Chalk on slate

How to use it

Write the problem in plain chalk through most of the clip, then loop the simpler idea in one colour, cutting back to the speaker once or twice like a teacher turning to the class.

Where the speaker sits

Full sceneSuits itSmallWorksSplitSuits itSideAvoidDrawn overSuits it

Drawn over: marks and type drawn over the full speaker. 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: Chalk on slate
Slice style ref: sref-K6S3Y7
Real chalk on a worn green slate board in a classroom. Ground: deep green-black slate #22312A with a soft vignette, wide grey eraser haze where old lessons were wiped, and faint ghosts of earlier writing. Frame: a plain pine frame #9C6E43 with a ledge holding chalk sticks and a line of dust. Line: chalk strokes about 1.1% of the short side, slightly wobbly at hand speed, broken by the board's tooth into a grainy dry edge, with a faint powder halo around every mark. Type: a sketchy chalk hand (Cabin Sketch), lower case, a little uneven. Colour: white chalk #F1EFE6 for everything plain; one coloured chalk, warm yellow #F3D35B, is saved for the idea that matters (a loose loop, a short label, an arrow). Camera: locked, with one slow push-in on the coloured mark. Motion: writing appears at hand speed and stays; a little dust falls when the coloured chalk is used; an eraser clears the board from left to right, leaving haze. The one rule: everything is drawn by hand in chalk, and only one idea is coloured. DON'T: typed fonts, clean vector lines, neon colour, more than one accent, shaking or bouncing.
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

• Real chalk on a worn green slate board in a classroom.
• Ground: deep green-black slate #22312A with a soft vignette, wide grey eraser haze where old lessons were wiped, and faint ghosts of earlier writing.
• Frame: a plain pine frame #9C6E43 with a ledge holding chalk sticks and a line of dust.
• Line: chalk strokes about 1.1% of the short side, slightly wobbly at hand speed, broken by the board's tooth into a grainy dry edge, with a faint powder halo around every mark.
• Type: a sketchy chalk hand (Cabin Sketch), lower case, a little uneven.
• Colour: white chalk #F1EFE6 for everything plain; one coloured chalk, warm yellow #F3D35B, is saved for the idea that matters (a loose loop, a short label, an arrow).
• Camera: locked, with one slow push-in on the coloured mark.
• Motion: writing appears at hand speed and stays; a little dust falls when the coloured chalk is used; an eraser clears the board from left to right, leaving haze.
• The one rule: everything is drawn by hand in chalk, and only one idea is coloured.
• DON'T: typed fonts, clean vector lines, neon colour, more than one accent, shaking or bouncing.

What it suits

Best for

a teacher-like turn: the problem written plainly, then one coloured mark for the kinder or simpler idea

Avoid for

hype, launches, polished brand content and anything that needs photos

Content

How-to, Explainer, Advice, Wellbeing, Nostalgia

Tone

Patient, Kind, Warm, Nostalgic

Pace

Slow

Topics

chalk, chalkboard, slate, classroom, hand lettering, eraser haze, dust

Colours

#22312A #F1EFE6 #F3D35B #9C6E43

For AIs: this style as plain text.