CH 26 · dsh + Remotion: From a Sentence to a Video
Chapter Goal
This chapter walks you through using dsh to generate a complete video. We install a Remotion video creation plugin, then give it a topic, and have it handle everything from script to animation to captions to voiceover, finally rendering to MP4. After this chapter, you'll know how to have dsh help you make videos, and how to fine-tune and export the first draft.
Which Plugin: dsh-remotion
This chapter uses dsh-remotion — a video creation plugin that ports Remotion's official skills to dsh, MIT open source, GitHub repo.
Remotion is a framework for programmatic video creation with React — write code to generate animations, captions, transitions, finally rendering to MP4. dsh-remotion registers Remotion's official 38 rule files (animation, audio, captions, 3D, charts, fonts, transitions, etc.) into dsh, and after install, just say "use Remotion to make a video" to trigger it.
Step 1: Install the Plugin
This time we install via the Plugin Market (dsh-market) installed in CH 17 — open Settings → Plugin Market, search for remotion, find dsh-remotion, click install:
After clicking install, the Plugin Market will show "Installed", and the top prompts that you need to restart dsh to take effect — click "Restart Now":
After restarting, the plugin takes effect.
Environment requirements: Node.js ≥ 20; rendering video needs ffmpeg (Remotion comes with instructions to install).
Step 2: Understand the Video Generation Flow
After installation, you can first have dsh briefly introduce the flow of making videos with Remotion, to know what to expect. Just ask:
Briefly introduce the flow of making videos with RemotionIt will tell you the typical flow of making videos with Remotion: write script and storyboard → create Remotion project → write Composition and React components → add animation, captions, audio → preview and debug → render MP4. Remotion's core concepts are Composition (register a video segment, specify width, height, frame rate, total frames), Sequence (timeline, arrange components by time), interpolate / spring (animation), finally use npx remotion render to output.
Step 3: Give a Topic, Generate the Video
Before making a video, decide on the topic first. This chapter we make a short video: "Everything is a Plugin: DeepSeek Harness One-Minute Introduction".
The prompt doesn't need to be complex, just give a topic and duration, the rest of the storyboard, script, animation it will plan itself:
Use Remotion to make an intro video for me, topic is "Everything is a Plugin: DeepSeek Harness Intro", aimed at developers first encountering dsh.
Requirements:
- Style minimal white, animation demo feel
- With captions and voiceover (Chinese voiceover)
- Include animation effects (text fade-in, element transition)
- Include transition effects (use different transitions between scenes)
- Include charts (e.g. use a simple architecture diagram to show dsh's plugin layers)
- Use monospace font, fits the technical theme
- Finally render to MP4
If missing rendering dependencies like ffmpeg, install them yourself then continue.Send this message to dsh. It will follow Remotion's flow step by step — first write the script and storyboard, then create a Remotion project, write React components, add animation, captions, and voiceover, finally render.
Below is the result summary after generation — implementation key points, five-act structure, technologies used all clearly listed:
From sending the prompt to getting the rendered MP4, the whole process took 36 minutes 50 seconds — video rendering is slower than making a PPT, because every frame has to be computed. This is just the effect of casually giving a topic — with the plugin solidifying the flow, dsh follows the steps one by one, no need to figure out from scratch every time what to do first:
Step 4: Get the Final Product
When satisfied, the MP4 file is in the workspace, use it directly. You can upload to video platforms, embed in PPTs, or send to friends.
Below is the finished product video — 1920×1080, 30fps, about 60 seconds, H.264 + AAC stereo, with Chinese captions and voiceover:
What you learned in this chapter
You pass if you can complete the items below:
- [ ] Install the dsh-remotion plugin to the web profile
- [ ] Write a prompt to have dsh generate a complete video
- [ ] Know the basic flow of Remotion video generation
- [ ] Have dsh fine-tune the video based on preview effects
- [ ] Find the rendered MP4 file and play it