Sticker halftone

How to use it

Keep the speaker present as a halftone sticker cut-out in full-frame scenes for most of the clip, with their key quote set beside them, cutting to the plain footage once or twice.

Where the speaker sits

Full sceneSuits itSmallSuits itSplitWorksSideSuits itDrawn 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.

PICTURES: this style uses photo cut-outs. Before you start, ask the person one short question: use stills from their own clip, Slice's stock search, their own uploads, or (only if you can make images) images you generate. If they don't mind, use stills from the clip, then stock.

VISUAL STYLE: Sticker halftone
Slice style ref: sref-7J1MEQ
LOOK: one greyscale halftone photo cut-out at the centre with a fat white sticker edge (8 to 12 px at 1080 wide), on a pale #E9ECE6 ground with a regular field of fine #B9C2B6 dots. Halftone ink #2B2B2B in coarse dots. A soft #F2E27A yellow disc may sit behind. One small #C2452D accent, used sparingly.
LINE AND FILL: no lines. Every cut-out gets the thick white sticker border.
TEXTURE: coarse halftone on the photo, a finer regular dot field on the ground. Nothing else.
LIGHT: a soft oval shadow under the figure, as if the sticker sits in a hole in the page.
CAMERA: locked and centred, with a slow breathing scale between 100 and 103 percent.
MOTION: 12 fps. Small props orbit or bob around the figure; the figure itself barely moves. One gentle lift on the key line.
TYPE: small plain sans in lowercase under the figure, one or two words at a time, fading on and off.
THE RULE: one sticker-edged halftone cut-out at the centre; everything else is quiet.
DON'T: no colour photos, no more than one accent colour, no big type, no busy backgrounds.
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: one greyscale halftone photo cut-out at the centre with a fat white sticker edge (8 to 12 px at 1080 wide), on a pale #E9ECE6 ground with a regular field of fine #B9C2B6 dots. Halftone ink #2B2B2B in coarse dots. A soft #F2E27A yellow disc may sit behind. One small #C2452D accent, used sparingly.
• LINE AND FILL: no lines. Every cut-out gets the thick white sticker border.
• TEXTURE: coarse halftone on the photo, a finer regular dot field on the ground. Nothing else.
• LIGHT: a soft oval shadow under the figure, as if the sticker sits in a hole in the page.
• CAMERA: locked and centred, with a slow breathing scale between 100 and 103 percent.
• MOTION: 12 fps. Small props orbit or bob around the figure; the figure itself barely moves. One gentle lift on the key line.
• TYPE: small plain sans in lowercase under the figure, one or two words at a time, fading on and off.
• THE RULE: one sticker-edged halftone cut-out at the centre; everything else is quiet.
• DON'T: no colour photos, no more than one accent colour, no big type, no busy backgrounds.
• Treat these as the look, never a template: invent fresh pictures, words and compositions from what this clip says.

What it suits

Best for

A guest's quote or a personal story where the person speaking is the focus.

Avoid for

Lists, charts or loud, fast promotional clips.

Content

Interview, Personal story, Something emotional

Tone

Warm, Tender, Calm

Pace

Slow

Topics

interview, guest, quote, memory, conversation, profile, voice, life, family, identity

Colours

#E9ECE6 #B9C2B6 #2B2B2B #F2E27A #C2452D

For AIs: this style as plain text.