• "Generate the opening cinematic for the game."
• "I need a cutscene where the witch turns to the player and warns them about the curse."
• "Make a 10-second character intro for the boss."
• "Add an ending sequence after the player defeats the dragon."
• "Cinematic where the village burns and the protagonist runs."
• The user has a defined moment with story content — not a vibe loop, not a marketing splash.

• "5-second slow-mo combat shot for the trailer" —

  video/trailer-shot

  .
• "Looping splash screen background" —

  video/animated-loop

  .
• "Animated logo backdrop on the title screen" —

  video/animated-loop

  .
• Real-time in-engine cinematic with the actual gameplay characters and camera — that's a Godot AnimationPlayer / Timeline job, not generated video. Route to

  summer:scene-composition

  .
• Voice-only narration over a static image — generate the dialogue with

  summer_generate_audio

  and use a static

  TextureRect

  , no video needed.

Want this as one 10s shot, or three shots (e.g. wide → close on face → reaction)? Each shot is 5-10s. I'll generate a reference image once, then image-to-video each shot off of it.

summer_generate_video(
  prompt="<subject does <action>, <camera move>, <lighting>, cinematic, 16mm film grain>",
  model="kling",
  imageUrl="<reference image fileUrl from step 3>",
  duration=5,
  aspectRatio="16:9"
)

{ asset: { fileUrl } }

Shot 1 of 3 done. Land or regenerate? If land, I'll move to shot 2.

• Generating a 10s shot when you should chain two 5s shots. Identity, hand consistency, and physics drift every additional second past ~6s. Two 5s shots cut together look better and cost the same.
• Skipping the reference image. Generating four character cutscenes from text prompts alone produces four different-looking people. Always lock the look with

  summer_generate_image

  first, then

  imageUrl

  every subsequent video call.
• Asking the video model to render dialogue without

  veo3

  .

  kling

  and

  ltx

  will animate mouths but the motion does not match any audio. Use

  veo3

  if dialogue is on-camera, or keep the camera off the speaker.
• Using

  kling

  for blocking iterations. Burn $0.10 on

  ltx

  to validate framing and prompt; only spend $0.50 once the composition lands.
• Putting the cutscene on a

  VideoStreamPlayer

  without a fade. Cuts straight from gameplay to video are jarring. Always wrap in a

  ColorRect

  fade in/out.
• Forgetting to import the file.

  summer_generate_video

  returns a

  fileUrl

  on Cloudinary; until you call

  summer_import_from_url

  , it isn't in

  res://

  and the scene can't reference it.

• Vertical cutscene for a mobile target. Set

  aspectRatio="9:16"

  . Reference image must also be 9:16 — generate it with

  image_size: "portrait_16_9"

  or the framing will crop wrong on the video.
• Cutscene must match an in-engine character precisely. No video model will hit pixel-perfect identity. Either (a) accept the artistic license, (b) render the cutscene in-engine with

  AnimationPlayer

  instead of generating it, or (c) generate a reference image from a screenshot of the in-engine character (image-to-image first, then image-to-video).
• Dialogue is too long for a 5s shot. Either trim the line, or split: 5s of speaker, 5s of listener reaction (cheaper because the listener doesn't need synced lips).
• Cutscene needs to play and the player isn't looking. Pause the gameplay timer, push a

  Control

  overlay with the

  VideoStreamPlayer

  , restore on finish.
• Multi-shot continuity. Use the same reference image as

  imageUrl

  across all shots. If lighting differs by shot, generate one reference per lighting setup, not one per shot.

1. Generate a reference image in the Image tab.
2. Open the Video tab, paste the reference URL into the image-to-video field.
3. Set model, duration, aspect ratio, and prompt as listed above.
4. Download the

   .mp4

   and drop it into

   assets/video/cinematics/

   in the project, then re-import via the Godot editor.

Cutscene

intro

wired at

cinematics/Intro.tscn

with fade in/out and

Video.finished

chained to scene change. Next:

• Add the dialogue track with

  audio/voice-line

  if you haven't yet.
• Score the moment with

  audio/music-track

  — a cutscene without music feels like a placeholder.
• For the boss reveal cutscene, run this skill again with the same reference image to keep the witch identity stable.
• If you want a 5s "money shot" version for marketing, run

  video/trailer-shot

  against the same reference.

• video/trailer-shot

  — marketing footage, 5-10s, maximum visual punch.

• video/animated-loop

  — seamless looping background clips.

• audio/voice-line

  — TTS dialogue used inside cutscenes.

• audio/music-track

  — score the cutscene.

• 2d-assets/concept-art

  — generate the reference image axis if no character reference exists yet.

• 2d-assets/character-portrait

  — produce a high-fidelity locked character portrait for use as

  imageUrl

  .

• _shared/mcp-tools-reference.md

  —

  summer_generate_video

  parameter schema and error codes.