In total damage the rupture occurs on a moving surface along which strong discontinuties of displacement gradient are localized. A damage modelisation is proposed based on a continuous transition from undamaged to damaged material. In this new framework, the evolution of damage is associated with a moving layer of finite length lc. With this description, initiation and propagation of damage can be unified in the same constitutive law. Using a normality law based on the driving force associated with the motion of the layer, the solution of the rate boundary value problem of propagation and displacement satisfies a variational inequality. Characterization of uniqueness is then given.