Sparse mixed media

How to use it

Tell most of the clip as quiet full-frame pages that gain one line, one torn photo square or one bar per thought, cutting back to the speaker once or twice.

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.

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: Sparse mixed media
Slice style ref: sref-FTED2X
LOOK: a nearly empty #EDEAE2 cream page with faint #CFC9BD ruled lines, holding no more than five elements balanced like a modernist poster: a waxy #D22B2B crayon line, one torn black and white photo square (or a torn #1C1C1C black square with grey speckle), and a few flat cut-paper bars and dots in #138A4A green, #F2C230 yellow and #1C1C1C black.
LINE AND FILL: waxy crayon line made of many short overlapping strokes; flat cut-paper bars and dots; a torn edge on the photo.
TEXTURE: paper tooth, crayon grain, torn paper fibre. Nothing busy.
LIGHT: flat, a hair of shadow under the photo at most.
CAMERA: locked.
MOTION: 12 fps. Each element slides or drops in and settles with a small overshoot; the crayon line draws on; on each new beat the elements rebalance against each other (move, grow, swap sides). Long still holds.
TYPE: small typewriter or plain grotesque, set off-centre, with lots of space around it.
THE RULE: few elements, lots of empty page, everything balanced against one another.
DON'T: no full-frame fills, no more than five elements, no gradients, no busy texture.
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 nearly empty #EDEAE2 cream page with faint #CFC9BD ruled lines, holding no more than five elements balanced like a modernist poster: a waxy #D22B2B crayon line, one torn black and white photo square (or a torn #1C1C1C black square with grey speckle), and a few flat cut-paper bars and dots in #138A4A green, #F2C230 yellow and #1C1C1C black.
• LINE AND FILL: waxy crayon line made of many short overlapping strokes; flat cut-paper bars and dots; a torn edge on the photo.
• TEXTURE: paper tooth, crayon grain, torn paper fibre. Nothing busy.
• LIGHT: flat, a hair of shadow under the photo at most.
• CAMERA: locked.
• MOTION: 12 fps. Each element slides or drops in and settles with a small overshoot; the crayon line draws on; on each new beat the elements rebalance against each other (move, grow, swap sides). Long still holds.
• TYPE: small typewriter or plain grotesque, set off-centre, with lots of space around it.
• THE RULE: few elements, lots of empty page, everything balanced against one another.
• DON'T: no full-frame fills, no more than five elements, no gradients, no busy texture.
• Treat these as the look, never a template: invent fresh pictures, words and compositions from what this clip says.

What it suits

Best for

Quiet reflections, design and art talk, or calm ideas that need a lot of space.

Avoid for

Busy lists, comedy or loud announcements.

Content

Wellbeing, Explainer, Personal story

Tone

Calm, Thoughtful

Pace

Slow

Topics

design, art, reflection, minimalism, creativity, simplicity, space, focus, balance, craft

Colours

#EDEAE2 #CFC9BD #D22B2B #138A4A #F2C230 #1C1C1C

For AIs: this style as plain text.