Toy theatre

How to use it

Stage most of the clip in a paper theatre, the setup in the wings and the reveal on a curtain-up, cutting back to the speaker once or twice for the hook and the pay-off.

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: Toy theatre
Slice style ref: sref-G2GFAS
LOOK: a printed and hand-coloured Victorian paper theatre. Card #F3E7CF, theatre red #B23A2E, deep green #2C4A3E, gold #D9A441, engraver's black #1C1B19, with paler tints of the same for distance.
LINE AND FILL: every shape has a black engraved outline; flat watercolour fills printed slightly off register, so colour slips a few pixels from its line. Shading by fine parallel hatching only.
TEXTURE: card stock, faint foxing spots, light grain.
LIGHT: flat print. The only light effect is warm footlights that glow when the show is on.
CAMERA: locked, square to the proscenium. Depth comes from stacked flat layers: arch, wings, backdrop.
MOTION: flats slide in from the wings along straight tracks; figures glide side to side on visible sliders or hang on wires, rocking gently, never walking. Sea strips rock back and forth like rollers. A curtain rises to open and drops to close.
TYPE: playbill mix: heavy wood-type slab caps in a gold cartouche, italic and spaced roman small text, ornament rules and diamonds.
THE RULE: everything is a flat printed card cut-out moved by hand from the side or above.
DON'T: no perspective drawing, no smooth gradients, no walking or bending figures, no modern sans type.
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 printed and hand-coloured Victorian paper theatre. Card #F3E7CF, theatre red #B23A2E, deep green #2C4A3E, gold #D9A441, engraver's black #1C1B19, with paler tints of the same for distance.
• LINE AND FILL: every shape has a black engraved outline; flat watercolour fills printed slightly off register, so colour slips a few pixels from its line. Shading by fine parallel hatching only.
• TEXTURE: card stock, faint foxing spots, light grain.
• LIGHT: flat print. The only light effect is warm footlights that glow when the show is on.
• CAMERA: locked, square to the proscenium. Depth comes from stacked flat layers: arch, wings, backdrop.
• MOTION: flats slide in from the wings along straight tracks; figures glide side to side on visible sliders or hang on wires, rocking gently, never walking. Sea strips rock back and forth like rollers. A curtain rises to open and drops to close.
• TYPE: playbill mix: heavy wood-type slab caps in a gold cartouche, italic and spaced roman small text, ornament rules and diamonds.
• THE RULE: everything is a flat printed card cut-out moved by hand from the side or above.
• DON'T: no perspective drawing, no smooth gradients, no walking or bending figures, no modern sans type.
• Treat these as the look, never a template: invent fresh pictures, words and compositions from what this clip says.

What it suits

Best for

Told stories with a setup and a reveal, history and parables, a curtain-up moment for news.

Avoid for

Modern tech talk, numbers, hype or anything that needs a contemporary feel.

Content

Personal story, Nostalgia, Announcement, Faith, Explainer

Tone

Theatrical, Charming, Old-fashioned

Pace

Medium

Topics

toy theatre, paper theatre, proscenium, Victorian, engraved, playbill, stage, curtain

Colours

#F3E7CF #B23A2E #2C4A3E #D9A441 #1C1B19

For AIs: this style as plain text.