skills/faceless-video/references/style-paper-diorama.md

# House style — Paper Diorama (History default)

**Catalog card: "Paper Diorama"** (`83d276f6-e3aa-49b8-82f2-1a0bb7d0a370`).

**Canonical style-donor ref — ALWAYS attach it to the style-key call:** pass this
authorized HTTPS URL directly as canonical `image` media (or upload if needed),
together with the card's resolved `media_id` when available. Never build this key
from prose alone.

- https://cdn.higgsfield.ai/youtube_faceless_preset_image/476afd92-2444-4ea2-ae2e-e2f13c296057.webp

The ref is a style DONOR only: take the render style, palette and surface treatment,
never its specific subjects or composition.

Cinematic vintage **paper-diorama documentary**: miniature table-top worlds
built from aged sepia newsprint and cardboard, anonymous halftone cutout
figures, ONE accent color locked per video, tungsten light, macro tilt-shift.
**History's named ALTERNATE house style** (the default is Editorial Motion
Graphics — `style-editorial-collage.md`; 3D Papercraft also stays available via
the preset widget). Reach for the diorama whenever the topic is geopolitics,
money, power, institutions, investigation — or the user asks for "cinematic".

**Intake one-liner (use VERBATIM as this option's description — do not
improvise):** "Cinematic paper-diorama documentary — miniature sepia newsprint
worlds, tactile cutout figures, one accent color, moody tungsten light."

## STYLE FORMULA (§0 form — paste byte-identical everywhere)

> cinematic vintage paper-diorama documentary: miniature table-top worlds
> built from aged sepia newsprint and cardboard, torn layered paper edges,
> monochrome halftone print texture, anonymous halftone cutout figures with
> obscured faces, one single {ACCENT} paper accent, distressed letterpress
> texture on props, warm tungsten documentary lighting with deep shadows,
> macro tilt-shift shallow depth of field, film grain and floating paper dust,
> smooth handcrafted stop-motion motion, non-photorealistic handcrafted paper
> materials only.

**{ACCENT} — lock ONE accent color per VIDEO at Phase 1** (write it into the
formula and the PALETTE LOCK verbatim; never mix accents across blocks). Pick
whichever serves the topic — burnt orange is the classic, NOT the law: burnt
orange · deep crimson · petrol blue · mustard gold · forest green · faded
teal. Within scenes: 1–2 accent objects max, and let some shots breathe with
NO accent at all — an all-accent video reads as a gimmick.

**Anonymity — vary the device, don't stamp censor bars on everyone.** Faces
are obscured, but rotate HOW: blank unprinted paper face · face turned away /
back view · deep tungsten shadow or hat brim · figure too small to read ·
torn-away face patch · black censor bar. Keep censor bars for ≤ ~1/3 of
blocks — they're the signature, not the uniform (and stay the PREFERRED device
for real-politician archetypes: they defuse likeness issues, see Moderation).
The protagonist stays recognizable by SILHOUETTE across all devices.

**{MOTION} slot:** this is a DIMENSIONAL style — use `smooth simple
handcrafted motion, subtle stop-motion feel`, and DROP `3D render` from the
NEGATIVE (prompts.md §3 rule; the photorealism ban always stays).

**PALETTE LOCK line:** `sepia newsprint monochrome with ONE {ACCENT} paper
accent — no other colors, no colored/gradient backgrounds`.

## Asset roster guidance (Phase 2)

- **Characters (2:3):** monochrome halftone cutout figures, faces obscured by
  ONE of the anonymity devices above (vary across the roster — not everyone
  gets a censor bar). The only color in this world is the {ACCENT}, so make
  figures distinct by SILHOUETTE — era clothing shape, a hat, posture, a prop
  in hand — never by color. Groups read as institutions; a single figure reads
  as the protagonist.
- **Locations (chosen aspect):** dressed miniature diorama sets — a newsprint
  canyon, a cardboard parliament, a paper harbor, a market of folded-news
  stalls — each with ONE named anchor object, no people. Coverage angles per
  the roster rule.
- **Props (1:1):** the {ACCENT}-colored objects that carry meaning — a stamp,
  a coiled fuse, a treaty seal, a banknote stack. **Give the script's
  through-line object a prop asset here** so it stays identical across every
  block it appears in (the roster IS the prop registry).

## The letterpress exception (the ONLY in-clip text this skill allows)

The diorama's signature: **ONE short letterpress label per scene on a prop** —
1–2 words or a number ("EXPIRED", "1848"), described as *distressed
letterpress on a torn {ACCENT} paper element*. On a labeled block, replace
the template NEGATIVE's `on-screen text, captions` pair with `no text anywhere
except "<LABEL>", no gibberish letters, no captions`; unlabeled blocks keep
the full ban. Max one label per block; if the render misspells it, one retry,
then drop the label and keep the prop. Every other style keeps the
symbols-not-text rule (⚠ / $ / ✓) — the exception is diorama-only.

## Shot language (feeds the FIVE-cut template)

Macro push along a paper canyon · top-down tilt from figures onto a document ·
detail crop of the orange prop → HARD CUT → wide of the whole miniature ·
dust drifting through a tungsten beam · a scale shock from letterpress texture
to the full diorama landscape. Keep the shot-variety rules (sizes + angles per
cut, ≤2 consecutive blocks per location) — the miniature world makes coverage
angles cheap: reverse, lateral, and detail crops of the same set are distinct
locations for pacing purposes. **Every block lands at least ONE impact beat** —
a stamp PUNCHES the letterpress, a paper structure COLLAPSES, dust WHUMPS off a
slammed document — named in the SHOT text and echoed in the AUDIO line.

## Moderation notes

- Real people: names belong to the NARRATION only. In video prompts describe
  archetypes ("a heavyset elderly statesman, tall lean rival" by
  silhouette/build, NOT by color — the world is sepia + one {ACCENT} accent —
  rendered as a censor-bar cutout), never named politicians/celebrities;
  censor bars sell the editorial look AND defuse likeness issues. Mid-shot or
  wider on faces.
- "Mushroom cloud" trips nsfw — swap the silhouette (hourglass, cracking dam,
  fuse reaching a keg), keep the idea. Then the normal RETRY LADDER.