The Master Guide / 06 Anchors and stills · Stylised films (Seedream 5.0 Pro)
Stylised plates and props
A stylised plate follows the photoreal plate rules, drawn in the film's style. A hero prop gets its own sheet, and a real product is drawn into the world.
A stylised plate follows the photoreal plate rules, drawn in the film's style. A hero prop gets its own sheet, and a real product is drawn into the world.
Plates. A people-free master, in three-quarter view, built for the action with exact counts, with one light logic and a reverse plate wherever the camera crosses. The context line and edge control go into the prose, and the revision levers into your take log. The rules' home is Photoreal anchors (Nano Banana Pro) → Location plates.
Inputs: the style anchor owns the style only; location evidence (a scout photo, the client's space) owns the layout only.
The lens family goes in only when the treatment sets one for the whole film (decided).
One locked lighting formula. Option: use it when the plan names it for this film [single strong source]. The formula becomes part of the style and is repeated in every plate. Why it helps: in one film a low golden-hour sun gave painted backgrounds depth that midday light had flattened.
A neutral base plate. Option: use it when a place is seen in several light states [single strong source]. Draw the place in flat neutral light. Each video prompt relights it, with a role line telling the model to ignore the plate's flat light. The default stays one plate per light state.
The world's one exception. Option: use it when the treatment's world has one thing made of a different material from everything else [single strong source]. The style lock names it ("everything is painted gouache except the brass bell on the cart, which is real polished metal"), and every plate keeps it.
Simple textures on anything that will move (decided). Dense painted texture on a moving prop reads as a flat picture stretched over a shape. Keep moving objects clean, and put the painterly texture in the static background.
Props. A hero prop gets a two- or three-view sheet in the style, on light grey, at one scale on one ground line. Each state is its own sheet.
A real product in a drawn world [best available, not yet validated]. Inside the film the product is drawn in the medium, as a stylised prop sheet built from the client's photos: its shape and colours exact, the label area blank, and always pristine (decided). The real pack appears only in the built packshot or end card. Use a photographed pack inside drawn shots only when the treatment makes that contrast the idea; then it is composited in finishing, never generated into the drawn frame.
Maps and diagrams. A labelled map of the place, like every staging map and position image, labelled or not, is made in GPT Image (decided; see Still prompts, storyboard frames and diagrams → Staging maps, position images, scale sketches). Seedream makes the plate itself.
Template: a stylised plate (written for this guide)
An empty location plate for a {style} film: {place}, {time of day}, a three-quarter view from {vantage}, {aspect}. The approved style anchor owns the drawing style only; draw none of its characters. {The photo of the real {place} owns the layout and landmarks only.} It serves {scene}: {what the plate must hold for the shots staged here}. {Geometry: the foreground masses, the middle with exact counts, the far landmarks}. {Edges: what each edge cuts; nothing the shots stage touches an edge}. Light: {the plate's light; the locked formula, where the plan names one}. Palette: {named colours with placement}; the time of day is {time}. {Surface: wear where hands and feet go}. {Atmosphere, only if real}. {Processing: the style's finish, such as paper grain and dry brush, on the still background only}. {The lens family, if the treatment sets one}. Every surface is drawn in this medium; no people or figures anywhere, signs blank, no text, letters or logos.
Example: the plate (written for this guide; this film names no lighting formula, so the plate keeps the scene's noon)
An empty location plate for a hand-painted 2D gouache film: the stepped alley of Fawzi's cart scene, noon, a three-quarter view from the bottom step, 16:9. The approved style anchor owns the painting style only; draw none of its characters. The scout photo of a real stepped alley owns the layout and landmarks only. It serves scene 2, the cart wheel jammed on a step: the plate must keep a clear run up the middle of the steps for the cart. In the foreground right, a doorway with a blue wooden door and two clay pots; in the middle, exactly seven broad steps up to the far end, a drain channel down their left side; behind, close-set three-storey houses, washing lines across the gap, a small dome at the top of the alley. The doorway cuts the right edge; the middle of the steps and the dome stay clear of every edge. Light: a high noon sun from behind the camera's right shoulder, short violet shadows under each step. Palette: sun-bleached ochre walls lead, the blue door and shutters support, the red of the washing is the only accent; the time of day is noon. The step edges are worn round, one corner chipped. The air is clear. Paper grain and dry brush on the walls and steps only. Every surface is painted in this medium; no people or figures anywhere, the doors blank, no text, letters or logos.
Example: the product as a drawn prop (written for this guide)
A prop sheet for a hand-painted 2D gouache film: the Nabeeq juice bottle in three views, front, side and three-quarter from above, in one row on plain light grey, same scale and ground line, 16:9. The client's photos of the bottle own its shape, proportions, cap and colours only. The approved style anchor owns the painting style only. A tall glass bottle with a rounded shoulder, a short neck and a gold crown cap, the juice a deep pomegranate red, painted with the umber outline and two flat shading steps in clean flat colour, with no painted texture. The label area is a plain cream band, left blank. The bottle is brand new, dry and spotless. Flat, even light from the front left, a faint contact shadow only. No text, letters or logos.