# Personified mechanism explainer — rebuild sheet

A 60s rendered cross-section explainer from skinmentorai: the problem is given a face that talks, then five captioned beats show named ingredients acting under the surface — 237,778 views, 2,866 likes.

**Why it works**

The first beat turns the problem into a character — the fibrous bands are modelled into a smiling figure curled inside the cavity, saying in first person that it will not leave — so the viewer meets an occupant, not a claim. Everything after it is the same square-on cross-section with one line of caption swapped per beat, so each ingredient reads as an attack on something they have already watched living down there.

**The beats**

| Time | What happens | On-screen text |
|---|---|---|
| 4.84s | Square-on 3D cross-section, deep V-shaped cavity centre frame; the pale fibrous bands tethering it are modelled into a human-like figure with a face, arms folded, smiling out at the lens. Black background above the surface. | **ACNE SCARS?** (white all-caps, top) / *I stay unless treated beneath the surface.* |
| 14.51s | Same vantage, tighter, no character: a shallower wider depression, a dense mat of pale strands running down beneath it, a thin glossy film of liquid on the surface. | *Use at Night.* |
| 24.18s | Same vantage, tighter again: the channel packed with layered golden-yellow keratin, dermis either side lit warm from inside, dark granular clusters visible. | *Azelaic Acid loosens keratin buildup.* |
| 33.86s | Same vantage: bright green gel coating the whole U-shaped cavity and pooling at its base, pink collagen fibre and blue-marked cells around it. | *Centella activates fibroblasts.* |
| 43.53s | Same vantage: amber droplets falling from the black space above, amber liquid pooled in the depression and running down through it, thick white collagen strands crossing frame. | *Protects new collagen from oxidative stress.* |
| 53.2s | Scale change to a cell-level macro: a paved surface of plump skin cells, cells and water droplets lifting off into the black. | *Use at Night.* |

A small "SkinMentor AI" watermark badge sits top-left in every frame.

What the frames do not show, and I have not invented: whether the camera moves *inside* a beat (the six stills only prove the vantage is the same and the scale changes between them); whether the character comes back after the opening beat; which ingredient the 14.51s "Use at Night." card belongs to — the post caption names retinol, niacinamide, azelaic acid, Centella asiatica, vitamin C and glycolic acid, but that frame names none of them, and neither does the 43.53s frame. There is no spoken audio evidence here, only the burned-in subtitles.

**What carries the value**

The problem rendered as a living occupant beneath the surface — a face built from the scar's own tissue that speaks in first person and refuses to leave. Not the ingredient list; the ingredient captions only pay off the character.

**Shoot it**

You do not shoot this one — there is no room, no talent and no product in frame anywhere in the runtime. The build is a 3D cross-section render plus burned-in subtitles. Two rules carry over regardless of tool: one square-on vantage on the cut face reused for every beat, changing only the scale, with a flat black field above the surface so the subtitle always sits on tissue; and one caption per beat, same position, replaced on every cut — nothing ever pinned.

**Or generate it**

The hook beat — the personified problem — is the one to spend generations on.

```
vertical 9:16 photoreal 3D medical cross-section render of {SUBJECT}, cut square-on so
the outer surface runs straight across the upper third and the layers beneath fill the
rest of the frame, a deep V-shaped depression in the exact centre, the pale fibrous
strands that tether that depression modelled into a human-like figure with a face —
curled inside the cavity, arms folded, looking straight out at the lens — surrounding
tissue in pink and red with vessels and pale yellow lobules along the bottom edge, flat
black background above the surface, soft clinical toplight, shallow depth on the cavity,
clean anatomical render, no {PRODUCT} anywhere in this beat, no on-screen text
```

*Motion:* camera holds the same square-on vantage with only a very slow push toward the cavity — nothing in the tissue moves except the figure's slight breathing settle, and the vantage is reused for every following beat with only the scale changing.

*Text overlay:* beat 1 — `{PROBLEM}?` in white all-caps top centre, plus a white centre subtitle in the problem's own first person: `I {stay / come back / spread} unless {condition}.` · beats 2–6 — one white centre subtitle per beat, replaced on every cut, either `{INGREDIENT} {verb}s {mechanism}.` or a bare instruction card `{Use at Night.}` repeated as the closer.

**Reference:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DcAMQfYiMlp/
