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A Camera View is the node that handles framing and re-framing for a beat. Most people encounter it indirectly: when you crop a frame in the Storyboard Node, Ozu auto-spawns a Camera View node and uses it to regenerate the beat with your new framing intent. You can also create Camera View nodes manually on the Flow canvas when you want finer control over how a specific beat is composed.

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How reframing actually works

Cropping a storyboard frame is not a cosmetic trim. Ozu doesn’t just clip pixels — it re-generates the underlying image with a new framing instruction, so the result is a real, full-resolution frame with the tighter composition you asked for. Here’s what happens end-to-end when you reframe:
  1. Drag the crop marquee on a generated frame in the Storyboard Node. Draw the rectangle around the area you want the frame to become.
  2. Ozu records the crop rect. The coordinates are saved as a framing intent — “re-shoot this beat tighter, on this region.”
  3. A Camera View node spawns automatically. It appears on the canvas wired to the beat. You rarely need to open it; it handles the handoff.
  4. The beat regenerates. The Camera View passes the new framing intent, the original scene context, and the same approved Actors/Props/Sets to the image model. The result replaces the old frame.
  5. The updated frame flows downstream. Every place the beat appears — the Storyboard grid, the Timeline track, the Asset Library — picks up the new version.
Iterate on framing before committing to the timelineReframing is cheap compared to rewriting a beat. If a frame is close but the composition feels off, try a tighter crop before reshooting the whole beat or the asset behind it.

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Creating a Camera View manually

You don’t need to create Camera View nodes by hand in most projects — the crop workflow handles it. But when you want deliberate control over how a specific beat is composed, you can:
  1. Add a Camera View node from the Flow canvas toolbar.
  2. Wire it to the beat. Connect the Camera View between the beat’s Shot and the Storyboard Node. It becomes the framing interpreter for that beat.
  3. Describe the framing intent. “Medium two-shot, eye level.” “Low-angle close-up, Dutch tilt.” Treat it like a camera direction in a shot list.
  4. Regenerate the beat. The Storyboard Node re-renders that beat through the Camera View.
Manually placed Camera Views are useful when auto-generation keeps picking a framing you don’t want, or when you’re building out a shot list where every beat’s composition matters.

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Reframe vs. reshot vs. regenerate

Reframing is one of three ways to change a storyboard frame. They do different things:

Reframe

Crop marquee or Camera View. Changes the composition of a single beat. Same actors, same set, new framing.

Regenerate

Re-roll a single frame with the same inputs. Useful when a frame’s composition is right but the execution is weak.

Reshot

Regenerate an asset (Actor, Prop, or Set). Every frame that used that asset rebuilds on the next storyboard run.
Credits are consumed on each reframeEvery reframe runs a new image generation, so it costs credits the same way a fresh frame does. Iterate with intent — don’t slide the crop marquee around randomly.

Reframing Beats

The crop marquee workflow in the Storyboard Node, step by step.

Generating Frames

How the Storyboard Node turns beats into frames in the first place.

Regenerating Frames

Single-frame retry and batch regeneration when a frame needs another pass.

Scene, Shot, Beat

The hierarchy every Camera View plugs into.

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FAQ

Do I need to create Camera View nodes myself? Usually no. The crop marquee in the Storyboard Node spawns them automatically. Create them manually only when you want explicit control over a beat’s composition. What happens to the original frame after I reframe? It’s replaced by the new, re-generated frame. The old version stays in the node’s history so nothing is lost, but the beat’s current frame is the new one. Can one Camera View affect multiple beats? No. Each Camera View binds to a single beat. If you want to re-compose multiple beats, you’ll either crop each one individually or adjust framing upstream in the Script Node’s shot breakdown. Why did my crop produce a very different image than I expected? Cropping is a framing instruction, not a pixel trim. The model re-generates the beat with the new composition in mind — so lighting, actor position, and background can shift. If the new image strays too far, reshoot with a more specific framing description in a manually placed Camera View. Does reframing use the same approved assets? Yes. A Camera View inherits the approved Actors, Props, and Sets wired to the beat’s Scene. Your characters and locations stay consistent; only the composition changes. Is there an undo if I don’t like the reframe? The node’s history preserves prior versions. Open the Storyboard Node and roll back to a previous generation, or regenerate the beat again with a different crop.