The shot's camera

Each shot records where the camera was and how it was aimed when you made it, and playback uses that same view.

The shot’s card

A shot’s card opens in the Camera window as soon as you make it. Select a shot’s thumbnail in the film band to open its card again. The heading shows its number and length (e.g., Shot 2 of 5 · 1s), with Saves Automatically on the right.

• Move: Sets how the camera moves during the shot. Still keeps the shot still. Wiggle sways it side to side. Spin turns it 360° (the shot’s length limits how far it turns). Path moves the camera along a path you draw (below). Before the first shot, the Camera row sets the first move. Later shots take the move of the shot before.
• Shot Length: Sets how long the shot shows. The chip reads Shot Length: 1s. Tapping steps through the lengths: ½s, 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, 6s, 8s. A path set to Slow, Normal, or Fast sets its own exact length (e.g., Shot Length: 6.7s); the next tap steps up to the nearest length above it. If there is music with a set tempo , lengths snap to beat counts: 1, 2, 4, 8 (e.g., Shot Length: 2 beats).
• Doing: Lists every fig that moves in the shot. Loops play in every shot; selecting such a fig only shows [Name] moves in every shot: its moves loop. Select a fig with a tap move to play it for the length of the shot. The view updates right away. Later shots keep these picks. Selecting a fig with a topple shows how long it takes to fall (Fall time is about 1.2 s). A 1s Shot Length grows to fit the fall (Shot Length made longer to match the fall.). Doors and windows have their own row.
• Doors & windows: Lists doors and windows that open (e.g., Door 1, Window 2). Tapping steps through Closed, Open, Opening, and Closing. Closed and Open stay still. Opening and Closing move during the shot. The view updates right away. Fixed windows (Arched, Round, Cross, Stained glass, Arrow slit, Diamond lattice, Window wall) and the Doorway are left out.
• + Sound and + Story: See Sound in a clip and Words in a clip .
• Save stage, in the Camera title row, replaces the shot’s stage and camera with what the view shows now. Everything else about the shot is kept: length, camera move, path, door and window states, sound, and words. With a shot in the middle ringed, + New shot adds the new shot right after it and carries on from there. Duplicate adds a copy right after it. Delete changes to Really delete?; a second tap removes the shot.

The scene’s Undo undoes changes to Move, path, Shot Length, Then, Talking, Doors & windows, Doing, Save stage, Duplicate, and Delete. Redo puts them back. Sound and words can’t be undone.

Path: a camera move you draw

Select Path on a shot’s Move row. The screen changes: the map fills it, the 3D view moves to the corner, and the Camera window shows the Camera path panel. A bar across its top holds Camera path, Cancel, and Done (only Cancel until the settings show). The bar stays put; on a short screen, the rest of the panel scrolls under it. The map can’t turn while you make the path. You can only draw the path, pick what the camera watches, and pan. The map’s Layers button stays above the panel.

1. Step 1 of 2: Drag on the map to draw the camera’s path (Drag on the map where the camera moves.).
2. Step 2 of 2: Tap what the camera watches: a fig (the camera follows it), a wall, a post, a door, or a spot on the ground. Tapping something up high (ceilings, roofs, floors, windows) uses the spot on the ground below it. Redraw the path throws out the path and starts step 1 again.

The settings appear, and the corner view plays the camera move on a loop. Changes update the preview right away. From the top: Redraw the path, Focusing on, a card each for Height (seafoam), Aim (lavender), and Zoom (apricot), and a plain card at the foot with Speed, Tracking, and In the way.

• Redraw the path, with Drag on the map where the camera moves. beside it, starts step 1 again and keeps the other settings. A second Redraw the path sits at the top right of the map.
• Focusing on: Shows a numbered label for each thing the camera watches (1 Plant, 2 Fern, or a spot). + Another waits for a map tap to add one, showing Tap the next thing the camera watches: a fig, or a spot on the ground. ‹ Back cancels adding one. Remove last removes the last one added. With more than one, the camera pans from one to the next.
• Height: A two-handle slider for the camera’s Start (lavender) and End (coral) height, over a green band labeled the fig that shows how tall the target is (a usual fig’s height for a spot on the ground). The ruler reads on the ground, its eyes, and high above; the read-out also names low and above it (e.g., on the ground → above it). On the ground is the lowest safe camera, just over the land, and it rises gently over a hill between the path’s points. The other heights follow the watched fig’s size.
• Aim: A two-handle slider for how high the camera aims. The ruler reads its feet, its middle, its top, and above it; the read-out words are its feet, low on it, its middle, its top, and above it, tilted up. Going above the green band tilts the camera up.
• Zoom: A two-handle slider for how close the picture is at the start and the end: wide, normal, close, and very close (0.5×, 1×, 2×, 4×). The read-out shows both ends (e.g., 0.5× → 2×). Only the picture’s width changes; the camera stays where Height and Aim put it.
• Speed: Whole shot stretches the path over the shot’s length. Slow, Normal, and Fast show their lengths (e.g., Slow 6.7s), which replace the shot’s length. Changing the length with the Shot Length chip keeps the speed: a shorter length cuts the path short; a longer length leaves the camera at the path’s end.
• Tracking (only when the camera watches a fig): Path (the default) or Target fig. Path follows the fig’s route, wander, Drive, or Glide at its middle and height, and stays steady through its bounces, floats, and spins (The camera goes where the fig goes, and stays steady through its bounces, floats and spins.). It rises smoothly when the fig walks onto raised land. Target fig moves with every bounce, float, and spin (The camera moves with every bounce, float and spin of the fig.). Paths made before this setting play as Path.
• In the way: Hide or Keep. Hide hides what blocks the view. Keep hides nothing. Spots where the path hits something show red on the map. The line under the row shows only when something is hidden or red. With Hide, it reads Walls, roofs and figs between the camera and what it watches are hidden while it moves. With Keep, it reads Red on the map: the path runs through a wall or a fig there. Hide works in the preview, playback, and exported files. It never hides a fig standing on a spot the path watches. After a video or GIF export, the stage shows the ringed shot again.

Each slider card shows its name on the left, the read-out on the right, and the ruler’s words under the track. On all three sliders, a handle let go near a mark rests on it. New paths start at its eyes, aimed at its middle, at normal zoom, with Hide. Paths made before these sliders play as they did.

Done keeps the path and brings back the Camera. Cancel throws out the changes. The shot’s card sums up the path (e.g., Path · watches Plant, then Fern · its eyes to high above · Slow); with Target fig, it ends · tracking the fig. Edit path opens the settings again; a length you set is kept unless you change the pace. Playback and exports ease the camera in and out. If you set a path before the first shot, the first + New shot uses it (The first shot follows this path. Frame the shot and press New shot.).

The path shows on the map as a dotted coral line. A square marks the start; rings mark what it watches (numbered when there are two or more). Spots where it hits something show red. A path high enough to clear everything doesn’t show red.

A plain Video in a scene can use Path too. See The Camera .

Blank shots and the Storyboard

Clips made from an idea’s shot list (see Ideas ) start with numbered blank shots holding the drawing. A blank shot shows Not recorded yet. Frame the shot and press New shot. and only has Delete; Save stage stays grey. + New shot while a blank shot is picked fills it with the view, keeping its number and length. If no blank shot is picked, the first one left is filled. Blank shots are left out of playback, recording, and export. When a shot’s number in the storyboard differs from its place in the clip (a shot added in the middle), its card’s heading adds the storyboard’s number (e.g., Shot 3 of 5 · 1s · Storyboard 2).

When the clip has a storyboard, Storyboard shows on the Show: row next to Ghost Shot. When on, the current shot’s drawing lies over the view as a guide for framing. It starts on and is not part of any shot.

Then: a pose change inside a shot

Figs with saved poses have a Then row. This changes the pose during the shot. Select a fig’s name to pick the pose it changes to. More taps step through its other saved poses, then the rest pose, then off. The timing chip sets the wait: after ½ s, after 1 s, or after 2 s. The change plays in playback and in exports. The sound’s When row can play a sound With the pose change.

When a sound plays

A sound plays at the start of the shot unless you change it. To delay it, open the sound’s settings and select When: At the start, After ½ s, After 1 s, or After 2 s. Figs with a topple picked on the shot’s Doing row also show When it hits the ground, to time the sound to the landing. Exports keep the sound’s timing.

Talking

Figs with more than one skin have a Talking row. This needs one skin with a closed mouth (the fig’s own) and one with an open mouth. Select the fig’s name until it reads [Fig] · mouth: [open skin]; more taps step through its skins (skipping the one it already wears), and tapping past the last stops it. The open-mouth skin comes and goes with how loud the shot’s sound (Record new, or From your files, e.g., a Voice Memo) or the narration is. Background music doesn’t count. The mouth opens once per word, so leave small pauses between words; a normal phone recording is loud enough. It moves in Play, in the clip player, in the saved video, and in a Living GIF; stills show it shut. Skins belong to the fig; Talking is set per shot.