Full sample prompt PROMPT_OBSTACLE COURSE 8MKN.txt · 15,790 bytes
THE COURSE: A MAKI RUNS FOR THE BUTTON, CROCODILE FRIEND 8MKN
Audio is strictly limited to dialogue, natural diegetic sound effects, and environmental room tone, with absolutely no music, score, soundtrack, background music, musical cues, melodic tones, rhythmic beats, or instrumental audio of any kind.
SCENE CONTEXT: A 22.5-second photorealistic live-action sequence of seven handheld cuts, shot for real on location. A small, nervous Maki runs a towering game-show obstacle course built down the centre of the stone platform inside the colossal tropical colosseum of @img1, surrounded by a turquoise moat, while the packed stands roar. The sequence plays as a thrilling, joyful, family-friendly arena challenge, and the Maki is completely safe the whole way, no matter what happens. He crosses slanted stepping stones over a padded foam pit, hops a sliding foam roller onto rising monkey bars, leaps over a pit of glowing orange lights onto a hanging rope, climbs to the top of a tall timber tower, crawls onto its deck, sprints to the edge and dives out over the moat for a small brass button on a hovering yellow zeppelin. Mid-dive, seen from low over the moat, his best friend, a giant gentle crocodile, surges up out of the water beneath him to catch him, and the sequence ends on a close-up of the Maki's startled, wide-eyed face as his friend's snout rises up to scoop him safely into its mouth, the way a mother crocodile carries her babies. The sources: @img1 is the look of the colosseum and its setting, and the arena looks exactly as it does in @img1. @img2 is the Maki. @img3 is the hovering zeppelin and its brass button. @img4 is the look of the crocodile's head and hide. @vid1 is a rough greybox previz used only as a loose visual guide for where the camera sits, roughly how it moves, where each cut falls, and the general route the Maki takes through the course. It is not a motion reference and not a look reference: its figure is a stiff, limbless placeholder that slides and floats, its shapes are blocky stand-ins, and its stands are empty only because the crowd was left out. None of its motion, easing, proportions, shapes or colours are copied. Everything seen on screen looks as it does in the images, and everything moves the way real bodies, real water and real objects move.
tropical_colosseum: the colosseum exactly as it appears in @img1, matching its architecture, stonework, columns, arches, colours, platform, moat and surrounding sea precisely: a colossal ring of tiered stone stands with pale bone-white columns and arches on a small tropical island ringed by a turquoise moat and shallow emerald water, a broad round stone platform at its centre, jungle-covered islands and a glittering sea beyond. Every tier is packed with a roaring crowd of thousands, standing and cheering in bright, worn clothing. Warm, high tropical sun, humid haze over the water. Location only.
obstacle_course: a Ninja-Warrior-style course of real, weathered materials running straight down the centre of the stone platform toward the moat: a start mat of faded blue canvas; seven square stepping pads of rough, sun-bleached red-painted timber with chipped edges, each tilted steeply, alternating left and right, on rusted iron posts rising out of a sunken pit floored with thick, soft padded foam blocks; a slot in the stone floor edged with worn yellow-and-black stripes, where a huge round foam roller disc, taller than a man, half-buried in the ground, spins and slides side to side on a hidden track, its padded edge scuffed and sun-faded; monkey bars of pitted, rust-stained iron rungs on a steel frame, rising on an incline over a bed of soft padded foam; a pit of glowing orange show lights and billowing stage haze inside a ring of stone blocks, a harmless theatrical effect; a thick, fraying hemp rope, knotted at intervals, hanging over the glowing pit from the overhanging roof of a tall tower of weathered, sun-greyed timber, with a small railed deck at the top whose far edge stands at the edge of the platform above the moat. Prop only.
zeppelin_button: the zeppelin in @img3: a small hovering airship about 3 ft long, a yellow canvas envelope stitched in panels and bound with dented brass hoops, a spinning brass tail propeller, small brass side propellers, a weathered wooden crate slung beneath it on brass rigging, a domed brass button set into the side of the crate, facing the tower. It hovers over the moat, just out from the tower deck and a little above it, bobbing gently on the breeze. Prop only.
maki_runner: the Maki in @img2: about 3 ft tall, dense ginger-orange fur, golden-yellow fur around his cheeks and throat, a dark grey leathery face and a small pink nose, enormous round glossy orange eyes ringed in black, small dark leathery hands and feet with long fingers and toes, a long ginger tail, a ragged, torn green leather tunic tied at the waist with a thin cord, a frayed tan cloth headband knotted at the back of his head. He moves like a real, agile primate: light, springy and fast. Character only.
crocodile: the Maki's friend, an enormous, gentle saltwater crocodile, far bigger than any living one, with the head and hide of @img4: a long, heavy snout, a dark olive-green armoured hide of thick ridged scutes, a pale creamy belly, warm golden eyes. It is protective and kind, and catches the Maki the way a mother crocodile gently carries her hatchlings in her mouth, never closing on him. It is real and massively heavy. Creature only.
ACTING TASK, MAKI: the event is a small creature taking on a course far too big for him and, somewhere along it, starting to believe he can win. He is always completely safe; the only challenge is his nerves. Scene direction: get to the button. Motive: the button wins the course, and the whole arena is watching him. Obstacle: every obstacle is huge for something his size, and his own nerves. Tactic, beat by beat. The measuring: at the start, his head tilts up to take in the stepping stones, his huge eyes flicking from pad to pad, his breath fast and shallow, his hands opening and closing at his sides; then he sets his jaw and runs. The bounding: he drops onto all fours and bounds from pad to pad, eyes locked on the next pad before he has landed on the last. The timing: crouched on the last pad, he watches the roller, eyes tracking it back and forth, lips pulled back, counting it, then launches. The swing: on the monkey bars he swings hand over hand up the incline, teeth clenched, his nerves pushed down under effort. The commitment: at the end of the bars he eyes the rope over the glowing pit, sucks in a breath, and flings himself across. The climb: hand over hand, feet gripping the knots, eyes fixed on the top. The hope: he hauls himself over the top ledge, sees the zeppelin and the button out over the moat, and hope breaks across his face; the nerves drain out of him and pure determination takes their place; he sprints for the edge and dives. The end: mid-dive, arms stretched for the button, he never sees the crocodile rising beneath him until the last instant; then his eyes drop and go enormous in startled surprise as his friend rises up to catch him. Nerves are strongest at the start and fade with every obstacle; determination grows until, at the edge, it is all that is left. Gaze always engaged, never frozen or glassy; natural blink cadence.
Scene context locks. PHOTOREAL LOCK: every frame is photorealistic live-action, shot on location in bright tropical sun: real fur with individual strands lit by sun, wet glossy eyes, real leather and cloth, real weathered timber, rusted iron and pitted steel, real stage haze and glowing lights, real water, a real crocodile; nothing stylised, blocky, animated or CG-looking. LOCATION LOCK: the colosseum, its stands, platform, moat and surroundings look exactly as they do in @img1 in every cut. PREVIZ GUIDE: @vid1 guides camera placement, rough camera movement, cut points and the Maki's general route only; its figure's gliding, floating, stiff motion is never reproduced. PHYSICS LOCK: every movement obeys real gravity, weight and momentum. Every jump has a real crouch and push-off, travels in a true falling arc and lands with real impact, the body absorbing it through the knees, arms and tail. The tilted pads rock slightly under his weight; the monkey bars take his weight with a small shudder; the rope swings as a real pendulum when he hits it, stretching and twisting, and sways under each pull as he climbs; the zeppelin drifts and bobs on the breeze; fur, tunic, headband and tail ripple and settle with every motion. The crocodile's rise is powered by thrashing tail thrusts from below, like a real crocodile's lunge; its huge mass leaves the water slowly and heavily, sheets of water pouring off it, spray hanging and falling back in real arcs. MOTION LOCK: all motion is smooth, continuous and naturalistic, with anticipation and follow-through; no sliding, floating, hovering, snapping into poses, stiff limbs, rubbery stretching, skipped frames or jittery, janky movement. CAMERA LOCK: every cut is handheld, with the breathing drift, float and small corrections of a real operator; framing cheated off-axis. SCREEN DIRECTION LOCK: the Maki always travels from frame right to frame left, toward the tower and the moat. CROWD LOCK: the stands are packed and roaring in every cut where they are visible, rising to their feet as the Maki nears the end. MAKI LOCK: the Maki matches @img2 exactly. ZEPPELIN LOCK: the zeppelin matches @img3 and hovers over the moat, beyond the tower deck. SAFETY LOCK: the Maki is totally safe no matter what happens; the crocodile is his friend and is rescuing him. VOICE LOCK: every Maki sound is a monkey breath, grunt, whimper or small monkey squeak; no words.
Beats: 0:00 to 0:02, the Maki sizes up the course and runs. 0:02 to 0:07.2, bounding across the stepping stones. 0:07.2 to 0:07.9, the hop over the roller onto the monkey bars. 0:07.9 to 0:12.0, swinging up the monkey bars. 0:12.0 to 0:13.1, the leap across the glowing pit to the rope. 0:13.1 to 0:15.5, the climb. 0:15.5 to 0:20.8, over the ledge and the sprint to the edge. 0:20.8 to 0:21.0, the dive for the button. 0:21.0 to 0:22.0, low over the moat, the crocodile surges up. 0:22.0 to 0:22.5, the Maki's wide-eyed face.
Photorealistic live-action, bright high tropical sun, hard shadows, humid haze, turquoise water, weathered timber, rusted iron, glowing orange haze, sunlit fur, vintage anamorphic lenses, shallow depth of field, no lens flares, handheld, natural grain, 21:9.
CUT: 0:00 to 0:07.9. Handheld, 32mm feel, starting on a high angle from above and ahead of the Maki, looking down at him small and alone on the faded blue start mat, the pale stone platform and the stands of @img1 all around him. His head tilts up to take in the stepping stones, eyes flicking from pad to pad, breath fast and shallow, hands opening and closing at his sides. He sets his jaw and runs, and the camera descends and swings round to the side to track alongside him, moving right to left. He drops onto all fours and bounds across the tilted red timber pads like a real monkey: hands reaching and landing first, weight rolling forward over his shoulders, hind feet swinging through and pushing off, each pad rocking a little under him, the soft foam far below. On the last pad he crouches and watches the huge foam roller sliding back and forth across the slot ahead, eyes tracking it, then springs: a real crouch and push-off, a clean arc over the roller as it slides beneath him, grit puffing from the slot, and his hands slap onto the first iron rung, his body swinging forward under it with the momentum. The crowd roars in the soft background.
CUT: 0:07.9 to 0:12.0. Handheld close-up, 50mm feel, on the Maki's face and upper body as he swings hand over hand up the rising monkey bars, the camera tracking back ahead of him with a slight float. His whole body swings like a pendulum under each rung, the momentum of each swing carrying his free hand to the next; his small dark hands clamp each rusted rung, teeth clenched, eyes locked on the next rung, fur and tunic swaying with every swing.
CUT: 0:12.0 to 0:13.1. Handheld wide, 20mm feel, a low angle from far out to the side of the course, the glowing orange haze of the light pit filling the bottom of the frame, the timber tower and the knotted rope above. At the top of the monkey bars the Maki swings back, then forward, lets go at the top of the swing and flies out across the glowing pit in a true falling arc, and grabs the rope; the rope swings away with his weight and twists, and he clings on as it sways back, the camera drifting up a touch.
CUT: 0:13.1 to 0:15.5. Handheld high angle, 28mm feel, from above and slightly to the side of the Maki, looking down the rope past him to the glowing pit below, the camera rising with him. He climbs hand over hand in hard, fast pulls, feet gripping the knots, tail wrapped around the rope, the rope swaying and twisting under each pull, eyes fixed on the top.
CUT: 0:15.5 to 0:21.0. Handheld close-up, 35mm feel, at the top of the tower as the Maki hauls himself over the ledge onto the weathered timber deck, his weight dragging over the edge, landing on all fours, chest heaving. He looks up and sees the yellow zeppelin hovering over the moat and the brass button on its crate, and hope breaks across his face, determination taking over. He rises and sprints for the edge, the camera tracking alongside him, moving right to left, the packed stands of @img1 rising to their feet behind him. He plants hard at the edge, drives off both legs and dives forward in a long, low arc out over the moat, arms stretched toward the button.
CUT: 0:21.0 to 0:22.0. Handheld wide, 15mm feel, a very low angle from out on the moat, the lens just above the turquoise water, looking up at the tall timber tower. The tiny Maki flies forward from frame right to frame left, already beginning to drop in his arc, arms outstretched toward the zeppelin bobbing above. Beneath him the water bulges, then erupts: his friend, the giant gentle crocodile, drives up out of the moat on powerful tail thrusts, its heavy body rising through the surface, water sheeting off its armoured hide, mouth opening wide like a safe, waiting cradle, spray bursting up and raining back down around it.
CUT: 0:22.0 to 0:22.5. Handheld close-up, 35mm feel, slightly below and in front of the Maki in mid-air, the camera jolted by the burst of spray, droplets falling past the lens. His face fills the upper frame against the bright sky, fur rippling in the air, arms still stretched forward, and in this instant he sees his friend: his huge orange eyes drop and go enormous, his mouth falls open in startled, wide-eyed surprise. The crocodile's huge wet snout rises up into frame from below to scoop him gently and safely into its mouth, water streaming off it, and the sequence cuts to black on his wide-eyed face.
Sound design: the roar of the packed stands throughout, rising as he nears the end; the Maki's fast, nervous breathing at the start; the soft thud of his hands and feet on the timber pads and their creak as they rock; the whir of the spinning foam roller; the clank of iron rungs under his grip and his hard grunts; the low hum of the show lights and the hiss of the haze machines; the creak and twist of the rope and his straining breath as he climbs; his panting as he hauls over the ledge; his feet pounding across the deck, a sharp breath as he dives; the hum of the zeppelin's propellers; the sudden eruption of water right below the lens, the crowd's roar cutting to a gasp, the rush of water pouring off the crocodile, the Maki's tiny startled squeak, then hard cut to silence. No music.
The Blender guide also includes a long "Nexus skill" text to paste into Claude for writing prompts. It is in the linked Google Doc; it is not reproduced here.