# Opus 5.5 Video Prompts: A Six-Part Spec That Gets Past the Default Look > Source: > Published: 2026-10-04 00:26:29+00:00 An Opus 5.5 video is code, and any decision your prompt doesn't make gets resolved with a default. When it's asked for frontend work with no design direction, Opus 5.5 [falls back on a few default styles](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/prompt-engineering/prompting-claude-opus-5-5), and a vague "avoid a generic AI look" mostly trades one default for another. The fix is to treat the prompt like a spec: decide format, content, structure, look and motion yourself, and list the defaults you want gone by name. After the first render, append whatever default showed up to that list and run it again. Most shared prompts skip almost all of that. The Opus 5.5 video prompts people post tend to be short. Among those at roughly 100 words or under, the median length is 26 words and more than a quarter are one sentence. Fewer than 2% mention color at all. In the common setup, Opus 5.5 emits a single self-contained HTML file built on Canvas, SVG, GSAP or Three.js. A headless browser steps through that file one frame at a time, and the captured frames get [encoded into an MP4](https://huggingface.co/blog/karmen-beatapi/how-to-make-videos-with-claude-opus-5-5). So the prompt can only steer what code can decide: on-screen text, colors, layout, typography, motion and timing. It can't shoot a scene or record a voice; those jobs go to other tools. [Anthropic documents the defaults Opus 5.5 reaches for](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/prompt-engineering/prompting-claude-opus-5-5) in frontend work, cream backgrounds and pill-shaped buttons among them. The video equivalent everyone has seen is [centered text on a gradient with everything fading in](https://x.com/rexan_wong/status/2103707054108299437). How much the prompt has to carry depends on the runtime: `seek(t)` function, and no timers or CSS animations. That's what lets a renderer grab any frame in any order. Format covers the duration, the aspect ratio, and the viewing context: a phone with the sound off, a five-second intro, a loop on a landing page. Put it on line one. Leave out the length and Opus chooses: a one-line prompt asking for the history of AI returned a video of nearly three minutes. A 15-second 16:9 launch video for a product page, readable with the sound off. With nothing but "Make a launch video for my plant care app," Opus called our test app "Verdant" and closed on a "Download free" card dated spring 2026. Every string a viewer reads (product name, headline, features, figures) gets made up if you don't pass it in. A one-line launch prompt for a real product [priced it in dollars when the product uses pounds and redrew the app from imagination](https://x.com/socialwithaayan/article/2104519430814482644). Pass the copy literally, in quotation marks, exactly as it should render. For explainers, supply the dates and numbers yourself, or verify every one Opus writes before shipping. Headline: "Your plants, finally on schedule." Features: snap a photo to identify any plant; a watering reminder for every pot; a care log that shows what worked. The most reused Opus 5.5 prompt is the showreel one-liner. Posts that ran it unchanged have a median of 3 likes; posts that added their own product, topic or music to that same sentence have a median of 34. The previous post in this series, [13 code-rendered clips and their prompts](https://dev.to/jonathaneverleigh/opus-55-video-examples-13-code-rendered-clips-and-their-prompts-5gep), has all 13 finished videos with their full prompts, the showreel included. Structure defines the beat count, what each beat does, and how the video ends. Assign the last frame a job and a duration; a video that stops mid-motion reads as unfinished. Open on a drooping houseplant in the first second, reveal the Fernly name, one beat per feature, then end on a card with the headline and fernly.app, held for the last 2 seconds. The look is three decisions, and shared prompts rarely make the second or third. Look: a Swiss botanical poster. Background #10352A, accents #8FD694 and #F2B134, all type in white. Archivo Black for headlines, Archivo for small labels. Big type on a strict left-aligned grid. "Punchy" hands both speed and transitions back to Opus. A tempo in beats or seconds snaps every change to a count, like the UI video in the previous post that used "120 BPM, 7 bars, something happens on every beat". A transition rule disables the fade-in default, as in the previous post's photo-print launch: "Every scene is made out of the previous one: nothing fades, blurs or cuts". Add one spot where the video holds still, so the pace has contrast. Transitions described in detail get implemented: in our test, the leaf-into-F-into-phone transition from the brief showed up on screen. Motion: 120 BPM, something changes on every beat. Each scene grows out of the previous one. Fast cuts, with one held beat on the headline. List the exact patterns you don't want. A blanket "no AI slop" just gets you a different default; a list of named patterns removes them. A starting denylist: About one in twelve of the short prompts people share has any "no" or "avoid" instruction at all. All six fields together fit in a short block you can fill in: ``` Format: [length], [aspect ratio], watched [where and how]. Content: [product or topic]. Headline: "[exact words]". [Features, facts, numbers]. Structure: [opening beat], [middle beats], end on [final frame], held for [seconds]. Look: [named reference]. Background [#hex], accents [#hex] and [#hex]. [Typeface] for headlines, [typeface] for labels. Motion: [tempo]. [Transition rule]. Hold on [moment]. Avoid: [default], [default], [default]. ``` We generated the same launch video three times on [opus6.video](https://opus6.video/) for a made-up plant-care app called Fernly. All three runs used 16:9, 15 seconds, the "From my prompt" look, no template and no effects, so the brief was the only variable. Each generation took about 75 seconds. Make a launch video for my plant care app. *Run 1: name, release date and features were all invented by Opus.* The scenes switched between a dark green radial gradient and a cream background, headlines were set in a serif, and the features were Opus's own. The end card added a pill-shaped button. Run 2's brief, 82 words long, supplied the name, the headline and three features, and laid out every beat through to a held end card. *Run 2: the copy is correct and the look is all Opus defaults.* Every word, feature and beat rendered as written, including the end card holding for the final two seconds. The look came straight off the default list: a cream background, numbered "01 / 02 / 03" labels, a pill-shaped button and Inter for body text. This brief kept everything from run 2 and appended three lines, for 192 words in total. Look: a Swiss botanical poster. Background #10352A (deep fern green), accents #8FD694 (leaf green) and #F2B134 (pollen yellow), all type in white. One typeface: Archivo Black for headlines, Archivo for small labels. Big type on a strict left-aligned grid. Motion: 120 BPM, something changes on every beat. Each scene grows out of the previous one: the drooping leaf straightens into the F of Fernly, and the F's stem becomes the phone outline. Fast cuts, with one held beat on the headline. Avoid: centered text on a gradient, everything fading in, cream or off-white backgrounds, italic accent words, numbered 01/02/03 labels, neon glow, and an ending that is only a logo. *Run 3: colors, typeface, grid and transitions follow the brief.* The three colors, the typeface and the grid all show up as written, and the transitions followed the brief: the drooping leaf straightened into the stem of a giant "F", and the F folded into the phone outline. None of the cream backgrounds, centered gradient text or numbered labels came back. Two new issues did. Opus kept a small label above every headline and replaced the banned numbers with uppercase words ("DAY 9 · NO WATER", "ANY PLANT, ONE PHOTO"), plus dash page indicators in the corner. And the layout broke twice: the wordmark overflowed the right edge at 3.4 seconds, and the end-card plant overlapped the headline. | Version | Added to the brief | What changed | What was still wrong | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | The topic | A finished launch video | Invented name, date and features; gradient and cream end card | | 2 | Name, headline, features, structure | Every word and beat correct | Cream background, 01/02/03 labels, pill button | | 3 | Look, motion, avoid list | Colors, type, grid and transitions as written | Labels swapped to uppercase words; two layout slips | Swap out the bracketed text, keep the structure, and change one field at a time when the output is off. Inputs to prepare: the product name, the headline, three features of a few words each, the URL, and two or three brand colors. ``` A 30-second launch video for [Product], [what it does in one line]. Headline: "[headline]". Features: [feature 1]; [feature 2]; [feature 3]. Structure: a hook in the first second, the product name, one beat per feature with a simple product-screen illustration, then an end card with the headline and [url], held for the last 3 seconds. Look: [named reference]. Background [#hex], accents [#hex] and [#hex]. [Typeface] for headlines, [typeface] for labels. Motion: [tempo]. Each scene grows out of the previous one. One held beat on the headline. Avoid: centered text on a gradient, everything fading in, cream backgrounds, numbered 01/02/03 labels, pill-shaped buttons. ``` Settings: 16:9, 15 or 30 seconds. To raise the energy, edit Motion first; to shift the mood, edit the named reference. Finished launch videos with their prompts are examples #2 to #4 in the previous post. opus6.video's Product launch template starts from this structure. Inputs to prepare: the three or four actions to demo, plus a description of each screen: sidebar items, list names and button labels. Opus draws the UI from that description, so the more exact the screen text, the closer it looks to your product. ``` A 30-second walkthrough of [App], [what it does]. Show these actions in order: [action 1], [action 2], [action 3]. A cursor performs each one with a real click or drag. Screens: [screen 1: sidebar items, header, list contents]; [screen 2: ...]. End on "[closing line]" over the final screen, held for 3 seconds. Look: [your app's real colors as #hex], [your app's typeface]. Keep the interface flat and exact, no glassy reflections. Motion: zoom in on each click, hold for one beat after every state change. Avoid: invented features, placeholder text, a logo-only ending. ``` Settings: 16:9, 30 seconds. For a more ambitious take, one shape can morph through every state, as in the single-shape UI example from the previous post. Inputs to prepare: one claim, one number or contrast that backs it up, and the call to action. ``` A 15-second vertical ad for [Product]. It must read with the sound off. Hook in the first second: "[hook line]". Then "[claim]", then "[proof]", then "[call to action]". One idea per screen, big type, at least half the screen height for the main line. Look: [named reference]. Background [#hex], text [#hex], one accent [#hex]. [Typeface]. Motion: a hard cut every 2 seconds, one held beat on the proof. Avoid: centered text on a gradient, everything fading in, small captions. ``` Settings: 9:16, 15 seconds. The fintech ad among the previous post's examples hangs its whole pitch on one contrast: "Money still moves like it's 1973." Inputs to prepare: the steps in order and every fact, date and number that should appear on screen. ``` A 30-second explainer: [topic] in [number] steps. Steps: 1. [step]. 2. [step]. 3. [step]. Use only these facts: [facts and numbers]. Structure: a title card, one step per scene with a diagram that builds up, a progress tracker showing which step we're on, then a one-line summary held for 3 seconds. Look: [named reference, e.g. a technical manual or a chalkboard]. Background [#hex], diagram lines [#hex]. [Typeface]. Motion: each diagram draws itself in, then holds for one beat before the next step. Avoid: invented numbers, centered text on a gradient, everything fading in. ``` Settings: 16:9, 30 seconds. A step tracker like the one in the previous post's Negroni recipe keeps viewers oriented. On opus6.video, anything longer than 30 seconds has to be split into parts. opus6.video streams Opus's storyboard while the code is still being generated. Run 2's storyboard opened with "Warm cream background, a terracotta pot centre-left" before a single frame existed. If the storyboard is wrong, stop and edit the brief before the code gets written. Include a timestamp. Something like "At 3.4 seconds" or "from 13.5 seconds" gives Opus the exact location, and scoping each round to a single kind of problem keeps the rest of the video untouched. Don't prescribe the patch. A note that [prescribes a fix gets that fix](https://x.com/socialwithaayan/article/2104519430814482644), whether or not it solves the problem. Our first edit to run 3 described both layout bugs and the expected outcome: Two layout problems. At 3.4s the Fernly wordmark runs off the right edge of the frame. From 13.5s the potted plant on the end card overlaps the end of "schedule.". I want the whole wordmark inside the frame with clear margin, and the plant fully clear of the headline so the end card reads cleanly. Keep everything else as it is. *A single message fixed both layout bugs and left the rest of the video as it was.* See which default the output used in place of the ones you banned, and [add it to the list](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/prompt-engineering/prompting-claude-opus-5-5). The second edit added run 3's new default: Add two more things to the avoid list: small uppercase labels above the headlines ("DAY 9 · NO WATER", "ANY PLANT, ONE PHOTO" and the rest), and the dash page indicators in the bottom-left corner. Remove both. Keep everything else as it is. *Labels and indicators removed; nothing else changed.* Each edit took under a minute. The generated code can fail at runtime. One of our three generations hung on "Loading preview…" because the script declared the same variable twice. One chat message describing the error and asking for no other changes fixed it in about 40 seconds. Some gaps no prompt can close: real footage, a recorded voiceover, a licensed song, or a runtime beyond the tool's limit. opus6.video videos run up to 30 seconds and render silent, and opus6.video loads fonts only from Google Fonts and public CDNs, so a private brand font file won't load. For footage, audio or long cuts, move to Claude Code with a renderer such as Remotion, which can place your own video and audio files in a composition through its [`