Turn a product brief into an editable video without leaving NodeTool. Start with a beat plan, a storyboard, or a script. Add the references that should guide the images, review every shot before generation, then choose which generated takes enter the cut.
Generated takes are previews until you choose Use or approve a draft. You can compare options without changing the current edit.
Before you start
Connect the models needed for your route:
- A language model plans beats, scenes, and shots.
- An image model renders storyboard stills.
- A video model generates clips. Reference-based shots need a model that supports reference-to-video input.
- An on-camera performance needs a model that supports audio-driven or lip-sync video, plus prepared speech audio and source footage of the performer.
See Models and providers for setup. The Quick Start explains the language, image, and video model roles and how provider billing works.
Add product photos, character images, logos, and style frames to the Asset Explorer before you begin. See Asset Management for import and organization.
Choose where to start
Video: plan beats and land on the timeline
Choose Video when you want a short ad, explainer, or social clip organized as timed beats.
- Describe the video in What’s the video?
- Open Creative context (optional). Add the product name, audience, objective, tone, approved claims, and claims to avoid.
- Choose Add product reference, Add character reference, or Add style reference. After adding an asset, you can change its role to product, character, location, or style.
- Continue to Review your beats. Edit the direction, duration, transition, and voiceover for each beat.
- Set the production choices described in Review the production plan, then continue to the look and generation step.
The result opens in the timeline, where each beat remains a separate clip.
Storyboard: direct each shot before animation
Choose Storyboard when reference consistency and shot-by-shot control matter more than speed.
- Describe the story in What’s your story? and add creative context and references.
- Review Your screenplay. Edit scene headings, action, dialogue, and shot duration before rendering.
- Set the editorial purpose, visual treatment, speech mode, production direction, and requested takes for each shot.
- In Entities, assign reusable characters and other references to the shots that need them.
- In Look, choose the aspect ratio, art style, still model, and video model. Add your own style can build a look from one to three reference images.
- Render stills, approve the framing you want, then generate clips.
A product close-up needs a product reference. A reference-based character or lifestyle shot needs the matching character, product, location, or style asset and a video model that accepts references.
Script: write and cast the words first
Choose Script when dialogue, narration, or voice casting should drive the video.
- Write or import the script.
- In Production context, add the product, audience, objective, tone, and claim rules. These notes travel with the script without changing its words.
- Assign speakers and voices, then generate the speech takes you want to use.
- Create a storyboard from the script when you want visual shots. The linked storyboard keeps the script lines, speakers, entities, voices, and selected speech takes.
- Add or confirm visual references in the storyboard before generating clips.
Edit linked words and voices in Script. The storyboard treats them as source material instead of silently rewriting them.
Review the production plan
The Video and Storyboard review screens add the same production choices to each beat or shot:
- Editorial purpose identifies the job of the section, such as Hook, Demonstration, Proof, or Call to action.
- Visual treatment chooses Actor to camera, Product close-up, Lifestyle B-roll, or Generated scene.
- Speech mode chooses None, Off-camera, or On-camera.
- Production direction adds local camera or performance notes.
- Requested takes asks for one, two, or three alternatives.
Review these choices before continuing. If you change the brief, references, or production choices later, NodeTool asks you to review the plan again before it generates media.
Narration and on-camera speech
Use Off-camera for narration or voiceover that plays over a product shot, B-roll, or another scene. The speaker does not need to appear to say the line. This is the usual choice for a product demo assembled in the guided editors.
Use On-camera only when the visible performer must match the recorded line. That route needs all of the following:
- the exact speech take or recorded audio,
- a character entity with a character reference,
- a source face video for the performance,
- an audio-driven or lip-sync model available through a connected provider,
- enough time in the shot for the complete speech take.
NodeTool does not turn an unsupported on-camera request into narration. If the guided flow cannot resolve the required audio, character, source video, or model capability, it shows the missing requirement and blocks generation. Use off-camera speech for that shot, prepare the missing inputs, or ask the agent to prepare the audio-driven performance after the speech take and visual sources exist.
Speech must fit inside its beat or shot. Shorten the line, choose a shorter speech take, or lengthen the section when NodeTool reports a timing conflict.
Generate and compare takes
Generation creates the requested one to three options for each destination. Options can finish in any order without changing their take numbers.
In Storyboard:
- Open View takes on a shot.
- Select a Preview chip to audition that clip without replacing the accepted clip.
- Choose Use beside the take you want.
In the timeline:
- Select a clip and open History in the Inspector.
- Choose Preview Candidate to audition an option in place.
- Choose Use take to make that option active for the selected clip.
The agent can also collect one preview for each destination into a draft. Ask it to show the draft first, then tell it to Use draft when the selection is right. NodeTool checks the complete draft before applying it, so a failed or outdated choice leaves the timeline unchanged.
Accepting a take changes only its destination. It does not replace other clips, rewrite the source script, or modify the character or product entity. Other generated options remain available until you remove them.
Retry failed generations
A failed option does not discard successful takes from the same run.
- Use Retry N failed in the Storyboard toolbar to retry failed shots.
- Use Retry N failed above the timeline to retry failed generated clips.
- Retry a single destination when only one take needs attention.
The error appears on the affected shot or clip. Common causes include a missing reference, a model without the required video capability, missing performance audio, a missing character or source face video, and speech that is longer than the target slot.
Example: a 15-second vertical product ad
This example makes a three-beat social ad for a reusable water bottle.
- Add a clean product photo, a lifestyle photo of the recurring character, and two warm daylight style frames to the Asset Explorer.
- Start Video and choose a 15-second vertical social format. Enter: “A quick product ad for the Northline bottle, aimed at commuters who want cold water all day.”
- In Creative context, add the product name, audience, tone, the approved claim “keeps drinks cold for 24 hours,” and any claim the ad must avoid. Attach the product, character, and style references.
- Review three five-second beats:
- Hook: Lifestyle B-roll of the character leaving home, with off-camera narration.
- Demonstration: Product close-up showing the cap and condensation.
- Call to action: Product and character together with the final line.
- Request two takes for the product close-up and one take for the other beats. Choose a reference-capable video model and generate.
- Preview both close-up options. Choose Use or Use take for the better one. Retry only the failed beat if a generation fails.
- Continue in the timeline. Trim the accepted clips, adjust audio, add captions, and export the vertical cut.
To make the final line an on-camera performance, first generate or record its speech in Script and prepare a source face video for the character. Then use a connected audio-driven model. If those inputs or that model route are missing, keep the line off-camera.
Finish the cut
Accepted takes are ordinary timeline media. You can trim and reorder clips, mix narration and music, add captions and transitions, and export without changing the unused candidates. See the Video Editor for timeline controls and AI Timeline Editing for generation history and local media edits.