One prompt, $3.21 of API spend: Opus 5.5 one-shots a full hand-drawn collage animation
Singularity-42 · reddit · 2026-09-24
A Reddit user used Claude Code driving Opus 5.5 to produce a 30-60s hand-drawn collage-style animation on "what is the purpose of life" — complete with narration — in a true one-shot, single-prompt autonomous run taking 1h20m.
Key details:
- Cost: $3.21 on OpenRouter (mostly NanoBanana 2 for images, plus text-to-speech, across 8 different APIs), plus $20 of Opus 5 usage — only 10% of a Max 5 subscription's 5h quota
- Setup: OpenRouter API key in .env, prompt authorizes the model to find tools and web resources autonomously, caps spend at $10, and stresses "professional-level production value"
- The author says the result beat expectations and is better than a similar attempt posted earlier that day; minor flaws remain but they published the genuine one-shot output
The full prompt is included in the post.
Related event: Opus 5.5 Generates Hand-Drawn Animation From a Single Prompt(2 posts)→
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