scroll-stop-builder

name

scroll-stop-builder

description

Takes a video file (e.g. a product deconstruction/assembly animation) and builds a beautiful, performant website with scroll-driven animation. The video plays forward/backward as the user scrolls, creating a mesmerizing scroll-stopping effect. Uses frame extraction via FFmpeg, canvas-based rendering, and modern scroll-driven animation techniques. Includes: animated starscape background, annotation cards with snap-stop scroll, specs section with count-up animations, navbar with scroll-to-pill transform, loader, and full mobile responsiveness. Trigger when the user says "scroll-stop build", "scroll animation website", "scroll-driven video", "build the scroll-stop site", or provides a video file and asks to make it scroll-controlled. Also trigger if the user mentions "Apple-style scroll animation" or "video on scroll".

Scroll-Stop Builder Skill

You take a video file and build a production-quality website where the video playback is controlled by scroll position — creating a dramatic, Apple-style scroll-stopping effect.

Before building anything, you MUST gather information from the user through a brief interview. Do not assume any brand names, colors, or content — everything is customized per project.

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Step 0: The Interview (MANDATORY)

Before touching any code or extracting any frames, ask the user these questions. Do not skip this step — the whole point of the skill is to build something tailored, not generic.

Required Questions

Ask these in a natural, conversational way — not as a numbered interrogation:

1. Brand name — "What's the brand or product name for this site?"
2. Logo — "Do you have a logo file I can use? (SVG or PNG preferred)"
3. Accent color — "What's your primary accent color? (hex code, or describe it and I'll suggest options)"
4. Background color — "What background color do you want? (dark backgrounds work best for this effect)"
5. Overall vibe — "What's the overall feel you're going for? (e.g., premium tech launch, luxury, playful, minimal, bold)"

Content Sourcing

Ask the user how they want to provide the website content:

• Option A: Based on an existing website — "Is this based on an existing website? If so, share the URL and I'll pull the real content (product name, features, specs, copy) to populate the site."
• Option B: Paste it in — "If you don't have a website, you can paste in the content you'd like — product descriptions, feature lists, specs, testimonials, etc."

If the user provides a URL, use WebFetch to retrieve the page content and extract relevant copy, product details, feature descriptions, spec numbers, and any other usable content.

Optional Sections

Ask whether the user wants these included:

• Testimonials — "Would you like a testimonials section? If so, provide the testimonials or I'll pull them from the website you shared."
• Confetti — "Want a confetti burst effect anywhere? (e.g., on CTA button click, on page load)"
• Card Scanner — "Want a 3D particle showcase section? (Three.js-based — good for showing off a card, device, or object)"

Only include these sections if the user explicitly opts in.

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Prerequisites

• FFmpeg must be installed (brew install ffmpeg if not)
• The user provides a video file (MP4, MOV, WebM, etc.)
• The video should be relatively short (3-10 seconds is ideal)
• The first frame of the video MUST be on a white background. This is a hard requirement — the opening shot should show the product/object clean on white. If the user's video doesn't start this way, let them know and ask for a re-export or a separate white-background hero image.

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Design System (Built from User's Answers)

Once the interview is complete, construct the design system from the user's answers:

• Fonts: Space Grotesk (headings), Archivo (body), JetBrains Mono (code/mono)
• Accent color: From user's answer (used for buttons, glows, progress bars, highlights)
• Background color: From user's answer (used for body, sections)
• Text colors: Derive from the background — if dark bg, use white primary + muted secondary; if light bg, use dark primary + muted secondary
• Selection: Accent color background with contrasting text
• Scrollbar: Dark track with gradient thumb using accent color, glow on hover
• Cards: Glass-morphism — semi-transparent bg, subtle border, backdrop-filter: blur(20px), border-radius: 20px
• Buttons: Primary = accent color bg with contrasting text + accent glow; Secondary = transparent with white/dark border
• Effects: Floating background orbs (accent color tones, blurred), subtle grid overlay, animated starscape
• Brand name & logo: Used in navbar, footer, loader, and anywhere branding appears

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Technique: Frame Sequence + Canvas

The most reliable approach for scroll-driven video:

1. Extract frames from the video using FFmpeg
2. Preload all frames as images with a loading indicator
3. Draw frames to a canvas based on scroll position
4. The scroll position maps to a frame index — scrolling forward advances the video, scrolling backward reverses it

This is the same technique Apple uses for their product pages.

Why not <video> with currentTime? Browser video decoders aren't optimized for seeking on every scroll event. Canvas + pre-extracted frames is buttery smooth and gives frame-perfect control.

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The Build Process

Step 1: Analyze the Video

ffprobe -v quiet -print_format json -show_streams -show_format "{VIDEO_PATH}"

Extract duration, fps, resolution, total frame count. Target 60-150 frames total.

Step 2: Extract Frames

mkdir -p "{OUTPUT_DIR}/frames"
ffmpeg -i "{VIDEO_PATH}" -vf "fps={TARGET_FPS},scale=1920:-2" -q:v 2 "{OUTPUT_DIR}/frames/frame_%04d.jpg"

Use -q:v 2 for high quality JPEG. Use JPEG not PNG for smaller files.

Step 3: Build the Website

Create a single HTML file. The site has these sections (top to bottom):

1. Starscape — Fixed canvas behind everything with twinkling animated stars
2. Loader — Full-screen with brand logo, "Loading" text, accent-colored progress bar
3. Scroll Progress Bar — Fixed top, accent gradient, 3px tall
4. Navbar — Brand logo + name, transforms from full-width to centered pill on scroll
5. Hero — Title, subtitle, CTA buttons, scroll hint, background orbs + grid
6. Scroll Animation — Sticky canvas with frame sequence, annotation cards with snap-stop
7. Specs — Four stat numbers with count-up animation on scroll
8. Features — Glass-morphism cards in a grid
9. CTA — Call to action section
10. Testimonials — (only if user opted in) Horizontal drag-to-scroll testimonial cards
11. Card Scanner — (only if user opted in) Three.js particle showcase
12. Footer — Brand name and links

For full implementation details of each section, read references/sections-guide.md.

Step 4: Key Implementation Patterns

Canvas rendering with Retina support:

canvas.width = window.innerWidth * window.devicePixelRatio;
canvas.height = window.innerHeight * window.devicePixelRatio;
canvas.style.width = window.innerWidth + 'px';
canvas.style.height = window.innerHeight + 'px';

Cover-fit drawing (desktop) — zoomed contain-fit (mobile): On desktop, use cover-fit so the frame fills edge-to-edge. On mobile, use a slightly zoomed contain-fit approach so the object stays centered and visible.

Annotation cards with snap-stop scroll: Annotation cards appear at specific scroll progress points (data-show/data-hide attributes). The scroll FREEZES briefly at each card position — creating a "boom, boom, boom" effect where each card pops up as you stop. Uses JS-based snap: detects when scroll progress enters a snap zone, scrolls to the exact position, locks the body overflow for ~600ms, then releases. The number of annotation cards is flexible — match it to the content the user provides.

Navbar scroll-to-pill transform: The navbar starts full-width, then on scroll shrinks to a centered pill shape (max-width ~820px) with rounded corners and glass-morphism background.

Count-up animation: Spec numbers animate from 0 to target with easeOutExpo easing, staggered 200ms apart. Numbers get an accent-color glow pulse while counting. Triggered by IntersectionObserver.

Animated starscape: A fixed canvas behind everything with ~180 stars that slowly drift and twinkle. Each star has random drift speed, twinkle speed/phase, and opacity. Creates a subtle living background.

Step 5: Customize Content

All content comes from the interview (Step 0). Use the real brand name, real product details, and real copy — never use placeholder "Lorem ipsum" text. If content came from a website URL, use the actual text from that site. Adapt:

• Hero title and subtitle
• Annotation card labels, descriptions, and stats
• Spec numbers and labels
• Feature cards
• CTA text
• Testimonials (if included)

Step 6: Serve & Test

cd "{OUTPUT_DIR}" && python3 -m http.server 8080

Open http://localhost:8080 and test. Then open the browser URL for the user.

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Mobile Responsiveness

Key mobile adaptations:

• Annotation cards: Compact single-line design — hide paragraph text, stat numbers, and labels. Show only card number + title in a flex row. Position at bottom of viewport.
• Scroll animation height: Reduce from 350vh (desktop) to 300vh (tablet) to 250vh (phone)
• Navbar: Hide links on mobile, show only logo + pill shape
• Testimonials (if included): Touch-scrollable, snap to card edges
• Feature cards: Stack to single column
• Specs: 2x2 grid on mobile

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Best Practices

1. requestAnimationFrame for drawing — Never draw directly in scroll handler
2. { passive: true } on scroll listener — Enables scroll optimizations
3. Canvas with devicePixelRatio — Crisp on Retina displays
4. Preload all frames before showing — No pop-in during scroll
5. Frame deduplication — Only calls drawFrame when frame index changes
6. No scroll-behavior: smooth — Would interfere with frame-accurate scroll mapping
7. No heavy JS libraries — Pure vanilla JS except Three.js for card scanner (if included)
8. Sticky canvas — position: sticky keeps canvas viewport-fixed while scroll container moves
9. White first frame — The video must start on a clean white background

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Error Recovery

Issue	Solution
Frames don't load	Check file paths, ensure local server is running (can't load from file://)
Animation is choppy	Reduce frame count, ensure JPEG not PNG, check file sizes (<100KB each)
Canvas is blurry	Ensure devicePixelRatio scaling is applied
Scroll feels too fast/slow	Adjust .scroll-animation height (200vh=fast, 500vh=slow, 800vh=cinematic)
Mobile cards overlap content	Use compact single-line card design, position at bottom: 1.5vh
Snap-stop feels jarring	Reduce HOLD_DURATION to 400ms or increase SNAP_ZONE
Stars too bright/dim	Adjust starscape canvas opacity (default 0.6)
First frame isn't white	Ask user to re-export video with white opening frame