This is a submission for the GitHub Copilot CLI Challenge
🎬 What I Built
In a previous submission for a productivity tool, I sneaked in a small Easter egg inspired by The Matrix. That led to a slightly silly thought, what if I built an actual movie scene using GitHub Copilot CLI, rendered entirely in a terminal with Unicode characters?
That idea stuck with me. It sounded unnecessary, impractical… and kind of awesome 🙂
So I decided to create a Star Wars inspired lightsaber duel in pure CLI. My very first idea was the Lord of the Rings “Ride of the Rohirrim” scene 🐎🐎, but I quickly realized I should keep the scope smaller — after all, it’s still just a terminal and Unicode characters. 😆
📽️ Teaser
The full animation is a bit too long for this post, so I prepared a short “teaser” instead.
View the complete version (~65 seconds) on GitHub
🏃♂️ Run it locally
git clone https://github.com/Gramli/star-wars-animation.git
cd star-wars-animation
dotnet run
Note:
- You’ll need .NET 10 SDK installed.
- Use a font with good Unicode support (e.g., Cascadia Code).
- The Visual Studio Console or VS Code terminal render the block characters best -> they’re true Jedi-level terminals 😄
⚠️ Running in classic
cmd.exeor other limited terminals may break the animation. Consider it a training exercise for Padawans, only the worthy (and properly equipped) terminals will experience the duel in all its glory.
🎥 My Experience with GitHub Copilot CLI
I brought the idea and created several detailed prompts. Copilot handled most of the code generation and quickly produced a nice draft version. However, something was missing — it lacked soul.
At that point, Copilot stopped being just a code generator and became a Creative Director. I kept refining prompts, pushing for stronger visuals, better animation flow, and more cinematic moments.
Here’s a real example of how our “conversation” looked:
Me:
The animation works and we already have some nice effects, but we need to take it to the next level an Oscar-movie level. We need a real wow effect that makes this animation stunning. Can you suggest 3–5 ideas?Copilot:
Here are a few ways to push the animation toward a more cinematic feel, even within CLI constraints:
1. Lightsaber motion trails to make fast swings feel fluid and powerful
2. Gradient-based lighting to simulate glow and light falloff
3. Impact shockwaves that briefly distort the screen on heavy clashes
4. Molten damage on walls and floors that cool over time
5. Cinematic letterboxing during key moments to focus attention
I’d start with motion trails and molten damage for the biggest visual impact.
Which one would you like me to implement first?
Copilot responded with ideas like motion trails for lightsabers, gradient lighting, shockwave effects, molten damage on walls, and even cinematic letterboxing. Some of them made it into the final version, others stayed on the cutting-room floor, but the process itself was surprisingly fun.
I was genuinely impressed. Copilot helped transform a simple ASCII-style drawing into a small but entertaining show. Sure, it’s not an Oscar-winning movie, but for a playful, slightly ridiculous idea, I think it turned out pretty cool.
💥 When We Failed (And Pivoted)
Things went smoothly… until I had a very bad idea:
“What if we add a camera rotation illusion?” 😅
Yeah. That was ambitious.
This turned out to be a real challenge, even for Copilot. After many new sessions and repeatedly reworking prompts, we eventually had to pivot. A full Y-axis camera rotation just wasn’t readable with simple ASCII silhouettes, so we ended up experimenting with X-axis rotation and a top-down view instead.
At that point, the silhouettes are so minimal that the viewer has to mentally accept the perspective shift, but that’s part of the charm (and limitation) of doing cinematic nonsense in a CLI.
And honestly? That experimentation, even when it didn’t fully work was one of the most fun parts of the project.
💭 Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed this ride. Using GitHub Copilot CLI for something completely non-practical, visual, and slightly absurd turned out to be a great experience. It pushed me to think differently about prompts, iteration, and collaboration with an AI, not just as a tool, but as a creative partner.
May the Source be with you!
Top comments (20)
ef yes!
The Force agrees 😄
This is so fun! It’s a masterpiece. May the Source be with you! ⚔️
Thank you! ❤️
I’m really glad you enjoyed it, May the Source guide you ⚔️
You have such great skills and creativity! I’m not a senior dev like you yet, but I’d love to make something fun together if you have time. 😊
I’d love to collaborate, that sounds fun 😃 . My time is a bit limited right now with work and family, so it might take some time to finish something, and our collaboration would need to be mostly asynchronous.
Feel free to contact me on GitHub. You can create an issue or discussion in the star-wars-animation repository, or in one of your own, and mention me there. We can discuss it further. 🙂
Thank you!😄 I made a Issue on your GitHub.
Amazing! Might fork this and make a Spaceballs version 🤣
That’s actually an amazing idea 😄 I’d love to see it!
Haha so cool !! i love it 😃
Thanks a lot! 😄 Happy to hear you liked it!
Brilliant 😁
😁 Strong and prepared, the terminals must be, yes, hmmm.
ahahah nice!
Happy you enjoyed it!
Love this!
Hahaha the original Lord of the Rings “Ride of the Rohirrim” scene seemed super ambitious
Thanks! Yeah, but the idea is still living rent-free in my head 😄 Maybe I’ll give it a try…
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