Sep 17, 2026 · Round 2

Elite 8 Duals 2026
Reel transition concepts

Eight ways to move a photograph, now in two cuts. Every concept still runs mono first, color second — the photo arrives drained, something happens, the color lands. What changed in round 2: a half-second of tape damage now sits between every photo in set B, the frame tearing apart and the next athlete assembling out of the debris. Press Check holds on the finished picture for well over a second instead of cutting the moment it registers. Set B is re-cut from the new Plambeck library on one rule — every frame has to show the Compound design on the teamwear, singlet or warm-up, with the graphic, the branding and the color all readable. And everything is graded for vibrance now, so the sublimation comes up hard.

8 concepts × 2 cuts1080 × 1920 · 11–17 secLockup + URL on every frameSilent — ready for a track
01YOUR BRIEF Glitch Bloom

Glitch Bloom

Exactly what you described. The frame opens drained and grainy, takes three glitch hits — channel split, torn slices, teal data blocks — and random squares start flipping to color until the whole picture lands.

Hardest edge · best for a fast track Download 1080 × 1920
02 Scan Sweep

Scan Sweep

A hot teal bar crosses the frame and leaves color behind it — the brand color is literally what does the developing. Direction alternates shot to shot so the cuts stay awake. The quietest of the eight.

Cleanest · brand color does the work Download 1080 × 1920
03FIXED Press Check

Press Check

The photo prints itself: black dot screen, then cyan, magenta and yellow slam down out of register and drag in. Round 2 gets the whole print done in the first two-thirds, so the finished picture holds clean for over a second before the cut.

Most on-brand story · print and sublimation Download 1080 × 1920
04 Resolve

Resolve

Starts as coarse blocks and sharpens in seven steps, color arriving block by block as the picture comes into focus. Data turning into a person. A live percentage counter runs in the top rail while it lands.

Reads as tech · pairs with rankings content Download 1080 × 1920
05PICK FOR FEED Tile Shutter

Tile Shutter

A six-by-ten grid flips across a diagonal wave, and every tile flashes teal in the instant it turns. The grid is the crown-C tile repeated across the frame. The most rhythmic of the set — this is the one that cuts to a beat.

Most rhythmic · built to cut to music Download 1080 × 1920
06 Type Window

Type Window

Color only exists inside the word — BUILT. / DIFFERENT. / ELITE 8 / COMPOUND / 2026 in Eurostile with a teal keyline, in a darkened mono frame. Then the letters swell past the edge and take the whole picture to color with them.

Carries the line · most designed Download 1080 × 1920
07 Seam

Seam

A teal seam drags across the frame pulling color behind it, wobbling and throwing a channel split twice on the way. Simplest to read at a glance and the easiest to restyle into a stitch, a mat line, or a sublimation edge.

Simplest read · most adaptable Download 1080 × 1920
08 Duotone Pulse

Duotone Pulse

Mono to full brand-teal duotone to full color, over a slow push-in with a light leak sweeping through and a pulse on the beat. No glitch, no grid — the one that holds up on a big screen and behind a voiceover.

Slowest · hero and brand film Download 1080 × 1920

Round 2 — what changed, and what I need from you

These are generated, not hand-animated: the photo set, the order, the shot length, the transition and the end card are all parameters. Changing any of them is a re-render, not a rebuild.

  1. The glitch cut (set B). Half a second between every photo — the outgoing frame tears into slices and channel splits, the cut lands on a teal blowout, and the next athlete assembles out of the debris in whatever state that concept starts in. It also opens the reel out of black and tears into the end card. It sits underneath each concept rather than replacing it, so the scan line and the tile shutter still do their own thing once the frame settles.
  2. Press Check now breathes. The whole print — K plate, CMY slamming in off-register, pulling into register, dot screen dissolving — happens in the first two-thirds. The last third is the clean photograph with nothing on it, a little over a second before the cut. Fixed in both sets.
  3. The new library is in, and re-picked to your note. The first cut leaned on portraits — good light, no product. Set B is now five frames that each sell a garment: the Diamond Fish singlet back with the crown-C, the diamond and the fish sublimated across it; JT Smith's Valiant Prep front with the crown-C on the chest; the DIAMOND FISH warm-up top, because it does not have to be a singlet; the Tri-Force Elite back in gold on black; and two Elite 8 Duals hoodies carrying the volt mark. Four different colorways, three different garments.
  4. Everything is graded. A true vibrance pass, not a flat saturation push — the lift tapers off where a pixel is already saturated, so the sublimated cyan, pink, volt and gold come up hard and skin stays where the photographer put it. It runs on both sets, so the mono half of every concept is punchier too. The strength is one number in the engine if you want it further up or pulled back.
  5. Set A is still there on the switch above, on the original Janicky frames with hard cuts, so you can see what the transition is actually doing to each concept.
  6. Still silent. 05 and 01 are cut for a beat; give me the track and I will retime the shot length so the flips and the glitch cuts land on the downbeat.
  7. What I need: pick one or two to develop, say whether the glitch cut stays on all of them or only some, name any photo swaps, and tell me if you want a copy line running under the action or just the lockup as it is.
  8. Masters are the download buttons on every card — 1080 × 1920 H.264, straight to Instagram or TikTok. Same files in cmpsw-photo-reels/out/.