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Stories · Creative Playbook

Project VIKTOR — Showrunner Guide for Oleksii

This is your production bible. Everything you need to turn the memoir into a visual universe — chapter by chapter, style by style.

The Mission

Viktor Vladimirovich Ponomarenko wrote his memoirs so memory would live. Your mission as showrunner is to give that memory a new life in a modern visual format — using AI as your brush and the memoir as your script.

You don't need to read all 36 chapters at once. You have a clear toolkit. Use it one episode at a time.

Family History  ×  AI Artistry  ×  Your Vision  =  Unique Content
(Memoirs:         (36 ready        (Choose from
 7 parts,          prompts)         4 styles)
 36 episodes)

Character Bible — Visual Consistency

For the series to feel like a single universe, the main characters must be recognisable across every style and every era.

Viktor Ponomarenko

  • Age range across memoir: 0 (implied) → 39 (epilogue)
  • Physical: Dark hair, lean build, serious expression with underlying warmth and occasional dry humour
  • Key rule: Use real family photographs from Google Drive as --ref inputs in your AI tool to lock his face. Without a reference, every illustration will show a different man.
  • Viktor at ages: child (Parts 1–2), teenager (Part 3), young man 17–23 (Parts 4–5), adult 25–39 (Parts 6–7)

Tamara

  • Her visual anchor: Light gray eyes. This is non-negotiable. Every illustration featuring Tamara must make her gray eyes the defining feature.
  • Age range: teenager (Part 3, first meeting) → woman in her 30s (Part 6, reunion)
  • Physical: Dark hair, elegant bearing, understated but striking

Style Matrix — One Hero, Different Emotions

Style is your primary creative tool. Choose based on what the scene needs emotionally.

Style Best For Avoid When
Anime Action, youth, aviation, flight, energy (Parts 4–5) Grief, intimate domestic scenes
Photorealism Key historical moments, documentary weight, the Institute, official settings Purely emotional/interior scenes
Charcoal Drawing Wartime, occupation, loss, shadows, pain (Parts 1–2) Joyful summer scenes, comedy
Oil Painting Romance, reunion, philosophical moments, the Epilogue (Parts 3, 6–7) High-energy action sequences

The rule: the style carries the emotion before the viewer reads a single word. If you're unsure which style, ask: what is this scene primarily about — action, history, pain, or love?

Epoch Palette Guide

The colour palette shifts across the memoir's timeline to reinforce the emotional arc.

Part Era Palette Mood
Part 1 — Early Years 1936–1944 Muted khaki, ash gray, amber flame Fear, survival, loss
Part 2 — Postwar 1944–1950 Warm earth brown, faded white, pale gold Poverty with warmth
Part 3 — High School 1950–1953 Spring green, soft gold, muted lavender Awakening, first love
Part 4 — Institute 1953–1958 Institutional gray-blue, warm accent Energy, ambition, humour
Part 5 — Novosibirsk 1958–1961 Wide sky blues, white, Siberian clarity Adventure, freedom
Part 6 — Severodonetsk 1961–1975 Autumn gold, hotel grays, dusk amber Maturity, reunion, loss
Part 7 — Epilogue 1975 Near-monochrome, single warm light circle Grief, silence

The 36 Episodes — Illustration Prompts by Season

Season 1 — Dedication & Early Years (Chapters 1–4)

Privolye village, 1936–1943 · Wartime childhood, occupation, evacuation

Episode 1-A · The Dedication Page Frontispiece

Chapter: 01 — Dedication | Style: Oil Painting | Ratio: 4:3

Scene: An elderly man's hands resting on a handwritten manuscript, beside a black-and-white photograph of himself as a boy.

Prompt:

Close-up, highly detailed oil painting style, warm amber candlelight illuminating aged male hands resting gently on handwritten yellowed manuscript pages covered in Cyrillic script. Beside the papers stands a small black-and-white photograph of a smiling boy aged 5–6, circa 1940s Soviet Ukraine, in a simple wooden frame. A fountain pen lies uncapped nearby. Background is softly blurred dark oak table. Mood: tender nostalgia, memorial, deeply personal. Aspect ratio 4:3, portrait-book illustration quality.

Episode 1-B · Bombing of the Railway Station

Chapter: 01 — Early Life | Style: Charcoal Drawing | Ratio: 16:9

Scene: German aircraft bombing Bantyshevo railway station near Privolye, 1941. Children watching from tall summer grass.

Prompt:

Wide-format cinematic illustration, Soviet Ukrainian countryside summer 1941. In the foreground: three small children, aged 5–8, lying flat in tall yellowed grass, one peeking up with wide, frightened eyes. In the middle distance: a small provincial railway station with smoke and orange explosion bursts rising from it. German Heinkel bombers silhouetted in pale cloudy sky above. Charcoal and watercolor mixed-media style with muted yellows and grays. No gore — only distant fire and smoke convey the horror. Aspect ratio 16:9.

Episode 1-C · The Milk Can Duty

Chapter: 03 — Life Under Occupation | Style: Oil Painting | Ratio: 3:4

Scene: A 6-year-old Viktor carrying a small can of milk through the village under German occupation, 1942.

Prompt:

Warm-toned illustration in the style of a Soviet-era children's book but with emotional depth. A small boy aged 6–7, dark hair, wearing simple patched clothes and sandals, carries a small metal milk can with both hands along a dusty village road in early morning light. In the background, slightly out of focus: a German military truck parked by a wooden fence. Sunlight filters through leafy trees creating dappled patterns on the dirt road. The boy's expression is focused and serious. Painterly style with visible brushstrokes, warm ochre and soft green palette. Aspect ratio 3:4.

Episode 1-D · Mother's Walk in the Winter

Chapter: 03 — Life Under Occupation | Style: Charcoal Drawing | Ratio: 16:9

Scene: Viktor's mother walking 80 km alone through winter steppe to find her husband at the prisoner-of-war camp in Lozovaya, 1943.

Prompt:

Epic landscape illustration, Ukrainian steppe in deep winter, January 1943. A lone woman in her 30s, dark coat and headscarf, walks along a snowed-over country road stretching to the horizon. She carries a small cloth bundle. The sky is steel gray with low clouds. Bare birch trees line the distant road. No other human in sight — just her solitary silhouette against an immense, cold, silent world. Mood: determined, heartbreaking, heroic. Oil painting realism, limited palette of white, gray-blue, and earth brown. Aspect ratio 16:9.

Episode 1-E · The Village Burns

Chapter: 03 — Life Under Occupation | Style: Charcoal Drawing | Ratio: 16:9

Scene: Viktor and his grandfather watching Privolye burn as German soldiers retreat, summer 1943.

Prompt:

Deeply emotional charcoal-and-wash illustration. Foreground: an old man and a small boy (7 years old) kneeling at the edge of an earthen ravine, the boy's head pressed against the grandfather's chest, both looking toward the horizon. Background: a Ukrainian village engulfed in fire, thick black-and-orange smoke rising into a summer sky. Rendered mostly in blacks, dark grays, and deep amber flames, with the two figures in warm sepia tones. Cinematic, horizontal composition.

Season 2 — Postwar Years (Chapters 5–7)

Privolye, 1944–1950 · Poverty, family fractures, village life, animals

Episode 2-A · Postwar Hunger

Chapter: 05 — Sad Times | Style: Charcoal Drawing | Ratio: 4:3

Scene: The family at a nearly empty table in their rebuilt hut, 1944–1946.

Prompt:

Intimate interior scene, Soviet Ukrainian village hut, circa 1945. A young woman in her 30s with tired but kind eyes sits at a rough wooden table across from a thin boy aged 9–10. On the table: a single clay bowl with thin soup, two wooden spoons, a small chunk of dark bread, and one tallow candle. The walls are whitewashed mud-plaster, a small religious icon in the corner. Dim, warm candlelight. Style: realistic pencil drawing with light watercolor wash. Mood: quiet dignity in hardship.

Episode 2-B · Summer Animals and Freedom

Chapter: 07 — Summer and Pets | Style: Oil Painting | Ratio: 16:9

Scene: Young Viktor with his animal companions in the postwar summers.

Prompt:

Bright, joyful illustration in a folk-art inspired style. A barefoot Ukrainian boy aged 10–12, wearing simple shorts and a white shirt, runs laughing through a sunny village yard. Chickens scatter in all directions. A medium-sized mongrel dog bounds alongside him. Behind a wooden fence: cherry and apple trees in bloom. An old grandmother sits on a bench watching warmly. Saturated colours — deep green grass, white blossoms, warm golden light. Mood: pure childhood freedom. Style: slightly stylized, resembling Soviet children's book illustration circa 1960s.

Season 3 — High School (Chapters 8–12)

Konstantinovka & Slavyansk, 1950–1953 · Adolescence, friendships, first love

Illustrations for this season: focus on the awakening of intellectual and romantic life. Tamara appears here for the first time — establish her gray eyes as the visual anchor immediately.

(Prompts for Episodes 3-A through 3-E to be developed in consultation with Oleksii — see Task 39)

Season 4 — Kharkiv Aviation Institute (Chapters 13–19)

KhAI, Pomerki, 1953–1958 · Student life, engineering, love, Tbilisi, Kiev, wedding

Episode 4-A · The Entrance Exam Essay

Chapter: 14 — Kharkiv. Pomerki | Style: Photorealism | Ratio: 16:9

Scene: Viktor writing his entrance exam essay at KhAI, August 5, 1953.

Prompt:

Cinematic illustration, large Soviet institutional examination hall, August 1953. Rows of small wooden tables each seating two students stretch back into a vast room. Young people aged 17–19, mostly in plain summer clothes, bent over their exam papers writing. In the foreground: a focused young dark-haired man, 17, writing with a fountain pen on stamped white paper. The exam stamp reads "Russian Language Exam." High windows let in summer light. Overhead: bare fluorescent tube lights. Atmosphere: concentrated tension, youth, and aspiration. Style: detailed pencil sketch with light sepia wash.

Episode 4-B · The Student "Banker" Alim

Chapter: 14 — Kharkiv. Pomerki | Style: Photorealism | Ratio: 4:3

Scene: Students handing over stipend money to their elected treasurer Alim Tabatsky.

Prompt:

Warm, slightly comedic illustration, Soviet student dormitory room, circa 1954. Seven young men aged 18–20, dressed casually, crowd around one serious-looking Caucasian-featured young man (Alim) who stands with both hands outstretched, palms up, receiving small stacks of Soviet ruble banknotes from each. His expression is impressively solemn and official while everyone else grins or laughs. Simple dormitory background: bunk beds, textbooks, coats on hooks. Style: warm naturalistic illustration reminiscent of Soviet satirical magazine Krokodil, gentle humour.

Episode 4-C · The Foam Sugar Prank

Chapter: 14 — Kharkiv. Pomerki | Style: Anime | Ratio: 4:3

Scene: A student pours boiling water over foam-plastic cubes disguised as sugar while classmates hide their laughter.

Prompt:

Humorous narrative illustration, Soviet student dormitory, circa 1954. A young man aged 19–20 with a baffled expression stares at a glass mug of tea into which he just dropped three white cubes that are now floating on the surface (foam plastic, not sugar). He prods them with a spoon. In the background: four other students crammed in the doorway and behind bunks, hands over mouths, shaking with silent laughter. Style: playful line-art cartoon with watercolor fills, warm dormitory atmosphere.

Season 5 — Novosibirsk & Army (Chapters 20–26)

Siberia, 1958–1961 · First job, aeroclub, parachuting, gliders, Army service

Episode 5-A · First Parachute Jump

Chapter: 20 — Aero Club | Style: Anime | Ratio: 3:4

Scene: Viktor descending under an open parachute over Mochishche airfield, Novosibirsk, 1958–1959.

Prompt:

Dramatic vertical illustration, aerial perspective. A young man aged 23, dark hair, in a brown jumpsuit and leather helmet, sits comfortably suspended in a round parachute harness descending through brilliant Siberian morning sky. He looks down at the airfield below where a white canvas cross is laid out on grass. Other smaller parachutes visible at a distance. The canopy above him is white with subtle orange trim. Sunlight is sharp and clear. Mood: euphoric, free, weightless. Style: painterly realism, broad sky, vivid colour contrast.

Episode 5-B · First Glider Flight

Chapter: 20 — Aero Club | Style: Anime | Ratio: 16:9

Scene: Viktor in the front cockpit of a KAI-12 two-seat glider, banking left over Novosibirsk countryside.

Prompt:

Wide aviation illustration, KAI-12 all-metal glider in flight, circa 1959. The glider is in a gentle left bank revealing its wingspan. Front cockpit visible: a young man in flight helmet with hands on stick, expression of concentrated wonder. Below: flat Siberian countryside — green-brown fields, a meandering river, a distant treeline. Sky: brilliant blue with scattered fair-weather cumulus clouds. Light: sharp afternoon Siberian sun. Style: highly detailed technical aviation realism, reminiscent of Soviet aviation poster art. Horizontal composition 16:9.

Season 6 — Severodonetsk (Chapters 27–35)

Severodonetsk, eastern Ukraine, 1961–1975 · Career, family, science, reunion with Tamara

Episode 6-A · The Chance Meeting at the Donbass Hotel

Chapter: 31 — Meeting Tamara Again | Style: Oil Painting | Ratio: 16:9

Scene: Viktor recognises Tamara at the administrator's desk of the newly opened Donbass Hotel in Donetsk.

Prompt:

Atmospheric interior illustration, modern Soviet hotel lobby, circa late 1960s. Across a low reception desk, a woman in her early 30s — elegant, dark-haired, with striking light gray eyes — has just looked up from paperwork and locked eyes with a man standing across the desk. He is tall, dark-haired, wearing a plain suit. Between them: the polished desk surface, a logbook, a small Soviet-era desk lamp. Other hotel guests blur in the background. The composition places the two faces at opposite sides of the frame connected only by their gaze. Style: cinematic realism, limited warm palette, shallow depth of field.

Episode 6-B · The Park Bench Conversation

Chapter: 31 — Meeting Tamara Again | Style: Oil Painting | Ratio: 16:9

Scene: Viktor and Tamara's final, elegiac conversation on a park bench behind the Donbass Hotel, dusk.

Prompt:

Dusk-lit illustration, small park behind a Soviet city hotel, late 1960s. Two adults sit on a park bench facing each other at an angle — a man in his early 30s in a plain suit, and a beautiful woman with arresting gray eyes and dark hair, both looking slightly away from each other. The park is quiet: a few pigeons on a path, chestnut trees with late-autumn leaves. The light is fading golden at the horizon. Body language: intimate but restrained, two people sharing an unspeakable weight. Style: soft painterly realism, melancholy autumn palette of gold, gray, and muted green.

Episode 6-C · The Inventor at His Drawing Table

Chapter: 32–33 — Production Experience & OKBA Science | Style: Photorealism | Ratio: 4:3

Scene: Viktor working late at his engineering drafting table in Severodonetsk, late 1960s.

Prompt:

Detailed portrait illustration, Soviet design bureau, circa 1968. A man in his early 30s, dark hair slightly dishevelled, in a white shirt with sleeves rolled up, bends over a large drafting table covered in precise technical drawings — instrument schematics. He holds a drafting compass in one hand and a pencil in the other. A single drafting lamp illuminates the table. Behind him: a factory window showing the night sky and distant industrial lights. Style: detailed pencil realism with ink, reminiscent of Soviet technical illustration.

Season 7 — Epilogue (Chapter 36)

June 1975 · The devastating telegram

Episode 7-A · The Telegram

Chapter: 36 — Epilogue | Style: Charcoal Drawing | Ratio: 4:3

Scene: Viktor alone in his apartment at night, holding the telegram: "Come urgently, Zhenya died. Mama."

Prompt:

Deeply mournful interior illustration, Soviet apartment, summer evening 1975. A man in his late 30s stands alone in a dim hallway. He holds a small white telegram slip with both hands, looking down at it. His face is not fully visible — only his bowed head and the paper he holds are sharply lit by the hallway overhead light. The apartment door stands slightly open. The background is blurred and empty — no people, no colour, just gray and beige shadows. Style: high-contrast black-and-white with one warm circle of light on the telegram. Mood: devastation, silence, grief too large for words.

Production Workflow — 5 Steps per Episode

1. READ        Read the chapter. Note the single most powerful scene.
               What would a stranger need to see to understand this moment?

2. CHOOSE      Pick style using the Style Matrix.
               What is this scene primarily about — action, history, pain, or love?

3. GENERATE    Use the prompt. Add Viktor's face reference photo.
               Run 3–4 variations. Never publish your first output.

4. REVIEW      Check: Does it match the palette guide for this era?
               Are Viktor's features consistent with other illustrations?
               If Tamara appears — are her eyes gray?

5. PUBLISH     Export at correct aspect ratio.
               Name the file: ep{season}-{letter}-{short-title}.jpg
               Example: ep1-b-railway-bombing.jpg
               Upload to Google Drive → Stories folder → Season N
               The CI pipeline picks it up from there (see Task 40)

Publishing Checklist

Before submitting any illustration:

  • Correct aspect ratio for the scene type (16:9 / 4:3 / 3:4)
  • Viktor's face matches reference photographs (if he appears)
  • Tamara's eyes are visibly gray (if she appears)
  • Palette matches the epoch guide for this part
  • File named correctly: ep{N}-{letter}-{short-title}.jpg
  • No anachronistic details (clothing, objects, signs)
  • Emotional tone matches the charcoal/oil/anime/photo assignment

"Viktor Vladimirovich Ponomarenko's memoirs were written so memory would live. Thanks to your skills, the story of your great-grandfather gets an entirely new life in a modern format."

— Project VIKTOR, Slide 13