# From idea to finished render

AI tutorials usually show one trick. The full pipeline – the path from an empty project to a delivered render – is harder to show because it spans every part of the product. This page is that path.

Use it as a checklist for your first finished project, or as a refresher when you're pulling a new piece of work together.

## The path

### Phase 1: Plan the brief

Before opening Intangible, write three things down:

* **What is the deliverable?** Image, image set, video clip, animatic, full sequence cut. Each has a different production path.
* **What's branded or specific?** Products, characters, locations that have to look like the actual thing. These are the candidates for Image Reference and Smart Import.
* **What's the look?** Photoreal, illustrative, stylized. This shapes the model and style preset choices.

Without these three, you'll spend the first hour drifting. With them, the steps below have an answer at every fork.

### Phase 2: Build the scene

Build mode. Construct the world the camera will see.

1. **Open or create a project.** Pick a Showcase template if one fits the brief; start blank otherwise.
2. **Establish the geography.** Asset Library for stock environments, [Smart Import](/build/import-your-own-models.md) for client CAD, [Generate 3D Asset](/build/generate-3d-asset.md) for shapes that don't exist yet, [Image to scene and shot](/build/image-to-scene-and-shot.md) when the brief is a single reference photograph.
3. **Place the hero objects.** Vehicles, characters, products. Use [Image Reference](/overview/concepts/image-reference.md) on every object the brief specifies by name. This is non-negotiable for agency work.
4. **Populate the rest.** [Populators](/build/populators.md) for crowds, trees, vehicles in volume. Faster than placing one at a time and more believable than letting the model invent extras.
5. **Set the world state.** Time of day, location, sky, fog. See [Environment](/build/environment.md).
6. **Save sets you'll reuse.** [Sets](/build/sets.md) bundles a group of objects into a reusable component – a kitchen, a city block, a product display.

When Build mode reflects the brief, switch modes.

### Phase 3: Compose the shots

Compose mode. Frame the moment.

1. **Add the first shot.** Position the camera, set the lens, set the aspect. See [Control shot composition](/overview/how-to/control-ai-composition.md).
2. **Aim the camera at moving subjects.** [Aim Camera](/compose/aim-camera-and-target.md) tracks an object across the shot's duration without manual keyframes.
3. **Animate within the shot.** Animation is shot-bound – move an object in Compose mode and the move applies to that shot only. See [Animation](/compose/animation.md).
4. **Repeat for every shot in the brief.** Use the [Storyboard view](/compose/storyboard-view.md) to keep coverage visible while you work.
5. **Name and time every shot.** Descriptive names from the brief, deliberate durations per beat. See [Shot details](/compose/shot-details.md) and [Build a storyboard](/overview/how-to/ai-storyboard.md).

### Phase 4: Render in Visualize

Visualize mode. Pick the model and generate.

1. **Open the first shot in Visualize.** The auto-prompt populates from the Build and Compose state. Read it before generating; edit only what's wrong.
2. **Pick the model.** [Models](/visualize/ai-models.md) covers the trade-offs. Reference-tuned image models for brand-true work; specific video models for end-frame interpolation.
3. **Set the Style and Lighting tabs.** [Style presets](/visualize/style-presets.md) or a [Custom Style](/visualize/custom-styles.md). [Lighting Preset](/visualize/lighting-presets.md) on top of the scene's time of day.
4. **Render.** Image first, video second. The image render confirms the scene, composition, and look are right before you spend video credits.
5. **Iterate.** [Edit images](/visualize/edit-images.md) for surgical fixes. Re-render shots that don't land. Switch models if a model is fighting the brief.
6. **Render the rest.** Once one shot lands, the rest tend to land faster because the scene and references are shared.

### Phase 5: Cut the animatic

Compose mode → Sequence tab.

1. **Switch to the Sequence Timeline.** See [Make an animatic](/overview/how-to/ai-animatic.md). A sequence is scoped to a single scene; for multi-scene cuts, use Publish mode.
2. **Reorder shots into the cut.** Storyboard order is authoring order; sequence order is the cut. Shots play back-to-back with no gaps.
3. **Trim durations to the beat.** Drag shot edges to extend or shorten.
4. **Scrub the playhead to review.** The viewport plays the assembled cut.

### Phase 6: Publish or export

Pick the path that matches the deliverable.

* **For internal review** – [Presentation mode](/publish/presentation-mode.md). Fullscreen playback of the sequence, no edit hand-off needed.
* **For client share** – the [Publish tab](/publish/publish-tab.md) generates a shareable URL. Toggle comments on or off.
* **For a final video file** – [Export video](/publish/export-video.md) renders the sequence to a single file. Format options in [Export formats](/publish/export-formats.md).
* **For per-shot files** – [Export shot video](/publish/export-shot-video.md) for individual shot outputs. Useful when handing off to an editor.
* **For a poster or still set** – [Poster](/publish/poster.md) and the per-render Download menu in Visualize.

## What you've actually done

You've walked the same path Philip walks in his tutorials, the same path agencies walk for paid work. Three deliberate decisions: the scene, the cameras, the model. Then the cut. Then the export.

The pattern repeats for every project. The first time it takes a day. The third time it takes a morning.

## Common pitfalls along the path

* **Skipping Phase 1.** Without a brief, every later step has too many forks. Write the three things down.
* **Compose without an Image Reference on hero objects.** The render will come back generic. Fix it in Build, not in re-prompting.
* **Rendering video before image.** Image renders cost less and confirm the scene + composition + look are right. Validate in image, then commit to video.
* **Sequencing shots while you're still authoring shots.** Build all the shots first, then arrange. The cut feels different from the storyboard order more often than not.

## Related

* [Brief AI like a DP](/overview/how-to/brief-ai-like-a-dp.md) – the mental model behind this workflow.
* [The three modes](/overview/concepts/the-three-modes.md) – the conceptual basis.
* [Controlling AI output](/overview/concepts/control-ai-output.md) – why this approach works where prompt-only tools fail.
* [Make your first render](/overview/get-started/first-render-in-20-minutes.md) – the 20-minute version for a first project.


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