Mail art

How to use it

Carry most of the clip as envelopes, stamps and tickets laid down for each part of the message or journey, franked at the end, cutting back to the speaker once or twice for the thank-you or the memory.

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: Mail art
Slice style ref: sref-RDXMWD
LOOK: mail art on a kraft paper desk #C9B08A. Real paper ephemera in their own worn colours are layered by hand: envelopes with handwriting, old postage stamps with perforated edges, ticket stubs, book pages, airmail stripes in red #B8352A and blue #25466E on off-white #F2EBDD. Ink marks arrive on top: a round postmark with wavy cancel lines in black ink #2B2723 and a red rubber stamp in a rounded box.
PICTURES: scans or photos of old envelopes, stamps, tickets, postcards, receipts, book pages and labels, plus engraved hands or arrows from old printed books for rubber stamps. Where to get them: public-domain and CC0 collections (The Met Open Access, Smithsonian Open Access, Biodiversity Heritage Library plates, NASA, Wikimedia Commons files marked public domain or CC0), Slice's stock search, or the person's own photos. Cut every object out cleanly; never use a picture with a real brand or logo on it.
LINE AND FILL: paper edges are real or torn, with soft paper shadows. Ink stamps are slightly transparent, slightly uneven, never perfect.
CAMERA: top-down on the desk, locked.
MOTION: each piece is slid or laid down by an invisible hand and stays; some slide out from under others. The one peak is the postmark pressed on with a tiny squash, as if stamped.
TYPE: only what would really be there: a typewriter face on stamps and labels, a date in the postmark, two or three words in a rubber stamp.
THE RULE: everything is real paper or real ink; build up the pile, never clear it.
DON'T: no clean digital shapes, no gradients, no real postal brand marks, no people, no purple.
Treat these as the look, never a template: choose fresh objects, 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: mail art on a kraft paper desk #C9B08A. Real paper ephemera in their own worn colours are layered by hand: envelopes with handwriting, old postage stamps with perforated edges, ticket stubs, book pages, airmail stripes in red #B8352A and blue #25466E on off-white #F2EBDD. Ink marks arrive on top: a round postmark with wavy cancel lines in black ink #2B2723 and a red rubber stamp in a rounded box.
• PICTURES: scans or photos of old envelopes, stamps, tickets, postcards, receipts, book pages and labels, plus engraved hands or arrows from old printed books for rubber stamps. Where to get them: public-domain and CC0 collections (The Met Open Access, Smithsonian Open Access, Biodiversity Heritage Library plates, NASA, Wikimedia Commons files marked public domain or CC0), Slice's stock search, or the person's own photos. Cut every object out cleanly; never use a picture with a real brand or logo on it.
• LINE AND FILL: paper edges are real or torn, with soft paper shadows. Ink stamps are slightly transparent, slightly uneven, never perfect.
• CAMERA: top-down on the desk, locked.
• MOTION: each piece is slid or laid down by an invisible hand and stays; some slide out from under others. The one peak is the postmark pressed on with a tiny squash, as if stamped.
• TYPE: only what would really be there: a typewriter face on stamps and labels, a date in the postmark, two or three words in a rubber stamp.
• THE RULE: everything is real paper or real ink; build up the pile, never clear it.
• DON'T: no clean digital shapes, no gradients, no real postal brand marks, no people, no purple.
• Treat these as the look, never a template: choose fresh objects, words and compositions from what this clip says.

What it suits

Best for

a message, a memory, a journey, a thank-you

Avoid for

data, hype, technical how-to

Content

Personal story, Nostalgia, Announcement, Something emotional, Interview

Tone

Tender, Personal, Nostalgic

Pace

Slow

Topics

letter, envelope, stamp, postmark, ticket, travel

Colours

#C9B08A #F2EBDD #B8352A #25466E #2B2723

For AIs: this style as plain text.