From idea to finished render

The full Intangible workflow walked end to end. From an empty project to a delivered render, with every decision in production order.

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 for client CAD, Generate 3D Asset for shapes that don't exist yet, Image to scene and shot when the brief is a single reference photograph.
3. Place the hero objects. Vehicles, characters, products. Use Image Reference on every object the brief specifies by name. This is non-negotiable for agency work.
4. Populate the rest. Populators 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.
6. Save sets you'll reuse. Sets 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.
2. Aim the camera at moving subjects. Aim Camera 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.
4. Repeat for every shot in the brief. Use the Storyboard view 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 and Build a storyboard.

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 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 or a Custom Style. Lighting Preset 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 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. 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. Fullscreen playback of the sequence, no edit hand-off needed.
• For client share – the Publish tab generates a shareable URL. Toggle comments on or off.
• For a final video file – Export video renders the sequence to a single file. Format options in Export formats.
• For per-shot files – Export shot video for individual shot outputs. Useful when handing off to an editor.
• For a poster or still set – Poster 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 – the mental model behind this workflow.
• The three modes – the conceptual basis.
• Controlling AI output – why this approach works where prompt-only tools fail.
• Make your first render – the 20-minute version for a first project.