How the OpenClaw Video Message Skill Creates Avatar Video Notes – Step‑by‑Step Guide

The OpenClaw ecosystem provides a growing library of skills that extend the capabilities of personal AI assistants. One of the most visually engaging skills is the video‑message skill, which enables users to generate short avatar‑driven video clips and deliver them as Telegram video notes. This guide explains the skill’s purpose, its underlying components, installation requirements, configuration options, and a typical usage workflow. At its core, the video‑message skill relies on the avatarcam command‑line tool. Avatarcam takes an audio file (either supplied directly or produced by a text‑to‑speech engine) and a VRM avatar model, then renders the avatar speaking in sync with the audio. The output is a square MP4 video (384×384 pixels) encoded with H.264 video and AAC audio at a constant 30 fps. When the skill is invoked through OpenClaw’s messaging system, the resulting video is sent via the Telegram sendVideoNote API, which displays the clip as a circular video note in chats. The ski