Rain Protocol

Sixty seconds to prove character continuity isn't a matter of luck.

Rain Protocol

Type: Own piece
Format: 60 s · 9:16
Panels: 36
Character: 1 · 2 refs

The challenge

The weak point of AI video is continuity: the same character changes face between shots and the piece falls apart. The challenge was to hold one lead — face, wardrobe, materials, light — across sixty seconds and a full transformation, without re-rolling generations until a good one shows up. No lucky shots.

Self-initiated. Termópilas doesn't publish client cases yet, so the brief for both of these came from the studio itself.

The process

01Lock the character before moving anything
Two references, the guardian and the citizen, fix face, wardrobe, materials and light. They're the same woman in two states, and they're closed before a single shot is generated.
0236 timed panels
The whole piece is drawn out in four blocks of nine panels with their timecodes. Every shot is decided on the board, not in front of the render.
03Generate against the board
With the character fixed and the timing decided, generation stops being a lottery and becomes execution: every shot has to match something that already exists.
04Master
Upscale, colour and final master at delivery resolution.

Rain Protocol · 60 seconds · 9:16

One character, two states.

Before a single shot moves, the character is locked: face, wardrobe, materials, light. Two references guarantee the final transformation is the same woman — because she is.

Character reference A: the guardian, in a tactical mask with a cybernetic arm and a light katana, under the neon rain of a Japanese city. — Reference A — The guardian

Character reference B: the same woman as an anonymous citizen, in a green bomber and jeans, on a Japanese street at dawn. — Reference B — The civilian

36 timed panels. Every shot decided before it's generated.

Tap any board to enlarge it and read the timecodes.

Rain Protocol storyboard, part 1: nine timecoded panels from 0:00 to 0:15, from the wide shot of the rain-soaked city to the guardian's hero shot. — PT.1 — The watch

Rain Protocol storyboard, part 2: nine timecoded panels of the guardian fighting the drone swarm. — PT.2 — The swarm

Rain Protocol storyboard, part 3: nine timecoded panels in which the city settles and the threat turns out to be a signal. — PT.3 — Stand down

Rain Protocol storyboard, part 4: nine timecoded panels of the guardian's transformation into an anonymous citizen. — PT.4 — Human protocol

The result

A sixty-second piece in 9:16 with a single lead held from start to finish, transformation from guardian to anonymous citizen included. One character, two references, 36 timed panels.

It's a demonstration of the method, not a client commission. The boards and references shown here are the project's real ones, not a reconstruction.

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