skills/ai-host-video/references/motion-style-minimal.md

# Minimal

Use this direction for confident, precise communication with a calm premium feel.
Its richness comes from proportion, attention and meaningful change. Space and
intentional holds are active compositional decisions.

## Still composition

- Give one dominant object, word or relationship enough space to become unmistakable.
  Supporting elements stay subordinate; remove containers that add no meaning.
- Place the focal object on a deliberate axis or a carefully offset anchor. Balance
  its visual mass with an uninterrupted region of negative space.
- Use clean neutral sans typography, considered line breaks and a clear size
  hierarchy. Choose weight for legibility and confidence; minimal does not mean thin.
- Begin with a quiet neutral ground and strong readable type. Introduce an accent
  only when it identifies the important state, material or detail.
- Let a real object retain its material and silhouette. Clean edges, precise spacing
  and a restrained tonal separation carry the finish; generic glass panels do not.

## Motion vocabulary

- **Reveal the essential:** expose a detail or a short phrase from an existing edge,
  then hold it without ambient motion competing for attention.
- **Make space for meaning:** shift the dominant object slightly to admit the one
  label or comparison needed to understand it.
- **Transform in place:** change an existing state while preserving its anchor and
  identity, so the viewer can follow what improved, simplified or connected.
- **Transfer attention:** diminish the previous state as the next becomes legible;
  the motion should explain the handoff rather than decorate it.
- **Carry a precise match:** retain an edge, shape or word between compositions;
  a clean cut is sufficient when continuity is already clear.
- **Resolve and rest:** end a change in a complete, confident composition. Do not
  add a loop merely to keep pixels moving.

## Adjustable starting points

- Try 350–650 ms for a meaningful spatial change, using a smooth ease-out or a
  balanced ease-in-out for a transition between established states.
- A shift around 1–3% of the composition width, or scale around 0.98–1, can guide
  attention when useful. Use neither if the object should remain still.
- A simple opacity handoff around 150–300 ms can support a state change; it does
  not replace the visual idea. Avoid fading each element independently by habit.
- Give a short statement a generous reading hold, often 1–2 seconds after settling,
  and extend it for complexity. Quiet passages can remain entirely still.

## Example development

A single object holds on a quiet field. A small lateral move creates room for one
relevant measurement. That measurement becomes the anchor of a comparison while
the original object remains recognizable beside it. Once the difference is clear,
the supporting state recedes and the result holds alone. Precision supplies the drama.

## Standalone typography

Let one short phrase occupy a quiet field or safe negative space in the footage.
Reveal it as a considered line, then keep a key word fixed while the supporting words
change to complete the thought. Precise alignment, scale contrast and a readable hold
provide the finish; no panel, icon or decorative object is needed.

## Avoid

Blankness without a focal idea, weak contrast, tiny pale type, unnecessary floating,
repeated fade-and-scale arrivals, bounce, decorative glow and generic glass cards.
Do not invent measurements, product details or claims to make the scene feel precise.