Visual style and camera

Picking a look

Visual style is one choice from sixteen looks, running from cinematic photoreal through motion-graphic and animated styles to a raw, phone-filmed look. It defaults to photoreal. Reach for a motion-graphic or animated style only when your idea genuinely calls for it, say a kinetic type sequence or an explainer. One thing to keep in mind: the style you pick sets the entire clip. It is not a per-scene setting, so there is no mixing a cinematic open with an animated close.

Locking the camera

The camera-lock toggle does one specific job. It holds the frame still, with no orbit, no push-in, no drift. Think of it as putting the camera on a tripod and walking away. Turn it on when you want a locked-off shot, which suits a clean product hero or a talking-head. Leave it off and the engine is free to move the camera wherever the scene wants it.

What shot control you actually have

Be clear-eyed about this part. You do not get per-shot direction, a shot list, or camera angles you set one at a time. The finer shot variety across a clip is decided by the scene planner, and it is not exposed to you as controls. Your real levers on how the clip is shot come down to three: the brief, where you can name the framing you want in words like macro or wide dawn shot; the visual style; and the camera lock. If a particular angle matters to you, write it into the brief rather than searching for a control that was never there.