18. Stylised acting

When to use it: a drawn character who must act, with a comic beat. Here, a schoolgirl in a 2D anime spot for Krunchu, an invented crisps brand, bites one crisp so loudly that the crunch knocks her back, then holds a perfectly calm face.

Methods:

• the drawn identity set [best available, not yet validated]: the style anchor once; her three-quarter design view in the sheet's role; a uniform crop of her turnaround's portrait in the close-up's role; never a photographic face (see Video with Seedance → Attaching references);

• acting in the medium's timing [best available, not yet validated] (see Performance → Drawn and stylised acting);

• the real pack appears only in the built end card;

• the hero colour leads. Option: use it when the plan names it for a product or brand film [single strong source]. Used here because the bag's orange is the brand colour;

• one locked lighting formula, kept the same in every plate and every prompt. Option: use it when this film's plan names it [single strong source]. Used here because the light is part of this film's drawn style, so it repeats in every plate.

Shared rules: the rules every recipe keeps, and the rules for stylised recipes (one style anchor, attached once; describe only what changes): Video with Seedance → How to read a recipe.

References: 1 the accepted style anchor; 2 Mina's three-quarter design view; 3 Mina's portrait, cropped from her turnaround; 4 the drawn classroom plate; 5 the drawn crisps bag's prop sheet.

Settings: omni-reference · 5 s · 9:16 · audio on.

Cost: 480p draft 15 cr (5 s × 3 cr) · 1080p finish 80 cr (5 s × 16 cr).

Budget: high risk (a drawn face that acts): 310 cr expected (5 s × 62), 615 cr ceiling (5 s × 123).

What to change, what to keep: Template A, with the drawn identity set in place of the sheet and close-up (Video with Seedance → Templates A, B and D).

Yours to rewrite:

• the character;

• the beat and its poses, in the medium's timing;

• the lighting formula, one per film;

• the palette in COLOR GRADE, from your anchor.

Keep word for word: the shared wording (Video with Seedance → How to read a recipe), plus:

• the drawn role lines ("it owns her design, her uniform and her proportions" and "it owns her face, her eyes and the shapes of her hair");

• "No photographic micro-expressions";

• "Every person, object and surface stays drawn in this medium, and nothing is photographic";

• "The take fails if anything turns glossy, rounded or three-dimensional."

SCENE CONTEXT: A drawn classroom after the bell. A schoolgirl bites one crisp so loudly that the crunch knocks her back in her chair; then she holds a perfectly calm face.
ACTIVE REFERENCES: @image1 is THE STYLE: the accepted style anchor; it owns the medium, the line, the two-step cel shading and the palette; it does not decide the composition. @image2 is MINA: her three-quarter design view; it owns her design, her uniform and her proportions. @image3 is MINA'S FACE: her drawn portrait; it owns her face, her eyes and the shapes of her hair. @image4 is THE CLASSROOM: the drawn desks, window and board; the set holds exactly as pictured; it does not decide where the camera stands. @image5 is THE BAG: the drawn crisps bag, its shape and its colours; the label area left plain.
LOCATION MAP: Foreground, the corner of her desk with THE BAG; midground, MINA at her desk, frame centre; background, the window and a blank board. Live motion (a quiet room: one): a curtain flutters.
FIRST FRAME AND BLOCKING (in motion from frame one): Medium shot. MINA is already raising one crisp to her mouth, her eyes half shut, an elbow on the desk.
FORMAT MODE: A single unbroken shot with no cuts of its own. Real time.
OPTICS: Medium shot on a 63° diagonal field of view throughout; flat drawn depth; the lens holds steady.
CAMERA: One slow push of 1 m across the 5 s toward her, travelling, arriving on a medium close-up of her calm face: the punchline.
ACTION / TIMELINE: From the first frame she raises the crisp; at about 1.0 s she bites; on the bite, one white impact frame; by 1.2 s the crunch throws her back in the chair, her hair spiking out on one smear frame and her chair tipping onto two legs; 1.2–2.0 s she hangs there, eyes wide; by 2.6 s the chair drops back with a small bounce, her hair settling last; 2.6–5.0 s she holds a perfectly calm face and chews once, slowly.
PERFORMANCE — MINA: She wants nobody to have noticed. She acts in the medium: a squint of anticipation before the bite; the knock-back as one stretched pose, then a key pose held for about half a second; squash as the chair lands; speed lines only on the knock-back; her ponytail a beat behind, as secondary motion. The calm face is the joke: eyes level, mouth small, one slow blink at 4 s. No photographic micro-expressions.
PHYSICS: Everything moves as drawn animation: poses held, then snapped; nothing gains volume, shading or texture beyond the style.
LIGHTING: The style's one lighting formula: a warm afternoon sun from frame right, flat cel shadows offset to the left; no gradients and no glow.
COLOR GRADE: The style anchor's palette: chalk green and warm cream, with the bag's orange as the one strong accent.
AUDIO: Sound effects only. A quiet, empty classroom; 1.0 s a huge crunch; 1.2 s the chair creaks; 2.6 s the chair's two legs clack down; 4.0 s one small chew. No music and no voices. Nothing rises, swooshes, stings or fades at the opening, at a cut, or as the clip closes. No subtitles and no on-screen text.
STYLE: Flat 2D cel animation, built exactly as the style anchor is: clean dark outlines, two-step shading, a flat painted background.
POSITIVE LOCKS: Exactly one girl and one bag. The bag's orange is the richest colour in the frame. Every person, object and surface stays drawn in this medium, and nothing is photographic. The take fails if anything turns glossy, rounded or three-dimensional.

Check the take

At full size, her face stays her drawn face, from the portrait, and never turns photographic. The acting reads in the medium: the held key pose, the squash, the calm face held to the end.

Common failure and fix: volume drift, where the drawing gains shading or turns 3D. Keep the anchor attached, describe only the changes, and lock the medium in POSITIVE LOCKS, as here.

Sources

• Tigran Mutafyan and the Higgsfield studio's acting work: acting as a task.