07Animation and film · 2026 Film · sound on
The Race
A storybook film, made on a pipeline.
A four-minute illustrated short about a girl, her dad and a sports-day race, narrated like a picture book. The first cut was made clip by clip. The second is being rebuilt on a production pipeline that keeps every face and outfit identical across all 32 shots.
- Role
- Writer, director, pipeline engineer, editor
- Platforms
- YouTube and social, 16:9 and vertical
- Stack
- Open image and video models · Python pipeline · Text-to-speech · FFmpeg
- Status
- First cut finished; pipeline version in production
- 4:10Minutes of narrated, illustrated story
- 32Shots, each timed to the narration
- 150Keyframe options generated and reviewed
- 1Character bible every prompt is built from
The problemGenerators forget who your characters are
Image and video models are good at a single beautiful frame and bad at the same person twice. Over thirty shots a girl’s hair changes, a jumper gains a logo and the light moves to a different time of day. That breaks a story faster than any bad line.
The pipelineA bible, then sheets, then shots
Everything starts from one character and style bible: the exact words for each character, the setting and the look, plus a list of things that must never appear, such as a different top or text on clothing. Approved character sheets come next, and every keyframe is made from those sheets by image editing rather than from scratch, so faces and outfits cannot drift.
Each of the 32 shots gets several keyframe options, 150 in all, composed from a frame of the first cut so the story stays the same. An automatic check rejects anything off-model, then a person picks the frame. Only approved keyframes are animated, and the narration and cut are assembled in code so a change to one shot rebuilds the film.
DirectionPicture-book rules
The look is warm 2D storybook illustration: clean linework, soft cel shading, hand-painted backgrounds and golden late-afternoon light. Camera moves are slow and motivated, cuts land on the narration, and close-ups are saved for the moments that matter.
Pipeline
From bible to final cut.
- 01BibleExact words for every character, the setting and the look, and what must never appear
- 02SheetsApproved character sheets: the only source for faces and outfits
- 03Keyframes150 options across 32 shots, each edited from the sheets
- 04ReviewAn automatic off-model check, then a person picks
- 05AnimateOnly approved frames move; long shots are chained in parts
- 06Narrate and cutVoice, timing and edit assembled in code
What this means for your project
- AI video productionConsistent characters across a whole film, not just one clip.
- PipelinesGeneration, review and edit as code, so changes are cheap.
- StorytellingScript, narration, pacing and edit for short-form and YouTube.
- Brand filmsThe same method makes explainer and launch films in your brand’s style.