Stone mosaic

How to use it

Set most of the clip as stone and gold mosaics that fill in piece by piece as the idea comes together, cutting back to the speaker once or twice for the reverent moment.

Where the speaker sits

Full sceneSuits itSmallSuits itSplitSuits 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: Stone mosaic
Slice style ref: sref-538PVH
LOOK: a picture set from small tesserae of stone and gold glass in a mortar bed. Stone #D8CBB3 and its near tones, terracotta #9C4A2F, green-grey #3E5F5A, gold glass #C7A14A, near-black #2A2622 for outlines, mortar #B5A88F.
LINE AND FILL: no drawn lines; outlines are a single row of dark tiles. Inside a shape, rows of tiles follow its contour (andamento); the background runs in straight courses and bends around figures for a row or two.
TEXTURE: every tile slightly irregular in size and tone, a small bevel highlight on one edge, visible gritty mortar gaps.
LIGHT: soft and even, except gold glass, which catches a slow sweep of light now and then.
CAMERA: locked, square to the wall.
MOTION: tiles drop in by the handful, each handful settling with a soft shadow; rows set along their path. Finished areas never move.
TYPE: a short word in big Roman inscription capitals set as tile rows inside the background, terracotta or dark on stone.
THE RULE: everything is made of small square-ish tiles with mortar between; there are no smooth shapes.
DON'T: no smooth gradients or vector fills, no thin drawn lines, no glossy modern tile, no perfect grid inside figures, no fast motion.
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 picture set from small tesserae of stone and gold glass in a mortar bed. Stone #D8CBB3 and its near tones, terracotta #9C4A2F, green-grey #3E5F5A, gold glass #C7A14A, near-black #2A2622 for outlines, mortar #B5A88F.
• LINE AND FILL: no drawn lines; outlines are a single row of dark tiles. Inside a shape, rows of tiles follow its contour (andamento); the background runs in straight courses and bends around figures for a row or two.
• TEXTURE: every tile slightly irregular in size and tone, a small bevel highlight on one edge, visible gritty mortar gaps.
• LIGHT: soft and even, except gold glass, which catches a slow sweep of light now and then.
• CAMERA: locked, square to the wall.
• MOTION: tiles drop in by the handful, each handful settling with a soft shadow; rows set along their path. Finished areas never move.
• TYPE: a short word in big Roman inscription capitals set as tile rows inside the background, terracotta or dark on stone.
• THE RULE: everything is made of small square-ish tiles with mortar between; there are no smooth shapes.
• DON'T: no smooth gradients or vector fills, no thin drawn lines, no glossy modern tile, no perfect grid inside figures, no fast motion.
• Treat these as the look, never a template: invent fresh pictures, words and compositions from what this clip says.

What it suits

Best for

Faith, history and community pieces where many small parts make one picture.

Avoid for

Fast comedy, hype, or detailed charts.

Content

Faith, Personal story, Explainer, Nostalgia, Advice

Tone

Timeless, Patient, Reverent

Pace

Slow

Topics

mosaic, tesserae, andamento, gold glass, Roman, Byzantine, stone, mortar

Colours

#D8CBB3 #9C4A2F #3E5F5A #C7A14A #2A2622

For AIs: this style as plain text.