Lino block print

How to use it

Carve most of the clip as black and rust block prints of the hands, the seasons and the roots in the story, cutting back to the speaker once or twice for the reflective line.

Where the speaker sits

Full sceneSuits itSmallWorksSplitSuits itSideWorksDrawn overAvoid

Full scene: the scene fills the frame. Stock speaker from Pexels.

Palette

THIS IS A MOODBOARD, NOT A TEMPLATE. The style below is inspiration for the look and feel. Keep its materials, colours, textures and the way it moves, but invent your own scenes, characters and objects for this clip. You are not limited to anything shown in the preview, and nothing in it has to appear. Use illustration and animation to help tell the clip's story.

STORY FIRST. Read the whole clip before you design anything.
1. Write the clip's arc in one line: setup, tension, turn, pay-off. Name the one line that is the reveal.
2. Tag every sentence with its job: setup, context, tension, turn, reveal, example, number, contrast, list, quote, feeling, metaphor, callback, pay-off, aside.
3. The visuals carry the whole clip. If the clip shows the speaker's face, open on them (the first scene keeps them on screen) unless the person says otherwise. After that, never cut back to the speaker full-frame unless the person asks for it; if they do, only on the ending, never in the middle of an explanation. The speaker can still sit inside a scene (a corner, a split or drawn in) when the person wants to be seen.
4. Build one flowing visual story, not a new picture per sentence. Each scene covers a whole thought (one to three sentences), holds 3 to 8 seconds and turns into the next.
5. Start each scene on the first word of its sentence, or up to half a second before. Never cut mid-sentence.
6. Inside a scene, bring small details in on the words they show (an item, a tag, a tick). Earlier details stay.
7. Choose one or two recurring objects or characters in the first scene and bring them back changed. Callbacks beat new pictures.
8. Build up the same picture where you can (add to it, move the camera across it) instead of replacing it.
9. Energy: about 80 percent still, drifting or gentle. Allow one big move in the whole clip, on the reveal, for 1 to 2 seconds, then settle and hold.
10. Numbers sit on a scale (gauge, bar, table, timeline) and hold long enough to read. Contrasts are a still split or the same layout twice.
11. Feelings get a quiet image, or one of the cuts back to the speaker; never effects.
12. On-screen text names, labels or quotes; it never repeats the caption. Five words or fewer per label.
13. End every scene by settling or thinning out, or by turning into the next scene. No exit effects.
14. The style sets the look. These rules set when, how long and how calmly. If the style's own motion rules ask for more energy than this, use less.

VISUAL STYLE: Lino block print
Slice style ref: sref-20BZWE
LOOK: a hand-carved linocut pulled on oatmeal paper #EEE6D5. Two inks: a dense black #1C1A17 key block and one rust #C4532F colour block printed first, sitting 2 to 4 px off register. Pencil grey #6B655C for edition marks under the print.
LINE AND FILL: everything is built from tapered gouge marks: pointed lens-shaped cuts that follow the form. Dark areas are solid black with rows of white cuts running along their contours (more cuts mean lighter); light areas are paper with black ridges left standing in rings or rows. A carved white line separates overlapping forms. The block border is a rough carved frame.
TEXTURE: uneven ink coverage with pinholes and speckle in the blacks, slight ink squash at edges, paper tooth, a faint embossed plate mark around the image.
LIGHT: flat; light and shadow come only from how much was carved away.
CAMERA: locked on the sheet, with a very slow 1 percent breath.
MOTION: each block prints in with a slow press sweep, stepped at 8 fps, with a soft pressure shadow at its leading edge. Things grow by printing more of the carving, never by scaling. The one big move is the key block landing over the colour. Pencil notes write on afterwards.
TYPE: none in the image. Pencil handwriting under it: edition number, a small title in lowercase, a scribbled signature (never a real name).
THE RULE: two inks, and every form is made of gouges that follow it.
DON'T: no vector-clean outlines, no gradients, no white-line engraving look (white lines on solid black is a different style), no texture filter over a clean drawing, no purple.
Treat these as the look, never a template: invent fresh pictures, words and compositions from what this clip says.
Accent: as in the palette.
Frame shape: ask me before you start (9:16 vertical, 4:5 portrait, 1:1 square or 16:9 wide).
Energy: normal.

TECH: one HTML file, one GSAP 3 timeline created paused as window.__timelines.main, duration = the scene's length, transforms and opacity only.

Look rules

• LOOK: a hand-carved linocut pulled on oatmeal paper #EEE6D5. Two inks: a dense black #1C1A17 key block and one rust #C4532F colour block printed first, sitting 2 to 4 px off register. Pencil grey #6B655C for edition marks under the print.
• LINE AND FILL: everything is built from tapered gouge marks: pointed lens-shaped cuts that follow the form. Dark areas are solid black with rows of white cuts running along their contours (more cuts mean lighter); light areas are paper with black ridges left standing in rings or rows. A carved white line separates overlapping forms. The block border is a rough carved frame.
• TEXTURE: uneven ink coverage with pinholes and speckle in the blacks, slight ink squash at edges, paper tooth, a faint embossed plate mark around the image.
• LIGHT: flat; light and shadow come only from how much was carved away.
• CAMERA: locked on the sheet, with a very slow 1 percent breath.
• MOTION: each block prints in with a slow press sweep, stepped at 8 fps, with a soft pressure shadow at its leading edge. Things grow by printing more of the carving, never by scaling. The one big move is the key block landing over the colour. Pencil notes write on afterwards.
• TYPE: none in the image. Pencil handwriting under it: edition number, a small title in lowercase, a scribbled signature (never a real name).
• THE RULE: two inks, and every form is made of gouges that follow it.
• DON'T: no vector-clean outlines, no gradients, no white-line engraving look (white lines on solid black is a different style), no texture filter over a clean drawing, no purple.
• Treat these as the look, never a template: invent fresh pictures, words and compositions from what this clip says.

What it suits

Best for

slow, reflective lines about roots, seasons, work done by hand, faith and legacy

Avoid for

data, product demos, fast comedy or anything that should feel modern and digital

Content

Personal story, Faith, Nostalgia, Wellbeing, Something emotional

Tone

Quiet, Grounded, Earnest, Timeless

Pace

Slow

Topics

linocut, block print, gouge marks, relief print, two colour, off register, handmade, plate mark

Colours

#EEE6D5 #1C1A17 #C4532F #6B655C

For AIs: this style as plain text.