4. Paper-cut animation

When to use it: a stylised film with no readable face, where the medium is the look. Here, a folded paper boat sails out of a hand-cut paper harbour.

Methods: the texture lives in the medium, set in STYLE, so there is no TEXTURE block.

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 the paper harbour plate; 3 the paper boat's prop sheet.

Settings: omni-reference · 8 s · 16:9 · audio on.

Cost: 480p draft 24 cr (8 s × 3 cr) · 1080p finish 128 cr (8 s × 16 cr).

Budget: low risk (no readable face): 248 cr expected (8 s × 31), 496 cr ceiling (8 s × 62).

What to change, what to keep: Template A (Video with Seedance → Templates A, B and D), with no TEXTURE block and a COLOR GRADE block (the platform's spelling) taken from the style anchor.

Yours to rewrite:

• the medium's words in STYLE and the palette in COLOR GRADE, both from your own style anchor;

• the place, the boat and the gulls;

• the truck and its direction;

• the sentence that says what every shape stays, in your medium's words.

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

• the style anchor's role line ("it owns the medium … it does not decide the composition");

• "no gradients and no glow";

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

SCENE CONTEXT: Noon in a harbour cut from paper. A small folded paper boat leaves the quay and sails out between painted waves while gulls wheel overhead.
ACTIVE REFERENCES: @image1 is THE STYLE: the accepted style frame; it owns the medium, the cut paper edges, the gouache texture and the palette; it does not decide the composition. @image2 is THE HARBOUR: the quay, the lighthouse, the layered waves and the sky; the set holds exactly as pictured; it does not decide where the camera stands. @image3 is THE BOAT: the folded paper boat, cream with one red stripe; design only; it is not a start frame.
LOCATION MAP: Foreground, three layers of dark blue paper waves; midground, THE BOAT at the end of the quay on frame left; background, the striped lighthouse on frame right and a flat paper sun at upper left. Everything is flat paper in layers, each at its own depth. Live motion: the wave layers slide left and right past each other in a slow swell; three paper gulls flap and wheel; a paper flag flutters on the lighthouse.
FIRST FRAME AND BLOCKING (in motion from frame one): Wide. THE BOAT is already pulling away from the quay, its bow lifting on the first wave.
FORMAT MODE: A single unbroken shot with no cuts of its own. Real time.
OPTICS: Wide, on a 63° diagonal field of view throughout; every layer sharp; the lens holds steady.
CAMERA: One slow sideways truck to the right across the 8 s, carrying THE BOAT from frame left to frame centre, travelling parallel to the paper layers and never turning; the near waves pass faster than the far ones. It opens on the quay and arrives with THE BOAT at frame centre and the lighthouse behind it. The cut comes in motion, so the truck carries through the last frame.
ACTION / TIMELINE: From the first frame THE BOAT rocks over the first wave; by about 3 s it clears the quay and a gull dips toward it; by about 6 s it rides the crest of the middle layer, tilting 10° and back; at 8 s it sails on toward the lighthouse.
PHYSICS: Everything moves as flat paper that slides and hinges: THE BOAT rocks on a hinge at its keel, the waves slide but never bend into curves, and each gull's wings fold at a single paper joint. Every shape stays a flat paper cut-out.
LIGHTING: One flat, warm sun from the upper left; the shadows are darker layers of paper, offset a few millimetres down and to the right; no gradients and no glow.
COLOR GRADE: The style frame's palette: deep blue, cream and one red, with sun yellow only in the sun.
AUDIO: Sound effects only. A soft bed of paper rustling, like wind; 0.4 s a paper wave slapping the quay; 3.0 s a gull's call, thin and far off; 6.0 s the paper boat creaking. 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: Hand-cut paper painted in gouache: visible brushstrokes and paper fibre, crisp cut edges, flat shapes in layers, matte surfaces.
POSITIVE LOCKS: Exactly one boat and three gulls. The lighthouse stays striped red and cream. The take fails if anything turns glossy, rounded or three-dimensional.

Check the take

Look for volume: any shape that bends, rounds or shines has left the medium. Check that the near layers pass faster than the far ones, so the truck reads as depth.

Common failure and fix: style and volume drift. Keep the style anchor attached, describe only what changes, and say what every shape stays, as here ("every shape stays a flat paper cut-out").

Sources

• Higgsfield's Seedance 2.5 prompting guide and prompt builder: the block order, the late style line and the degree ladder.