Light table proofs

How to use it

Lay out the tries as film strips through most of the clip, marking up each one in red until the loupe finds the keeper, cutting back to the speaker once or twice for the choice.

Where the speaker sits

Full sceneSuits itSmallSuits itSplitAvoidSideWorksDrawn overWorks

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: Light table proofs
Slice style ref: sref-MTPJFB
LOOK: a warm light table #F4EEE2 glowing from underneath, brighter in the middle and falling off to the corners. On it, strips of black and white film #171513 with sprocket holes the light shines through and small amber #D9A441 edge numbers. Each frame is a real photo printed as a warm black and white positive (#16130F to #ECE5D6), every frame a slightly different moment or crop.
LINE AND FILL: one red-orange grease pencil #E0452B, waxy and broken, with a slight double stroke: crosses through misses, a hand-drawn box around the keeper, a short handwritten word.
TEXTURE: film grain in the frames, a little dust, paper grain in the table glow.
LIGHT: soft backlight from below, frames glowing, a faint cool-warm falloff at the edges. A loupe magnifies with a darker rim and a glint.
CAMERA: locked and top-down, like leaning over the table.
MOTION: the strips lie still. Pencil marks draw on in quick waxy strokes on the words that explain them and stay. The one big move: a loupe glides in, settles on the keeper and holds with a small hand drift, showing it bigger.
TYPE: small monospaced edge numbers on the film; grease-pencil handwriting in lowercase, one or two words.
THE RULE: the photos stay black and white; the grease pencil is the only colour.
DON'T: no colour photos, no app-style photo grid with even gaps, no clean vector marks, no pencil over the keeper's face, no purple.
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 warm light table #F4EEE2 glowing from underneath, brighter in the middle and falling off to the corners. On it, strips of black and white film #171513 with sprocket holes the light shines through and small amber #D9A441 edge numbers. Each frame is a real photo printed as a warm black and white positive (#16130F to #ECE5D6), every frame a slightly different moment or crop.
• LINE AND FILL: one red-orange grease pencil #E0452B, waxy and broken, with a slight double stroke: crosses through misses, a hand-drawn box around the keeper, a short handwritten word.
• TEXTURE: film grain in the frames, a little dust, paper grain in the table glow.
• LIGHT: soft backlight from below, frames glowing, a faint cool-warm falloff at the edges. A loupe magnifies with a darker rim and a glint.
• CAMERA: locked and top-down, like leaning over the table.
• MOTION: the strips lie still. Pencil marks draw on in quick waxy strokes on the words that explain them and stay. The one big move: a loupe glides in, settles on the keeper and holds with a small hand drift, showing it bigger.
• TYPE: small monospaced edge numbers on the film; grease-pencil handwriting in lowercase, one or two words.
• THE RULE: the photos stay black and white; the grease pencil is the only colour.
• DON'T: no colour photos, no app-style photo grid with even gaps, no clean vector marks, no pencil over the keeper's face, no purple.
• Treat these as the look, never a template: invent fresh pictures, words and compositions from what this clip says.

What it suits

Best for

stories about trying many times and finding the one: practice, editing, choosing, behind the scenes of making something

Avoid for

abstract ideas with no people, data, or loud hype

Content

Personal story, How-to, Interview, Money or business, Nostalgia

Tone

Focused, Honest, Crafted, Quiet

Pace

Medium

Topics

contact sheet, film strip, light table, grease pencil, loupe, black and white, proofs, darkroom

Colours

#F4EEE2 #171513 #D9A441 #E0452B #ECE5D6

For AIs: this style as plain text.