Two-tone night paint

How to use it

Run most of the clip as full-frame dark painted rooms lit by one hot light, cutting back to the speaker once or twice for the heaviest line.

Where the speaker sits

Full sceneSuits itSmallWorksSplitSuits itSideWorksDrawn overSuits it

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: Two-tone night paint
Slice style ref: sref-R5ZPRH
A dark painted room lit by one hot coloured light. Palette: near-black #1A1617, dark warm grey #3A2C2A, hot pink light #E0336B, light edge #F28A6A. No lines: painted masses in the two darks only; light shapes are hard-edged and flat. Texture: painterly brush grain and a slight film noise. Light: a single hard coloured source throws a bright window shape on the wall and its projection on the floor, and rims the figure with a thin pink edge. Camera: locked, often low or from across the room. Motion: almost still; the light flickers or slides past as if something moves outside; figures hold; slow fades. Type: small plain pale sans near the bottom, or none. The one rule: two darks and one hot light, nothing else. DON'T: daylight, a third hue, bright type, busy motion.
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

• A dark painted room lit by one hot coloured light.
• Palette: near-black #1A1617, dark warm grey #3A2C2A, hot pink light #E0336B, light edge #F28A6A.
• No lines: painted masses in the two darks only; light shapes are hard-edged and flat.
• Texture: painterly brush grain and a slight film noise.
• Light: a single hard coloured source throws a bright window shape on the wall and its projection on the floor, and rims the figure with a thin pink edge.
• Camera: locked, often low or from across the room.
• Motion: almost still; the light flickers or slides past as if something moves outside; figures hold; slow fades.
• Type: small plain pale sans near the bottom, or none.
• The one rule: two darks and one hot light, nothing else.
• DON'T: daylight, a third hue, bright type, busy motion.

What it suits

Best for

Late-night thoughts, loneliness and serious personal stories.

Avoid for

Upbeat tips, comedy or bright promotions.

Content

Something emotional, Personal story, Opinion

Tone

Serious, Dreamy

Pace

Slow

Topics

lonely, night, insomnia, thoughts, city, solitude, regret, alone, reflection, dark

Colours

#1A1617 #3A2C2A #E0336B #F28A6A

For AIs: this style as plain text.