# No default smile

People and places / Expression / Direction rules. Checked 2026-10-13.

Faces that look calm and real instead of generated and forced.

- Use when: Ads, stock-like scenes, any group of people.
- Phrase: faces calm and attentive, cheer comes from the light, the props and the colour, not from smiles
- Page: https://directorchair.ai/expression/no-default-smile
- JSON: https://directorchair.ai/api/expression/no-default-smile.json

## Watch out

- When joy is the point, describe it physically: one mouth corner higher, the lower lids pushing up, teeth of uneven length in a natural off-white. (measured; Director Chair field notes on video prompting (client feedback, Aug 2026))

## Prompts

### Nano Banana Pro

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. Faces calm and attentive, cheer comes from the light, the props and the colour, not from smiles.
```

### Nano Banana 2

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. Faces calm and attentive, cheer comes from the light, the props and the colour, not from smiles.
```

### GPT Image 2.5

```
A photograph of [your subject] in [your setting].
People and framing: faces calm and attentive, cheer comes from the light, the props and the colour, not from smiles
Exclusions: no extra text, no watermark, no logo.
```

### Seedream 5

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. Faces calm and attentive, cheer comes from the light, the props and the colour, not from smiles.
```

### Seedance 2.5

```
Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].
Shot 1 (0:00 to 0:05): faces calm and attentive, cheer comes from the light, the props and the colour, not from smiles
```

### Seedance 2.0

```
Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].
Shot 1: faces calm and attentive, cheer comes from the light, the props and the colour, not from smiles
```

### Kling 3.0

```
[your subject]. Faces calm and attentive, cheer comes from the light, the props and the colour, not from smiles. The scene is [your setting].
```

### Veo 3.1

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. Faces calm and attentive, cheer comes from the light, the props and the colour, not from smiles. Framing and subject stay as in the start image.
```

## Goes well with

- Emotion as behaviour: https://directorchair.ai/expression/emotion-as-behaviour
- Laughter: https://directorchair.ai/expression/laughter

## Source

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.