> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.intangible.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.intangible.ai/compose/shots.md).

# Shots

A shot is a saved camera framing inside a scene. Add, duplicate, delete, reorder. Each shot remembers its camera position, lens, and aspect ratio. Animation isn't saved per shot; it lives on one shared scene timeline, and each shot is a time window into it.

## Watch

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbS5ml0Uzx4>

![Compose mode with multiple shots visible in the Storyboard at the bottom, each shot card showing duration and a thumbnail](/files/mdbtPS3vrvqDkcIgzolF)

## What it does

Setting up a shot in a previs pipeline means manually keying camera transforms, naming them by hand, and remembering which file holds which take. Intangible's shots are a built-in primitive – click the camera **+** icon below the viewport, the current framing becomes a saved shot in the storyboard at the bottom of the screen. From then on, click the shot thumbnail and the camera snaps to that framing.

The thing that catches new users: animation in Compose mode lands on the shared scene timeline, not on the active shot. Move an object in Compose with a shot active and the keyframe records on the scene timeline; every shot whose time window covers that frame shows the motion. Move the same object in Build mode and it commits to permanent scene state, no animation. See [Animation and shot time](/overview/concepts/animation-and-shot-time.md) for the why.

## How to use it

The take-shot control is the camera **+** icon directly below the camera viewport. Click it to capture the current framing as a shot, the same gesture as a physical camera. The storyboard with thumbnails sits across the bottom of the screen.

1. **Add a shot.** Click the camera **+** icon below the viewport. The current viewport framing becomes Shot 1 with a thumbnail in the storyboard. Each new shot is placed sequentially in scene time, starting where the previous shot ends.
2. **Frame the shot.** Move the camera as needed – free cam or fine-tune (see [Camera controls](/compose/camera-controls.md)). The framing updates live in the thumbnail.
3. **Duplicate.** Use the ellipsis (⋯) menu on a shot card → **Duplicate**. The duplicate copies the shot's camera framing plus its point in time and duration, and lands at the same point in scene time as the original. It does not copy the shot's generated renders.
4. **Reorder.** Drag a shot thumbnail left or right in the storyboard to change its position within the scene.
5. **Delete.** Ellipsis (⋯) menu on a shot card → **Delete**. Confirms before removing.
6. **Set a lens.** Each shot has its own lens choice – defaults to the scene-camera lens but overrides freely. See [Lenses](/compose/lenses.md).
7. **Add details.** The shot details panel has Name and Description fields. These feed the auto-prompt at render time, so a shot named "low-angle hero" with a description of "Lamborghini accelerating from a stop" gives the visualizer specific context.

### Sequencing rule worth knowing

To author motion in Compose mode, have a shot active first. Keyframes only record while a shot is active, and they land on the shared scene timeline at the current frame. Move an object in Build mode (or in Compose with no shot active) and it commits to permanent scene state instead, with no animation. See [Animation and shot time](/overview/concepts/animation-and-shot-time.md).

{% hint style="danger" %}
**Deleting a scene deletes every render in it.** The scene's ellipsis (⋯) menu and a shot card's ellipsis (⋯) menu sit close together and sometimes stack right above each other. Before you confirm a delete, check you're on the shot's thumbnail, not the scene. Deleting the shot removes the framing; deleting the scene removes the scene and all the generations made inside it.
{% endhint %}

## Details

| Action           | Where                                    |
| ---------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| Add Shot         | Camera **+** icon below the viewport     |
| Duplicate        | Shot card ellipsis (⋯) → Duplicate       |
| Reorder          | Drag thumbnail in the storyboard         |
| Delete           | Shot card ellipsis (⋯) → Delete          |
| Rename           | Click the shot name in the details panel |
| Set lens         | Lens picker in the viewport              |
| Set aspect ratio | Aspect ratio picker in the viewport      |

## Limits and known issues

* **Shots are scene-bound.** A shot can't reference a camera in a different scene. Cross-scene edits live in the [Sequence Timeline](/compose/timeline.md).
* **Reordering doesn't update the auto-prompt history.** If you renumber shots after rendering, the rendered images keep their original shot numbers in metadata. Rename rather than reorder for this reason if you care about file naming.
* **Animation lives on the shared scene timeline, not per shot.** Keyframes record while a shot is active but belong to the scene; Build-mode moves commit to permanent scene state. This trips up users coming from sequencer-style tools. See [Animation and shot time](/overview/concepts/animation-and-shot-time.md).

## Related

* [Camera controls](/compose/camera-controls.md)
* [Lenses](/compose/lenses.md)
* [Aspect ratios and film gates](/compose/aspect-ratios-and-film-gates.md)
* [Shot details](/compose/shot-details.md)
* [Animation](/compose/animation.md)
* [Animation and shot time](/overview/concepts/animation-and-shot-time.md)


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