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Manual · Chapter 3

Look, cast and locations

Before any shot exists, Nila builds the world it will happen in.

Art direction

Nila asks for one look for everything — characters, sets and props: live-action, anime, painterly, and more. Pick a preset or describe your own. This single choice keeps the whole video consistent, so decide it once and let it carry.

The shotline

Nila breaks your runtime into shots — a shotline. Each shot gets a rough duration and a one-line intent drawn from the beat sheet. Adjust the count and the timings here; this is the skeleton every later step hangs on.

Hovering the shotline chip on the trail pops a film-strip reel of every shot with its seconds.
Once answered, the shotline collapses to a chip on the trail. Hover it and the reel pops up — every shot with its seconds, as the plan stands now (this board grew from 8 shots to 16 along the way). Right-click the chip to change your mind.

Cast: your characters

Tell Nila how many characters there are, then build each one: a name, a description, and a look. Nila generates a turnaround sheet — the character from several angles — which becomes the identity every shot draws on, so the same face shows up in shot 1 and shot 16.

The Casting call row on the trail: a '1 character' chip followed by the finished character Kayal, marked saved.
The Casting call row. The count chip, then one chip per finished character — 'saved' means it's in your Library.
  • Refine — describe what to change and Nila regenerates from the current look.
  • Voice — right-click a finished character chip and choose Edit character to cast a voice for their lines.
  • Library — accepted characters are saved to your Library so you can reuse them in the next project.

Scouting locations

Next Nila scouts environments. Say how many locations the story needs and describe each; she generates a master image per location, in your look. Like characters, these are identities: every shot set in that place is composed from the same master.

The Location scout row on the trail: an '18 locations' chip followed by a chip per scouted environment, each with its master image.
The Location scout row — one chip per environment, each carrying its master image.
Hovering a temple chip pops its master image — Thiruchendur Murugan Temple from above.
Hover any environment chip to see its master image at full size — the same picture every shot in that place is composed from.

Props

Any hero objects — a framed photo, a phone, a letter — get built in the prop shop the same way, one master image each, so they look identical whenever they appear.