One-ink stipple

How to use it

Tell most of the clip as full-frame red-ink stippled drawings that build up the idea, cutting back to the speaker once or twice.

Where the speaker sits

Full sceneSuits itSmallWorksSplitSuits 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: One-ink stipple
Slice style ref: sref-ZN5KRP
Everything printed and drawn in one red ink on warm paper. Palette: warm paper #FBEFE6, red ink #E3262B, red tint #F5B9A8, paper white #FFFFFF. Line: a clean single-weight red line around every form. Shading: red stipple dots only; density builds the shadow, sparse dots for light, dense for dark. Texture: stipple grain and a faint paper tooth. Light: soft and directional, made entirely from dot density. Camera: locked; simple solids float and rotate slowly. Motion: 12 fps; smooth slow rotation and float, the stipple flickers slightly as dots regenerate; one gentle landing. Type: a clean grotesque in the same red, small. The one rule: one ink, on paper, for everything. DON'T: a second colour, flat solid fills, gradients.
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

• Everything printed and drawn in one red ink on warm paper.
• Palette: warm paper #FBEFE6, red ink #E3262B, red tint #F5B9A8, paper white #FFFFFF.
• Line: a clean single-weight red line around every form.
• Shading: red stipple dots only; density builds the shadow, sparse dots for light, dense for dark.
• Texture: stipple grain and a faint paper tooth.
• Light: soft and directional, made entirely from dot density.
• Camera: locked; simple solids float and rotate slowly.
• Motion: 12 fps; smooth slow rotation and float, the stipple flickers slightly as dots regenerate; one gentle landing.
• Type: a clean grotesque in the same red, small.
• The one rule: one ink, on paper, for everything.
• DON'T: a second colour, flat solid fills, gradients.

What it suits

Best for

Calm explainers about ideas and design, drawn with care in one ink.

Avoid for

Hype, loud comedy or celebrations.

Content

Explainer, How-to, Opinion

Tone

Thoughtful, Calm, Precise

Pace

Slow

Topics

ideas, design, science, philosophy, explain, craft, books, thinking, nature, objects

Colours

#FBEFE6 #E3262B #F5B9A8 #FFFFFF

For AIs: this style as plain text.