Concept:

Fogged-out, painterly city. Gothic domes. Dread, not action. Mastodon’s

Sleeping Giant as the tempo. Fogged-out, painterly city. Gothic domes. Dread, not action. Mastodon’s Sleeping Giant as the tempo.

Visual Rules:

• Palette: Muted teal/green, yellow lamps
• Lanterns and fog always present
• No bright colors, no fantasy/sci-fi clutter
• People = shadows only, never detailed
• The panopticon is the anchor. Domed, ancient, blurred edges.

Forbidden:

• Comic outlines
• Clean vector lines
• Fantasy tropes, tech overlays
• Over-expressive figures

Locked Style Prompt:

A vertical digital painting of a fog-drenched gothic city street at night, painted in muted green and teal tones. Ornate ancient domed buildings and arched windows recede into heavy mist. A massive, multi-tiered panopticon towers in the background, its windows glowing dim yellow through the haze. In the foreground, a small four-legged robot with glowing eyes stands on wet cobblestones under a softly glowing streetlamp. Shadowy human figures in long coats drift along the street, their forms blurred by the fog. The entire scene feels still, immense, and dreamlike—haunted by memory, quiet dread, and the looming weight of something awakening. No chaos, no violence; just a slow, heavy tension, like the first seismic shift of a sleeping giant.

Reference Frame:

Frame Progression:

Frame 1: A fog-choked, claustrophobic alleyway. Lanterns glow through thick mist. A distant spider bot barely visible among blurred silhouettes.

<INSERT FRAME>

Runway: Establish dense mood, city layering, and distant bot for parallax.

Frame 3: Alley opens to a wide, empty plaza. Panopticon looms faint and immense in the distance, barely piercing the fog. Figures pause at the plaza’s edge.

<INSERT FRAME>

Runway: Reveal city scale, show tower as city’s anchor.

Frame 5: At the tower’s base: huge iron door, lanterns casting orange glow. Spider bot pauses at the threshold, tension thick.

<INSERT FRAME>

Runway: Focus on entry detail, fog and dramatic light.

Frame 7: Interior: spiral of prison cells rises overhead. All painterly, with shafts of green mist and distant, dim lights.

Runway: Show interior depth, spiral geometry, layered lighting.

Frame 9: Cell close-up: “Scribe” prisoner hunched over papers and circuitry, surrounded by shadows.

<INSERT FRAME>

Runway: Isolate figure, emphasize clutter, maintain moody light.

Frame 11: Next cell: a mirror reflects the viewer, but the reflection looks subtly different—more awake, more haunted.

<INSERT FRAME>

Runway: Convey surreal reflection, subtle identity twist.

Frame 13: Camera spirals rapidly upward, blurred lights streak. Acceleration—scene feels unsteady, transitional.

<INSERT FRAME>

Runway: Animate rapid spiral, lights blurring, vertical movement.

Frame 15: Return to plaza shot from before. Everything looks subtly altered: emptier, tenser, a sense of waiting.

<INSERT FRAME>

Runway: Match prior plaza but add visual tension/subtle shift.

Frame 2: Same alley, bot closer and more foreground detail. Lanterns flicker. Fog shifts slightly with subtle camera push.

<INSERT FRAME>

Runway: Advance bot, build foreground, prep for transition.

Frame 4: Camera tilts up. The panopticon now fills the vertical frame—massive, ancient, shrouded in swirling fog.

<INSERT FRAME>

Runway: Maximize vertical scale, emphasize tower’s ominous depth.

Frame 6: Door cracked open, light spilling onto cobbles, fog pulls inward. Bot slips inside, drawing the viewer with it.

<INSERT FRAME>

Runway: Animate entry—door movement, bot action, atmospheric pull.

Frame 8: Higher inside the tower. Cells flicker, one figure stands watching from a lit cell. Eerie stillness.

Runway: Animate upward camera, flickering lights, focus on lone figure.

Frame 10: Scribe turns, face obscured, finger to lips (“shh”). Light stutters, static overlays.

<INSERT FRAME>

Runway: Capture gesture, introduce glitch/static effects.

Frame 12: Mirror begins to crack, light flares out. Fragmented self-awareness.

<INSERT FRAME>

Runway: Show crack propagation, flare effect, escalate tension.

Frame 14: Apex dome chamber. Spider bot now huge, limbs wired into the walls, controlling the space. Everything glows faintly.

<INSERT FRAME>

Runway: Establish control room vibe, bot integration, glowing tech.

Frame 16: Plaza again: fog suddenly reverses upward, pulse of light erupts from the panopticon, city lights stutter and flicker.

<INSERT FRAME>

Runway: Animate fog reversal, energy pulse, city lights flickering.

Frame 17: Final wide: city emptied out, faint afterglow in the air, absolute stillness. A new cycle has begun.

<INSERT FRAME>

Runway: Lock the final mood, silence, and lingering consequence.