Setting up models, references, and art direction

Opening Create View

Hover any shot on the Board or Concept canvas. Click Create or Edit on the image to open Create View. Create appears when the shot has no image yet; Edit appears when it already has one. Do not double-click the shot.

Art direction (project look)

Click Art direction (look name pill or canvas icon) and choose a tile:

• Cinematic — photoreal film-still default
• Other built-in illustrated looks
• Your styles — custom looks linked to this story that already have a look plate

This is the look for shot images. Pick it once; Ciaro applies it when generating. Identity still comes from reference images in slots — not from a separately trained character or style model. See Reference-based generation.

If a custom tile is disabled, finish the style in Entity Builder (images + look plate) first. See Creating your own look.

Choosing a generation model

Use the model selector for the image model you want for this shot (for example FLUX2, Nano Banana, Seedream, GPT Image). Models differ in how they read prompts and references. Art direction is separate from the model: the look still applies when generating shots.

Reference images

Drag images from Asset Manager (or your files) into the numbered slots:

• Character portraits for identity
• Props and products
• Locations / backgrounds
• Extra composition or lighting references when you need them

You usually do not need a style image in a slot for the project look — Art direction already sends that. Extra style slots are for a special override, not the everyday workflow.

In the prompt, type / to insert a chip tied to a slot. Combine character + location chips; let Art direction handle the medium.

Tips

• Keep shot prompts about action, framing, and this moment's lighting
• Prepare character portfolios in Entity Builder before hard close-ups
• After changing Art direction, regenerate to see the new look
• The prompt assistant can improve wording — it should not pile extra mediums on top of your selected look