Shots

How the shot panel works#

Open a shot from the Storyboard by clicking the card’s image.

1. Left — prompts. “Shot custom references” at the top, the prompt below; at the bottom the Frame, Video and Assistant tabs and the generate button with the model.
2. Narrow column — shot sections. “Assistant and prompts”, “Flow”, “Characters”, “Location”, “Props”, “Frame versions”, “Shooting board”, “Video versions”, “Processing”. The numbers show how much is linked or generated; a section opens in the left column.
3. Top — the header. Shot number and description, format and video model; on the right, the neighboring shots and Back to storyboard.
4. Right — the preview. The Key frame, Video, Shooting board, Animatic, Previz tabs; below the preview, the timeline (for video), characters, location, 3D scene, video frames and settings.

01Key frame#

The key frame is the image the shot’s video starts from. An image model generates it from the frame prompt, characters and location.

Frame prompt#

The Frame tab holds the frame description. Insert characters, locations, props and cameras as mentions: type @ and the model gets their references. +segment splits the prompt into parts; the chip on the right is the selected camera.

Save the prompt with Save; earlier versions are in Prompt history.

Generate the frame#

Click Generate frame at the bottom of the left column, or Regenerate if there is already a frame; the model is under the button. Below the preview: upload your own frame, pick from the library, “Frame from shot 1.1” to insert the last video frame of another shot, download and copy.

Below the preview are the frame generation “Settings”:

• “Add character description” — appends the shot’s character profiles to the prompt;
• “Send current version as reference” — the new frame builds on the current one;
• “Add animatic frame as reference” — the composition from the animatic, as a black-and-white sketch.

Click the frame itself to open it full size; Edit there opens the editor with outlining and adjustments, as in the asset guides.

02Video#

The Video preview tab holds the player and timeline; the Regenerate button with duration, cost and model is at the bottom of the left column.

Video prompt#

The video prompt — on the Video tab at the bottom of the left column — describes movement and action. It is handy to split it into time segments: “0–7 sec”, “8–15 sec” — each with its own text and camera.

The key frame goes into generation as the first reference — the eye icon on its thumbnail above the prompt turns this off.

Next to Regenerate are duration, resolution and the draft toggle: a draft is generated cheaply in 480p to check the movement. Video settings are below the preview: “Send animatic segment”, “Send previz”, “Consider character scale”, “Send shooting board as reference”.

Timeline#

Below the player are the tracks: the shot’s video version, audio, voiceover. Here you can cut clips with Blade at playhead, add tracks with Add track — video, animatic, adjustment, audio — and record voice from the microphone or from text.

Render builds the timeline into a new video version of the shot — with edits and sound.

03Versions#

Every frame and video generation is saved as a version. The “Frame versions” and “Video versions” sections in the narrow column show all variants.

• Double-click a version to make it current; the current one is marked “Current”.
• Star and crossed-out eye — best take and rejected.
• A video is labeled with its model, or “timeline_render” if the version was built on the timeline.

“Processing” holds derived video versions: 2× or 4× upscaling; the source video always stays the “Original”.

04Shooting board, animatic and previz#

The other preview tabs are the shot’s supporting materials:

• “Shooting board” — a sheet of several panels from the shot prompt. Generate it with “Generate shooting board” or cut it from the animatic; for Seedance it can be sent to video as a reference.
• “Animatic” — the animatic segment linked to the shot: rough animation with timing.
• “Previz” — a camera fly-through recorded in the location’s 3D scene or uploaded as a file.

Video from previz#

The previz sets the camera movement and blocking, and the video model paints in the world from the shot’s references. On the “Video” tab, turn on Send previz — the fly-through goes to the model as a reference video. Left: the previz of shot 1.13; right: the Seedance 2.5 video generated from it.

How to build a scene and record a fly-through — see the “3D Scenes” guide.

05Shot assistant#

The Assistant tab above the prompt is the Shot assistant. It knows the script, the scene and the neighboring shots, rewrites the frame and video prompts, changes the shot’s duration, characters and location. It regenerates the frame and video only after you confirm.

06Transition shot#

A transition shot connects two neighboring shots with one movement: the video starts on the last frame of the left shot and ends on the first frame of the right shot. It has no key frame of its own.

On the Storyboard such a shot is a card with a dashed border and an orange icon. Create it from the insert shot window with the “Make transition shot” checkbox, or with the project assistant.

Transition frames#

Instead of “Key frame”, a transition shot has the Transition tab: on the left, the last frame of shot 1.7; on the right, the first frame of shot 1.9.

Transition video#

The video prompt describes how one turns into the other: here Rakhmanin turns around in the middle of the yard and runs toward the building Matveenko is coming out of. Generation works as for a regular shot, but the model gets both end frames.

What’s next#

When the scene’s shots are ready, assemble the episode — see the “Studio and assembly” guide.