Big Idea

The argument in one line.

Carousels earn more engagement and saves than reels, and with a reusable style sheet plus code-driven motion you can produce them on autopilot for little or no money.

Who This Is For

Read if. Skip if.

READ IF YOU ARE…

A creator or small business owner posting to Instagram who wants a repeatable carousel system instead of designing every slide by hand.
A Claude Code user who wants to see how skills, a style sheet and code-drawn graphics combine into consistent branded output.
Someone with a story-driven brand (a restaurant, a founder journey, a client case) who wants narrated carousels without hiring an editor.
A budget-conscious builder who wants to know whether a free open model can replace paid image and video credits.

SKIP IF…

You don't post to Instagram or don't plan to, since every example is built around that format.
You want a fully self-contained tutorial: the skills themselves sit behind a free community signup and a Google Drive download.
You need the seamless carousel today on Windows, because that one is Mac only for now.

TL;DR

The full version, fast.

Carousels get a second chance in the feed and beat reels on engagement (6.9% vs 3.3%) and on saves (9x single images). The video shows four carousel skills built with Claude Code. A style sheet carousel keeps every slide on brand while code adds motion. A narrated story carousel uses real photos, a local voice and a camera-click sound. A seamless carousel spreads one picture across slides with cut-out props. The last one runs free in OpenCode with an open model. Install by joining the free community, downloading the zip, and pasting the install prompt.

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Chapters

Where the time goes.

00:00 – 01:01

01 · Four new carousel styles

Hook, preview of all four styles, and the promise to show costs and install steps.

01:01 – 02:07

02 · Why carousels

Instagram's second-chance distribution, Buffer engagement numbers and Metricool save data.

02:07 – 04:13

03 · Style sheet carousel with motion

A brand style sheet plus a personal photo drive consistent slides, with code adding the motion and fixing the brand blue.

04:13 – 06:48

04 · The engaging carousel

A narrated Nintendo history carousel with ten second slides, local voice, real licensed photos and a click sound.

06:48 – 08:06

05 · The seamless carousel

One panoramic picture cut across five slides with cut-out props, stickers and a no-context review agent.

08:06 – 09:38

06 · The $0 carousel

OpenCode with the free GLM 5.3 Flash model builds a surf carousel from a style gallery, with honest quality limits.

09:38 – 11:35

07 · How to install them

Join the free community, download the zip, paste the install prompt into Claude Code, then pick a style.

Atomic Insights

Lines worth screenshotting.

A reel gets one shot at a viewer, but a carousel can be shown again later from a different slide if the person scrolled past without swiping.
Buffer's 2026 data puts Instagram carousel engagement by reach at 6.9% against 3.3% for reels, more than double.
Metricool's analysis of over 24 million posts found carousels earn nine times the saves of single images.
A style sheet is one page of colors, fonts and rules that tells the AI how your brand looks, so every later carousel follows it.
Let the image model make only the photo and draw every letter, star, frame and grain in code, so you can edit any detail afterward.
When an image model drifts off your exact brand color, measure it and let code push every slide back to the sheet's value.
Motion built in code costs zero credits, and an eight second loop keeps playing on Instagram.
A narrated carousel works like a short video: ten seconds per slide with a voice telling a real story, such as how Nintendo started in 1889 as a playing card maker.
Open source voices like Kokoro run on your own computer, so narration adds no per-use cost.
The first version of an AI skill is usually bad, so expect to iterate: too many sound effects and a boring topic were both fixed by one corrective prompt.
Never reuse the same picture twice in a story carousel, and color grade each one so the set feels like one piece.
A second agent that reviews the finished images with no context catches mistakes the first agent no longer sees.
Copy a style you see in someone else's tutorial by asking Claude to describe it frame by frame, then feed it your own photos.
A free open model in OpenCode can produce a consistent carousel, with the trade-off that image quality is softer when downloads get rate limited.

Takeaway

Let AI make the photo, code do the rest

WHAT TO LEARN

Consistent carousels come from a style sheet that fixes the rules, code that draws and animates every exact element, and a human who approves instead of designs.

02Why carousels

Carousels get a second shot at a viewer who scrolled past, which is a distribution advantage reels do not have.
Engagement by reach was 6.9% for carousels against 3.3% for reels, and saves run nine times higher than single images.

03Style sheet carousel with motion

A style sheet written once lets every later carousel follow the same colors, fonts and rules without rework.
Have the image model produce only the photo, and draw all text and graphics in code so any mistake is a quick edit.
When AI output drifts from an exact brand color, measure it and let code snap each slide back to the sheet's value.
Motion that is built in code costs no credits and loops on Instagram, so animation does not require paid video generation.

04The engaging carousel

A narrated story carousel works when the story is real and interesting, so pick a subject people would stop for, not a topic about AI.
Use real, licensed photos with each source saved, color grade them, and never repeat a picture within one carousel.
Expect the first version of any skill to be rough, and fix it with a specific corrective prompt such as fewer effects.

05The seamless carousel

A review agent with no prior context catches visual mistakes that the building agent has stopped noticing.
Show the AI an example you like and ask for a frame by frame breakdown before you ask it to rebuild the style with your assets.

06The $0 carousel

A free open model can run the whole carousel pipeline, with softer images as the cost when asset downloads get rate limited.

07How to install them

Install by downloading the skill zip into your Claude Code folder, pasting the provided prompt, and restarting the session before asking for a carousel.

Glossary

Terms worth knowing.

Style sheet: A single page that records a brand's colors, fonts and rules so an AI can follow them on every generated asset.
Skill: A saved set of instructions and files that Claude Code loads to repeat a specific job, such as making a carousel, in a consistent way.
OpenCode: A free coding agent that works like Claude Code but lets you plug in any model, including free open ones.
GLM 5.3 Flash: An open model from Z.AI that was free to use inside OpenCode at the time of the video.
Kokoro: An open source text to speech voice that runs locally on your computer.
Seamless carousel: One large picture cut into several slides so objects sit on the line between two slides and the swipe feels like a continuous scroll.
Higgsfield: A paid image and video generation service that bills in credits, used here for the photo layer of two carousels.

Resources

Things they pointed at.

00:00toolClaude Code

00:00productOpus 5.5

02:30productHiggsfield ↗

02:30productGPT Image 2.5

05:32toolKokoro

08:22toolOpenCode

08:22productGLM 5.3 Flash

01:30linkBuffer Instagram engagement study

01:37linkMetricool 24M post study

10:00linkFree Skool community (skill download) ↗

Quotables

Lines you could clip.

01:01

“A reel gets one shot. A carousel actually gets two tries.”

Short, contrarian and easy to follow without setup.→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote

01:24

“Carousels got 6.9%. Reels got 3.3%. That's more than double.”

A single stat with a clear comparison.→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote

02:37

“The AI only makes the photo. Every letter, every star, every red frame is code so we can actually customize it.”

States the core design principle in two sentences.→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote

The Script

Word for word.

Read-along

Don't just watch it. Burn it in.

See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.

this carousel moves this one talks to you this one is one big picture and everything crosses from slide to slide and this one costed me zero dollars literally zero a free open model made it no subscription no clod no chad gbt no credits nothing four new carousel styles and by the end of this video you will have all four of them on your computer I'll show you each one was made, what it actually costs and what you would use it for.

And at the end, how to install all four step -by -step. So stick around until the end, because if you just skip until the setup part, it won't run properly on your computer. If you're new here, I'm Jad.

I give away skills for free three to four times a week. I work on them during the week and then I post them in my free school community. Link is in description.

We have biweekly calls where I help you with my business partner, install the skills and answering your questions. So I'm not gatekeeping any of this. If this is your first time here, I have given away motion graphics, style sheet carousels, and three different video model editors, all free.

And today we're adding four new styles for carousels. But before I show you the carousels, let me tell you why you should not skip carousels, especially if you do content. A reel gets one shot.

Someone scrolls past it and that's it. A carousel actually gets two tries. And the head of Instagram has said it.

He basically said that if someone scrolls past your carousel without swiping, Instagram can show it to them again later from the slide too. So you get a second chance at the same person. And the numbers actually back it up.

Buffer did a big study on engagement on Instagram. Carousels got 6 .9%. Reels got 3 .3%.

That's more than double. Now, fair is fair. Reels still reach more people.

But the people who see a carousel actually stop, swipe and save it. Metrico looked at over 24 million posts and carousels got nine times more saves than single images. So right now, if you want real results, not just viewers, carousels are where it's at.

And the best part, once you turn it into a system, the skills picks the topics, does the research and makes the carousel. You just approve it. So you stop thinking about every day you have to post.

Now, without further ado, let's get straight into it. All right. So the first one is the style sheet care self.

but with motion graphics. So basically a style sheet is one page that tells AI how your brand looks, your colors, your fonts, your rules. And I made a new one today.

I called it copult groove, flat copal, blue background, a rust velvet bucket that pulled over the eyes, yellow groove letters. Then I gave Claude two things, the style sheet and a photo of me. That's it.

I wrote the prompts, sent both images to Hicksfield and made the photos with GBT image 2 .5, seven images. And that's me on. every slide with the hats over my eyes because that's the rule number one on the style sheet.

Here's the part that most people will be missing. The AI only makes the photo. Every letter, every star, every red frame, the scribbles, the grain, all of it here is code so we can actually customize it.

So I prefer having control over it. Then I did a second carousel. but without me this time.

And I told it to change a little bit of details where I said, put motion graphics, cloud code can actually look for other sessions running on your computer. Now there wasn't one open. So it did the motion itself because it already has the motion graphic skills I gave you guys before.

So it designed a brand new model on slide one, then use the slide one as a reference for the other six. So it's the same girl on every slide. Seven slides, nine images.

And look at what moves. The letters, the ripples, like a wave. The star rock and twinkle.

The little zoomed in frames breaths. The photo itself doesn't move, but the other details move. Here's the part that I kind of like.

The sheet says in the background has to be one exact blue. The AI didn't listen. It came back a little off on every single slide.

So Claude measured it and the code put it back to the blue from the sheet. That's why the whole thing looks amazing. Like one brand and not seven different AI pictures.

The motion one in here cost me zero credits. It's all code. Every slide is an eight second loop.

So on Instagram, it just keeps going. Both were made with Opus 5 .5 and Cloud Code. So who's this for?

If you have a brand or a personal brand, and if you want people to recognize your posts in one second, this is the one. You make your sheets once and every carousel after that follows the rules. The second one is my favorite, the storytelling carousel, or as I call it, the engaging carousel.

Nobody would do this for a carousel because it's very time consuming. They would just prefer to do it for a video. Every slide here is 10 seconds video, and it tells you a story out loud.

Nintendo is 137 years old. For most of that time, it never made a video game.

It began in 1889 in Kyoto. Fusejiro Yamauchi made Hanafuda, Japanese playing cards.

In the 60s, Hiroshi Yamauchi tried everything. A taxi company, instant rice, all failed. Then came toys.

Engineer Gunpei Yokoi built the Ultra Hand toy. In 1980, his game and watch put games in your pocket.

A year later, Donkey Kong gave us Mario, and Nintendo still makes playing cards. Follow for more brand stories.

So if you want to tell a story, you could also have it in a carousel mode to give it more an interactive feeling. So as you swipe, it goes from Kyoto in 1889, when Nintendo was making playing cards to a taxi company, and it tells you the actual story of Nintendo. And Nintendo is just an example, but you could put it for whatever you want.

So how does this work? This is basically my editor V1, the editing style I gave away on my last video. I turned it into a new skill for carousels.

The voice is Kokoro, an open source voice that runs on my computer. The music is my own track and every picture is real photos, real clips, the real Wikipedia pages, all found online with every license saved in source file. Each one gets color graded and not one picture is used twice.

The only sound effect is a little camera click that you can hear when the pictures changes. And to be honest, the first version was not good at all. Way too many sound effects and it was a carousel about Claude and nobody wants that really.

So I told it, make me more of a story that people would actually be interested in and fewer effects with the click sounds. So that one that you just saw, literally I did not use Hicksfield. Obviously I just used my Claude subscription and it cost me $0.

Everything runs on. computer the nintendo one does the research checks the facts and writes every single uh line and also gets the voice which is also by the way open mark and if you were wondering who's this really for any brand with a story your business your clients how a restaurant started how your company almost died people actually stopped for stories that's the whole idea so now let's talk about the third one the seamless carousel this is the one big picture cut it into five slides so when you swipe things across from one slide to the next the coffee cup camera the grapes they sit right on the line between two slides so the whole post feels like one continuous scroll i saw this style in a tutorial here in instagram and sent it basically to claude and told it hey give me frame by frame how they did it then i gave it my real photos which you can do too the balcony the pool the rooftop the cats the house and they cut the background of it found free props online a camera coffee grapes cherries sunglasses remove their backgrounds too and put my cad

inside that camera screen and the selfie instead of photo booth window. Then you have like those little iMessage bubbles and stickers on top. And again, I had to go over it.

The first version was rough. I had to fix more the skill. But once you have it, you wouldn't have any problem with it.

And I made it in a way when your AI is done with the work, there is another agent that goes and checks with no context and sees the images. So if you see something is not right, it's going to send back to that AI. This one is also zero credits.

Your own photos are free. The background removals run on your Mac. now this one who is this really for anyone who has a personal brand and wants to talk a bit on their trip their weekend their event their restaurants a week of a client shoots this is definitely the look that you would like to have and the fourth one the most important one that a lot of people in the school community wanted is the zero dollar carousel when i say zero i literally mean zero no cloud subscription so i opened open code which is like cloud code where you can plug in any model you want and i picked the recent one that got released for free GLM 5 .3 Flash.

It's an open model from Z .AI. And it's completely free inside open code. And I type one line, generate me a carousel with style sheet references.

And let me pick which one the open a gallery with seven styles. So I picked the one with the surf and I gave me three topics, the ideas. And I said, get me the real forecast, like a local.

So it checked what's going on with the wind and everything. And it made it into a carousel. And if you see the background, what it did, it took photos from Wikimedia and, and then it changed the.

color by itself fix the fonts fix the writing and it's very consistent in every single slide And the cool part is if there is a mistake in the root spell or in the writing or the color, it's fully customizable. It's not AI generated image.

Now, to be fair, this is not clean as Claude. A few photos come out a bit soft because Wikimedia kept limiting the downloads and it stopped on me in the middle. I had to come back and type open it for me so it could show it to me.

But if you want to save money and you don't want to pay for carousels ever, this alternative is actually really good, especially if you want to be consistent and have an automated system. them where you keep posting every single day without spending any money. Okay.

Now the part that I told you to stay for how to install it properly, basically. So step one, you have to join my school community. It's free.

It's a link in description. Step two, you will see the post of this specific video. You go to it.

You will see it has a link for a Google drive. You open the Google drive. You'll see a zip.

You install that zip. Once it's installed, drag it to your folder where you're going to open your cloud code. Step three, you're going to open cloud code in that folder.

And you're going to take the prompt that is in the Google drive. You paste it in there and you click enter and it will install all those skills for you in that specific folder. Once it's installed, just close that tab and reopen again.

And this time just say, Hey, make me a carousel. You pick either the style sheet one or the editor V1 or the long picture. You can just say, make me an engaging carousel about my business starter.

And then it'll tell you, do you want to use the style sheet or you want to connect to Hicksfield or do you want to use zero dollar credit you want to use motion graphics and you just have a simple conversation now for the zero dollar one you have to install open code it's free what you have to do is go open the folder start open code type slash model and pick GLN 5 .3 flash.

Now don't get discouraged. I know a lot of people are not very technical. So what I did, I made another skill to be very helpful for you.

So basically what it will do, it's cloud code itself. I design it in that way that it will install for you open code, and then you will pick the model for you GLN 5 .3 flash. The only thing you have to do is approve.

So this way, if you're not technical, I completely get it. It will do it for you. That's the best thing about AI now.

Or if you were just a little bit worried, I'm sure you can find a of videos of people showing how to install open code it's super simple and if something breaks just join my weekly uh calls in our school or make a post and i will reply to it so that's it four new carousel styles one that moves one that talks and one that flows across the whole swipe and and one that literally costs zero dollars all free and the link into this if you're not subscribed please leave a follow thank you for sticking all the way to the end and i'll see you in the next

The Hook

The bait, then the rug-pull.

Four carousel styles in under twelve minutes: one that moves, one that talks, one that flows across the whole swipe, and one that costs nothing. The video makes the case for carousels first, then shows what each style cost and who it fits.

Frameworks