Flat ink boil

How to use it

Tell most of the clip as full-frame boiling ink figures acting out the feeling on one colour ground, cutting back to the speaker once or twice.

Where the speaker sits

Full sceneSuits itSmallWorksSplitSuits itSideWorksDrawn overSuits it

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: Flat ink boil
Slice style ref: sref-3PFCMK
Frame-by-frame hand-drawn animation on one flat ground colour. Palette: deep teal ground #1E4552, flat skin #E5C49A, ink #101418, muted shadow #6E7F86, pale #D5D0C6. Line: thin, slightly shaky ink line that boils (is redrawn with a new 1 to 2px wobble) every second frame. Fills: flat, sitting a pixel or two off the line like a loose print; hair and deep shadow are scribbled black masses. Texture: none, or a faint pencil grain. Light: flat; the mood comes from the ground colour. Camera: locked, often close on a figure. Motion: on twos; held poses with small breaths, a slow head lift, a blink; walk cycles on a plain ground. Type: small hand-lettered lowercase in the ink colour. The one rule: few colours, one ground, and the line always boils. DON'T: vector-clean lines, gradients, busy backgrounds, bright saturated fills.
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

• Frame-by-frame hand-drawn animation on one flat ground colour.
• Palette: deep teal ground #1E4552, flat skin #E5C49A, ink #101418, muted shadow #6E7F86, pale #D5D0C6.
• Line: thin, slightly shaky ink line that boils (is redrawn with a new 1 to 2px wobble) every second frame.
• Fills: flat, sitting a pixel or two off the line like a loose print; hair and deep shadow are scribbled black masses.
• Texture: none, or a faint pencil grain.
• Light: flat; the mood comes from the ground colour.
• Camera: locked, often close on a figure.
• Motion: on twos; held poses with small breaths, a slow head lift, a blink; walk cycles on a plain ground.
• Type: small hand-lettered lowercase in the ink colour.
• The one rule: few colours, one ground, and the line always boils.
• DON'T: vector-clean lines, gradients, busy backgrounds, bright saturated fills.

What it suits

Best for

Emotional stories, anxiety and wellbeing, and quiet honest confessions.

Avoid for

Hype, sales or comedy that needs big energy.

Content

Something emotional, Wellbeing, Personal story

Tone

Tender, Calm, Serious

Pace

Slow

Topics

anxiety, mental health, emotions, honest, grief, lonely, therapy, healing, feelings, vulnerable

Colours

#1E4552 #E5C49A #101418 #6E7F86 #D5D0C6

For AIs: this style as plain text.