Scenario Video to Motion

Overview

Video-to-motion members watch the people in a clip and return 3D animation: either your character mesh, auto-rigged and moving, or the motion alone on a standard skeleton. They are the video23d capability, and they differ more than their shared name suggests: which character input they take, which skeleton comes back, and which file formats they write.

Siblings: scenario (connection, scope, upload, jobs_wait), scenario-3d (making or rigging the mesh first), scenario-video (generating a reference performance when no footage exists), and scenario-video-editing (trimming and resizing the clip). If a sibling skill named here is missing from your available skills, load it with skill_get (Scenario MCP) or ask the user to install it (https://github.com/scenario-labs/skills#install); unattended, proceed from tool schemas and flag the gap.

Quick reference

Step	Call	Watch for
Upload inputs	upload_asset with kind: "video", then kind: "3d" for a mesh	The mesh is optional on every member
Fit the clip	asset_get, then trim or resize per scenario-video-editing	Duration, size, and even-dimension limits per member
Pick a member	recommend with capability: "video23d" and the user's own words	Read next_step per the scenario skill
Read the inputs	model_schema_get	Each file field's kind, the output enums
Price, then run	model_run with dry_run: true, then wait: false	The video field carries cost_impact
Wait and inspect	jobs_wait, then asset_display	Facing, foot contact, and frame count

Choose the output before the member

Three outcomes, and members cover different ones. Settle it with the user first (unattended: a character whose existing rig the project depends on takes motion only; otherwise animate the mesh).

• Your character, animated. A member takes the mesh, auto-rigs it, and applies the motion. The rig is the member's own: it does not retarget onto a skeleton the mesh already carries, so clips built for an existing rig need bone remapping.
• Motion only, on a named skeleton. A member returns the animation on a Mixamo-style or MetaHuman skeleton without uploading your character. Choose this when the character is already rigged. The file can include a template mesh: inspect it, then omit that mesh when retargeting onto the user's rig.
• Motion only, from a mesh member. Some mesh members also offer an animation-only flag, which drops the mesh from the download.

recommend ranks the members on measured cost and latency and names which take a character. Ask it with the user's words, including the outcome above, rather than with a bare capability.

Read the schema, field by field

Field names repeat across members with different meanings, so read each field's kind before filling it:

• One member's characterFile takes a 3D mesh; another member's characterFile takes a reference image of the character, while its mesh field is characterModel. The field's kind (3d or image), not its name, says which asset it takes.
• Output formats differ: one member writes engine-specific FBX variants (fbx-blender, fbx-unreal, fbx-roblox, Maya scene files), one a plain glb or fbx (its schema names fbx for Unity), and one exposes no format field at all. Pick the engine target in the run: asset_download's format conversion is not documented to keep the animation.
• An FBX export can be ASCII. Blender's legacy FBX importer rejects it; use its newer ASCII-capable importer. Check the imported animation before calling the file Blender-ready.
• Controls worth setting when present: moveInPlace for game locomotion driven by code, loop for cycles, the frame rate field (named frameRate, fps, or targetFps), keyframe cleanup, and the forward and up axes when the motion arrives turned or lying down.
• Some members track several people (numPeople) or capture the face; both carry cost_impact.

Footage that captures well

• One person, full body in frame for the whole clip, feet visible, a static camera, no one crossing in front. Loose clothing and props hide joints.
• Trim to the move that ships: price follows the clip, and members cap the input. At authoring time one capped it at 30 seconds and about 30 MB, another required even pixel width and height. Read max_duration and max_size when exposed by the schema. An absent cap is not a promise of unlimited input. Fix an over-cap clip with the video editing tools before pricing.
• No footage? Generate the performance with a video model per scenario-video: a single full-body character on a plain background, a locked-off camera, and the action described beat by beat. The generated clip is then the input like any other.
• Motion extraction targets human movement. A creature or a non-biped mesh needs checking frame by frame, and often a DCC pass.

Worked example: a dance clip on a game character

The user has a phone clip of a dance and a character GLB, and wants an Unreal-ready loop.

1. upload_asset the clip (kind: "video") and the GLB (kind: "3d") per the scenario skill.
2. asset_get the clip: read the duration and dimensions. Trim to the eight seconds that loop with the video cut tool, and resize to even dimensions if a candidate member requires it.
3. recommend with capability: "video23d" and a prompt such as "apply the dance in this video to my uploaded character mesh, looping, exported for Unreal". Follow next_step per the scenario skill: present ask_user options; on proceed, take its pick without asking.
4. model_schema_get on the pick. Put the GLB in the field whose kind is 3d. Set the Unreal output target if the format enum has one, loop: true, and moveInPlace: true if the game moves the character itself.
5. model_run with dry_run: true and quote the price. Then run with wait: false: these jobs take minutes. Retire it with jobs_wait, re-calling with pending_job_ids on timeout.
6. asset_display the result, or open it in a DCC. Check the facing, that the feet meet the ground, and that the loop point does not pop. If facing is wrong, check forward and up when the schema exposes them before blaming the capture. A preview link alone is not a visual check.
7. asset_download with no format, and hand over the file with the skeleton it uses.

Common mistakes

• Expecting the motion on the character's existing rig: mesh members auto-rig from scratch. Use a motion-only member and retarget when the rig must stay.
• Filling a field by its name: characterFile is a mesh on one member and an image on another.
• Sending the full source video: the price grows with the clip, and over-cap clips fail.
• Converting the download to another 3D format instead of setting the export target in the run.
• Treating a sideways or upside-down result as a failed capture before trying the axis fields.
• Polling job_get instead of jobs_wait, or re-running a job that only timed out.