The percentages on this page are observed results from this guide’s own recreation builds, judged frame against frame. Treat them as the shape of the curve, not a guarantee.
Transcribe motion, not just composition
Watch the reference frame by frame. Write down:- the exact duration
- the camera’s path
- what each element does, with timestamps
- how entrances overlap
- which layers are blurred
- sampled colors
Iterate with absolute targets
Compare your render against the reference frame by frame. Then correct one axis at a time, freezing everything that already matches. State each correction as an absolute value, not a relative nudge:- ❌
make dots 2x finer - ✅
dot radius = 25% of row spacing
Distill the converged values back into the prompt
Iteration is a search. The constants it finds are reusable. A prompt carrying them one-shots ~80–90% of the converged quality on a fresh build. The discrete facts transfer losslessly: timings, counts, hexes, ratios, camera arcs. Continuous qualities still vary by a calibration note or two, like glow prominence or how the framing feels. The converged composition file itself is the pixel-exact artifact. Renders are deterministic, so re-rendering that file reproduces the result. Here is a distilled spec that one-shots a broadcast-style animated globe:Worked example: the hologram globe (full distilled spec)
Worked example: the hologram globe (full distilled spec)
1.8-second 1920x1080 video, Three.js via the adapter (seek-driven, no rAF). One continuous shot. Every element is still moving on the final frame. FIELDThe one-shot render produced by this exact spec on a fresh build — no iteration.GLOBE
- blue-violet background, linear #2a24a8 → #12105e top-to-bottom, with a soft radial lift at center
- faint blurred vertical cyan light-streaks (#5ee0e8 at ~10% opacity, ~340px spacing) drifting 70px left across the piece
- deep corner vignette
- soft-light film grain at ~6% (seeded noise)
CAMERA
- royal-blue sphere (#4348f2), lit from upper-left with a 0.58 ambient floor
- a broad subtle satin band (#6470ff, very wide falloff, ~30% mix) sweeping the upper curve
- a strong cyan rim-light line (#5ee8f0) tracing only the top edge
- continents in TWO layers:
- (a) a heavily-blurred darker-blue silhouette (#3439c2, 80% opacity) just under the surface, reading as a soft shadow shape
- (b) a dot-matrix just above the surface on an equal-area grid (0.9° latitude rows, longitude step widening with latitude)
- dot radius = 24–28% of row spacing — clear blue gaps between dots — growing slightly toward the equator, 85% dot opacity
- two color populations: cyan-aqua #5ee0e8 north, spring-green #7ce97a from latitude ~32° southward, with seeded ±30% per-dot brightness variance
- dots dimmed to 40% in the view-space lower-right shadow zone
- continents read as distinct dotted landmasses covering ~30–35% of the visible hemisphere, with royal-blue ocean dominating the rest
ORBS — 12 across three depth planes, world-anchored on the upper hemisphere so stems stay vertical
- open EXTREMELY close: the sphere’s curve fills the entire frame, horizon exiting the upper corners
- then one continuous pull-back + crane (fov 52°→40°)
- end with the dome filling the lower half edge-to-edge, its silhouette touching both frame edges, horizon at ~45%
- ease power1.inOut computed over a 2.0s window while rendering 1.8s, so the move never settles on-screen
- the globe rotates 28° about its vertical axis, linear, continents drifting right-to-left, never stopping
CAPTION — “Across 82 Countries”
- popping at staggered starts 0.45s→1.15s (0.06–0.13s apart)
- each rising 0.44–0.56s with back.out overshoot (vary 1.7–2.6 per orb), then bobbing ±8px on phase-offset sines forever
- 5 midground (~90–110px at end framing): soft mint body #a7ecc4, a darker-green under-shade #3f9b5e at lower-left, a pale rim #d6ffe8 top-right, no white core
- each wrapped in a soft additive bloom sprite ~3.5x its diameter, whose texture is HOLLOW-centered, peaking ~35% just outside the orb edge. A bright-cored additive glow over the opaque orb blows the mint to lime.
- plus a thin soft halo ring ~4.2x radius at 60% opacity, always subtler than the orb itself, with a slow 5% scale pulse
- 4 background — ~30px, sharp, tighter bloom
- 3 foreground near-lens bokeh — ~160–190px, dense mint radial-gradient sprites riding the camera at center-left / lower-center / upper-right, ~70% opacity, drifting ±30px laterally, no stems
- stems — 2–3px additive cyan cylinders fading to transparent at the surface
- tag canvas-generated sprite textures sRGB, or the mints wash out pale
No audio.
- Inter 300, 34px, 0.06em tracking, white at 90%, top-center 12% from the top
- left-to-right per-letter fade starting t=1.0s, completing ~1.45s
- then a slow 6px upward drift, still easing at the final frame
Know where the text-only ceiling is
Words carry discrete, countable things losslessly. They underdetermine continuous perceptual qualities: bloom falloff, material feel, optical color mixing. That last 10% doesn’t close from text. It oscillates instead. If pixel-exact matters, keep the composition file.Related
Iterating
The correction loop this page pushes to its limit
High-fidelity looks
Writing the spec density a recreation needs
Runtimes and 3D
The adapter the worked example uses
Capstone
Every technique composed into one film