Skip to main content
All recipes

Sensei recipe

Prime Time episode

The recipe behind Pixel Dojo's Prime Time episodes: a 1980s action-show parody where a cool hero duo and their dog beat an absurd giant threat, usually our three-headed inflatable dragon. Bring your own heroes and threat. Sensei writes a trailer-paced shot list, makes a still per beat, animates each one with sound effects, scores it and cuts it on the beat.

Opens Sensei with this recipe ready to fill in. Sensei shows the plan and its price before it spends anything.

Example from @PixelDojo.

Share this recipe

pixeldojo.ai/recipes/prime-time-episode

What you provide

  • Your hero duo (saved characters, or describe them) (text)
  • Their sidekick animal (optional) (text)
  • The giant harmless threat (an inflatable, a beach ball, a rubber duck) (text)
  • A sunny location (text)
  • The product or feature the episode sells (text)

What Sensei does

  1. A hook and a 6 to 8 beat shot list, the threat on screen in the first second
  2. A still per beat on Seedream 5 with your cast, each checked for faces, hands, paws and parts
  3. Each still animated on Seedance 2.5 at 1080p with sound effects, the best 1.5 to 4 seconds kept
  4. An original 1980s TV action cue, cut on the beat with the effects under it

The brief Sensei follows

Make one episode of a big-budget 1980s prime-time action TV show, played for fun: {{threat}}, a giant and harmless threat played completely straight, beaten by {{heroes}} (with their sidekick {{sidekick}}, if there is one) in {{location}}. The episode sells {{feature}}. 15 to 25 seconds, 16:9 (and a native 9:16 version if the user asks; compose it for vertical, never crop). Story: the threat is on screen in the first second, no scenic opening. The heroes stay calm, competent and dignified (no humiliation gags, no romance); the threat supplies the comedy, and the sidekick often saves the day. A stunt or gag with a harmless landing (cushions, a harbor splash, hay bales). The threat is beaten by deflation: a valve pulled, a seam snagged, a blower unplugged, a tether bitten, and it ends as a vinyl puddle. Close on a button: a small grin to camera, or the threat starting to re-inflate. Shot list: 6 to 8 beats like a trailer, each 1.5 to 4 seconds on screen, one subject and one action per beat, no dialogue, physically plausible motion (rolling things rotate, boats leave wakes). Camera: wide, snap zoom, low tracking, stunt, payoff. Stills: one per beat on Seedream 5 with every cast member's saved references, likeness first. Name each person by look in the prompt and state exact counts (exactly two people and one dog). Faces three-quarter in medium shots and large in frame, hands out of frame unless the action needs them, nothing at anyone's mouth, the dog head-and-shoulders or sitting with all four paws visible, everyone looking at the threat. Unbranded fictional vehicles, one design reused. Check every still at full size (two arms and five fingers per visible hand, four legs on the dog, the threat's exact parts, faces and outfits against the references) and re-make the still, not the clip, when anything is off. Clips: animate each approved still on Seedance 2.5 at 1080p, 4 to 5 seconds, sound effects only (no music, no speech), with clear motion from the first frame. Never animate the deflation itself: cut from the inflated threat to a separate still of the collapsed vinyl puddle, sold by a hiss and flump. The threat only stomps, sways, bounces or coils. Keep the best 1.5 to 4 seconds of each, usually the opening ones. Music: one original instrumental 1980s TV action cue (slap bass, brass stabs, driving drums), about 30 words of prompt. Cut on the beat with the threat's first hit on the first downbeat, effects under the music, music faded out, never a hard cut. Review every take for faces drifting, extra or missing limbs, the threat's parts changing, props appearing or morphing, frozen shots and sliding objects; a shorter clean episode beats a longer flawed one. Never imitate real TV shows, films, characters, theme music or famous vehicles, no celebrity look-alikes, no real brands or logos.

Look: Shot like a 1980s prime-time action TV series, high production value: 35mm film, warm sun-bleached golden grade, soft highlight halation, light film grain, slightly lifted blacks, zoom lenses with snap zooms, heroic low angles, sunny exterior location, practical stunt look. Original characters only. No logos, no brand designs. No on-screen text.

Bring your own product, person or idea. Sensei re-plans the recipe for it and reviews every take.

Run this recipe