Darkling Collective tutorial

Set up Animated Book Promo Studio

Install once, choose the animation route that fits your account, then let the Studio handle the hook-to-caption workflow.

On this page

1. Install the plugin

  1. Download the ZIP from your purchase library, Premium site, or VIP site.
  2. Unzip it. Keep the outer animated-book-promo-studio folder intact.
  3. In Codex, open Plugins and choose the local-plugin install option.
  4. Select the folder that contains .codex-plugin/plugin.json.
  5. Reload Codex if prompted, then start a new task so the plugin instructions are fresh.
Quick check: Ask Codex, “What video providers can Animated Book Promo Studio use?” It should offer Kling Web, Kling API, Runway, Google Veo, and Luma Dream Machine.

2. Choose and connect a video provider

Kling Web - no API key

  1. Open Kling in a browser and sign into your regular account yourself.
  2. Share that Kling tab with Codex or ask Codex to open Kling Web.
  3. Tell the Studio to use Kling Web.
  4. Codex uploads the clean first frame and adds the approved motion prompt.
  5. Before Generate, Codex reports the visible model, duration, quality, audio choice, and credit charge. Approve only if those details look right.

No developer key is required. Kling may still use free, subscription, or purchased credits. Codex never needs your Kling password.

Kling API

Create a credential in the Kling developer console, then set KLING_API_KEY in the environment where Codex runs. Legacy developer accounts can instead set both KLING_ACCESS_KEY and KLING_SECRET_KEY.

Runway API

Create a Runway developer key and set RUNWAYML_API_SECRET. Local images work directly when the encoded image is no larger than 5 MB.

Google Veo API

Create an eligible Gemini API key and set GEMINI_API_KEY or GOOGLE_API_KEY. Duration, audio, and high-resolution combinations vary by the current Veo model.

Luma Dream Machine API

Create a Luma API key and set LUMAAI_API_KEY. Luma's documented image-to-video route requires an HTTPS image URL; do not host private art somewhere new unless you approve that upload.

Protect your keys: keep API keys in environment variables. Do not paste them into a chat, manuscript, screenshot, or shared project file. Restart Codex after changing environment variables so the app can inherit them.

3. Create your first promo

Attach an EPUB, DOCX, TXT excerpt, or clean image you own or may use, then send:

Create one 9:16 animated book promo. If I supplied a full manuscript, read every story-bearing chapter, compare exact-quote and grounded-teaser hooks across the whole book, and rerank the top five before choosing. Show me the winning hook and chapter evidence, visual direction, provider choices, settings, and expected credit charge before generating video.

The Studio will:

  1. account for every story-bearing chapter and globally rank exact-quote and grounded-teaser hook-scene pairs;
  2. create a text-free first frame with caption-safe negative space;
  3. show the five animation routes;
  4. pause immediately before any credit-spending generation;
  5. download the longest supported clean clip;
  6. finish it at exactly 15 seconds;
  7. burn in beautiful, clear, horizontally centered genre-matched kinetic captions with balanced line breaks, safe margins, and vertical face avoidance;
  8. inspect the beginning, midpoint, and end before returning the MP4.

4. What approval covers

Your approval covers exactly the provider, model, duration, resolution or quality, audio setting, and number of clips shown to you. It does not authorize an automatic paid retry. Caption-only rerenders do not purchase another provider clip.

Troubleshooting