Motion & Video · Web & Digital
Tom Acco has an agent build a 3D Rive scene with the new Rive CLI, then reuses its sun in a game
A Rive educator messaged Claude Code to build an interactive 3D solar system with the Rive CLI, then moved the sun into his course game.
Done withRCRive CLI (technical preview)CCClaude Code
Self-initiated test by a Rive course creator
WHAT THEY DID
Tom Acco asked Claude Code, from his phone, to install the new Rive CLI and build a 3D solar system with real planet textures and controls, then imported the result into the Rive editor.
STEP BY STEP
- Message Claude Code from a phone: install the Rive CLI and build the scene, send pictures.
- Agent reads the CLI's docs, builds a wireframe first, then iterates by screenshot.
- Next morning: export to the Rive editor, fix data binding, drive the scene from the Data panel.
- Agent extracts the sun as a small script with two inputs (size, glow) and swaps it in for the hand-drawn sun in a copy of his course's game.
HOW IT WENT
An interactive 3D scene he reports took twelve minutes to build and twenty from install to last picture, without opening the editor; he shares the editor file, .riv and the agent's text.
Reported results: Working interactive 3D scene; the sun reused as a small script in a copy of his course game.
WORTH KNOWING
Explains a real trade-off: scenes an agent writes as a script become a 'black box with knobs' in the editor, so decide what must stay hand-editable first. He says the taste calls (tilt, speed, size, glow) were still his, and three quiet failures cost more than twelve loud errors. It was his own test, not client work, and he sells Rive courses.
TRY IT
- Decide which parts must stay editable in the Rive editor before an agent starts.
- Ask the agent to send screenshots after each change and check the picture, not just the build.
- Have the agent package one effect as a small component with a few inputs you can bind.
Rates the entry, not the tool.
Source: Tom Acco · Rive MasterclassOpen as a page
- Work done: not stated in the source (Not stated. He writes that Rive had shipped the tool 'ten days earlier'; no exact date.)
- Source published: Sep 19, 2026
- On 4TC: added Oct 28, 2026 · checked Oct 28, 2026
About this source
Type: Self-initiated experiment · Firsthand report · Demonstrated workflow
- Rive CLI: How I Built an Interactive Solar System From My Phone
Tom Acco · Rive Masterclass · Published Sep 19, 2026 (Byline 'Sep 19, 2026'.) · Checked Oct 28, 2026
Author sells Rive courses (Rive Masterclass, Rive Scripting) promoted in the article. No sponsorship by Rive disclosed.
Access: open - Rive Agent Builds 3D Solar System in Minutes
Tom Acco · LinkedIn · Published Oct 1, 2026 (LinkedIn post with video, 1 Oct 2026.) · Checked Oct 28, 2026
Author's own post.
Access: open - Introducing the Rive CLI and RML
Rive · Rive Community · Publication date not stated (Vendor announcement; date not captured.) · Checked Oct 28, 2026
Vendor (tool context only).
Access: open
Source check: Reviewed by a 4TC editor on Oct 28, 2026. Claims, quotes and dates re-checked against the sources by Ella on 28 Oct 2026. Nobody at 4TC has tested this.
Claims and where they come from
- From his phone, he asked Claude Code on his Mac to install the Rive CLI and build a 3D solar system with real planet textures and 3D controls, and send him pictures. (reported) [1]
- He reports twelve minutes for the solar system and twenty from installing the tool to the last picture, with the editor opened zero times. (reported) [1]
- Twelve times the tool rejected what the agent wrote and said what it would accept; three times it 'failed quietly', with the build saying fine and the picture showing otherwise. (reported) [1]
- In the editor the data binding did not work at first; the agent rewired it in ten lines. (reported) [1]
- Because the planets live inside one script, he cannot select or nudge them in the editor; only four exposed inputs (angle, tilt, zoom, speed) can be changed. (reported) [1]
- The agent turned the sun into a small script with size and glow inputs, and it replaced his hand-drawn sun in a copy of the game from his Rive Scripting course. (reported) [1][2]
- Rive describes the CLI and RML as a technical preview that is free to use during the preview. (according to the company) [3]
4TC interpretation
Our reading, not something the source says.
Rive's new CLI lets agents write Rive files as text; this is an early test of what that means for motion designers who still work in the editor.
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