Claude Motion Graphics: 5 Opus 5.5 Prompts and the Films They Made
"Claude motion graphics" usually means one thing now: Claude Opus 5.5 writing code that draws every frame of an animation on a canvas, and writing the soundtrack in code too. No After Effects, no stock footage, no video model. The clips that spread after the Opus 5.5 release were made this way, and the same approach is what iArt's Animation mode runs on.
Below are five prompts, the film each one made, and what we would change. We ran every prompt once through the same instructions the Animation mode uses, with Claude Opus 5.5, and kept the first result. Weak spots are listed under each film; in the app you would ask for those changes in a follow-up message.
Five prompts and the films they made
1. The showreel prompt that started it
This is the prompt behind one of the most-viewed Opus 5.5 clips on X: @stephanlivera's 15-second showreel, which passed two million views. It gives the model no subject at all, only a job title and a standard to meet, so it shows what Claude reaches for when it has to impress.
The creator's prompt, unchanged:
make a dynamic 15-second motion graphics video that shows what an incredible motion designer you are, like it's your showreel for a résumé. go all out.
What it made: Seven cuts in 15 seconds, all on the bar line of a 128 bpm track Claude wrote for it: a bouncing dot with squash and stretch, slammed type, a 3D point sphere morphing into a torus, a grid of shapes flipping in a wave, a ribbon of offset lines, a ring tunnel, and a finale that lands on the word CLAUDE. One red dot carries through every scene, which is what makes it feel like a reel and not a list of effects.
What we would fix: The line scene is the quietest of the six and the opening second and a half is a lone dot on black. Run it twice and you will get a different reel; that is the point of a prompt with no subject.
2. Logo reveal
A logo reveal is the motion graphic most people actually need. Give Claude the wordmark, the feeling, and where it should end.
Our prompt:
Make an 8-second logo reveal for iArt, an AI motion graphics studio. The logo is just the wordmark "iArt". Punchy and premium, with a satisfying hit when the logo lands. End on the logo with "iart.ai" underneath.
What it made: Claude found its idea in the letters: the dot of the i becomes a keyframed ball, drawn with its motion path and bezier handles like a graph editor, that bounces once and drops onto a dotless i. The wordmark slams in around it on a sub-bass hit, a light sweep crosses the letters, and the URL rises underneath.
What we would fix: The first two and a half seconds use only the top of the frame, and the graph-editor lines are faint enough to disappear on a phone. If you have a real logo file, attach it in iArt and say it should appear in the film, rather than letting Claude typeset the name.
3. Kinetic typography
Kinetic type is where drawing every frame in code pays off: the words are real text, so the spelling never drifts the way it can in a generated video.
Our prompt:
Kinetic typography for Alan Kay's line "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." About 12 seconds, vertical for Reels. Every word should move on the beat.
What it made: A letterpress poster that builds itself one word per beat at 120 bpm. PREDICT throws out a fan of dashed guesses ending in question marks, THE FUTURE arrives as a hollow outline, then a bar of silence, and INVENT IT. hits in red as the music resolves to a major chord. The camera pulls back to the finished poster, signed.
What we would fix: Between about 4.5 and 6 seconds the lower half of the frame is empty paper, and the credit line is small at phone size.
4. A seamless 3D loop
Canvas is 2D, but Claude projects 3D shapes onto it itself, with no 3D engine. Loops are a good test: the last frame has to flow into the first.
Our prompt:
A seamless 10-second 3D motion graphics loop: abstract geometric shapes that morph and orbit in depth, hypnotic, the last frame flows back into the first. For a stream background and my Instagram grid.
What it made: One iridescent solid morphs from sphere to torus to rounded cube to a six-petal star and back, twisting as it goes, while three small solids orbit on tilted paths in front of and behind it. Each new shape lands on a downbeat of an ambient 96 bpm score, and picture and music both repeat exactly every 10 seconds, so it loops without a seam.
What we would fix: The in-between frames of each morph have small folds in the surface, and the loop is slowest around the join, where the sphere only tumbles for about a second.
5. A data story
For data, put the numbers in the prompt. Claude animates what you give it; it should not be the source of your facts.
Our prompt (milestone years as commonly cited from UN estimates; the UN marks 8 billion on 15 November 2022):
A 15-second vertical motion graphic about world population: it took until 1804 to reach 1 billion people, then 2B in 1927, 3B 1960, 4B 1974, 5B 1987, 6B 1999, 7B 2011, 8B 2022. Make the speed-up feel dramatic.
What it made: A newspaper-style staircase chart. A clock runs at a constant 28 years per second, so the first step crawls for 123 years and the later ones arrive faster only because the real gaps are shorter: the drama is honest. Each billion lands with a rising bell note, so the melody speeds up by itself, and the film ends on the comparison that matters: the 2nd billion took 123 years, the 8th took 11.
What we would fix: The headline shows the clock year next to the current billion, so for a moment it reads "2 BILLION, 1944" while the count is still at two; a viewer could take that year as the milestone. The labels get small once the camera pulls back. Both are the kind of change to ask for in a follow-up message.
What makes a Claude motion graphics prompt work
All five prompts are short. What they have in common:
- A length and a shape. "15 seconds", "vertical for Reels". Without a length, iArt's Animation mode defaults to 15–20 seconds.
- One idea, not a feature list. "World population, and how fast it sped up" gives Claude a story to plan; five bullet points give it five slides.
- The exact words and numbers. Quote the line, list the data. Claude draws text as real type, so what you write is what appears.
- A feeling for the moment that matters. "A satisfying hit when the logo lands", "make the speed-up feel dramatic". Claude builds the timing and the sound around it.
- Room to surprise you. The showreel prompt names no subject at all and got the most inventive film. Say what it is for; let Claude choose how it looks.
Claude Code with a skill, or iArt's Animation mode?
You can make these yourself in Claude Code. The method is open source: javascript-animation-skills is the skill pack we wrote for it, and the films above follow the same method. The difference is everything around the model.
| Claude Code + a skill | iArt Animation mode | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Install the skill, Node, a headless browser and ffmpeg | None: open the page and type |
| Preview | Open the HTML page it writes | Plays in the editor |
| Getting an MP4 | Run the render script yourself | Export from the browser |
| Voiceover | Wire up a TTS service yourself | Choose a voice in the message box |
| Your images | Point the code at local files | Upload screenshots, photos or a logo and say they belong in the film |
| Model | Whatever your Claude plan runs | Claude Opus 5.5 |
If you already live in Claude Code, the skill is free and gives you full control. If you want the film and not the pipeline, use the Animation mode. New iArt accounts start with free credits, enough for a first short film; see pricing for export options by plan.
FAQ
Can Claude make motion graphics?
Yes. Claude Opus 5.5 can write code that draws every frame of an animation on a 2D canvas and synthesizes its soundtrack, which is how many of the viral "made with Opus 5.5" motion graphics were made. It does this in Claude Code with a skill, or inside tools like iArt's Animation mode.
Is this the same as an AI video generator?
No. A video generator predicts pixels; here Claude writes a program that draws the film. That makes text and numbers exact and every shape editable by asking, but it will not generate a realistic, camera-shot scene.
Do I need to code?
No. In iArt's Animation mode you type a prompt, Claude Opus 5.5 writes and checks the code, and you watch the preview and, on a paid plan, export an MP4. In Claude Code you do not write code either, but you install the skill and run the render step yourself.
How long can a Claude motion graphics video be?
15 to 30 seconds is the sweet spot for one idea. For something longer, ask it to keep going: iArt builds the film in parts in the same project, so the look and the music carry over.
Can I use these prompts?
Yes. The showreel prompt is @stephanlivera's, credited and linked above; the other four are ours. Paste any of them into iArt with the buttons under each film and change the subject.
Pick the prompt closest to what you need, press its button, and change the subject. The Animation mode opens with the prompt filled in and waits for you to send it.