System Requirements Document for motion-graphics-ai

1. Introduction

motion-graphics-ai is a modern, premium SaaS web application: an AI-powered motion graphics creation platform built specifically for motion designers. Its core positioning is "An AI motion design workspace built specifically for motion designers" — explicitly not a generic AI video generator.

The product's defining workflow is:

Prompt → AI Design → Edit → Animate → Export

The platform must let creative professionals create editable motion-design projects quickly while retaining professional creative control. The AI produces an editable design, not a locked render: every generated element remains a manipulable motion-design object that the designer can refine, animate, and export.

The initial MVP focuses on: SaaS/Product animations, UI/UX animations, 2D motion graphics, typography animation, social media motion graphics, brand motion, and marketing animations.

The audience is Motion Graphics Designers, Graphic Designers, UI/UX Designers, Video Editors, Product Designers, and creative professionals.

2. System Overview

motion-graphics-ai is delivered as a first-party web application with application-owned identity. Anonymous visitors can learn what the workspace is and what it does; creating, editing, animating, and exporting durable motion-design projects requires a signed-in account so that projects persist and can be resumed.

The current delivery comprises six surfaces:

• Landing — anonymous public entry explaining the AI motion design workspace, its motion-designer audience, and the Prompt → AI Design → Edit → Animate → Export workflow.
• Sign Up — self-service first-use enrollment.
• Login — returning verification to reach durable projects.
• Projects — the independently revisitable overview of the user's durable motion-design projects.
• New Project — the focused owner for starting a project: accepting the text prompt and generating the editable AI design from it.
• Project Editor — the cohesive workspace where the AI-generated design is edited, animated, and exported with professional creative control.

Actors are the five accepted creative-professional personas (Motion Graphics Designer, Graphic Designer, UI/UX Designer, Video Editor, Product Designer) plus the AI generation service as a non-persona system actor.

Narrow exclusions (current version): advanced 3D, character animation, VFX, After Effects integration, and Figma integration are not built. They are future features only.

2a. Product Interpretation and Delivery Boundary

The product is a motion design instrument, not a video generator. The AI layer exists to remove the blank-canvas problem: the designer describes the motion they want, receives an editable motion-design composition, and then works on it with professional controls — editing elements, animating them, and exporting finished motion output.

Delivery is first-party and browser-based. The Landing surface is anonymous and public. Sign Up and Login are anonymous access surfaces. Projects, New Project, and Project Editor are protected: they hold durable, user-owned creative state that must remain bound to the correct person across sessions. There is no invitation, provisioning, or deployment-bootstrap boundary in the accepted scope — enrollment is self-service.

The current/future boundary is explicit: 2D motion graphics, UI/UX animation, typography animation, social media motion graphics, brand motion, marketing animations, and SaaS/product animations are current. Advanced 3D, character animation, VFX, After Effects integration, and Figma integration are future and must not appear in current pages or acceptance criteria.

2b. Page Content and Component Coverage

Landing

• Information/state: Anonymous public entry. States the positioning — an AI motion design workspace built specifically for motion designers, not a generic AI video generator. Presents the Prompt → AI Design → Edit → Animate → Export workflow and the MVP focus areas (SaaS/product animations, UI/UX animations, 2D motion graphics, typography animation, social media motion graphics, brand motion, marketing animations).
• Primary actions: Enter the prompt ("Describe the motion…") to begin; navigate to Sign Up; navigate to Login.
• Supporting actions: Scroll through the workflow sequence; read the workflow strip.
• Domain entities: Workflow stage (Prompt, AI Design, Edit, Animate, Export); MVP focus area; prompt text.
• Component responsibilities: Oversized headline block; real-time 3D volumetric motion object bleeding off the right edge; prompt input styled as a timeline track with a lime playhead; persistent bottom workflow strip (PROMPT → AI DESIGN → EDIT → ANIMATE → EXPORT) doubling as navigation; HUD-like monospace readouts.
• States: Loading — hero object initializes against the near-black ground with the headline and workflow strip already legible. Empty — prompt track shows placeholder "Describe the motion…" with the playhead at the left. Success — prompt accepted, playhead animates forward, and the visitor is routed into the protected creation path. Error — if the visitor is not signed in, the prompt is preserved and the visitor is directed to Sign Up or Login rather than losing their description. Recovery — the typed prompt survives the access detour so the visitor can continue.

Sign Up

• Information/state: Anonymous enrollment surface. Explains that an account is what makes motion-design projects durable and resumable.
• Primary actions: Create an account with the required identity fields; submit.
• Supporting actions: Navigate to Login if already enrolled; return to Landing.
• Domain entities: Account identity; credential.
• Component responsibilities: Enrollment form; field-level validation messaging; submit control; link to Login.
• States: Loading — submit control shows in-progress state. Empty — blank form with clear field labels. Success — account established and the user is taken into the workspace to begin their first project. Error — invalid or already-used identity, or weak/mismatched credentials, shown inline against the offending field with the rest of the form preserved. Recovery — the user corrects the field and resubmits without re-entering everything.

Login

• Information/state: Anonymous returning-verification surface for users who already own durable projects.
• Primary actions: Verify identity with credentials; submit.
• Supporting actions: Navigate to Sign Up; return to Landing.
• Domain entities: Account identity; credential; session.
• Component responsibilities: Verification form; error messaging; submit control; link to Sign Up.
• States: Loading — submit control shows in-progress state. Empty — blank form. Success — verified and routed to Projects. Error — unrecognized credentials shown as a single non-enumerating message with the identity field preserved. Recovery — retry, or move to Sign Up.

Projects

• Information/state: The signed-in user's durable motion-design projects, each with enough identity to recognize and resume it.
• Primary actions: Open a project into Project Editor; start a new project.
• Supporting actions: Rename or remove a project; scan and sort the collection.
• Domain entities: Project (name, last-modified, thumbnail/state summary); owner.
• Component responsibilities: Project collection view; per-project entry with open action; new-project entry point; empty-state guidance.
• States: Loading — collection skeleton against the dark ground. Empty — no projects yet, with a direct path to New Project. Success — projects listed and openable. Error — collection failed to load, with retry. Recovery — retry restores the collection; a failed open returns the user to the list with the project intact.

New Project

• Information/state: Focused starting surface. Accepts the text prompt that drives AI design generation and shows the generation in progress.
• Primary actions: Enter the prompt describing the desired motion; submit to generate the editable AI design.
• Supporting actions: Refine or rewrite the prompt; cancel a generation in progress.
• Domain entities: Prompt; generated editable design; generation job.
• Component responsibilities: Prompt input; generation trigger; radial AI generation state (a ring of orbiting keyframe nodes); progress and failure messaging.
• States: Loading — radial generation state with orbiting keyframe nodes while the AI design assembles. Empty — prompt field with placeholder "Describe the motion…". Success — editable AI design produced and handed into Project Editor. Error — generation failed or produced nothing usable, with the prompt preserved and a retry offered. Recovery — retry from the preserved prompt, or edit the prompt and regenerate.

Project Editor

• Information/state: The cohesive workspace holding one project's editable design, its animation state, and its export state. Three columns: left = layers/prompt, center = canvas with the generative object, right = properties. A bottom timeline strip is always visible.
• Primary actions: Edit the AI-generated design; animate it; export the finished motion output.
• Supporting actions: Re-prompt the AI layer; select layers; adjust properties; scrub and set the playhead; navigate back to Projects.
• Domain entities: Project; layer; element; keyframe; animation property; playhead position; export output.
• Component responsibilities: Layer/prompt column; canvas; properties column; persistent timeline strip with playhead; two-signal color coding (AI-generated elements glow magenta, user-authored elements glow lime); export control; workflow strip showing the current stage.
• States: Loading — project and its design load into the canvas with the timeline populated. Empty — a project with no elements yet shows the canvas and an invitation to prompt. Success — edits, animation, and export complete with the result surfaced. Error — a failed edit, animation, or export is reported without discarding the project state. Recovery — the project remains intact and the failed action can be retried.

3. Functional Requirements

FR-1 — Positioning and audience clarity (explicit) As a creative professional, I should immediately understand that motion-graphics-ai is an AI motion design workspace built specifically for motion designers — not a generic AI video generator — so that I can judge whether it fits my craft. Lifecycle: Trigger — visiting Landing. Observable result — the positioning and the Prompt → AI Design → Edit → Animate → Export workflow are stated. Access — anonymous. Failure/recovery — none material. Continuation — proceed to Sign Up, Login, or begin a prompt.

FR-2 — MVP focus areas are represented (explicit) As a creative professional, I should see that the platform covers SaaS/product animations, UI/UX animations, 2D motion graphics, typography animation, social media motion graphics, brand motion, and marketing animations, so that I know my kind of work is supported. Lifecycle: Trigger — reading Landing. Observable result — the focus areas are presented. Access — anonymous. Continuation — begin a project.

FR-3 — Self-service enrollment (required_inference) As a creative professional, I should be able to create my own account without an invitation or provisioning step, so that I can start using the workspace independently. Lifecycle: Initiator — the visitor. Trigger — choosing to sign up. Observable result — an account is established and the user enters the workspace. Access — anonymous entry. Failure/recovery — invalid or already-used identity and weak credentials are reported inline with the form preserved. Continuation — begin a first project.

FR-4 — Returning verification (required_inference) As a returning creative professional, I should be able to verify my identity so that I can reach my durable motion-design projects and continue editing, animating, and exporting. Lifecycle: Initiator — the returning user. Trigger — choosing to log in. Observable result — verified and routed to Projects. Access — anonymous entry. Failure/recovery — unrecognized credentials reported without enumerating accounts; retry or move to Sign Up. Continuation — open a project.

FR-5 — Durable project overview (required_inference) As a signed-in creative professional, I should see my durable motion-design projects in one place so that I can resume recurring work. Lifecycle: Initiator — the signed-in user. Trigger — entering Projects. Observable result — the user's projects are listed and openable. Access — signed in. Failure/recovery — collection load failure offers retry. Continuation — open a project or start a new one.

FR-6 — Start a project from a prompt (explicit) As a creative professional, I should describe the motion I want in a text prompt and have the platform generate an editable AI design from it, so that I skip the blank canvas. Lifecycle: Initiator — the signed-in user. Trigger — submitting a prompt on New Project. Observable result — an editable AI design is produced and handed into Project Editor. Access — signed in. Failure/recovery — generation failure preserves the prompt and offers retry or prompt revision. Continuation — edit the generated design.

FR-7 — Edit the AI-generated design (explicit) As a creative professional, I should edit the AI-generated design as a real motion-design composition, so that I retain professional creative control rather than accepting a locked render. Lifecycle: Initiator — the user. Trigger — working in Project Editor. Observable result — the design changes and the change is visible on the canvas and in the timeline. Access — signed in. Failure/recovery — a failed edit is reported without discarding project state. Continuation — animate the design.

FR-8 — Animate the design (explicit) As a creative professional, I should animate the design — including 2D motion graphics, UI/UX motion, typography animation, social media motion graphics, brand motion, and marketing animation — so that the result is finished motion, not a static composition. Lifecycle: Initiator — the user. Trigger — setting animation on elements in Project Editor. Observable result — the animation plays back on the canvas and is represented on the timeline. Access — signed in. Failure/recovery — a failed animation action is reported with the project intact. Continuation — export.

FR-9 — Export the finished motion output (explicit) As a creative professional, I should export the finished motion output so that I can deliver it into my own work. Lifecycle: Initiator — the user. Trigger — invoking export in Project Editor. Observable result — the finished motion output is produced. Access — signed in. Failure/recovery — a failed export is reported and the project remains intact for retry. Continuation — return to Projects or continue refining.

FR-10 — Distinguish AI-generated from user-authored work (explicit) As a motion designer, I should be able to see at a glance which elements the machine made and which I made, so that I can direct my attention to the parts I authored. Lifecycle: Initiator — the user. Trigger — viewing the canvas and layers. Observable result — AI-generated elements and user-authored elements are visually distinguished. Access — signed in. Continuation — edit or animate either class of element.

FR-11 — Re-prompt the AI layer within a project (explicit) As a creative professional, I should be able to prompt the AI again from inside the editor, so that I can extend or redirect the generated design without leaving my project. Lifecycle: Initiator — the user. Trigger — entering a prompt in the editor's prompt column. Observable result — new AI-generated design content appears in the project. Access — signed in. Failure/recovery — a failed generation is reported with existing project content preserved. Continuation — edit and animate the new content.

FR-12 — Resume a project later (required_inference) As a returning creative professional, I should be able to reopen a saved project and find my edits, animation, and export state as I left them, so that multi-session work is safe. Lifecycle: Initiator — the returning user. Trigger — opening a project from Projects. Observable result — the project loads into Project Editor with its state intact. Access — signed in. Failure/recovery — a failed open returns the user to the list with the project intact. Continuation — continue editing, animating, or exporting.

FR-13 — Excluded capabilities stay out of the current version (explicit) As the product owner, I should ensure advanced 3D, character animation, VFX, After Effects integration, and Figma integration are not built in the first version, so that the MVP stays focused. Lifecycle: Trigger — any current-version scope decision. Observable result — none of these capabilities appear in current pages or acceptance. Continuation — they remain future features.

4. User Personas

Motion Graphics Designer

The primary creative professional the platform is built for. This persona works the full Prompt → AI Design → Edit → Animate → Export workflow and is the most demanding judge of the tool's motion craft — the interface itself must move like a motion piece. Their goal is to produce editable motion-design projects quickly without surrendering professional creative control. They initiate projects from prompts, edit the generated composition, animate it, and export. They are the persona most sensitive to the AI-versus-authored distinction, because they need to know exactly which parts of the composition are theirs to own. Observable success: a finished, exported motion piece that they consider their own work, produced faster than starting from scratch.

Graphic Designer

A creative professional who works primarily in static design and uses the workspace to turn that work into motion. Their goal is to convert static design into editable animated motion graphics — particularly brand motion and marketing animations — and export them. They are less likely to hand-author complex animation from nothing and more likely to lean on the AI design step as the bridge from static to motion, then refine. Their distinct responsibility is brand and marketing motion output. Observable success: a brand or marketing animation that carries their static design language into motion.

UI/UX Designer

A creative professional who produces UI/UX animations and product/SaaS motion pieces. Their goal is to show interface motion — transitions, states, product behavior — as editable motion graphics. They edit and animate AI-generated designs before export, and they care about the fidelity of UI motion specifically. Their distinct responsibility is UI/UX and product/SaaS animation. Observable success: a UI/UX motion piece that reads as a credible representation of interface behavior.

Video Editor

A creative professional who needs motion graphics assets to cut into video work. Their goal is to generate, edit, and animate motion graphics assets and export finished motion output that drops into their edit. They are the persona most oriented toward output delivery rather than extended authoring — they want a usable asset quickly. Their distinct responsibility is producing motion assets for video work. Observable success: an exported motion asset that fits their video project.

Product Designer

A creative professional who creates product/SaaS animations and UI motion. Their goal is to refine AI-generated designs and animate them into product motion pieces before export. Their work overlaps with UI/UX motion but is oriented toward product storytelling and product surfaces. Their distinct responsibility is product/SaaS animation. Observable success: a product animation that communicates the product clearly in motion.

5. Core User Flows

Flow A — Motion Graphics Designer: prompt to exported motion piece

1. The Motion Graphics Designer arrives at Landing anonymously. The headline and the workflow strip (PROMPT → AI DESIGN → EDIT → ANIMATE → EXPORT) state what the product is and that it is built for motion designers.
2. They click the prompt track — styled as a timeline track with a lime playhead at its left — and type a description of the motion they want.
3. Because the prompt leads into durable project work, they are routed to Sign Up with their prompt preserved. They create an account.
4. They land in New Project with their prompt intact. They submit it. The radial AI generation state appears — a ring of orbiting keyframe nodes — while the AI design assembles.
5. The editable AI design is produced and handed into Project Editor. The canvas shows the composition, the timeline is populated, and AI-generated elements glow magenta.
6. They edit the design: selecting layers in the left column, adjusting properties in the right column. Their own edits glow lime, so they can see at a glance what the machine made and what they made.
7. They animate the composition on the timeline, scrubbing the playhead and setting animation on elements. The animation plays back on the canvas.
8. They export the finished motion output. The export completes and the result is surfaced.
9. Failure/recovery: if generation fails at step 4, the prompt is preserved and they retry or revise it. If export fails at step 8, the project remains intact and they retry.
10. Continuation: they return to Projects, where the project is listed, and can reopen it later to continue.

Flow B — Motion Graphics Designer: re-prompting inside an existing project

1. From Projects, the designer opens an existing project into Project Editor.
2. They enter a new prompt in the editor's prompt column to extend or redirect the design.
3. New AI-generated content appears in the project, glowing magenta to mark it as machine-made.
4. They edit and animate the new content, then export.
5. Failure/recovery: if the re-prompt fails, existing project content is preserved and they can retry.

Flow C — Graphic Designer: static design into brand motion

1. The Graphic Designer arrives at Landing and recognizes brand motion and marketing animations among the supported focus areas.
2. They sign up via Sign Up and land in New Project.
3. They prompt for a brand motion piece derived from their static design language.
4. The AI design is generated and handed into Project Editor.
5. They refine the composition — correcting type, color, and timing — and animate it.
6. They export the brand motion piece.
7. Continuation: the project is saved in Projects for later revision.

Flow D — UI/UX Designer: interface motion piece

1. The UI/UX Designer arrives at Landing and confirms UI/UX animations are a supported focus area.
2. They sign up via Sign Up and land in New Project.
3. They prompt for a UI/UX animation — a transition or state change they want to show.
4. The AI design is generated and handed into Project Editor.
5. They edit the generated design for interface fidelity and animate the transition.
6. They export the UI/UX motion piece.
7. Continuation: the project remains in Projects for further iteration.

Flow E — Video Editor: motion asset for a video edit

1. The Video Editor arrives at Landing and signs up via Sign Up.
2. In New Project, they prompt for the motion graphics asset they need.
3. The AI design is generated and handed into Project Editor.
4. They make targeted edits and animate the asset.
5. They export the finished motion output to drop into their video edit.
6. Continuation: they return to Projects and start the next asset.

Flow F — Product Designer: product/SaaS animation

1. The Product Designer arrives at Landing and signs up via Sign Up.
2. In New Project, they prompt for a product/SaaS animation.
3. The AI design is generated and handed into Project Editor.
4. They refine the AI-generated design and animate it into a product motion piece.
5. They export the product animation.
6. Continuation: the project is saved in Projects.

Flow G — Any persona: returning to resume work

1. The returning user arrives at Landing and chooses to log in.
2. On Login, they verify their identity.
3. They are routed to Projects, where their durable motion-design projects are listed.
4. They open a project into Project Editor and find their edits, animation, and export state as they left them.
5. They continue editing, animating, or exporting.
6. Failure/recovery: if the collection fails to load, they retry. If a project fails to open, they return to the list with the project intact.

6. Visuals Colors and Theme

Muse: Gleb Kuznetsov. Headline direction: MOTION, PROMPTED. — instrument-grade power with a sense of the future, where the interface itself moves like a motion piece.

Color tokens (dark mode)

Two-signal system (functional, not decorative): AI-generated elements glow magenta #FF4FD8; user-authored elements glow lime #E7FF4F. The designer sees at a glance what the machine made and what they made.

Hairlines: 1px luminous strokes at 10–14% white define panels. Floating glass panels sit at 2–4% white with backdrop blur over the dark ground. No solid card fills, no drop shadows, no hover-lift cards.

Gradients: subtle radial glows (#E7FF4F at 6–10% opacity) behind hero objects only — never full-page washes, never rainbow gradients.

Forbidden: any blue, indigo, or violet accent (#0057FF, #2563EB, #6366F1, #7C3AED or neighbours); white or near-white page backgrounds.

Typography

• Headings: Space Grotesk — wide geometric grotesk, medium-to-bold, tight tracking (−0.02em) at display sizes.
• Body: Space Grotesk.
• Numeric and timeline data: Space Mono, tabular.
• Micro-labels: 11px uppercase, +0.18em letterspacing.
• Display scale (1.5 modular): 120 / 80 / 56 / 40.
• UI scale (1.25): 28 / 20 / 16 / 14 / 12.
• Timeline numerics: 12px Space Mono tabular.
• Forbidden fonts: Inter, Roboto, Arial, Helvetica, Open Sans, Lato, Poppins, system-ui as heading or body fonts.

Shape language

Thin luminous strokes rather than solid fills. Radii: 6px on panels, 4px on controls, 999px only on the playhead scrubber and status pills. Curves belong to the hero object and to motion paths; UI chrome stays rectilinear so the interface reads as an instrument, not a toy.

Layout

Full-bleed dark canvas with a persistent left icon rail (56px) and a bottom timeline strip that is always visible — the product is a timeline, so the timeline is the layout. Landing is asymmetric: an oversized headline block anchored left, a full-bleed 3D motion object bleeding off the right edge, and a live prompt → design → animate strip running along the bottom as a scroll-scrubbed sequence. Inside the editor, three columns: left = layers/prompt, center = canvas with the generative object, right = properties. Radial layouts for the AI generation state (a ring of orbiting keyframe nodes).

Imagery

One crafted real-time 3D subject: an abstract volumetric motion object — a torus-knot-like form built from flowing