Elastic stretch

How to use it

Set most of the clip as full-frame words that stretch and squeeze with the meaning, cutting back to the speaker once or twice.

Where the speaker sits

Full sceneSuits itSmallAvoidSplitSuits 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: Elastic stretch
Slice style ref: sref-RHT1KB
Look and motion: Elastic stretch. Flat colour, no texture, no shadow, one hue pair per scene: #E3001B strong red on #F7C6D6 soft pink, #1C4FD6 strong blue on #FBF6EE pale, with #2BB673 green as an alternate. Type: geometric or grotesque capitals built from straight strokes and arcs (bars, stems, bowls), stacked vertically with strong scale contrast: a small line over a tall, heavy word. Light flat; camera locked. Motion: letters draw on stroke by stroke and leave the same way. They move only by changing shape: widths morph smoothly between narrow and wide, stems and bars extend all the way to the frame edges and then snap back, a word widens into the space when it says room or grows when it says grow. Every change is smooth and heavily eased in and out, and most of the time the letters hold still. The one rule: the letters move by changing shape, never by flying around. Don'ts: no rotation, no flying or sliding entrances, no textures, no purple.
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 and motion: Elastic stretch.
• Flat colour, no texture, no shadow, one hue pair per scene: #E3001B strong red on #F7C6D6 soft pink, #1C4FD6 strong blue on #FBF6EE pale, with #2BB673 green as an alternate.
• Type: geometric or grotesque capitals built from straight strokes and arcs (bars, stems, bowls), stacked vertically with strong scale contrast: a small line over a tall, heavy word.
• Light flat; camera locked.
• Motion: letters draw on stroke by stroke and leave the same way.
• They move only by changing shape: widths morph smoothly between narrow and wide, stems and bars extend all the way to the frame edges and then snap back, a word widens into the space when it says room or grows when it says grow.
• Every change is smooth and heavily eased in and out, and most of the time the letters hold still.
• The one rule: the letters move by changing shape, never by flying around.
• Don'ts: no rotation, no flying or sliding entrances, no textures, no purple.

What it suits

Best for

Growth, change, balance and push-and-pull ideas shown as letters that stretch.

Avoid for

Serious news or grief.

Content

Wellbeing, Advice, Money or business, Motivation

Tone

Playful, Upbeat

Pace

Medium

Topics

growth, change, balance, stress, flexible, habits, progress, tension, stretch, resilience

Colours

#F7C6D6 #E3001B #1C4FD6 #FBF6EE #2BB673

For AIs: this style as plain text.