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A Set is the environment your story happens in. It’s one of three asset types alongside Actors and Props, and it does the heavy lifting for location consistency across every frame in a scene. Sets can be generated as a single hero image (the default) or as a panorama for more complex establishing shots where you want a wider sense of the space. The right choice depends on how much coverage the scene needs.

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Generate a Set

  1. Open the Set Node. Ozu creates one for every location surfaced in your script — INT. KITCHEN, EXT. ROOFTOP, and so on. You can also add Sets manually for unscripted locations.
  2. Describe the environment. Interior or exterior, time of day, lighting, period, and mood. “A cramped Brooklyn walk-up kitchen, late afternoon sun coming through the window, mid-1970s appliances” is a lot more useful than “a kitchen.”
  3. Choose hero or panorama. A hero image is a single framed view, good for most scenes. A panorama is a wide environmental plate, good for big establishing shots or scenes with a lot of spatial coverage.
  4. Pick a style and aspect ratio. Style inherits from the project. For Sets, aspect ratio matters more than for other assets — a 16:9 hero image and a 9:16 hero image are composed differently.
  5. Generate. The image renders in a few seconds.
  6. Approve. Mark the Set approved so it can pass the Director Review Board and feed the Storyboard Node.

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Hero images vs. panoramas

Hero image

A single framed view of the location. Fast to generate, simple to iterate on. The right choice for most scenes.

Panorama

A wider environmental plate that gives the Storyboard Node more spatial range to pull framings from. Useful for big establishing shots or scenes that move significantly through space.
Start with a hero imageUnless your scene obviously needs a panorama, start simple. You can always reshot as a panorama later if a scene turns out to need more environmental coverage.

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Approve, reject, reshot

Sets move through the same three states as every other asset:
  • Pending — awaiting review.
  • Approved — locked in, ready to use downstream.
  • Rejected — blocked until regenerated.
Reshot the Set from its node to rebuild every frame in the scene that referenced it. Use this when the environment itself is wrong — wrong era, wrong lighting, wrong overall feel. Use single-frame regenerate for a specific frame that misrenders an otherwise correct Set.

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Tips for grounded Sets

Describe lighting and time of day

“Golden hour,” “overcast noon,” “single practical light, deep shadows.” Lighting is the most visible thing in any environment — specify it.

Interior vs. exterior matters

Always say which. Ambiguous prompts produce ambiguous results. “A small chapel” can be inside or outside — tell Ozu which.

Anchor the period

“1920s speakeasy.” “Mid-century suburban kitchen.” “Near-future corporate lobby.” Era cues sharpen architecture, materials, and props in one word.

Specify mood and texture

“Warm and lived-in.” “Clinical and sterile.” “Damp concrete, flickering overhead fluorescent.” Mood language shapes the entire image.

Actors and Wardrobe

Hero looks and wardrobe variants for your characters.

Props

Single-image assets for the objects your story depends on.

Director Review Board

The approval gate every Set passes through before storyboarding.

Generating Frames

How your approved Sets feed the Storyboard Node.

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FAQ

When should I use a panorama instead of a hero image? When a scene covers a lot of spatial ground — a character walking through a long hallway, a crowd scene in a market, a shot that pulls back from a detail to a wide. For tight, contained scenes, a hero image is faster and easier. Can one Set be used across multiple scenes? Yes, and it’s a good idea when the same location recurs. Wire the same Set Node to each scene that uses it, and every frame will stay visually consistent across them. What if my Set looks different in every frame? Either the Set wasn’t approved before the storyboard ran, or different scenes are pulling different Sets. Verify the Set is approved and that every frame that should share a location is wired through the same Set Node. Can I upload my own photo or concept art as a Set? Yes. Drag an image onto the Set Node to use it as the hero reference. Useful when you have location scouting photos, a specific painting you want to match, or real-world reference you want the storyboard to respect. What happens when I reshot a Set? Every frame in every scene that uses the Set rebuilds on the next storyboard run. Use this when you want a global environment change. The old frames are preserved in the node’s history. Do Sets consume credits every time I generate? Yes. Credits are held when generation starts and released if it fails, so only successful generations are charged. Panoramas typically cost slightly more than hero images because of their wider dimensions.