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THE CAST

Some of this is easier to watch than to read. Three characters act out the moment a legal line gets crossed, in ten seconds, silent, with the section it rests on printed underneath. They never model a course of action. They show what the law requires and what it permits, and then the page says it in words.

Everything on this page, the prompts included, is also written to docs/animation-brief.md in the repository by npm run brief, so it can be read away from a browser. That file is generated rather than typed, and a test fails if it ever stops matching this page.

6scenes written0drawn6waiting

What it should look like

This is the three rungs scene, drawn in the page, at roughly the pace a finished clip should run. Two figures on a pavement. An orange band appears and the citizen is outlined: a detention has started. The Clerk shows up for one beat. A second band, and the outline fills: an arrest. Then it returns to where it started, because every one of these loops.

Not a sample of the finished quality, a reference for the look: four colours, flat shapes, linework inside the shapes rather than around them, a halftone over everything, and a locked off camera. Orange carries the legal state and nothing else, which is why the officer never changes colour and the boundaries arrive one at a time. Drawn in the page rather than generated, so it cannot disagree with the palette.

Who they are

  • The one with the authority

    Officer Hollis

    Shows what an officer may do, must do, and may not do at a given moment. Never drawn as a villain and never drawn as infallible, because the law is what limits the role rather than the person's temperament.

    A uniformed patrol officer, mid career, calm rather than aggressive, duty belt and a radio on the shoulder, no agency insignia and no badge number, face kept simple and readable at small size.

  • The one the law is about

    Ruiz

    Stands where the viewer stands. Shows what is owed and what is not owed at each rung, and never models a course of action: the scene ends on the rule, not on a choice somebody made.

    An ordinary adult in everyday clothes, a jacket and jeans, a phone in one hand, unremarkable on purpose so any viewer can stand in that spot, face kept simple and readable at small size.

  • The one who reads the statute out

    The Clerk

    Marks the moment the rule changes. Appears for a beat when a scene crosses a legal line, so the viewer can see that a line exists and was crossed rather than being told afterwards.

    A narrow figure in a plain dark coat holding an open field manual, seen at a slight distance, more silhouette than person, always still while the others move.

Names are placeholders and renaming one is a single edit that reaches every scene.

The scenes

Every one is about a distinction people get wrong rather than a fact they simply do not know. A fine printed in a statute is not worth animating. The difference between a stop and a frisk is.

  1. The three rungs

    not drawn yet

    One sidewalk, three different sets of rules. A consensual encounter requires nothing of an officer and asks nothing of you. A Terry stop requires reasonable suspicion and reaches your name, address and date of birth. An arrest requires probable cause.

    Officer Hollis · Ruiz · The Clerk

    Read the law it rests on →
    Storyboard and prompt
    1. Wide shot, one pavement, two figures a comfortable distance apart, everything in paper and charcoal. Neither figure is marked in orange: nothing is happening yet.
    2. The officer steps closer and one orange band appears on the ground between them, a boundary rather than a barrier. The citizen is now outlined in orange: a detention has started.
    3. The Clerk enters frame at the edge, still, manual open, for a single beat. A second orange band appears further along the pavement.
    4. The citizen's outline fills solid orange, with both bands still visible. Then the bands sink away and the outline returns to paper, back to the opening frame, to loop.

    Paste this into the generator

    A ten second silent animation that loops.

Use the attached character reference sheets for who these people are. Do not redesign them.

In this shot:
- Officer Hollis, the one with the authority.
- Ruiz, the one the law is about.
- The Clerk, the one who reads the statute out.

What happens, in order:
1. Wide shot, one pavement, two figures a comfortable distance apart, everything in paper and charcoal. Neither figure is marked in orange: nothing is happening yet.
2. The officer steps closer and one orange band appears on the ground between them, a boundary rather than a barrier. The citizen is now outlined in orange: a detention has started.
3. The Clerk enters frame at the edge, still, manual open, for a single beat. A second orange band appears further along the pavement.
4. The citizen's outline fills solid orange, with both bands still visible. Then the bands sink away and the outline returns to paper, back to the opening frame, to loop.

Style: flat vector illustration with solid fills and thick bold outlines of an even weight. No gradients, no soft shading, no rendering. A fine halftone dot texture over the filled areas and a slight paper grain behind them. Flat even light with no cast shadows. Simple faces built from a few marks, readable at small size.

Only four colours in the whole picture: charcoal #121309, off white paper #ece7d6, orange #ff5a1f, and olive #8a9a5f. Orange marks only the one thing the viewer should look at, which in this scene is the legal line.

Ten seconds. Silent, with no audio track at all.
The camera never moves: no pan, no handheld drift, no shake, no blur.
The last frame must match the first so it loops cleanly.

No text, letters or numbers anywhere in frame.
No photorealism, no 3D, no live action, no realistic skin or fabric.
Skin is the off white paper colour. Never orange, and never a fifth colour.
Orange appears on at most one object and never on a person, a uniform or clothing.
No badge numbers, agency patches, department names, cap badges or shoulder insignia of any kind.
No weapons, no injury, no physical struggle.
No recognisable real person.
No fifth colour.
Nothing else in frame beyond what is described above.
No extra people beyond the ones listed above.
No music and no sound of any kind.

    Save the result as public/cast/three-rungs.mp4. That is the whole wiring, there is nothing to edit: the file is found by its name, the scene plays on its section page, and the counter at the top of this page moves on its own.

  2. Two decisions, not one

    not drawn yet

    The stop and the frisk are separate decisions and each needs its own justification. A frisk is a pat of the outer clothing for weapons, and it requires reasonable suspicion that the person is armed on the totality of the circumstances.

    Officer Hollis · Ruiz

    Read the law it rests on →
    Storyboard and prompt
    1. Two figures, the citizen already outlined in orange to show the stop is under way. A single orange switch sits in the frame beside them, already flipped.
    2. A second switch appears beside the first, unflipped and grey. The officer's hand moves toward the citizen and the second switch stays grey: the frame holds, nothing happens.
    3. The second switch flips, and only then does a light outer pat animate across the shoulders and waist, staying strictly to the outside of the clothing.
    4. Both switches flip back to grey and the figures return to their opening positions to loop.

    Paste this into the generator

    A ten second silent animation that loops.

Use the attached character reference sheets for who these people are. Do not redesign them.

In this shot:
- Officer Hollis, the one with the authority.
- Ruiz, the one the law is about.

What happens, in order:
1. Two figures, the citizen already outlined in orange to show the stop is under way. A single orange switch sits in the frame beside them, already flipped.
2. A second switch appears beside the first, unflipped and grey. The officer's hand moves toward the citizen and the second switch stays grey: the frame holds, nothing happens.
3. The second switch flips, and only then does a light outer pat animate across the shoulders and waist, staying strictly to the outside of the clothing.
4. Both switches flip back to grey and the figures return to their opening positions to loop.

Style: flat vector illustration with solid fills and thick bold outlines of an even weight. No gradients, no soft shading, no rendering. A fine halftone dot texture over the filled areas and a slight paper grain behind them. Flat even light with no cast shadows. Simple faces built from a few marks, readable at small size.

Only four colours in the whole picture: charcoal #121309, off white paper #ece7d6, orange #ff5a1f, and olive #8a9a5f. Orange marks only the one thing the viewer should look at, which in this scene is the legal line.

Ten seconds. Silent, with no audio track at all.
The camera never moves: no pan, no handheld drift, no shake, no blur.
The last frame must match the first so it loops cleanly.

No text, letters or numbers anywhere in frame.
No photorealism, no 3D, no live action, no realistic skin or fabric.
Skin is the off white paper colour. Never orange, and never a fifth colour.
Orange appears on at most one object and never on a person, a uniform or clothing.
No badge numbers, agency patches, department names, cap badges or shoulder insignia of any kind.
No weapons, no injury, no physical struggle.
No recognisable real person.
No fifth colour.
Nothing else in frame beyond what is described above.
No extra people beyond the ones listed above.
No music and no sound of any kind.

    Save the result as public/cast/two-decisions.mp4. That is the whole wiring, there is nothing to edit: the file is found by its name, the scene plays on its section page, and the counter at the top of this page moves on its own.

  3. A knock is not a warrant

    not drawn yet

    A closed door is the line the Fourth Amendment draws hardest. A knock is a request. Warrantless entry into a home to make a routine arrest is barred, and the exceptions that let officers in are specific and named.

    Officer Hollis · Ruiz · The Clerk

    Read the law it rests on →
    Storyboard and prompt
    1. Interior, a front door seen from inside, the threshold drawn as a single hard orange line across the floor. The citizen stands well behind it.
    2. Three knocks animate as concentric rings through the door. The orange threshold line pulses but does not move, and nothing crosses it.
    3. The Clerk appears beside the doorframe for one still beat, manual open, then is gone.
    4. The rings fade, the door stays shut, the threshold line settles back to solid. Loop on the unbroken line.

    Paste this into the generator

    A ten second silent animation that loops.

Use the attached character reference sheets for who these people are. Do not redesign them.

In this shot:
- Officer Hollis, the one with the authority.
- Ruiz, the one the law is about.
- The Clerk, the one who reads the statute out.

What happens, in order:
1. Interior, a front door seen from inside, the threshold drawn as a single hard orange line across the floor. The citizen stands well behind it.
2. Three knocks animate as concentric rings through the door. The orange threshold line pulses but does not move, and nothing crosses it.
3. The Clerk appears beside the doorframe for one still beat, manual open, then is gone.
4. The rings fade, the door stays shut, the threshold line settles back to solid. Loop on the unbroken line.

Style: flat vector illustration with solid fills and thick bold outlines of an even weight. No gradients, no soft shading, no rendering. A fine halftone dot texture over the filled areas and a slight paper grain behind them. Flat even light with no cast shadows. Simple faces built from a few marks, readable at small size.

Only four colours in the whole picture: charcoal #121309, off white paper #ece7d6, orange #ff5a1f, and olive #8a9a5f. Orange marks only the one thing the viewer should look at, which in this scene is the legal line.

Ten seconds. Silent, with no audio track at all.
The camera never moves: no pan, no handheld drift, no shake, no blur.
The last frame must match the first so it loops cleanly.

No text, letters or numbers anywhere in frame.
No photorealism, no 3D, no live action, no realistic skin or fabric.
Skin is the off white paper colour. Never orange, and never a fifth colour.
Orange appears on at most one object and never on a person, a uniform or clothing.
No badge numbers, agency patches, department names, cap badges or shoulder insignia of any kind.
No weapons, no injury, no physical struggle.
No recognisable real person.
No fifth colour.
Nothing else in frame beyond what is described above.
No extra people beyond the ones listed above.
No music and no sound of any kind.

    Save the result as public/cast/a-knock-is-not-a-warrant.mp4. That is the whole wiring, there is nothing to edit: the file is found by its name, the scene plays on its section page, and the counter at the top of this page moves on its own.

  4. What a smell is and is not

    not drawn yet

    Legalisation changed what the odour of marijuana can show, because a lawful thing and an unlawful thing can smell identical. Whether odour alone still supports a search is genuinely contested in Ohio and this page does not resolve it.

    Officer Hollis · Ruiz

    Read the law it rests on →
    Storyboard and prompt
    1. A car at a roadside, side on. A soft olive plume drifts from the open driver's window, deliberately shapeless.
    2. The plume splits into two identical plumes that drift apart. One settles over a small orange outline of a sealed container, the other over an identical outline. The two outlines are the same shape.
    3. A question mark is not drawn. Instead both outlines pulse once, together, and neither resolves into anything.
    4. The plumes rejoin into one and drift back toward the window to loop.

    Paste this into the generator

    A ten second silent animation that loops.

Use the attached character reference sheets for who these people are. Do not redesign them.

In this shot:
- Officer Hollis, the one with the authority.
- Ruiz, the one the law is about.

What happens, in order:
1. A car at a roadside, side on. A soft olive plume drifts from the open driver's window, deliberately shapeless.
2. The plume splits into two identical plumes that drift apart. One settles over a small orange outline of a sealed container, the other over an identical outline. The two outlines are the same shape.
3. A question mark is not drawn. Instead both outlines pulse once, together, and neither resolves into anything.
4. The plumes rejoin into one and drift back toward the window to loop.

Style: flat vector illustration with solid fills and thick bold outlines of an even weight. No gradients, no soft shading, no rendering. A fine halftone dot texture over the filled areas and a slight paper grain behind them. Flat even light with no cast shadows. Simple faces built from a few marks, readable at small size.

Only four colours in the whole picture: charcoal #121309, off white paper #ece7d6, orange #ff5a1f, and olive #8a9a5f. Orange marks only the one thing the viewer should look at, which in this scene is the legal line.

Ten seconds. Silent, with no audio track at all.
The camera never moves: no pan, no handheld drift, no shake, no blur.
The last frame must match the first so it loops cleanly.

No text, letters or numbers anywhere in frame.
No photorealism, no 3D, no live action, no realistic skin or fabric.
Skin is the off white paper colour. Never orange, and never a fifth colour.
Orange appears on at most one object and never on a person, a uniform or clothing.
No badge numbers, agency patches, department names, cap badges or shoulder insignia of any kind.
No weapons, no injury, no physical struggle.
No recognisable real person.
No fifth colour.
Nothing else in frame beyond what is described above.
No extra people beyond the ones listed above.
No music and no sound of any kind.

    Save the result as public/cast/the-smell.mp4. That is the whole wiring, there is nothing to edit: the file is found by its name, the scene plays on its section page, and the counter at the top of this page moves on its own.

  5. The camera and the distance

    not drawn yet

    Openly recording police performing their duties in public is protected by the First Amendment in the circuits that have decided it. What can be regulated is where a person stands, not that the camera is running.

    Officer Hollis · Ruiz

    Read the law it rests on →
    Storyboard and prompt
    1. The citizen stands at a distance holding a phone, the phone screen the only orange in the frame. The officer works in the middle distance, unbothered.
    2. An orange arc sweeps out from the officer marking a working radius on the ground. The citizen is outside it and the phone stays lit.
    3. The citizen drifts inward and the moment the arc is crossed the arc flashes, while the phone screen stays exactly as lit as before: the recording did not change, the position did.
    4. The citizen drifts back outside the arc, the arc settles, and the frame returns to the opening composition to loop.

    Paste this into the generator

    A ten second silent animation that loops.

Use the attached character reference sheets for who these people are. Do not redesign them.

In this shot:
- Officer Hollis, the one with the authority.
- Ruiz, the one the law is about.

What happens, in order:
1. The citizen stands at a distance holding a phone, the phone screen the only orange in the frame. The officer works in the middle distance, unbothered.
2. An orange arc sweeps out from the officer marking a working radius on the ground. The citizen is outside it and the phone stays lit.
3. The citizen drifts inward and the moment the arc is crossed the arc flashes, while the phone screen stays exactly as lit as before: the recording did not change, the position did.
4. The citizen drifts back outside the arc, the arc settles, and the frame returns to the opening composition to loop.

Style: flat vector illustration with solid fills and thick bold outlines of an even weight. No gradients, no soft shading, no rendering. A fine halftone dot texture over the filled areas and a slight paper grain behind them. Flat even light with no cast shadows. Simple faces built from a few marks, readable at small size.

Only four colours in the whole picture: charcoal #121309, off white paper #ece7d6, orange #ff5a1f, and olive #8a9a5f. Orange marks only the one thing the viewer should look at, which in this scene is the legal line.

Ten seconds. Silent, with no audio track at all.
The camera never moves: no pan, no handheld drift, no shake, no blur.
The last frame must match the first so it loops cleanly.

No text, letters or numbers anywhere in frame.
No photorealism, no 3D, no live action, no realistic skin or fabric.
Skin is the off white paper colour. Never orange, and never a fifth colour.
Orange appears on at most one object and never on a person, a uniform or clothing.
No badge numbers, agency patches, department names, cap badges or shoulder insignia of any kind.
No weapons, no injury, no physical struggle.
No recognisable real person.
No fifth colour.
Nothing else in frame beyond what is described above.
No extra people beyond the ones listed above.
No music and no sound of any kind.

    Save the result as public/cast/the-camera.mp4. That is the whole wiring, there is nothing to edit: the file is found by its name, the scene plays on its section page, and the counter at the top of this page moves on its own.

  6. Not the same offence

    not drawn yet

    An open container is its own offence and it is not an OVI. It asks whether an opened container was in a person's possession in one of the places the statute lists, not whether anybody was impaired and not whether the car moved.

    Officer Hollis · Ruiz · The Clerk

    Read the law it rests on →
    Storyboard and prompt
    1. A parked car, engine plainly off, drawn with no motion lines at all. An orange container outline sits on the passenger seat.
    2. Two separate document shapes rise into frame side by side, clearly distinct, one marked with the container outline and one marked with an unrelated symbol. Only the container one lights orange.
    3. The Clerk appears between the two documents for a still beat, then is gone, and the unmarked document drops out of frame entirely.
    4. The remaining document settles back down onto the car and the frame returns to the parked car to loop.

    Paste this into the generator

    A ten second silent animation that loops.

Use the attached character reference sheets for who these people are. Do not redesign them.

In this shot:
- Officer Hollis, the one with the authority.
- Ruiz, the one the law is about.
- The Clerk, the one who reads the statute out.

What happens, in order:
1. A parked car, engine plainly off, drawn with no motion lines at all. An orange container outline sits on the passenger seat.
2. Two separate document shapes rise into frame side by side, clearly distinct, one marked with the container outline and one marked with an unrelated symbol. Only the container one lights orange.
3. The Clerk appears between the two documents for a still beat, then is gone, and the unmarked document drops out of frame entirely.
4. The remaining document settles back down onto the car and the frame returns to the parked car to loop.

Style: flat vector illustration with solid fills and thick bold outlines of an even weight. No gradients, no soft shading, no rendering. A fine halftone dot texture over the filled areas and a slight paper grain behind them. Flat even light with no cast shadows. Simple faces built from a few marks, readable at small size.

Only four colours in the whole picture: charcoal #121309, off white paper #ece7d6, orange #ff5a1f, and olive #8a9a5f. Orange marks only the one thing the viewer should look at, which in this scene is the legal line.

Ten seconds. Silent, with no audio track at all.
The camera never moves: no pan, no handheld drift, no shake, no blur.
The last frame must match the first so it loops cleanly.

No text, letters or numbers anywhere in frame.
No photorealism, no 3D, no live action, no realistic skin or fabric.
Skin is the off white paper colour. Never orange, and never a fifth colour.
Orange appears on at most one object and never on a person, a uniform or clothing.
No badge numbers, agency patches, department names, cap badges or shoulder insignia of any kind.
No weapons, no injury, no physical struggle.
No recognisable real person.
No fifth colour.
Nothing else in frame beyond what is described above.
No extra people beyond the ones listed above.
No music and no sound of any kind.

    Save the result as public/cast/the-open-container.mp4. That is the whole wiring, there is nothing to edit: the file is found by its name, the scene plays on its section page, and the counter at the top of this page moves on its own.

The house style

One string, prepended to every scene prompt, so clips made weeks apart are recognisably the same series and restyling all of them is a single edit rather than a rewrite of each.

Style: flat vector illustration with solid fills and thick bold outlines of an even weight. No gradients, no soft shading, no rendering. A fine halftone dot texture over the filled areas and a slight paper grain behind them. Flat even light with no cast shadows. Simple faces built from a few marks, readable at small size. Only four colours in the whole picture: charcoal #121309, off white paper #ece7d6, orange #ff5a1f, and olive #8a9a5f. Ten seconds. Silent, with no audio track at all. The camera never moves: no pan, no handheld drift, no shake, no blur. The last frame must match the first so it loops cleanly.

No lettering in frame, deliberately. Words burned into a video cannot be corrected when a statute changes, cannot be read aloud by a screen reader, and cannot be translated. The caption under each clip is real text for exactly that reason.