Ballpoint notebook

How to use it

Doodle the idea on dot-grid paper through most of the clip as if explaining it to a friend, pencil then ink, cutting back to the speaker once or twice for the hook and the point.

Where the speaker sits

Full sceneSuits itSmallWorksSplitSuits itSideAvoidDrawn overSuits it

Drawn over: marks and type drawn over the full speaker. 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: Ballpoint notebook
Slice style ref: sref-Y573J3
LOOK: a dot-grid notebook page #FAF8F1 with small grey dots, drawn on in blue ballpoint #1F3C8F. A faint graphite pencil guide sits under the ink. One fluorescent yellow highlighter #FFE34A, laid slightly off the ink lines like a real one.
LINE AND FILL: one ballpoint weight, round caps, a faint second pass a pixel off so it reads as real pen pressure. Shapes are simple and loose: arrows, boxes, little objects, dashed paths. The only fill is the highlighter, multiplied into the paper and never neatly inside the outline.
TEXTURE: smooth notebook paper with a little grain; pencil guides very light.
LIGHT: none.
CAMERA: locked, top-down on the page.
MOTION: pencil guides sketch in first, quick and faint; then the ink draws over them at a calm drawing speed; then the highlighter sweeps in. Held drawings boil gently, 8 times a second. The one big move: a drawing comes alive once (it flies, rolls or bounces) and leaves an ink trail, then settles and stays.
TYPE: lowercase handwriting in the same blue ballpoint, two or three words.
THE RULE: one blue pen, one highlighter, and everything stays on the page once drawn.
DON'T: no clip-art icons, no typed fonts, no second ink colour, no shadows, no page flips between ideas, 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 dot-grid notebook page #FAF8F1 with small grey dots, drawn on in blue ballpoint #1F3C8F. A faint graphite pencil guide sits under the ink. One fluorescent yellow highlighter #FFE34A, laid slightly off the ink lines like a real one.
• LINE AND FILL: one ballpoint weight, round caps, a faint second pass a pixel off so it reads as real pen pressure. Shapes are simple and loose: arrows, boxes, little objects, dashed paths. The only fill is the highlighter, multiplied into the paper and never neatly inside the outline.
• TEXTURE: smooth notebook paper with a little grain; pencil guides very light.
• LIGHT: none.
• CAMERA: locked, top-down on the page.
• MOTION: pencil guides sketch in first, quick and faint; then the ink draws over them at a calm drawing speed; then the highlighter sweeps in. Held drawings boil gently, 8 times a second. The one big move: a drawing comes alive once (it flies, rolls or bounces) and leaves an ink trail, then settles and stays.
• TYPE: lowercase handwriting in the same blue ballpoint, two or three words.
• THE RULE: one blue pen, one highlighter, and everything stays on the page once drawn.
• DON'T: no clip-art icons, no typed fonts, no second ink colour, no shadows, no page flips between ideas, 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

explaining an idea simply, as if sketching it for a friend: how something works, a plan, a first attempt

Avoid for

grief, serious news, or polished brand announcements

Content

How-to, Explainer, Advice, Money or business, Comedy

Tone

Friendly, Curious, Casual, Clear

Pace

Medium

Topics

doodle, ballpoint, dot grid, notebook, pencil guide, highlighter, hand drawn, sketch

Colours

#FAF8F1 #1F3C8F #FFE34A #7A7364

For AIs: this style as plain text.