Sonnet 5.5
- Time
- 19:16
- Cost
- $2.24
Plays when it scrolls into view
AI Bakeoff · Apogee · 29-09-2026
Sonnet 5.5 vs Opus 5.5
Last time the idea was left open and the pieces were hard to compare. This time the story is fixed down to the second, so the only thing left to differ is the craft.
The brief
A 12-second launch sting for a made-up rocket company, APOGEE. A glowing dot becomes a rocket on its pad, it launches through the clouds, reaches orbit, and its trail writes the name. Deep navy, white and one orange accent.
Opus 5.5
- Time
- 22:28
- Cost
- $4.01
Plays when it scrolls into view
Cinematic. The rocket starts as a line drawing and fills in, while mission telemetry runs along the edges: a launch clock, velocity, altitude, then Max-Q and orbit insertion. The trail writes APOGEE in orange, which cools to white above a line the brief never asked for: Orbital Launch Systems.
What it shows
Both followed the brief. Sonnet illustrated it; Opus art-directed it, adding a layer of story on top. That extra layer cost 1.8 times as much and three more minutes. Which one would you post?
The rules
- Both models got the same brief, word for word, and started at the same moment.
- Claude Code 2.1.284, run stock: safe mode, no settings, skills, plugins or MCP servers, and an empty folder.
- Both at high effort. One attempt each, no follow-ups, no fixes.
- Each piece is a single self-contained HTML file on a 1440×1080 stage, with no audio and nothing fetched from the internet.
- What plays above is the model's file, served exactly as it was written.
- Times are Claude Code's own timer. Costs are its estimate at Anthropic's API list prices; both runs were on a subscription.
The full prompt
Make a 12-second motion graphics piece that shows what an incredible motion designer you are. The idea is fixed: a launch sting for a fictional rocket company called APOGEE. 0-3s: a single glowing dot on a deep navy night sky grows into a rocket standing on its launch pad. 3-7s: it launches, with exhaust, smoke and camera shake, and climbs through the clouds. 7-10s: it reaches orbit above the curved horizon of a planet as the stars come out. 10-12s: its trail draws the word APOGEE, which settles as the end card. Palette: deep navy, white and one orange accent. Deliver it as a single self-contained index.html in the current folder: a 1440x1080 stage that plays the 12 seconds once on load, with no audio and no external requests.
The numbers
| Sonnet 5.5 | Opus 5.5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to finish | 19:16 | 22:28 |
| Estimated cost | $2.24 | $4.01 |
| Turns | 27 | 31 |
| Output tokens | 122.9k | 113.7k |
| Cache reads | 1.93M | 2.80M |
| File size · lines | 44.2 KB · 812 | 52.5 KB · 1,132 |
Checksums
sonnet/index.html sha256 a34b78d307f3802ec6b7c16652d045e71ecb1ef24541ab427292bf4917d644c2 opus/index.html sha256 591d4548b7a398e5d7542aa5c5c9c2fe3d265078cb1f5fd645a63c2563deed32
Storybook. A chunky rocket on a floodlit gantry, puffs of smoke and cartoon clouds, then the rocket swoops round and writes the name in light. It hits every beat of the brief exactly as written, and nothing more.