Reading your own film
Checks read structure. They cannot see whether a film is good. These tools put the frames in front of you.
The checks tell you a caption is clipped, a cue is late or a hold is too short. No check can tell you the film is worth watching. Structure is necessary. It is not the goal.
Producing an image is not looking at one. Open the sheet and look at it.
The tools
| Command | Shows |
|---|---|
bin/vawe compare --page <page> --at 2.5,3.1,4 | your frames at exact seconds, about 4 s for 4 frames, no render needed. Add --ref <mp4> for the reference beside it |
bin/vawe dev <page> | a half-size draft, plus a key-frame sheet PNG next to it |
bin/vawe critique <page> | a phone sheet, a strip, the loop seam, measured deltas and the page-check findings |
bin/vawe review <page> | one report and one sheet: clipped glyphs, text timing, motion, coverage, worst first |
bin/vawe studio <page> | a live scrubber. It is the only tool that moves |
bin/vawe judge <page or mp4> | key frames and a rubric for a fresh session to score |
Never render a whole range to look at a few frames. Use compare --page for frames and dev --from --to for motion.
Critique in a fresh session
Give the draft to a session that did not write the page (vawe-critique). It rejects by default. It names the shot, the frame and the fix. Fix the top items, re-render only those seconds, and critique again.
bin/vawe judge <page or mp4> --runs A,B prepares two runs for two fresh sessions. bin/vawe judge --fresh <page> --brief <brief.md> scores now with a separate headless session and advises, never blocks. A pass is never recorded by the author of the page.
Match a reference
bin/vawe spec refs/ad.mp4 # SPEC.md and spec.json
bin/vawe critique <page> --ref refs/ad.mp4
bin/vawe coverage out/film.mp4 --ref refs/ad.mp4 # SSIM at every stepcoverage exits 1 when any second falls below --min (default 0.5). bin/vawe ship refuses a recreation until the critique --ref loop passes.
What to look for
- Anything unreadable: contrast, clipping, a line that leaves too fast.
- A beat with no focal point. If your eye does not know where to land, neither does anyone's.
- A beat that is only type. Ask what it could show instead.
- A frame that is static at the tail. Turn the world every one or two beats.
- Two things fighting for attention.
The rule that makes this worth doing
If your eye catches a flaw, it is a fix, not a rationalisation. A green check run does not mean the thing you noticed is fine. The checks cannot see it.
When a check asks you to make the film worse, suspect the check.