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Brush stroke — the painted pages video style

Brush stroke — the painted pages video style

A video-style skill that directs a short vertical video as painted pages in depth: each idea a transparent page of brush strokes on a plain warm backdrop, the main stroke carrying the material with its own soft, streaked edge as the material's only edge, smaller strokes carrying related material out of focus, and pages that step back and aside as the next arrives so the frame fills with everything said so far, gathering at the end. It fixes the rule of one page per idea, the material, a motion language, three layers, the elements and their verbs, cutting on the transcript's word timings, captions, how to make every picture from real captures with generous padding and nothing generated, and a review checklist.

Studied from Vox

Updated 14 October 2026 · By Sadeq

When to use it

Direct and build a short vertical video in the brush-stroke style: each idea is a transparent page of paint strokes floating in depth, the main stroke carrying the material (a real page, a photograph, a line of type) with the stroke's own soft, streaked edge as the material's only edge, smaller strokes around it carrying related material out of focus, and pages that move back and aside as the next one arrives, so earlier ideas stay in view behind the current one. Use when someone asks for a video "in the brush style", "with paint strokes", a services or product overview, a "what we do" piece, or any list of related things that should feel crafted and rich without footage or generated imagery. Works for any business with a voice track and real screens or photographs of its own. Do not use it for a dense technical how-it-works (terminal), a story with places (grain and map), or a single interface (dark glass).

Complete file

SKILL.md

---
name: brush-stroke
description: >
  Direct and build a short vertical video in the brush-stroke style: each
  idea is a transparent page of paint strokes floating in depth, the main
  stroke carrying the material (a real page, a photograph, a line of type)
  with the stroke's own soft, streaked edge as the material's only edge,
  smaller strokes around it carrying related material out of focus, and
  pages that move back and aside as the next one arrives, so earlier ideas
  stay in view behind the current one. Use when someone asks for a video
  "in the brush style", "with paint strokes", a services or product
  overview, a "what we do" piece, or any list of related things that should
  feel crafted and rich without footage or generated imagery. Works for any
  business with a voice track and real screens or photographs of its own.
  Do not use it for a dense technical how-it-works (terminal), a story with
  places (grain and map), or a single interface (dark glass).
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: daena-digital
  version: "1.1"
  collection: video-styles
---

# Brush stroke — the painted pages style

A brush-stroke video looks like ideas painted on sheets of glass hung one
behind another. There is no paper: on a plain warm backdrop, broad strokes
of paint float in space, each one painted on from one end, its bristles
streaking the colour lighter and darker, its far end breaking up where the
brush ran dry. Inside the main stroke sits the material — a real page, a
photograph, a line of type — and the stroke is its only edge. Smaller
strokes float around it, some nearer the camera and some behind, a few
carrying related material out of focus. When the voice moves on, the page
slides back and aside and the next arrives: from behind the camera, from
the side, from the distance. The old pages stay, blurred, around the new
one, so the frame fills with everything said so far.

The editing grammar is Vox's — one picture worked over per idea, layers,
the camera always moving, every placement on a spoken clause — studied
frame by frame (see Reference). The material, painted strokes on
transparent pages in depth, is Daena Digital's own. This skill reproduces
moves, never anyone's footage, art or words.

## When to pick brush stroke over another style

- The script is **a set of related things**: services, features, steps,
  options. Each gets a page; together they fill the frame.
- The assets are **real but flat**: pages of a site, screenshots,
  photographs. Paint makes ordinary material look chosen.
- The feel should be **crafted and rich**, warmer than glass and calmer
  than terminal.
- There is no footage and no appetite for generated imagery.

Pick something else for a technical how-it-works (terminal), a story
with places (grain and map), one interface shown in depth (dark glass),
or a handmade cut-paper look (paper studio).

## Before building

Run the concept gate in the `video-craft` skill first: when there is a
reference clip, its essence in three sentences that name none of its
objects; the message line; three concepts; and a storyboard in which every
frame says why it means its line, approved before anything renders. Every
picture passes its two tests — only this subject could have produced it,
and one sentence says why it means its line — and every cut follows the
seam rules there: the same axis, direction and speed on both sides, the cut
landing mid-motion, one main direction for the film, an object carrying the
eye across. Those rules are adapted from HeyGen's open-source HyperFrames
skills (Apache License 2.0); the full credit is in `video-craft`.

The main direction is into depth: the pages already said step back and the
new page arrives moving away from the camera, so every change runs the same
way. An arrival from a side or from below is held for a change of subject,
and the calendar flip, the one page that comes towards the camera and
leaves, is the reserved move.

## One built picture per idea

Every clause gets a picture that acts the idea out, and it moves for as
long as the idea is spoken.

- **One page per idea.** Its main stroke carries the idea's material;
  two or more smaller strokes carry related material or colour.
- **Something changes on every clause**: a stroke painting on, a page
  arriving, the pages behind stepping back. Nothing is still for more
  than two seconds.
- **Nothing leaves.** A page that has been said moves back and aside —
  up, down or to a side, never straight behind — and stays visible,
  blurred by its distance. The frame fills as the video goes on. Only a
  calendar flip sends a page out through the camera, and only once.
- **A capture is raw material.** It sits inside a stroke and fades with
  the stroke's edge; it never appears as a rectangle.
- **End by gathering.** The last list beat brings every page back into
  one arrangement in depth (a grid, a stack) so the viewer sees the whole
  set at once.

## The world

One material, obeyed everywhere. Decide these before a single frame:

| Property | Choice |
|---|---|
| Backdrop | One plain warm surface (an off-white with a soft radial light), the same for the whole video. No paper texture: the pages are transparent and only the strokes show |
| Stroke | A broad band, slightly curved, its length 1.5–2.5 times its width for a main stroke. A soft blurred body under a few hundred bristles; each bristle its own strength, a lighter or darker shade of the colour, its own start and end; dry-brush gaps only in the last third; the outer bristles faint. No hard edge anywhere |
| Colours | The brand's two or three colours and nothing else: here yellow, blue and navy. Where strokes overlap on one page they multiply, as wet paint would |
| Material | Pictures cover the main stroke's band and fade out before the paint does, leaving a rim of paint; type sits in the solid middle in the brand's heavy display face, light on a dark stroke and dark on a light one |
| Depth | A real perspective (about 1600 px). Each page has a depth; strokes may sit 60–240 px in front of their page or behind it, so they shift against it when anything moves. Anything away from the focal plane blurs |
| Type | The brand display face, heavy, only inside strokes. No floating labels |

## Motion language

| Property | Choice |
|---|---|
| Paint on | A stroke paints from one end to the other over 8–20 frames, bristle by bristle, its material appearing under the brush as it goes |
| Page arrives | From behind the camera (from about +1900 px to 0), moving away from it the same way the earlier pages step back, eased over 14–22 frames. An arrival from a side or from below is held for a change of subject, and two in a row never come from opposite sides |
| Page steps back | When the next page arrives, every earlier page moves one step further back (about 650 px) and further out along its own diagonal. It never fades |
| Gather | On the line that names the whole set, the pages travel into one arrangement in depth over about 26 frames |
| Calendar flip | A page swings up from its top edge towards the camera and out. Once a video at most |
| Drift | The whole room tilts by a degree or two, slowly. It is atmosphere under the page's own changes and never counts as one |
| First frame | The opening page already painted with the hook line in its main stroke. Frame 0 is the poster |

## Three layers, never fewer

1. **Background.** The backdrop and the earlier pages, blurred by depth.
2. **Midground.** The current page's main stroke and its material.
3. **Foreground.** The smaller strokes lifted towards the camera.

## The elements and their verbs

| Element | What it is | Its verb |
|---|---|---|
| Main stroke | The broad stroke carrying the idea's material | Paints on, its material appearing under the brush |
| Supporting stroke | A smaller stroke carrying related material, behind the main one | Paints on after the main stroke, out of focus |
| Accent stroke | A narrow stroke of colour, lifted towards the camera | Paints on quickly, then drifts with the parallax |
| Page | A transparent sheet holding a main stroke and its company | Arrives, then steps back and aside as each new page arrives |
| Gather | Every page at once | Travels into one arrangement on the line that names the set |

## Cutting on the voice

The transcript's word timings are the edit decision list.

1. **Transcribe with word timings** and write them down as frames.
2. **A page arrives on the first word of its idea.** Its main stroke
   paints on that word; supporting and accent strokes follow within
   half a second.
3. **The pages behind step back on the same frame** the new one starts
   to arrive.
4. **Gather on the summary line**, and end on a page that carries the
   address or the call to action.
5. **Write the beat table before building**: frames, words, which page
   arrives from where, what paints.

| Frames | Spoken | Pages |
|---|---|---|
| 0–67 | "Growing brands end up juggling agencies." | Frame 0: the hook line painted in a navy stroke; small strokes paint on around it, scattered, every few frames |
| 67–143 | "Daena Digital is one team for the whole job:" | The hook page steps back and up; the homepage arrives from behind the camera in a yellow stroke |
| 143–341 | "websites and apps, content and search, paid media, email and automation, marketing tech, and branding." | One page per service on its first word, each arriving from a different direction, its headline in the main stroke and what it covers in a supporting stroke behind; every earlier page steps back |
| 341–407 | "Start with one, or all six." | The six service pages gather into a grid in depth |
| 407–467 | "daenadigital.com." | The address in a yellow stroke arrives from behind the camera over the grid, which steps back |

## Captions

Word-synced, four words a page, in the display face on a bar of the
backdrop's colour, the spoken word in the accent. They sit low in the
safe zone. The hook line is painted and captioned at once; after that the
strokes carry material, not the spoken sentence.

## Assets without generating anything

- **Captures.** The client's own pages at 2x, with **80 px of page around
  the content** — the stroke's fading edge eats the outer part, so the
  margin is what fades, not the content. Shaped wide for a main stroke.
  No other company's logo in any capture; drop or re-crop the section.
- **Photographs.** The client's own, cropped wide.
- **Strokes.** Drawn in the composition from the seed of each stroke. No
  brush packs, no stock paint textures, nothing generated.
- **Type.** The brand display face. Record the licence.
- **Voice and music.** Whatever the client's provenance rules allow,
  credited the same way.

No AI-generated image, clip or sound effect on screen.

Every asset made or chosen for the video — each capture, each crop, each
clip, the voice take, the music, each sound effect — is shown to the
person and approved on its own before it is placed. A changed asset is
shown again. Nothing reaches the render on the maker's say-so.

## Content rules that travel with the style

- No numbers on screen that are not in the script and sourced. A count
  the script says ("all six") is the only kind.
- The material inside a stroke is real and current; a page that has
  changed is re-captured, not repainted.
- No client logos, awards or testimonials unless they are real and
  permitted.

## Review before export

- [ ] The concept gate in `video-craft` was run, and its review list passes.
- [ ] Frame 0 is the hook page, painted.
- [ ] Every idea has its own page, its main stroke carrying its material.
- [ ] Every earlier page is still visible, blurred, not faded.
- [ ] Nothing is still for more than two seconds.
- [ ] No capture shows a rectangle edge.
- [ ] No stroke has a hard edge.
- [ ] Only the brand's colours appear in paint.
- [ ] Every capture carries its padding and no third-party logo.
- [ ] Every asset in the render was shown to the person and approved.

## Reference

The first video in this style is sample 7 on
<https://daenadigital.com/resources/examples/videos>: Daena Digital's six
services in 15 seconds, one page each, the earlier pages filling the
frame behind the current one, all six gathering into a grid on "all
six". It came out of two rejected prototypes on 9 October 2026: paint
splashes falling on a canvas ("I don't like the quality of the
splashes"), then strokes on empty canvases ("The canvases are very
empty!"). Those are why the pages are transparent, why nothing fades as
it moves back, and why every page carries more than one stroke of
material.

The editing grammar was checked against Vox's "Why we say 'OK'", sampled
every half second: one picture worked over for many seconds, layers
moving at different speeds, every placement on a clause.

Knowledge base

What we studied to learn the style

Why we say “OK”Studied frame by frame every 0.5 s, 20-60 s: one picture held and worked over for many seconds, layers moving at different speeds, every placement on a spoken clause — the grammar this style keeps; the painted pages are Daena Digital's own material
How Vox-style edits are builtThe layered explainer grammar: one accent colour, hard decisions about what each clause shows
Vox-style shorts guideThe grammar at 9:16: elements that land on the voice and a camera that keeps drifting

Sources

SKILL.md

What we studied to learn the style

What this is based on