Photocopy pop collage

How to use it

Run most of the clip as full-frame photocopy collage scenes built from cut-outs of the speaker and the things they name, cutting back to the speaker once or twice for the hook or the punchline.

Where the speaker sits

Full sceneSuits itSmallSuits itSplitWorksSideSuits itDrawn 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: Photocopy pop collage
Slice style ref: sref-V4RYN2
LOOK: grey photocopied photo cut-outs on #EDEBE6 paper, shouted over by two flat colours, #E1251B red and #FFC20E yellow. Photo parts are high-contrast photocopy: #1C1C1C toner blacks crushed, #8E8D89 mid grey, toner speckle and a few horizontal streaks. Colour shapes (slabs, 12-point starbursts, bars) are dead flat with no texture.
LINE AND FILL: no outlines. Cut-out edges are clean scissor cuts with a thin white paper edge. One hard drop shadow under each cut-out, no blur.
CAMERA: a locked flat plane; at most one quick push-in (about 5 percent in a quarter second) on the peak.
MOTION: cut-outs move on twos (12 fps). Flat shapes snap in with a 2-frame overshoot. Starbursts turn slowly. Small screen areas flicker with glitch bands for a few frames. About 80 percent of the time nothing moves.
TYPE: heavy grotesque capitals cut from the same red or yellow (white scissor edge, or black type on a flat yellow block), or small typed captions photocopied in grey.
THE RULE: photos are always grey photocopies; colour only ever comes from flat shapes.
DON'T: no full-colour photos, no gradients, no third bright colour, no soft or feathered cut edges, no shaking.
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: grey photocopied photo cut-outs on #EDEBE6 paper, shouted over by two flat colours, #E1251B red and #FFC20E yellow. Photo parts are high-contrast photocopy: #1C1C1C toner blacks crushed, #8E8D89 mid grey, toner speckle and a few horizontal streaks. Colour shapes (slabs, 12-point starbursts, bars) are dead flat with no texture.
• LINE AND FILL: no outlines. Cut-out edges are clean scissor cuts with a thin white paper edge. One hard drop shadow under each cut-out, no blur.
• CAMERA: a locked flat plane; at most one quick push-in (about 5 percent in a quarter second) on the peak.
• MOTION: cut-outs move on twos (12 fps). Flat shapes snap in with a 2-frame overshoot. Starbursts turn slowly. Small screen areas flicker with glitch bands for a few frames. About 80 percent of the time nothing moves.
• TYPE: heavy grotesque capitals cut from the same red or yellow (white scissor edge, or black type on a flat yellow block), or small typed captions photocopied in grey.
• THE RULE: photos are always grey photocopies; colour only ever comes from flat shapes.
• DON'T: no full-colour photos, no gradients, no third bright colour, no soft or feathered cut edges, no shaking.
• Treat these as the look, never a template: invent fresh pictures, words and compositions from what this clip says.

What it suits

Best for

Loud opinions, hot takes and cheeky culture stories that want a punchy, zine-like edge.

Avoid for

Grief, faith reflections or anything that needs to feel gentle.

Content

Opinion, Comedy, News, Hype

Tone

Bold, Playful

Pace

Medium

Topics

opinion, hot take, culture, media, internet, celebrity, rant, debate, trend, pop culture

Colours

#EDEBE6 #1C1C1C #8E8D89 #E1251B #FFC20E

For AIs: this style as plain text.