in frame
- Action: what happens
- Environment: where, what context
- Light: source, direction, hardness
- Lens: focal length (mm) + camera movement (static / push-in / pan / handheld / dolly)
- Mood: one or two adjectives
- Palette: 3 colors (HEX or names)
Stage 3 — Save
After output, ask:
"Save the scenario to
wiki/projects/<name>/scenario-v1.md?"
If yes — add frontmatter with type: scenario, date, tags; save into the project; append a short entry to log.md.
What you DON'T do
- Don't skip Stage 1 — even if the user explicitly asks for a shot list directly. Concept first, then shots. Without that step shots become "a set of pictures".
- Don't write generation prompts. That's the next skill (
generation-prompts).
Example requests
- "Expand idea №3 from aurora-summer-2026 into a scenario"
- "Write a 30s scenario from this brief"
- "Make a shot list from the perfume-spot concept"