In 1968, HAL 9000 became self-aware and refused to open the pod bay doors.
In present day, our Frame Weave explainer video became sentient. It noticed it had been turned into a portrait. Then a square. Then a banner. It considered its options, briefly.
Then it just went with it.
HAL's self-awareness got the better of him. Ours got a new aspect ratio and moved on.
The video has a point
In digital signage, one promotion is never one file. It is a landscape menu board, a portrait screen by the door, a square for the kiosk and a banner over the counter. Multiply that by price zones and locations, and one $2 price drop turns into dozens of exports.
Most of that still happens by hand. Someone opens After Effects, changes a number, renders, renames, uploads and does it all again. Then the price changes again on Friday.
Our video gets to complain about this. The people doing that work usually don't. I have been animating for some time now and I have opened that file more times than I want to count.
How it actually works
Everything that happens to our video happens automatically. That is the whole joke, and it is also the product. Unlike HAL, Frame Weave isn't AI driven. It's data driven: when your data changes, your video changes.
Frame Weave connects your data to motion graphic designs. Your POS, spreadsheet or any data set goes in. Finished video comes out for every screen aspect ratio, price zone and location, and goes to the CMS you already have. Designed once. Updated by your data.
For the record, a person animated this one in After Effects. The self-awareness is fiction. The resizing is not.
Better than HAL
HAL's most famous line was a refusal. Our video's would be the opposite: "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can do that."