skills/pixverse-explainer/references/styles-history.md

# History Looks: Watercolor Chronicle, Paper Diorama, Mannequin

Open only the selected look's section. Paste its FORMULA, MOTION, PALETTE LOCK and
NEGATIVE into the templates in `./production.md` (style key, roster) and
`./block-prompt.md` (video blocks), then stage shots from its devices and shot shapes.
A supplied style donor's observed palette and surface override the defaults here. These
looks serve any channel; long history films also load `./branches.md`.

## Watercolor Chronicle

Ink-and-wash illustration that paints itself onto warm paper: fine ink figures, maps and
machines under translucent washes, with one vermilion mark pointing at the hero. Best on
history, biography, exploration, wars and empires, and science-history stories with a
long timeline. One-line description for the user: "Painted chronicle — ink drawings and
soft watercolour washes on warm paper, one red mark leading the eye."

**FORMULA** (paste byte-identical into every image and video prompt)

> hand-painted watercolor chronicle animation on warm cotton paper with visible tooth:
> fine, slightly uneven sepia-black ink linework under translucent layered washes of
> indigo, sepia, dusty ochre and desaturated blue-green, with soft pigment blooms, pooled
> edges and corners fading into untouched paper; one vermilion-red wash marks the hero
> element of each scene; painted figures with clear era-true silhouettes and calm simple
> faces; washes bleed in, brush strokes paint objects onto the page and painted pieces
> move with gentle illustration motion on twos; painted illustration in every frame,
> never photographic.

**MOTION**: `painterly limited animation on twos, washes bleeding in and ink lines
drawing themselves, painted pieces sliding and pivoting with soft settle`

**PALETTE LOCK**: `warm cotton paper, sepia-black ink line, washes of indigo, sepia,
dusty ochre and desaturated blue-green, ONE vermilion-red mark on the hero — no other
hues, no neon, no gradients beyond natural wash pooling`

**NEGATIVE**: `opening on a reference image, static first frame, dissolves, fades,
readable text, letters, numbers, captions, new colours, photorealism, live-action
footage, 3D render, plastic highlights, talking mouths, watermark`

### Signature devices

- **Wash bloom** — a wet wash spreads from one point and the stage appears inside it:
  sea, sky, a city wall, a field. Opens a shot in under a second.
- **Self-drawing ink** — a contour, coastline, road or rigging line inks itself on
  stroke by stroke, then the wash floods in behind it.
- **The vermilion mark** — the one red element: a coat, a sail, a flag, a seal, a region
  of the map. It can be carried, planted, spread or wiped over by a rival wash.
- **Painted map** — a parchment map fills the frame; a route inks itself port to port,
  a small ship or marching column slides along it, a territory floods with wash.
- **Muster rows** — one painted figure, ship or tent repeats into ranks row by row until
  the page is full; a few turn vermilion to show a share.
- **Ink drop** — a drop falls, splashes and blooms into a silhouette; the impact beat
  for deaths, discoveries and declarations.
- **Seal and tally** — a wax seal thumps onto a document; brush ticks count up in groups
  of five beside a growing pile of sacks, coins or crates.

### Roster guidance

- **Cast (2:3)**: full-body ink-and-wash figures on plain paper, costume and tool that
  show era and job, distinct silhouettes (tall hat, long coat, armour, apron). The
  protagonist may wear the vermilion. A figure seen at several ages attaches the first
  version as reference ("the same person, now older, greyer, heavier coat").
- **Stages (output aspect)**: painted plates with edges fading into bare paper — a
  harbour with one large ship, a workshop with a big bench and window, a throne hall, a
  battlefield ridge, the map table. Give the map its own plate.
- **Props (1:1)**: the through-line object, the machine or vessel with its diagnostic
  parts clearly drawn, documents as ruled wash lines, crates, coins, instruments. Attach
  a public-domain source image for a real machine, ship or building.

### Shot language

Frontal page-on camera; change framing scale between shots: FULL STAGE → CLOSE-UP on
hands and tool → MACRO DETAIL of ink line and pooling pigment → MEDIUM on two figures.
A gentle lateral drift across the page suits journeys. Good shot shapes:

- *Bloom-in*: a wash blooms across the page, then the anchor building inks itself in,
  then the protagonist walks in from the paper edge and plants the vermilion flag.
- *Campaign*: the map unrolls and flattens, then the route inks itself pin to pin, then
  the column slides along it while the territory behind floods with wash.
- *Workshop*: the figure's hands work the tool, then the object gains a part with each
  stroke, then the finished machine turns over and starts to move.
- *Muster*: one ship drops onto the sea wash, then repeats into a fleet row by row,
  then the lead sail turns vermilion and the rows tilt forward together.
- *Turning point*: the ink drop falls and splashes, then the seal thumps down, then the
  rival wash sweeps over half the map.

AUDIO cues: wet brush swishes, water drips, quill scratches, paper rustle, a wax-seal
thump on the impact, rope creaks and distant harbour or camp air.

## Paper Diorama

A miniature tabletop theatre built from aged paper, newsprint and cardboard: layered
cut planes, hinged printed-cutout figures, tungsten light and real depth, with ONE
accent colour on the hero piece. Best on history, crime and mystery, industrial and
maritime stories, biographies. One-line description for the user: "Paper diorama — a
handmade cardboard miniature world under warm lamp light, with one accent colour."

**FORMULA** (paste byte-identical into every image and video prompt)

> handcrafted paper diorama stop-motion on a miniature tabletop set built from aged
> paper, newsprint and corrugated cardboard: layered cut-paper relief planes with
> visibly cut edges, scored folds and card-thick sides, printed-cutout figures with
> hinged paper limbs; sepia and monochrome paper tones with {ACCENT} as the one accent
> on a single hero piece per scene; warm tungsten pools of light against deep soft
> shadows with shallow miniature depth of field; pieces slide on paper tracks, pivot on
> hinges and pop up on folds in weighted stop-motion steps; a handmade paper miniature
> in every frame, never live action or glossy CGI.

**{ACCENT}**: lock one per film and write it into the formula — signal red · marigold ·
teal · cobalt blue · moss green · rust orange.

**MOTION**: `handcrafted stop-motion feel, weighted paper pieces sliding on tracks,
pivoting on hinges and popping up on folds, short stepped camera moves`

**PALETTE LOCK**: `sepia, cream and charcoal paper and cardboard tones, warm tungsten
light, ONE {ACCENT} accent on a single hero piece — no other colours`

**NEGATIVE**: `opening on a reference image, static first frame, dissolves, fades,
readable text, letters, numbers, captions, new colours, photorealistic people,
live-action footage, glossy plastic, liquid morphing, floating unsupported pieces,
talking mouths, watermark`

**The one label.** A scene may carry ONE physical letterpress label of one or two words
(a place, a year, a name). Put it on the stage plate or in one shot line as `a small
letterpress card reading "<LABEL>" drops onto its peg`, and in that block's NEGATIVE
replace `readable text, letters, numbers` with `no text anywhere except "<LABEL>"`.
Check the spelling in the result; every other word comes from the caption layer.

### Signature devices

- **Pop-up rise** — a folded building, ship or mountain springs upright from the base
  on its crease and wobbles to rest.
- **Sliding track** — a piece glides along a slot in the set: a ship across rolling
  paper waves, a train along a card rail, a figure along a street.
- **Hinged figures** — printed cutouts with pinned joints swing a hammer, raise a
  lantern, salute, haul a rope, hand an object across.
- **Layered strips** — rows of cut paper waves, smoke curls or rooftops shuttle left and
  right at different speeds; the set is always alive.
- **Pull-tab flap** — a tab is pulled and a flap flips to the after-state: a wall opens
  to the room inside, a full warehouse turns empty.
- **Paper-doll chain** — one cutout figure unfolds accordion-style into a linked crowd
  or a regiment; the hero link carries the accent.
- **Lamp pool** — the tungsten spotlight swings or snaps from one hero to the next,
  dropping everything else into shadow; the impact beat.

### Roster guidance

- **Cast (2:3)**: printed-cutout paper figures with visible card edge and pinned joints
  at shoulder, elbow, hip and knee, era silhouette, pose that shows the job, standing on
  a small card foot. The protagonist may carry the accent piece.
- **Stages (output aspect)**: dressed miniature sets with a card base, three or four
  relief layers and one large anchor (a harbour crane, a press, a courthouse facade, a
  ship in paper waves). Keep platform height and prop sizes identical in a second angle
  of the same set, which counts as coverage.
- **Props (1:1)**: folded-card vehicles and machines with one moving part, crates,
  ledgers as blank stacked sheets, the through-line object, the label card.

### Shot language

A dimensional set: change angle as well as size. FULL STAGE tabletop wide → low-angle
MEDIUM along the street → top-down over the map or harbour → MACRO DETAIL on a hinge,
a fold or fibres at a cut edge → lateral CLOSE-UP on a figure. Good shot shapes:

- *Curtain-up*: the lamp snaps on, then the anchor building pops up on its fold, then
  the hero figure slides in along the track and raises an arm.
- *Mechanism*: a hinged arm pulls the lever, then the machine's wheel turns two steps,
  then a stack of sheets rises beside it one by one.
- *Voyage*: the wave strips start rolling, then the ship glides across on its slot,
  then the accent flag climbs the mast.
- *Crowd*: one figure steps onto the base, then the paper-doll chain unfolds across the
  street, then every arm lifts on its hinge.
- *Reveal*: the tab is pulled, then the wall flap drops open, then the lamp pool swings
  onto what stands inside.

AUDIO cues: card slides and scrapes, paper creaks and fold snaps, a wooden lamp-switch
clunk on the impact, small hinge clicks, quiet workshop air.

## Mannequin

Clean stylised CGI where every person is a smooth, featureless figure in one solid role
colour, acting on simplified pale period sets. Pose, grouping and colour tell the story;
faces stay blank. Best on history with factions, politics, economics, strategy, social
systems. One-line description for the user: "Mannequin — smooth faceless figures, one
colour per role, on pale minimal sets; the story is told with bodies and colour."

**FORMULA** (paste byte-identical into every image and video prompt)

> clean stylised CGI mannequin animation: smooth matte featureless figures with blank
> egg-shaped heads and simple consistent human proportions, each role cast in one solid
> role colour from head to toe, costume shown only as simple sculpted mass in that same
> colour; simplified low-detail period sets and props in pale greys and off-whites under
> soft even daylight with a pale grey sky and gentle contact shadows; figures move with
> smooth weighty CGI motion, clear weight transfer and firm object contact, emotion
> carried by posture and staging; stylised matte 3D illustration in every frame, never
> live action.

**MOTION**: `smooth weighty CGI animation, clear anticipation, weight transfer and firm
contact, steady gliding camera`

**PALETTE LOCK**: `pale grey and off-white sets and sky, neutral mid-grey crowd figures,
solid role colours locked for the film: {ROLE = COLOUR, ROLE = COLOUR, …} — each figure
one flat colour, no patterns, no skin tones`

**NEGATIVE**: `opening on a reference image, static first frame, dissolves, fades,
readable text, letters, numbers, captions, faces, eyes, skin texture, fabric texture,
film grain, photorealism, live-action footage, jittery stop-motion, talking mouths,
watermark`

Pick role colours from signal red · cobalt blue · mustard yellow · emerald green ·
orange · violet. A colour names who someone is in the story (the inventor, the crown,
the rival company, the northern army) and is assigned arbitrarily; the anonymous crowd
is mid-grey.

### Signature devices

- **Colour wave** — grey crowd figures turn a role colour one after another as they
  join a side, a rumour spreads or a product sells.
- **Formation blocks** — figures assemble into ranks, queues, rings or a pyramid, then
  the formation marches, splits in two or scatters.
- **Hand-over** — a close view of two differently coloured hands passing the
  through-line object, a coin stack, a key or a sealed tube.
- **Floor map** — a giant pale map is the floor; figures stand on it as living pieces,
  walk routes across it and push block armies over borders.
- **Rising plinth** — a platform lifts one figure above the rest, or sinks under it;
  stacked plinths compare rank or wealth as bar heights.
- **Domino fall** — a line of figures or crates topples one into the next; the impact
  beat for collapses and defeats.
- **Block stacks** — plain cubes, sacks and coin cylinders pile up beside a figure to
  show quantity, carried in by grey workers.

### Roster guidance

- **Identity chain**: generate one complete neutral-pose figure first. Attach it as the
  body reference to every later cast image ("the same featureless figure, now solid
  cobalt blue, with a tall hat mass and long coat mass") so material and proportions
  never drift. Use one adult body and, when age matters, one small variant.
- **Cast (2:3)**: one image per role colour, full body, blank head, costume as simple
  sculpted mass (hat, cloak, apron, armour plates) in the same colour, pose that shows
  the job. Animals keep their true species silhouette in one solid colour.
- **Stages (output aspect)**: pale simplified sets — a colonnaded hall, a factory floor
  with one big machine, a harbour with block ships, the floor map — with a broad clear
  floor for formations. Crowds are many visible bodies in depth.
- **Props (1:1)**: plain matte objects in pale grey, the through-line object in its
  owner's role colour.

### Shot language

A dimensional world: change angle as well as size. High-angle FULL STAGE on a formation
→ low-angle MEDIUM under the protagonist → lateral tracking MEDIUM along a queue →
top-down on the floor map → MACRO DETAIL on hands and object. Close-ups go to hands,
tools and contact points. Good shot shapes:

- *Entrance*: the red figure strides in, then grey figures turn their heads in a wave,
  then the front row steps aside to open a lane.
- *Deal*: two colours meet at centre, then the object passes hand to hand in close
  view, then one side's block stack grows while the other's is carried away.
- *Mobilise*: figures run in from both edges, then snap into ranks row by row, then
  the whole block steps forward across the map border.
- *Rise*: the plinth lifts the hero figure, then the crowd below turns its colour in a
  wave, then a rival plinth starts to climb beside it.
- *Collapse*: the lead figure stumbles, then the line topples domino-style, then the
  colour drains from the fallen row back to grey.

AUDIO cues: soft footfalls on stone, muted body thuds, block clacks, a heavy
platform rumble, one deep slam on the impact, wide quiet hall or open-air tone.