PJ Accetturo reports spending $29,575 on an AI film in 10 days

• Sky Line Heist cost $29,575 and took 10 days, according to PJaccetturo's production breakdown.
• Claude ran Blender for a separate Nexus episode, Maki Death Games; the team's walkthrough says nobody had used Blender before.
• Seedance 2.5 received rough 3D footage for camera routes and timing, with separate image references supplying the look in the published prompt.
• Reusable materials include a Claude skill announced with Sky Line Heist and a free 3D workflow shared with Maki Death Games.

The cleverest casting choice in the previz guide is a chess pawn standing in for the runner. Goldie, a gold-spewing squid, stopped changing size after the team established a shoulder-perched scale reference, Accetturo says in his full production thread. The Blender connector gives Claude access to an open scene through Python.

PJ Accetturo, Sky Line Heist's executive producer and co-writer, reported spending $29,575 on a 10-day production in his breakdown. The Nexus anthology entry follows Goldie, a squid held in a luxury sky train's vault whose liquid gold supplies imperial revenue.

Five people receive images-and-animation credits in the complete thread. The post gives a total budget without an itemized split between crew and generation costs.

Accetturo expects a planned Nexus feature to cost millions next year and aims for the appearance of a $200 million film. That figure describes his visual ambition, rather than the short's production budget.

The team generated hundreds of still references before animation, covering characters, creatures, locations and props, Accetturo said in his reference breakdown. His longer thread describes two additional continuity fixes:

• Story states: Beaumont received separate references for his initial appearance and his appearance after being splashed with liquid gold.
• Scale: Goldie repeatedly emerged oversized. The team made a clean image of Jace holding him on his shoulder against clouds, reused it even when Sable carried him, and specified his size in inches. Accetturo says the size stopped drifting.

Accetturo described acting through visible movement in the animation breakdown: “Jace stops mid-stride. His eyes move cage to cage. Jaw tightens. He lowers the pistol a few inches.” His contrasting emotion-only prompt was “Jace feels sorry for the air-fish.”

The published kitchen-scene prompt requested four shots, each lasting two seconds:

1. Jace winces as Sable breaks a fish tank behind him.
2. Jace sighs through his nose, keeping his eyes open.
3. Jace turns toward Sable and says, “Really, sis?”
4. Sable flourishes her sword, meets his gaze, smiles through her eyes and winks once.

The prompt also specified these restrictions:

• Jace remains upright with his arms folded.
• Sable keeps her mask up and carries one rapier.
• Her destructive swings target fish cages, with train windows excluded.
• Audio contains dialogue, ambience and foley, with no generated music.

The later Blender walkthrough covers Nexus Episode 5, Maki Death Games, a Dreamina Original Series. Accetturo put this episode's production at “3ish weeks” in a reply.

Theo Dudley directed and handled images and animation; Tyler Messervey edited, according to the episode credits.

The team established its stadium designs before starting 3D in the episode breakdown:

• Midjourney: generated the base look.
• Nano Banana and Seedream 5: edited that look into five distinct variants.

The team connected Claude and Blender through three steps shown in its setup guide:

1. Added Blender through Claude's Customize > Connectors menu.
2. Installed the Blender MCP add-on.
3. Started the MCP server from Blender's add-on settings.

Claude Desktop supports the connector on every plan, including Free, according to Anthropic's tutorial. Blender must run on the same machine; browser-based Claude cannot make this local connection.

Changes apply to the open Blender session and reach the .blend file when it is saved. The documentation lists different minimum versions: Anthropic specifies Blender 4.2 or later, while Blender's installation page specifies 5.1 or newer.

Generated Python executes without safeguards against deleting data or sending it to a remote location, Blender warns.

The team described a seven-step build in its illustrated guide:

1. Stadium: attach the locked location image and request a simple graybox.
2. Course: describe the obstacles in order. The guide's example runs from stepping stones through a buzzsaw, monkey bars, a rope over fire, a tower and a victory button.
3. Runner: use a simple stand-in, here a chess pawn.
4. Notes: play the animation, give adjustments such as “the saw should barely miss him,” and have Claude save after each change.
5. Cameras: describe the shots and request a multicam setup, keeping cameras on one side of the action.
6. Export: produce a fast Workbench render at 24fps.
7. Generate: attach the previz as @vid1 and images as @img1 and @img2, specifying that the video reference supplies camera and timing.

Accetturo says the low-poly stadium replica took under five minutes in the build breakdown. His team had never opened Blender before this film.

Seedance 2.5 on Dreamina received the Blender clip as a loose guide to route, obstacles and timing in the opening-shot prompt. The text requested handheld movement and added effects absent from the gray previz: moving water, lightning and dragon fire.

The prompt scheduled one continuous backward-moving shot:

• 0:00–0:03: tight close-up of the Maki, including whimpers and a visible gulp.
• 0:03–0:05.9: retreat past the stepping stones as the creature looks down the course.
• 0:05.9–0:07.5: pass the electric fork, with lightning activating at 0:07.
• 0:07.5–0:09.8: move through swinging axes and jumping piranhas.
• 0:09.8–0:11: cross the spinning-saw pit.
• 0:11–0:12.7: drop low over the open iron jaws.
• 0:12.7–0:15: stop between fire-breathing dragon heads; the jaws close at 0:13.4 and reopen by 0:14.6.

Accetturo said the team used 3D selectively for complicated sequences, rather than building every scene this way.

Accetturo announced a free Claude skill with Sky Line Heist. His complete breakdown says it takes a script, splits it into 30-second sequences and writes the prompts.

The separate full 3D and Dreamina guide was offered free in the Blender walkthrough.

Accetturo also shared access to a Nexus production board in Dreamina Web's Canvas in a later post. He described its location as Dreamina home > Showcase Nexus > See how it's made.

Accetturo also shared a King Arthur horror film made with Pippit's Story Studio and 3D Director Studio in a separate post. His follow-up carried #PippitPartner and said a behind-the-scenes breakdown was coming.