Painting Story Shorts

A vertical narrated short about one painting: the camera flies through a world built from its brush strokes while a voice tells what critics say it is about, one line per shot.

Painting Story Shorts

A vertical narrated short about one painting. The Agent reads what critics say the painting is about and writes four to six spoken lines; the camera then flies through a 3D world built from the painting's own brush strokes so that each line lands on the shot that shows it: the burst, a reveal, the main subject from far away, the close pass. A calm voice and subtitles carry the story, in English by default or in Chinese. The pictures are drawn in code from the painting's colours; only the voice uses a model.

How it works

  1. Write narration.json first: four to six lines, one idea each, in English and Chinese

  2. Write scene.json and time the flight so each line lands on the shot that shows it; check 9:16 stills

  3. Render 1080 × 1920 at 60 fps, then run narrate.mjs for the voice, subtitles and wind (English by default, --lang zh-CN for Chinese)

Frequently asked questions

Which parts use a model?

Only the voice. The world, the flight and the subtitles are drawn in code from the painting's own colours; each narration line is spoken once through SandBase text-to-speech (MiniMax Speech 2.8 HD by default) and cached, so editing one line pays for that line only. The Monet demo also uses walkers repainted once by an image model.

Can I make it in Chinese?

Yes. Every narration.json holds each line in English and Chinese with a voice per language. English is the default; pass --lang zh-CN (or ask for Chinese) and the same film is narrated and subtitled in Chinese without re-rendering the pictures.

How do the lines match the pictures?

The narration is written first, one idea per line, and each line has a start time. map.mjs prints when every flight segment starts, so each line is set to the segment that shows it; narrate.mjs warns if a line runs into the next.

How is it different from Painting Flythrough?

Same engine and scene sheet. Painting Flythrough makes landscape silent films; Painting Story Shorts makes vertical 9:16 films with a story told by a voice and subtitles.

Will it make me dizzy?

The camera's aim is smoothed over 0.75 s and roll is capped at about 4 degrees. The render report lists turn speed and turn acceleration; all three demos stay under 80 deg/s and 90 deg/s² at the 99th percentile.