Product stills

studio stills my-shop turns one product photo into a reviewed set of stills: pack shots, lifestyle scenes and close details. It explores several art directions, makes candidates across seeds and backends, scores them, and keeps a varied shortlist for each shot (design).

# docs: no-validate (a project file)
name: Example Shop
brief: An autumn range of glazed planters.
outputs:
  stills:
    photo: inputs/product.png        # a cut-out PNG, or a photo on a plain backdrop
    describe: a glazed green planter  # what it is, for the prompts
    shots: [packshot, lifestyle, detail]
    directions: 4                    # art directions to explore
    candidates: 2                    # seeds per direction and shot
    keep: 3                          # shortlist size per shot
    size: [1600, 1600]

A site.yaml project gets stills after studio migrate my-shop --write (the project file).

How a still is made

1. Directions. A text backend writes divergent art directions: setting, light, palette and mood. With none (see studio models), a seeded local composer picks them, and the same seed gives the same set.
2. Backdrop. A pack shot stands on a seamless sweep in the direction's palette. A lifestyle scene is painted by an image backend; with none, it is drawn from the palette, so the flow runs on any laptop. A detail is the product close and cropped over a softened scene.
3. The product is cut out of the photo (rembg when the ml extra is installed, else a plain-backdrop key) and composited with a contact shadow. Its pixels are never redrawn.
4. Blending. Where an edit backend can run, one pass matches the scene's light. If it changes the product by more than fidelity, the composite is kept instead.
5. Critics score each candidate: fidelity (how little the product changed), framing (the right share of the frame, nothing cut off) and contrast (the product stands apart). A novelty check keeps near-duplicates off the shortlist.

Reviewing

In the Studio app (studio ui), a project with outputs.stills has a Stills tab: the same view, with More like this, Something different, Compare (two side by side) and Pick on each lead still. Outside the app, open stills/board.html. Each shot shows its best candidate large, the rest of its shortlist beside it, and every other candidate below, best first. Click any candidate to look at it.

Command	What it does
studio stills my-shop	The first set, or fill in what is missing (the directions are kept)
studio stills my-shop --more <id>	More seeds in that candidate's direction and shot
studio stills my-shop --different	New directions, unlike the ones there, across every shot
studio stills my-shop --pick <id>	Mark that candidate as its shot's final

Every candidate's record (direction, backend, model, prompt, seed and scores) is kept in stills/stills.json, so any one can be made again. The MCP tool make_stills does the same as the command.

Ads

studio ads my-shop makes placement-sized ads from the stills: each shot's pick, or its best if none is picked. The product is kept whole in every size; where a size needs more backdrop than the still has, its edges are carried outward and softened. The headline and call to action sit on a band in the brand's accent colour.

# docs: no-validate (a project file)
outputs:
  ads:
    sizes: [1x1, 4x5, 9x16]          # also 16x9 and 1.91x1
    headline: Made for slow mornings
    cta: Shop the range
    shots: [lifestyle, packshot]
    width: 1080

Files land in ads/, listed in ads/ads.json. The MCP tool is make_ads.

Listing copy

studio listing my-shop writes a title, bullet points and a description to listing/listing.md (and .json). A text backend writes it from the brief and describe, told never to invent specifications or claims. With no text backend, a draft is filled from what the project says, with places marked for the rest.

# docs: no-validate (a project file)
outputs:
  listing:
    bullets: 5
    tone: warm, plain

The MCP tool is write_listing.

Video

studio video my-shop makes a short product video from the stills: each shot's pick and shortlist, a slow push-in on each, cross dissolves, and an end card with the ads' headline and call to action. A speech backend reads the voiceover (ElevenLabs, with ELEVENLABS_API_KEY set); with none, the video is silent. A music file can sit under it.

# docs: no-validate (a project file)
outputs:
  video:
    seconds: 15
    aspect: 9x16
    shots: [lifestyle, detail, packshot]
    voiceover: listing        # the listing's description; or the words themselves; empty for none
    music: inputs/bed.mp3     # optional; you need the right to use it

Written to video/video-<aspect>.mp4 with video/video.json. The MCP tool is make_video.

Page layouts

studio layouts my-shop writes several product pages from the project's own material: the picked stills and shortlist, the listing copy, and the ads' headline and call to action. Each layout is arranged differently. A text backend writes them when one can run; otherwise a local composer arranges the same material in distinct orders. Every layout is checked against the site spec, and only blocks that build without a GPU are used (hero, intro, features, gallery, faq, cta).

# docs: no-validate (a project file)
outputs:
  layouts:
    count: 3

layouts/board.html shows each layout as a wireframe page with its stills. studio layouts my-shop --pick l2 writes that layout's sections into outputs.site, keeping the site's other settings and saving the old sections in layouts/site-before-pick.yaml; then studio build my-shop. The MCP tool is make_layouts.