reality-restaged README

The project's README from github.com/traveler0621/reality-restaged. As one markdown file: README.md.

Reality Restaged

Documentary memory. Surreal stage.

A Codex skill for transforming documentary, travel, street, and human-centered photography into restrained surreal cinematic tableaux.

The goal is not to simply apply an AI style to a photograph.

Reality Restaged preserves the people, gestures, cultural details, relationships, and documentary memory of the original photograph — then rebuilds the world around them.

Real people. Real gestures. Real cultural memory. An impossible world.

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What it does

Reality Restaged analyzes a source photograph before transforming it.

It looks for:

It then develops a restrained surreal composition using principles such as:

The philosophy is simple:

Reality first. Surrealism second.

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Visual Direction

Reality Restaged favors:

It avoids:

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How to use

Give Codex a documentary, travel, street, or human-centered photograph and ask it to use the reality-restaged skill.

For example:

Use reality-restaged to reinterpret this travel photograph as a restrained surreal cinematic tableau.

Or simply:

Use reality-restaged on this image.

For concept exploration:

Use reality-restaged and give me three different surreal directions before generating anything.

For an existing composition:

Use reality-restaged. Treat this image as the master composition and only modify the element I specify.

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Installation

Clone this repository into your Codex skills directory:

git clone https://github.com/traveler0621/reality-restaged.git ~/.codex/skills/reality-restaged

Then restart or reopen your Codex environment if necessary.

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Core Principle

The skill follows one central rule:

One impossible thing.

Instead of filling an image with surreal objects, it looks for one strong intervention capable of changing the meaning of the photograph.

That intervention might involve:

Scale. Space. Shadow. Repetition. Gravity. Reflection. Material. Absence.

The result should feel less like an AI illustration and more like:

a real photograph of a world that could never exist.

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Master Lock Mode

When an image has already reached a successful composition, Reality Restaged treats it as a master.

If the instruction is:

Only change the fish tail.

It should only change the fish tail.

If the instruction is:

Keep everything else exactly the same.

Composition, lighting, scale, color, subject placement, and approved visual elements should remain locked.

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About

Reality Restaged began as a personal visual workflow for reinterpreting documentary photographs collected while traveling.

Rather than replacing documentary photography, the skill treats the original photograph as the memory from which a second, impossible reality can be constructed.

Documentary memory. Surreal stage.

Examples

Selected works created with Reality Restaged.

Reality Restaged — Selected Work

Reality Restaged – Selected Work

reality-restaged (traveler0621/reality-restaged)

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292 ·GitHub
Reality-restaged
这是什么？Reality Restaged 是一个 Codex 技能，把纪实、旅行、街头和以人物为中心的摄影转换成克制的超现实电影感画面，保留真实的人物和姿态，同时在周围重建一个不可能存在的世界。
这是独立应用，还是在 Codex 里使用的技能？它是一个 Codex 技能：一个指令文件夹，克隆到你的 Codex 技能目录后，让 Codex 对某张图片使用它即可调用——没有单独的应用或界面。
怎么安装和使用它？把仓库克隆到 ~/.codex/skills/reality-restaged，重启你的 Codex 环境，然后给 Codex 一张照片，让它对这张照片“使用 reality-restaged 技能”。
除了 Codex 本身还需要别的吗？你只需要一个可用且支持技能的 Codex CLI/环境，以及一张输入照片；没有提到需要额外的 API 密钥或软件包。
使用时需要注意什么？它在设计上就避免俗套的 AI 奇幻套路、塑料感皮肤、过度锐化、重复的面部和失真的人体结构，但由于依赖 Codex 的图像生成，它也会继承该模型的质量局限——无法保证结果完美到像素级。
在能运行 Codex 的任何操作系统上都能用吗？可以——它只是一个克隆下来的技能文件夹，所以 Codex CLI 能跑的地方（Linux、macOS、Windows）都能用。
“Master Lock Mode”是什么？它是为构图已经到位的情况准备的模式：你告诉 Codex 只改动某个特定元素（例如“只改鱼尾巴”），其余一切——构图、光线、颜色、主体位置——都保持锁定。
这些变换背后的核心创作规则是什么？这个技能遵循“一件不可能之事”：不是堆砌超现实物体，而是找到一个强有力的单一干预（尺度、阴影、重复、重力、反射、材质或缺失），借此改变照片的含义。
它怎么决定改动照片里的什么？它会先分析原图，找出视觉主角、主体之间的关系、有文化含义的细节、偶然的纪实瞬间和最强的视觉矛盾，然后围绕这些构建克制的超现实构图。
作者为什么要做这个？它源于作者重新诠释旅途中收集的纪实照片的个人工作流：把原图当作记忆，从中构建出第二个不可能的现实。
What are similar projects?photo-abstract-editorial, travel-memory-sticker-card, guizang-yingzao-skill, gc-minimal-zine-poster, kid-papercraft, handraw-style, muyang-illustration-skills, xxg-portrait-rebuild-light
Which topics is it in?photography, creative-tools, stable-diffusion, prompt, image-editing, image, workflow, image-generation, prompt-engineering, skill, generative-ai, codex
Creator
traveler0621
Size
15.7 MB
Stars
292
Updated
CommitAug 12
Age
2mo
Commits · 90 Days