skills/pixverse-explainer/references/editorial-motion-graphics.md

# Editorial Motion Graphics (paper-collage documentary)

The default look for Explainer and a strong one for History: a cream paper stage,
grayscale halftone cutouts that act like paper puppets, and ONE accent colour doing all
the pointing. Best on "the real reason X" stories, money, history, data with people in
it. One-line description for the user: "Editorial paper collage — cream paper,
black-and-white archival cutouts, one bold accent colour; the narrator carries the
words."

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

> editorial paper-collage documentary animation on a warm cream paper stage with soft
> fiber grain: grayscale halftone photo-cutout figures and objects with rough white cut
> borders and a thin offset {ACCENT} shadow edge; {ACCENT} is the only accent — one big
> flat {ACCENT} disc behind the hero, hand-drawn {ACCENT} marker circles, arrows and
> underlines, and at most one colour-popped hero element per scene; torn paper edges,
> tape strips, soft paper drop shadows, slight print misregistration; cutouts act like
> paper puppets with snappy staggered spring motion and slight overshoot; illustrated
> collage, never live action.

**{ACCENT}**: lock one per film and write it into the formula — deep crimson · burnt
orange · mustard gold · petrol blue · forest green · coral red. Pick for the topic.

**MOTION**: `snappy motion-graphics collage animation, staggered spring entrances with
slight overshoot`

**PALETTE LOCK**: `warm cream paper, grayscale halftone cutouts, ONE {ACCENT} accent
(disc, marker strokes, one popped element) — no other colours, no gradients`

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

A film's central artwork or object may be a full-colour hero in addition to the accent
(a famous painting in muted aged oils among the grayscale). Append to the PALETTE LOCK:
`— the {ARTWORK} alone keeps its own muted colours`.

## Layers

- **Stage** — the cream paper field, optionally a strip of torn-paper floor or a
  graph-paper grid, and the disc. Within a block the stage stays put; shots re-frame
  and re-arrange what stands on it.
- **Actors** — grayscale cutout people, animals, buildings, machines. They walk, carry,
  paint, hand things over, queue, turn their heads. Era-true silhouettes, deadpan faces.
- **Devices** — where the accent lives. The through-line object sits here.

## Signature devices (one or two per shot, rotate them)

- **The disc** — big flat accent circle behind the hero; it can rise, swell or slide to
  the next hero.
- **The colour pop** — exactly one element in accent (the one figure in a crimson robe,
  two orange figures in a grey row).
- **The giant hand** — an oversized grayscale hand reaching in from off-frame to place,
  lift, stamp, flick or steal a cutout.
- **Marker strokes** — a circle, arrow, bracket or underline drawing itself onto a
  cutout to isolate a detail; pairs with a slow push-in.
- **Multiplying rows** — one cutout duplicating into a row or crowd, row by row; some
  flip to accent to show a share.
- **Stacks and bars** — sheets stacking into a pile, blocks rising under a figure, bars
  growing beside each other; halftone-dot gauges filling dot by dot. No axis text.
- **Timeline ribbon** — a thin baseline with ticks and a sliding marker; the narrator
  names the years.
- **Pinned cards and tape** — photo cards slapped down, taped, flipped, torn away.
- **Flat maps** — routes drawing pin to pin, a region lifting out.
- **Stamps and redaction bars** — the impact beat: a stamp slams, a bar smacks across.

## Roster guidance

- **Cast (2:3)**: grayscale halftone cutouts with white border and accent shadow edge,
  full body, readable era costume, pose that shows their job. The protagonist may wear
  the colour pop.
- **Stages (output aspect)**: flat plates — disc plus one large anchor cutout (an easel,
  a printing press, a wall of frames, a balance scale, a taped map), a floor strip when
  figures need to stand. A second arrangement of the same plate counts as coverage.
- **Props**: the through-line object, the artwork or document the story is about
  (attach a real source image for likeness), the machine, the building.

## Shot language

Frontal camera throughout; change framing scale between shots: FULL STAGE → CLOSE-UP on
one cutout and its marker stroke → MACRO DETAIL (paper edges, a stack's layers) →
MEDIUM re-arrangement. Good shot shapes:

- *Arrival*: anchor drops in and bounces, then actor slides in, then a marker arrow
  links them.
- *Work*: the actor's tool moves and the object visibly changes under it, stage by
  stage (sketch → underpainting → finished portrait).
- *Removal*: a hand or actor takes the hero away; what is left behind swings, stands
  empty, gets circled.
- *Growth*: sheets, figures or bars accumulate to a clearly bigger end state; a bracket
  draws beside the total.
- *Verdict*: the disc swells behind the hero, a stamp lands, the crowd turns.

AUDIO cues: paper pops and thwips on entrances, a stamp hit on the impact, soft ticks
on counting steps, low room air. Percussive, never musical.