The Flipbook Builder is a small 3D blocking tool. You place simple stand-ins — cubes, a human, a car, 3D text, drawn lines — set up a shot camera and animate it, then render the result as an MP4 or a single PNG. The render is a motion and camera reference: feed it to a video model as the input clip, so the generated shot follows your blocking and camera move instead of guessing it.
Open the builder
Click Tools in the canvas toolbar and choose Flipbook Builder. The builder replaces the canvas; the Canvas button in its top-left corner takes you back. It works in the desktop app and the web version.
Each board keeps its own flipbook scene, saved automatically on this computer. A new scene starts with a car, a walking human and a block, and a camera set to an arc move.
The workspace
- Top bar — Scene View / Camera View (the camera view shows the output frame), the output aspect (16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:3, 21:9), the frame rate (12 fps, 24 fps, 30 fps), Render Frame and Render Flipbook.
- Left rail — Add Object, the Scene list, Scene Overview, Camera JSON and Presets.
- Viewport — the 3D scene, with gizmo buttons for Move (W), Rotate (E), Scale (R), world or local space, Frame selection (F) and Grid.
- Timeline — Go to start, play / pause, Go to end, Loop, the Duration of the shot (0.5 to 60 s), and one lane of keys per object.
- Inspector (right) — the selected object’s settings and keyframes, or the World settings when nothing is selected.
Add and style objects
Add Object offers Cube, Sphere, Plane, Torus, Cone, Cylinder, Human, Car, Text and Line Path. New objects land near the centre of the view, resting on the floor. Objects snap onto the floor or the surface below them; hold Alt while dragging to place them freely.
Select an object to edit it in the inspector:
- Transform — Position, Rotation and Scale with X/Y/Z fields; Uniform scale keeps proportions. Drag an axis label to scrub a value (hold Shift for fine steps).
- Appearance — a Color (10 swatches or a custom colour) and a Finish: Matte, Gloss or Wire. Colours are baked into the render, so each object keeps its identity when the video model reads the flipbook.
- Text objects have Content and Extrude strength (0 is a flat sheet, up to 2 for deep block letters).
The car has head lamps at the front and red tail lights at the back, so its direction reads clearly in the render.
Line Path
A Line Path is a drawn 3D line that renders in the flipbook — use it for a route, a trajectory or a direction arrow. Drawing starts as soon as you add one: click the ground to drop points — the line curves through them — then click Finish drawing (or press Enter). Click an existing point to grab it instead.
| Option | What it does | Range / Default |
|---|---|---|
| Line width | Thickness of the line. | 1–20 px, default 3 |
| Line type | Solid, Dashed or Dotted. | Solid |
| Key points | Markers at each point: None, Dots or Arrows (arrows point along the line). | — |
| Marker size | Size of the dots or arrows. | 0.05–0.6, default 0.14 |
Add points, Clear points and Smooth… (methods Fit, Reduce, Even, Relax) edit the line later.
Set up the camera
Select Camera in the Scene list. Lens & Rig holds the Field of view (14–90°, default 42) and the Rig target — what the camera looks at:
- Free — use rotation keys — you aim the camera yourself.
- Scene center (default).
- Custom point — keyframable — an aim point you can animate with the Look At X/Y/Z keys.
- Look at · any object in the scene.
The look-at target is keyframable too: key Look At Target to switch between subjects during the shot. Between two keys the camera pans from one subject to the next with the key’s easing; Hold makes it a hard cut.
The Presets button in the camera’s header applies a complete camera move: Static, Orbit 360, Push In, Pull Back, Crane Up, Arc Left, Whip Pan, Low Rise, Zoom In (FOV) or Handheld Drift. A preset replaces the camera’s keys and sets Movement to Free.
Movement: Free, Motion Path or Camera Rig
Movement chooses how the camera travels. Switching modes never deletes the path or rig you set up in another mode.
- Free — the camera moves only by its own keyframes.
- Motion Path — the camera rides a path you draw. In the Camera Path section, click Draw path, click points in the scene and click Finish drawing. Closed loop joins the ends, Smooth… tidies the curve, Path height raises the whole path and Eye level sets it to 1.6. Select path points to move them; drag the cyan handles to shape the curve (Alt-drag breaks a handle pair).
- Camera Rig — a ready-made camera move built from a few parameters.
Camera rigs
Pick a Rig type: Orbit, Dolly, Crane, Push In, Truck, Spiral, Handheld or Follow Object. Each type uses its own parameters — Radius, Height, Start, Sweep, Rise, Travel, Turns, Tilt, Roll, Amount and Rate — and the move is drawn in the viewport as a curve.
The rig’s Presets menu has twelve complete moves: Hero Orbit, Slow Reveal, Turntable, Crane Down, Rise & Reveal, Push In, Pull Back, Truck Left, Product Spiral, Handheld Drift, Drone Follow and Chase Cam.
Follow Object rides along with objects in the scene: add them under Follow targets with + Add object to follow. With two or more targets, the keyframable Follow object value hands the camera from one to the next.
In both Motion Path and Camera Rig modes, Progress sets how far along the move the camera is. It is keyframable; Auto-key travel 0 → 100% keys a full run from the start to the end of the shot.
Animate with keyframes
Every object and the camera have a Keyframes panel in the inspector. Choose + Add property — grouped into Position, Rotation, Scale and Camera (Field of View, Progress (path / rig), Follow Object, Look At Target, Look At X/Y/Z) — then click + Add on its row to key it at the playhead. Keys are stored as a share of the shot, so changing the Duration retimes the whole animation. Once an object has position, rotation or scale keys, moving it with the gizmo or the fields keys it automatically.
- Select keys — click a key; Shift, ⌘ or Ctrl-click adds keys; drag across empty track space to draw a selection box over several rows at once.
- Move keys — drag a selected key and the whole selection follows. Keys snap to the ticks, the playhead and other keys; hold Alt to move freely.
- Edit a key — the Key editor shows the value, ‹ / › to step between keys and × to remove.
- Easing — pick from over 40 curves (Linear, Ease In/Out, After Effects curves, springs and overshoots, Sine, Cubic, Expo, Circ and Power families, and Hold), with search and In / Out / Smooth / Overshoot filters. A new easing applies to every selected key. The separate Spline toggle draws a smooth curve through the neighbouring keys instead, so sampled orbits read as circles.
Edit several path points at once
On a camera path or a Line Path, Shift, ⌘ or Ctrl-click points in the viewport to select several. A box frames the set and one gizmo sits at its centre, so you move them together. The inspector shows their position, a button to delete them and Reset curve handles.
Render
Click Render Flipbook for a video, or Render Frame for a PNG of the frame at the playhead. In the render window:
| Option | Choices |
|---|---|
| Resolution | 512 px wide — fast, 768 px wide, 1024 px wide, 1280 px wide — default, 1920 px wide — HD, 2560 px wide — 2K, 3840 px wide — 4K |
| Look | Shaded — colors + light (default), Flat — colors only, Clay — grey, no color |
| Ground | Ground grid (default), Ground plate, No ground |
The height follows the aspect ratio, and the exact frame size, frame count and length are shown under the options. Very tall frames at large sizes are scaled down to the largest size the video encoder accepts, and the size line says so. The render shoots through the shot camera with the editor overlays (grid, gizmo, camera body, path) removed, and encodes the MP4 at the scene’s frame rate. Keep the window in front while it encodes.
When it’s done, preview the result and choose Download to save it to your computer, Place on canvas to add it to a Flipbook Builder frame on the board (created the first time), or Render again. From the board, use it as the input of a video model — see Video Generation.
Describe the shot and save presets
- Scene Overview — a plain-language description of the shot to paste into a video-model or agent prompt. Copy copies it; Regenerate rebuilds it. You can edit it; it stops updating once you type.
- Camera JSON — every camera setting and keyframe, to hand to an agent that should reproduce or retime the move. Copy JSON copies it.
- Presets — type a Preset name and click Save to store the whole scene (objects, colours, keyframes, camera and path) on this computer. Click a preset to load it. Export file and Import file move presets between computers as
.flipbook.jsonfiles.
Reset
There are two Reset buttons:
- Scene ▸ Reset in the left rail resets the whole scene after a confirmation: objects, keyframes, camera and path are discarded and the starter scene comes back, along with the default duration, frame rate, aspect and look. Save a preset first if you want to keep your scene. Saved presets are not affected.
- Scene ▸ Reset in the World inspector (nothing selected) resets only the look — background, ground plane, grid and key light angle — and keeps everything else.
The World inspector also sets the Background colour, Ground plane, Grid and Key light angle (0–360°, default 35°).
Shortcuts
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Play / pause |
| W / E / R | Move / Rotate / Scale gizmo |
| 1 / 2 | Scene View / Camera View |
| F | Frame the selection |
| Delete / Backspace | Delete the selected keys, else the selected path points, else the selected object |
| Enter | Stop drawing a path |
| Esc | Clear the key selection; press again to stop drawing |
| Alt while dragging | Bypass surface or key snapping, or break a curve-handle pair |
Shortcuts are ignored while you type in a field. The camera itself can’t be deleted.
Performance
The viewport and renders run on WebGPU when your computer offers it, and fall back to WebGL automatically, so the builder works everywhere with no setting to change.
Where to go next
- Video Generation — use the rendered flipbook as a reference clip.
- Camera Movement and Camera Rig — the same rig types in the Video Editor.
- Canvas — the toolbar and its Tools menu.
- Keyboard Shortcuts — every shortcut on the board.
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