How-to guides
Direct a film
Give your agent a creative brief, test the hardest shot, and revise composition, movement, and sound from the same source.
Give your agent a creative brief it can turn into decisions about the picture, movement, and sound. Keep the source after the first render so you can revise those decisions.
Start with Slopcamera installed and its matching Agent Skill. Choose a supported workflow before promising a particular effect. Authored animation runs locally; Blender and other native engines install separately. Generated media uses your own Vercel AI Gateway access, or prepaid Hraness Credits for prompt-only images.
Describe what happens
A subject and a style leave most of a film undecided. Give the agent an opening, a change, and a final image. State where the result will be shown and how long someone has to watch it.
Make a 12-second illustrated film for a website. A late-night tram waits in a rainy city. Its destination changes from CITY to MOON. It climbs a railway into the sky, leaving the passenger and city behind. End with enough time to notice where it went. Use warm windows against a cool night. Keep the scene, timing, and sound editable.
For an explanation, replace the story with a question and a visible answer. For a product film, name the detail someone should remember. Supply literal labels, measurements, and factual claims yourself or ask the agent to verify them.
Pick the visual rules
Choose a coherent treatment before asking for more detail. Describe the materials, the most important contrast, and the camera's relationship to the subject. A reference is most useful when you explain which quality matters.
| Decision | Useful direction |
|---|---|
| Composition | “Keep the tram below the moon, with open sky in its direction of travel.” |
| Materials | “Make the bottle feel like thick optical glass with a brushed metal cap.” |
| Color | “Keep the street cool; reserve warm light for windows and the headlamp.” |
| Illustration | “Use layered cut paper. Shapes need visible edges and consistent shadow direction.” |
| Type | “Let the destination sign carry the story. Show the film title only after the tram leaves.” |
The HTML style reference helps your agent choose a rendering approach. Keep the treatment consistent across shots instead of adding a different effect to every cut.
Test the hardest moment
Ask for a still or a short motion test of the shot most likely to fail. A glass bottle needs a convincing highlight and readable contents. An unfolding paper scene needs believable hinges. A character needs a readable pose before it needs more frames.
Review the test at its intended display size. If the silhouette, material, or story is unclear, fix that source before rendering the full sequence. A successful render confirms that files were produced; you still have to judge the picture.
Direct movement and sound together
Describe the timing of events, including quiet intervals. Use seconds, beats, or a clear relationship between actions.
| Decision | Useful direction |
|---|---|
| Anticipation | “Hold the tram still until the destination has finished changing.” |
| Camera | “Push in slowly while the bottle opens, then stop before the rain starts.” |
| Acceleration | “Ease into the climb, travel steadily, then settle gently into the last frame.” |
| Cut | “Cut when the washer door closes, on the musical accent.” |
| Sound | “Start with rain and a low hum. Put one bell on departure; leave room after it.” |
| Ending | “Hold the completed composition for the last two seconds.” |
Keep music, effects, narration, and picture as separate inputs when you need to revise their timing. Follow music videos, educational video, or video editing for the relevant project workflow.
Revise a decision you can see
Save the first source and request. Make a copy or a parameter variant, then ask for one change with a visible criterion:
Give the moon more room. Make it larger and delay departure until the destination is readable. Keep the city, palette, and tram design.
Compare the same moment in both outputs. Then watch both sequences: a better still can come with worse timing. Changes to camera, scale, and cropping can also expose artwork that was outside the previous frame.
For a final review, inspect the opening, each transition, and the ending. Listen to the mix at a normal volume. Check text on a phone, and view the intended delivery crop. Keep the source, final render, and the request that produced it together.