# Exhaustion

People and places / Expression / Physical. Checked 2026-10-13.

Nothing left; the body is done.

- Use when: Problem statements, sport, late nights, work pressure.
- Phrase: his eyes close for a second too long, his head nods forward and he pulls it back up, his mouth hangs a little open, he lets out one long empty breath, and his eyes open only halfway
- Page: https://directorchair.ai/expression/exhaustion
- JSON: https://directorchair.ai/api/expression/exhaustion.json

## Watch out

- Never ask for a smile or for an emotion by name; describe the muscles. Asked-for smiles come back generated and forced. (measured; Director Chair field notes on video prompting (client feedback, Aug 2026))
- Put the trigger first (the door slams, she reads the message), then the performance. Without a trigger the reaction has no timing. (practitioner; Dan Kieft and Higgsfield's tested prompts via Director Chair field notes on video prompting)

## Three intensities

- **Subtle:** a heavy blink, the shoulders sag
- **Medium:** his eyes close for a second too long, his head nods forward and he pulls it back up, his mouth hangs a little open, he lets out one long empty breath, and his eyes open only halfway
- **Explosive:** the body slides down the wall to sit on the floor, the head back against it, the eyes closed, the arms limp

## Reference: Exhaustion (Subtle)

> The eyelids drag downward, a long blink stays closed too long, the head drifts down and lifts again slowly, the jaw hangs slack, and one long breath empties out. The eyes reopen only halfway.

Credit: Emotion Direction (seedance-emotion-direction.vercel.app). Source: https://seedance-emotion-media-3.vercel.app/videos/22-exhaustion.mp4
Clip: https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/22-exhaustion.mp4
Poster: https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/22-exhaustion.jpg

## Prompts

### Nano Banana Pro

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. His eyes close for a second too long, his head nods forward and he pulls it back up, his mouth hangs a little open, he lets out one long empty breath, and his eyes open only halfway.
Reference clip (Exhaustion): https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/22-exhaustion.mp4
```

### Nano Banana 2

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. His eyes close for a second too long, his head nods forward and he pulls it back up, his mouth hangs a little open, he lets out one long empty breath, and his eyes open only halfway.
Reference clip (Exhaustion): https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/22-exhaustion.mp4
```

### GPT Image 2.5

```
A photograph of [your subject] in [your setting].
People and framing: his eyes close for a second too long, his head nods forward and he pulls it back up, his mouth hangs a little open, he lets out one long empty breath, and his eyes open only halfway
Exclusions: no extra text, no watermark, no logo.
Reference clip (Exhaustion): https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/22-exhaustion.mp4
```

### Seedream 5

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. His eyes close for a second too long, his head nods forward and he pulls it back up, his mouth hangs a little open, he lets out one long empty breath, and his eyes open only halfway.
Reference clip (Exhaustion): https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/22-exhaustion.mp4
```

### Seedance 2.5

```
Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].
Shot 1 (0:00 to 0:05): His eyes close for a second too long, his head nods forward and he pulls it back up, his mouth hangs a little open, he lets out one long empty breath, and his eyes open only halfway. The eyelids drag downward, a long blink stays closed too long, the head drifts down and lifts again slowly, the jaw hangs slack, and one long breath empties out. The eyes reopen only halfway.
Reference clip (Exhaustion): https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/22-exhaustion.mp4
```

### Seedance 2.0

```
Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].
Shot 1: His eyes close for a second too long, his head nods forward and he pulls it back up, his mouth hangs a little open, he lets out one long empty breath, and his eyes open only halfway. The eyelids drag downward, a long blink stays closed too long, the head drifts down and lifts again slowly, the jaw hangs slack, and one long breath empties out. The eyes reopen only halfway.
Reference clip (Exhaustion): https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/22-exhaustion.mp4
```

### Kling 3.0

```
[your subject]. His eyes close for a second too long, his head nods forward and he pulls it back up, his mouth hangs a little open, he lets out one long empty breath, and his eyes open only halfway. The scene is [your setting].
Reference clip (Exhaustion): https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/22-exhaustion.mp4
```

### Veo 3.1

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. His eyes close for a second too long, his head nods forward and he pulls it back up, his mouth hangs a little open, he lets out one long empty breath, and his eyes open only halfway. Framing and subject stay as in the start image.
Reference clip (Exhaustion): https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/22-exhaustion.mp4
```

## Look further

- https://seedance-emotion-direction.vercel.app/ : a clip of this emotion performed in Seedance 2.5 (link only)

## Goes well with

- Boredom: https://directorchair.ai/expression/boredom
- Relief: https://directorchair.ai/expression/relief

## Source

Families, intensities and emotion names from Emotion Direction (names and structure only, read 13 Oct 2026); the directions are our own words in its grammar: body parts in the order they move, ending on what holds. Rules from Director Chair field notes on video prompting

Text CC BY 4.0, Director Chair (directorchair.ai). Reference clips and their card texts belong to their makers.