Grain brush flat

How to use it

Tell most of the clip as full-frame grain-shaded scenes of the everyday objects being discussed, with a cut back to the speaker once or twice.

Where the speaker sits

Full sceneSuits itSmallSuits itSplitWorksSideWorksDrawn 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: Grain brush flat
Slice style ref: sref-YE5TGZ
Grain brush flat. Simple flat shapes shaded only with a fine grain brush.
Palette: #3F7D7A muted teal, #F28C8C soft pink, #F2C14E warm yellow, #2A2A2A dark, #F4EEE4 light. Muted, never bright or saturated.
Line and fill: no outlines anywhere. Shapes are flat fills whose form comes from grainy shading at their edges.
Texture: fine noise-brush grain, scattered dots that get denser away from the light, clipped to each shape. Highlights are lighter grain, cast shadows are a soft cloud of dark grain.
Light: one soft directional light (top left), shown only by where the grain gathers.
Camera: locked, close framing on one or two everyday objects.
Motion: small, smooth, satisfying actions: a press, a tilt, a slide, a pop and settle. 24fps with soft ease; one small peak, then rest.
Type: clean grotesque, small, dark, tucked in a corner; it changes by sliding.
The rule: shading is grain, never gradient.
Don'ts: no smooth gradients, no outlines, no bright saturated colours, no glossy highlights.
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

• Grain brush flat. Simple flat shapes shaded only with a fine grain brush.
• Palette: #3F7D7A muted teal, #F28C8C soft pink, #F2C14E warm yellow, #2A2A2A dark, #F4EEE4 light. Muted, never bright or saturated.
• Line and fill: no outlines anywhere. Shapes are flat fills whose form comes from grainy shading at their edges.
• Texture: fine noise-brush grain, scattered dots that get denser away from the light, clipped to each shape. Highlights are lighter grain, cast shadows are a soft cloud of dark grain.
• Light: one soft directional light (top left), shown only by where the grain gathers.
• Camera: locked, close framing on one or two everyday objects.
• Motion: small, smooth, satisfying actions: a press, a tilt, a slide, a pop and settle. 24fps with soft ease; one small peak, then rest.
• Type: clean grotesque, small, dark, tucked in a corner; it changes by sliding.
• The rule: shading is grain, never gradient.
• Don'ts: no smooth gradients, no outlines, no bright saturated colours, no glossy highlights.

What it suits

Best for

Cosy, calm explainers about everyday objects, tech habits and nostalgia.

Avoid for

Urgent news, loud hype or heavy emotion.

Content

Nostalgia, Explainer, How-to

Tone

Warm, Calm, Nostalgic

Pace

Slow

Topics

nostalgia, objects, habits, phone, home, routine, gadget, coffee, cosy, design

Colours

#3F7D7A #F28C8C #F2C14E #2A2A2A #F4EEE4

For AIs: this style as plain text.