Quick overview
Keep topics in a Google Sheet and get each back as a finished vertical Short: GenMagic writes the script and makes a 9:16 clip per scene, JSON2Video renders them at 1080x1920 with a voiceover and captions, and you approve it by email.
How it works
- Check Every Six Hours starts a run. Get Next Topic reads the rows whose Status is new and Take One Topic takes the first one.
- Write Short Script asks a GenMagic text model for a four-scene script as JSON: a hook first, one or two spoken sentences of narration per scene in the row's language, an English visual prompt for each shot, a title and a description.
- Split Script into Scenes makes one item per scene, and Generate Scene Clip turns each prompt into a 5-second 9:16 clip with Seedance 2.0 Mini and waits for it.
- Build JSON2Video Movie builds the movie: one scene per clip, the clip filling the frame and looping for as long as that scene's voiceover lasts, and captions generated from the voiceover for the whole video.
- Render Short with JSON2Video submits the movie with JSON2Video's verified node and waits up to 10 minutes for it, and If Render Done checks that a finished video came back.
- Ask for Approval emails you the video link to approve or decline. Mark Short Approved writes the title, description, video link and GenMagic cost to the row; Mark Short Declined and Mark Render Failed record the other outcomes (a failed or timed-out render is logged with its reason).
Setup
- Install the GenMagic node: open the nodes panel, search for GenMagic and install it (on self-hosted n8n you can also install the package n8n-nodes-genmagic under Settings, Community Nodes).
- Create a free GenMagic account and an API key at https://genmagic.co/get-api-key?utm_source=n8n&utm_medium=template&utm_campaign=json2video-short and choose it as the GenMagic API credential on both GenMagic nodes.
- Install the verified JSON2Video node the same way (search for JSON2Video), create a JSON2Video account at https://json2video.com/?afco=genmagic (an affiliate link: GenMagic earns a commission at no cost to you) and add your JSON2Video API key as the credential of Render Short with JSON2Video.
- Create a Google Sheet with the columns Topic, Language, Voice, Status, Title, Description, Video URL, GenMagic Cost (USD), Error. Add a topic with Status new and select the sheet in the four Google Sheets nodes.
- Connect Gmail in Ask for Approval and put your own address in Send To, then activate the workflow.
Requirements
- n8n (Cloud or self-hosted) with the verified GenMagic and JSON2Video community nodes installed
- A GenMagic account and API key; new verified accounts get free starter credit. Clips are priced per second (live prices at genmagic.co/models): in our test run each 5-second 720p Seedance 2.0 Mini clip cost about $0.57, so a four-scene Short is a little over $2, and 480p costs about half
- A JSON2Video account and API key (renders are billed in JSON2Video credits; voiceovers and captions are included)
- A Google account for Google Sheets and Gmail
Customization
- Use Veo 3.1 Lite, Kling or Wan in Generate Scene Clip, a longer clip per scene, or 480p for cheaper drafts
- Put any Azure or ElevenLabs voice name in the Voice column to change the narrator
- Change the caption style, font or colours in Build JSON2Video Movie
- Add a YouTube or TikTok upload after Mark Short Approved