> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ozu.studio/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Getting Started

> Your first Ozu project — from script to animatic, step by step.

Ozu turns a written script into a visual pipeline — characters, environments, storyboards, and a finished animatic — using AI models curated for filmmakers. This page walks you through your first project.

## Before you start

You'll need an account and a script (or a rough scene you want to visualize).

1. **Sign up** at [ozu.studio](https://ozu.studio). Verifying your email grants **200 free credits** — enough to take a short scene from script to storyboard.

2. **Have something to film.** A one-page scene, a draft screenplay, or just a moment you want to see. Fountain, FDX, or plain text all work.

<Tip>
  **New to writing for visual media?** A clear Action line ("INT. KITCHEN — DAY") and a handful of lines of dialogue are enough. Ozu's AI fills in details you haven't specified, and you can adjust as you go.
</Tip>

## Your first project

The creative loop moves through five stages: **Script → Assets → Storyboard → Timeline → Export**. Each stage is a **Node** on the canvas, connected to the next.

1. **Create a project.**
   From your Projects shelf, click **New Project**. Name it and you'll land on the Flow canvas — an infinite workspace where nodes live.

2. **Add your script.**
   Open the **Script Node** and paste or upload your screenplay. Ozu will read it, ask you a few clarifying questions  (the **Ozu consult** step — optional, you can skip), and then analyze the script to extract:

   * **Scenes** — distinct story sequences
   * **Shots** — subdivisions of each scene
   * **Beats** — the atomic units, one per frame you'll eventually generate
   * **Actors**, **Props**, and **Sets** — everyone and everything your story needs

   Each beat gets a tag like `1.1.3` (Scene 1, Shot 1, Beat 3). You'll see this notation everywhere.

3. **Generate your Assets.**
   Ozu auto-creates an **Actor**, **Prop**, or **Set** node for every named character, object, and location. Open each one to generate a **hero look** (the canonical image) plus **wardrobe variants** for actors if you need them.

   Approve, reject, or reshot any asset. Rejected assets block downstream generation until replaced.

4. **Pass the Director Review Board (DRB).**
   The **DRB Node** is a quality gate. Every asset must be approved here before the storyboard can run. This prevents a weak actor design from propagating through 50 frames.

5. **Generate the Storyboard.**
   Open the **Storyboard Node**. Ozu generates one **Frame** per beat — organized in a scene/shot/beat grid. Reframe any beat with the crop tool, regenerate individual frames, or batch-regenerate a whole scene.

6. **Assemble the Timeline.**
   The **Timeline Node** turns your frames into a playable animatic. Arrange beats, add voiceover via the **Audio Node**, add music via the **Song Node**, color-grade per beat, add transitions and keyframes.

   Hit play. Scrub with J/K/L (reverse / pause / play). You're watching a rough cut of your scene.

7. **Export.**
   From the Timeline, choose your format:

   * **PDF Storyboard** — beats laid out as a printable booklet
   * **ZIP Frames** — every frame as a separate image
   * **MP4 Animatic** — the full video with audio, color, and transitions

## What you just made

Ozu produces three distinct things:

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Frames">
    A single rendered image for each beat in your script. These are your storyboard panels.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Animatic">
    Your frames strung together into a timed, scored, color-graded video. The rough cut of your scene.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Assets">
    The actors, props, and sets you generated along the way — reusable across every scene in the project.
  </Card>
</Columns>

## Core concepts worth knowing

You don't need to master these before you start, but they'll make everything else click.

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Scene, Shot, Beat" href="/user/concepts/scene-shot-beat">
    The three levels of hierarchy Ozu uses to organize your story.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Frames & Animatics" href="/user/concepts/frames-and-animatics">
    What Ozu actually produces — and how the two are related.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Pipeline & Nodes" href="/user/concepts/pipeline-and-nodes">
    Why the canvas is made of connected nodes, and how the pipeline flows.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Credits" href="/user/concepts/credits">
    How credits work, what each stage costs, and what happens when generation fails.
  </Card>
</Columns>

## Tips for your first project

<Tip>
  **Start small**

  A single scene — 6 to 10 beats — is the fastest way to understand the pipeline without burning through credits. Save the feature-length script for session two.
</Tip>

<Tip>
  **Approve before you storyboard**

  The hardest lesson is resisting the urge to skip DRB. A disapproved-looking actor will ruin 30 frames. Fix it once, upstream.
</Tip>

<Tip>
  **Reshot vs. regenerate**

  If a single frame fails, **regenerate** it from the Storyboard Node. If a character or set is wrong everywhere, **reshot** the asset itself from its node — the downstream frames will rebuild with the new look.
</Tip>

<Warning>
  **Safety blocks are silent sometimes**

  Certain prompts or content may get blocked by an AI provider's safety filter. If a generation fails unexpectedly, check the node for a safety warning and reshot with adjusted wording. [More on safety blocks →](/user/troubleshooting/safety-blocks/)
</Warning>

## Frequently asked questions

**Do I need to know how to use screenwriting software?**
No. Plain text works. If you have a Fountain or FDX file, Ozu will parse it — but a paragraph of prose describing your scene is also valid input.

**How many credits does a typical scene use?**
It depends on your script length, how many assets Ozu generates, and which models you use for images and video. A 6-beat scene with 2 actors and 1 set usually fits inside the 200-credit free tier with room to spare.

**Can I reuse actors and sets across projects?**
Assets live inside the project you created them in. Cross-project reuse is on the roadmap.

**What happens if a generation fails?**
Ozu doesn't charge you for failed generations. Credits are held when a job starts and released (not debited) if it fails. You'll see a status indicator on the node — retry from there.

**Can I edit the final video outside Ozu?**
Yes. The MP4 export is a standard H.264 video; open it in Premiere, Final Cut, DaVinci Resolve, or any editor.

**What if I want to skip the AI and just use my own images?**
Drag any image file onto the canvas — Ozu creates an **Imported Asset** that slots into the pipeline alongside generated ones.

## Where to next

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Write your script" href="/user/script/writing-your-script">
    Script formats Ozu accepts, and tips for making analysis more accurate.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Design your actors" href="/user/assets/actors-and-wardrobe">
    Hero look, wardrobe variants, and how to keep a character consistent across scenes.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Generate frames" href="/user/storyboard/generating-frames">
    How the Storyboard node turns beats into visuals, and how to reframe or regenerate.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Edit the timeline" href="/user/timeline/editor-overview">
    Tracks, playback controls, color grading, transitions, and keyframes.
  </Card>
</Columns>