The Raw Prompts
Everything the models were actually told. Extracted live from the pipeline scripts, not transcribed.
The 38-style bible (media-history escalation order)
One style per segment, oldest medium first. {c} is replaced by a per-shot content prompt at render time. Two entries were swapped by a curation decision (ligne claire ↔ constructivist, to honor a hand prototype).
00. Bayeux tapestry embroidered medieval scene of {c}, woven wool threads, romanesque figures, latin-labeled border
01. medieval illuminated manuscript painting of {c}, gold leaf, tempera on vellum, ornate border
02. ukiyo-e japanese woodblock print of {c}, flat color planes, bold outlines, Hokusai style
03. 17th century Dutch Golden Age oil painting of {c}, Rembrandt lighting, craquelure, muted earth tones, golden highlights
04. dramatic 17th century Dutch group portrait oil painting of {c}, chiaroscuro, Night Watch composition, oil on canvas
05. 18th century Piranesi architectural etching of {c}, fine cross-hatched engraving, monumental ruins, sepia ink
06. impressionist oil painting of {c}, loose visible brushstrokes, dappled light, Monet palette
07. post-impressionist painting of {c}, swirling impasto brushwork, vivid complementary colors, Van Gogh style
08. cubist painting of {c}, fragmented geometric planes, multiple perspectives, muted browns and greys, Braque style
09. ligne claire ink and watercolor illustration of {c}, clear line art, flat muted colors, Franco-Belgian comic album
10. 1930s art deco travel poster of {c}, streamlined geometry, elegant limited palette, silkscreen texture
11. socialist realism mural painting of {c}, heroic monumental figures, warm golden light, fresco texture
12. 1950s vintage print advertisement illustration of {c}, halftone texture, cheerful retro commercial art, warm palette
13. 1929 black and white newsreel film still of {c}, silver nitrate grain, scratches, vignette, silent film title-card era
14. film noir movie still of {c}, hard chiaroscuro shadows, venetian-blind light, black and white, 1940s cinematography
15. 1950s technicolor musical film still of {c}, saturated glorious color, soft studio glamour lighting
16. 1930s rubber hose cartoon of {c}, black and white, bouncy round shapes, pie-cut eyes, vintage animation cel
17. melancholy mid-century newspaper comic strip drawing of {c}, simple rounded characters, sparse linework, flat pastel colors
18. 1960s Hanna-Barbera flat cel cartoon of {c}, minimal backgrounds, bold flat colors, mid-century modern shapes
19. 1990s Saturday morning cartoon animation cel of {c}, flat cel shading, bold clean outlines, saturated colors
20. adult animated sitcom style drawing of {c}, flat colors, simple thick outlines, suburban realism, 90s TV animation
21. soviet constructivist propaganda poster of {c}, bold red and black diagonals, dynamic geometry, revolutionary graphic design
22. 1980s anime OVA cel of {c}, dramatic shading, airbrushed highlights, film grain, retro japanese animation
23. claymation stop-motion still of {c}, plasticine texture, fingerprint details, miniature set lighting
24. rotoscoped animation still of {c}, wavering traced outlines, flat shifting colors, dreamlike a-scanner-darkly style
25. children's storybook gouache illustration of {c}, soft painterly texture, warm gentle colors, picture-book charm
26. 1970s psychedelic rock album cover art of {c}, airbrushed fantasy realism, sunset gradients, cosmic romanticism
27. garish colorful cartoon of {c}, exaggerated shapes, neon marquee palette, irreverent animated comedy style
28. 8-bit pixel art of {c}, chunky pixels, limited NES color palette, retro video game screenshot
29. 16-bit SNES pixel art of {c}, detailed sprites, dithered gradients, mode-7 era video game screenshot
30. PS1 era low-poly 3D render of {c}, affine texture warping, jagged polygons, dithered shading, 1997 video game
31. N64 era 3D render of {c}, smooth gouraud shading, fog distance, low-resolution textures, 1998 video game
32. isometric PC strategy game screenshot of {c}, detailed sprite tiles, top-down oblique view, 1999 CRT color
33. Y2K vaporwave CGI render of {c}, chrome and marble, checkerboard floor, teal and magenta gradient sky
34. MS Paint early internet drawing of {c}, crude pixel lines, default palette, charming amateur web art
35. degraded VHS camcorder still of {c}, tracking lines, chroma bleed, timestamp corner, 1993 home video
36. stained glass cathedral window of {c}, leaded glass segments, jewel-toned light, gothic tracery
37. aged archival nitrate film frame of {c}, heavy grain, burns and scratches, fading exposure, end-of-reel decay
Per-shot content prompts
What each shot type is, in words the model gets.
bass_wide: a young musician playing electric bass guitar in a bright studio bass_macro: extreme close-up of fingers playing electric bass guitar, strings and frets facade: grand neoclassical stock exchange facade with columns and american flags banner: grand stock exchange facade with a giant corporate banner draped between columns crowd: a jubilant celebrating crowd of people outside the stock exchange balcony: people ringing the ceremonial bell on an ornate exchange balcony, celebration bell: ornate golden ceremonial bell, close-up statue: bronze statue of a small defiant girl on a city street kick: a jubilant man doing a flying kick among applauding people at a podium flag: rows of large american flags draped on a grand neoclassical facade
The v1 negative prompt + render config
SD1.5 + AnimateDiff mm_sd_v15_v2, ControlNet canny 0.85, 20 steps, cfg 7.5, seed 20221118, 512x512.
photograph, photo, photorealistic, 3d render, modern, text, watermark, signature, blurry, low quality, jpeg artifacts
The Seedream edit rules (learned the hard way)
Appended to every per-frame edit. The composition rule exists because "1930s travel poster" without it made the model design new posters instead of re-rendering the shot.
TEXT RULE: CRITICAL: preserve every letter of any wordmark or text in the photograph EXACTLY as written, even unfamiliar logos, keep all lettering sharp and legible. COMPOSITION RULE: Keep the exact composition, framing, crop, and camera angle of the source photograph. Do NOT add any new text, titles, mastheads, borders, or buildings; do NOT redesign the layout; only re-render the existing scene in the new medium.
Seedream per-style edit prompts
The probe styles, verbatim.
ligne: Redraw this photograph as a ligne claire comic album illustration: bold clean black ink outlines, uniform line weight, flat pale printed color fields (pale blue, cream, muted brick red), white paper ground, no shading, Franco-Belgian album style. artdeco: Re-render this photograph in the style of a 1930s art deco travel poster: streamlined geometry, elegant limited palette, flat silkscreen-printed color planes, stylized forms. clay: Redraw this photograph as a claymation stop-motion still: plasticine texture, fingerprint details in the clay, handmade clay figures, miniature set lighting, Aardman-style stop-motion animation frame. bayeux: Convert this photograph ENTIRELY into a medieval Bayeux tapestry embroidery: every element — the person, the instrument, the room — rendered as woven wool-thread embroidery on aged linen, flat stylized romanesque figures with outlined faces, muted vegetable-dye colors (ochre, rust, sage, slate blue), decorative border. NO photographic elements may remain anywhere in the image. Keep the same composition, framing, and pose as the photograph.
The coda decay ladder (staged, unused)
A decay schedule written in language: the prompt itself degrades across 328 frames. Skipped — the approved coda ended on an accidental question mark of fire, and accidents are canon.
t≥0.00: Re-render this photograph as a well-preserved aged nitrate film frame: fine silver grain, slightly faded exposure, gentle sepia-silver tones, intact image. t≥0.30: Re-render this photograph as an aging nitrate film frame: heavy grain, faded and bleached exposure, dust and fine scratches, edges beginning to darken. t≥0.55: Re-render this photograph as a decaying nitrate film frame: severe fading, blotches and chemical stains spreading, deep scratches, vignetting closing in, the image beginning to dissolve into the emulsion. t≥0.75: Re-render this photograph as a badly decomposed nitrate film frame: the image barely visible through chemical decay, large burned and melted patches, emulsion bubbling, mostly abstract decay texture with faint ghost of flags. t≥0.90: Re-render this photograph as a nearly destroyed nitrate film frame at the end of the reel: almost entirely burned and melted emulsion, only the faintest trace of an image, abstract black and silver decay, film burn. t≥0.97: A completely burned blank film leader frame: black with faint silver film-burn texture, no image remaining.