Cottagecore Ghibli blends pastoral motifs (cottages, moss, tea, fireflies) with hand-painted anime background sensibilities. The look prioritizes soft cel lines, pastel earth tones, watercolor textures, and organic light. Three hallmark features define the style: watercolor bokeh, warm grain, and painterly parallax (layered depth that gently moves). Use it for relaxing wallpapers, background plates for animation, cozy product visuals, and slow-pan shorts.

• Watercolor bokeh: soft, translucent circles with slightly irregular edges and subtle pigment pooling. Suggest depth-of-field without harsh speculars.
• Warm grain: fine, film-like noise with a warm bias that binds brushwork and reduces banding. Should be subtle, never crunchy.
• Painterly parallax: foreground ferns, midground paths, and distant cottages on separate layers with consistent brush scale and color harmony.

Practical targets:

• Palette: sage, olive, moss, cream, butter yellow, terracotta, misty blue.
• Edges: mostly soft; sharpen only focal edges like window frames or kettle rims.
• Light: dappled, backlit foliage, late-afternoon warmth, light fog for depth.

Base template: “cozy mossy cottage in a wildflower meadow, ghibli-esque background painting, soft cel lines, watercolor texture, dappled sunlight, pastel earth tones, watercolor bokeh, warm film grain, gentle depth, hand-painted foliage, tranquil mood”

Style boosters:

• Texture words: “granulating watercolor, pigment bloom, soft wash, paper tooth”
• Light words: “dappled light through leaves, golden hour haze, soft volumetric rays”
• Mood words: “idyllic, quiet afternoon, slow life, tender, homely”

Negative cues: “plastic sheen, harsh HDR, neon saturation, hard digital edges, heavy sharpening, glossy 3D, text watermark”

Guidelines:

• Prefer “ghibli-esque” or “studio-quality anime background” over specific character names.
• Keep subject count low (1–2 anchors) to preserve serenity and composition.

Models: Use a high-quality general diffusion model with an anime/background or watercolor bias. Enable high-res generation for brush fidelity.

Suggested settings (as a starting point; adapt to your tool):

• Resolution: 896×1344 (vertical) or 1280×768 (landscape); upscale 1.5–2× after
• Steps: 25–35
• CFG/Guidance: 5–7 for soft adherence
• Sampler: a stable, edge-friendly sampler (e.g., DPM++ 2M Karras)
• Strength (img2img): 0.45–0.65 to keep painterly washes
• DoF hint: “shallow depth of field, soft bokeh, aperture f/1.8”
• Optional: apply a watercolor texture or grain module/LoRA at 0.5–0.8 weight

Goal: slow camera pan with hand-painted depth.

Steps:

1. Plan layers: foreground (ferns/flowers), midground (path, fence), background (cottage, trees), sky.
2. Generate each layer separately with consistent palette and brush scale. Prompt each with matching descriptors.
3. Add depth consistency: slightly cooler hues and lower contrast as layers recede.
4. Export as transparent PNGs or mattes. Ensure shadows fall onto the correct layer.
5. In compositing: add subtle Z parallax (foreground 8–12 px/s, midground 4–6, background 1–2) and a gentle tilt/zoom (1–2%).
6. Bokeh pass: a faint overlay of watercolor bokeh on top layers with low opacity (10–20%).
7. Final: unify with warm grain and a mild glow/bloom.

• Color: keep saturation modest; push warm midtones (yellow–orange) and cool shadows (teal–blue). Use split-toning for harmony.
• Light: emulate late-afternoon. Add leaf gobo patterns to create dappled patches.
• Texture: overlay scanned watercolor paper at 8–18% multiply/overlay blend; add fine warm grain at 6–10%.
• Edge control: lightly sharpen focal planes only; leave backgrounds soft to preserve calm.

• Denoise very lightly to avoid killing paper tooth
• Add warm film grain and micro-bloom
• Gentle vignette to guide the eye
• De-band skies with subtle noise or dithering
• Check color cast on whites (keep creamy, not gray)
• Export at 16-bit if grading; deliver sRGB

• Over-sharpened edges: reduce sharpening; add paper texture and soft glow
• Neon colors: cap saturation; use pastel presets; warm midtones
• Bokeh looks plastic: soften edges, reduce opacity, introduce slight hue variance
• Flat depth: separate layers, cool the background, add fog or aerial perspective
• Grain is gritty: lower intensity, move to fine grain, warm-bias the noise

1. Tea nook by a cottage window Prompt: “sunlit cottage kitchen nook, steaming enamel kettle, lace curtains, ghibli-esque background painting, watercolor texture, dappled light, pastel earth tones, watercolor bokeh on window, warm film grain, tranquil” Settings: 1024×1024, steps 30, guidance 6, sampler DPM++ 2M Karras

2. Forest path at golden hour Prompt: “mossy forest path leading to a tiny stone cottage, hand-painted foliage, soft cel lines, golden hour haze, gentle volumetric rays, watercolor bokeh, painterly parallax depth, calm and welcoming” Settings: 1280×768, steps 28, guidance 5.5; generate separate foreground/midground/background for parallax

3. Rainy garden through glass Prompt: “cottage window with rain droplets, blurred flower garden beyond, pastel greens and creams, granulating watercolor, soft refractions, warm grain, serene mood” Settings: 896×1344, steps 32, guidance 6.5; add bokeh overlay at 15% opacity in post

Negative for all: “hard HDR, plastic sheen, harsh contrast, text watermark, over-sharpened lines”

• Cozy wallpapers and phone backgrounds
• Background plates for slice-of-life animations
• Product context images for homeware, tea, and stationery
• YouTube/lofi loops with slow parallax pans
• Illustrated blog and editorial visuals