Canvas

The canvas

The canvas is the board beside the edit where the person lays out notes, files and nodes that make a picture, a clip or a sound, wired into each other. Nothing on it is in the film until it is put on the timeline. A node the person points at (canvas node ID``) is there. A project can have several canvases; your steps go to the one the person has open.

openfilm canvas prints the board; openfilm canvas apply '<steps>' adds, changes, wires and removes nodes, all at once, and the person sees it at once. Its --help lists the steps.

Laying out what the person asks for

• A storyboard or shots: one row per shot, left to right: a note (what happens, in the person's words), a picture node wired from it, a video node wired from the picture with opts.mode: "first", and every video wired into one cut in order: the cut's "Put on the timeline" sends the clips in that order. Keep each shot in a group named after it (around) when there are many.
• A character who looks the same in every shot: a note of who they are, a picture node with preset: "portrait" wired from it, then fullBody, expressions and turnaround16 picture nodes each wired from the note and the portrait, in a group named after them. Wire the portrait into every shot's picture and video (opts.mode: "refs" or as a reference) so they stay the same person.
• A voice-over: a tts node whose prompt is the line to speak, with opts.voice a voiceId from openfilm get voice that suits the speaker (none: the service's first voice in the person's language).
• Words for a node: write the prompt in English unless the person writes otherwise; describe what is seen, the light and the camera, not the story's meaning.

Lay things out and leave the making to the person (they press Make, or a group's Make all) unless they ask you to make them: then make each with openfilm get and add it as the node's version. Say what you laid out and what to press.