Girl's Shadow Refuses to Follow in Pixar-Style Short
A 30-second 3D Pixar-style animated short about a girl named Mina whose shadow refuses to follow her home, sitting cross-legged on the grass instead. Through a series of shot-by-shot beats, the shadow plays hopscotch alone before reattaching in a slow-motion high-five, then playfully steals macaroni at dinner.
Al-Shamus @im_shahid7
Prompt (original, unmodified)
{ "title": "The Shadow Quit", "style": "3D Pixar family animation. Warm suburban dusk, golden-hour lighting, stylized characters, handheld feel.", "shots": [ {"time":"00:00-00:03","type":"EXT. CLOSE-UP","action":"Mina's sneakers hit grass. She stops. Her shadow stays seated cross-legged.","camera":"Low angle, slight handheld wobble.","dialogue":"Mina: 'Come on, we have mac and cheese tonight!'"}, {"time":"00:03-00:05","type":"WIDE","action":"Mina stands confused. Her shadow points at the swing set, arms folded.","camera":"Static wide. Swing set silhouetted.","dialogue":"Shadow: (shakes head silently)"}, {"time":"00:05-00:08","type":"MEDIUM","action":"Mina crouches, pleading. Shadow draws hopscotch in dirt with dreamy lag.","camera":"Push-in on Mina's face.","dialogue":"Mina: 'You can swing tomorrow. I promise.'"}, {"time":"00:08-00:12","type":"OVERHEAD","action":"Shadow hops hopscotch alone. Mina watches, smiling. Leaves fall slow-motion.","camera":"Crane shot descending.","dialogue":"Mina: (soft giggle)"}, {"time":"00:12-00:16","type":"CLOSE-UP","action":"Shadow stops, reaches up for high-five.","camera":"Two-shot becoming extreme close-up. Sunset flares.","dialogue":"(none)"}, {"time":"00:16-00:19","type":"SLOW-MO CLOSE-UP","action":"Hands meet. Shadow reattaches with soft snap and ripple of light.","camera":"Macro lens. Dust particles explode.","dialogue":"(soft snap sound)"}, {"time":"00:19-00:24","type":"TRACKING","action":"Mina runs to house. Shadow runs beside her on grass, up wall, synced.","camera":"Side-tracking.","dialogue":"(none)"}, {"time":"00:24-00:30","type":"INT. WIDE","action":"Mina slides into chair. Shadow on wall steals macaroni with impossibly long arm.","camera":"Wide through doorway.","dialogue":"Mina: 'Hey!' (laughs)"} ] }Reproduced verbatim from the original post. Never edited or translated. Everything outside this block is our own commentary.
How this prompt compares
The techniques this prompt uses are more common in 3D cartoon prompts than in the library overall:
| Technique | In 3D cartoon | Library average | Lift |
|---|---|---|---|
| warm tone | 24% | 17% | 1.39x |
Across all 5,926 prompts, the techniques used here appear at: tracking 41%, handheld 24%, warm tone 17%, golden hour 17%.
The 30s duration is not arbitrary: 4% of the prompts in this library that state a duration ask for exactly 30 seconds.
