Orbit With Ben — studio

Production repo for Orbit With Ben (@OrbitWithBen): animated space storytelling with Orbit, a small orange robot, and Ben's British narration. Wonder, not dread.

Agents and new collaborators: start with AGENTS.md. It lists the docs in force, the commands, where Ben signs off, and what never to do.

Need	Go to
What to make, the week, hooks, the four-week test	00_Brand/Channel-Setup/FAMILIAR_DANGER_STRATEGY.md
How to build and ship a long or a Short	00_Brand/Channel-Setup/STUDIO_PLAYBOOK.md
Titles and thumbnails	00_Brand/Channel-Setup/THUMBNAIL_AND_TITLE_RULES.md
Latest numbers	00_Brand/Channel-Setup/audits/weekly/<date>/REPORT.md (every Monday)
Why views were low, and the fixes	00_Brand/Channel-Setup/audits/CHANNEL_AUDIT_2026-09-24/AUDIT.md
Housekeeping and what's next	00_Brand/Channel-Setup/IMPROVEMENTS_BACKLOG.md
Old docs, rules, scripts and audits	_archive/ (history only)

Repo map

AGENTS.md                     Start here (any agent)
00_Brand/
  Brand-Guidelines/           Brand voice and look
  Channel-Setup/              Docs in force, templates, ideas, backlog
    tools/                    Shorts ship gate, thumbnail builders + preview, weekly audit
    could-orbit-survive/      Wednesday test format + test log
    audits/                   Current audits, weekly reports, gate data
    social/                   Buffer mirror: channel ids, saved plans (TikTok paused)
01_Orbit-Character/           Canonical Orbit stills and animation masters
02_Video-Projects/NNN_Slug/   One folder per film (start from _template_NNN_Episode-Slug)
04_Audio/tools/               VO settings (orbit_voice.py), Veo helper
07_Content-Ops/               Local CLIs: script review, episode gate, YouTube upload, retitle, Buffer mirror
docs/                         Tech notes (Veo CG, analytics, playback fixes)
scripts/                      Desktop Studio helpers for Studio-only jobs
_archive/                     Superseded material, kept for history

Content Ops quick start

cd 07_Content-Ops
cp .env.example .env      # fill in locally; never commit secrets
npm install
npm run youtube:auth      # once: saves the YouTube login into .env
npm test

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Naming convention

project_scene_asset_version_status.extension

Part	Meaning	Example
project	Video or character prefix	orbit, aliens
scene	Scene or clip identifier	intro, scene-001
asset	What the file actually is	wave, earth-wide
version	Zero-padded, always increments	v01, v02
status	raw · selected · polished	raw

Good:

orbit_intro_wave_v01_raw.mp4
orbit_intro_wave_v02_raw.mp4
orbit_intro_wave_v02_selected.mp4
orbit_intro_wave_v02_polished.mp4
aliens_scene-001_earth-wide_v01_raw.mp4
aliens_voiceover-master_v01.wav

Never use:

final.mp4
final-final.mp4
new-final-2.mp4

Versions only ever go up. If v02 is bad, the next attempt is v03 — v02 is never reused or overwritten.

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Raw · Selected · Polished

These three words are the backbone of the whole workspace. Every video file carries exactly one of them.

Status	What it is	Rules
raw	Straight out of the generator (AI Studio Veo/Omni), byte-for-byte as downloaded.	Never edited. Never deleted. Never renamed after download. Every generation is kept, including the rejects — they are the evidence behind the review scores and they cost credits to produce.
selected	A byte-identical copy of the one raw take that passed review.	Created by copying, never by moving. It marks the decision; it does not change the pixels.
polished	The selected take after trimming and cleanup in the editor.	This is the only file that gets used in an edit. Exported fresh — never overwritten in place.

A polished master is then copied (not moved) into the matching 01_Orbit-Character/06_Animation-Exports/ sub-folder so it becomes part of the reusable library.

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Master assets — never overwrite

Files in these locations are protected masters:

• 01_Orbit-Character/01_Master-References/
• 01_Orbit-Character/06_Animation-Exports/
• every *_raw.* file in any 04_Generated-Clips/ folder

Rules:

1. Never overwrite a master. Write a new version number instead.
2. Never resize, recompress or re-encode the master character sheet. If a smaller file is needed, derive an optimised copy into 05_Seedance-References/ and leave the master untouched.
3. Never delete a raw generation, even an obviously failed one. Mark it rejected in notes.md and leave the file in place.
4. If a master genuinely must change, bump the version: ...-master-v01.png → ...-master-v02.png, keeping both.