Direct Render

Render a single shot's 3D scene as video, no AI model, no credits. The wireframe / greybox view captured as MP4, exactly as authored.

Render the shot's 3D scene as video, no AI in between. The camera move, the animated subjects, the lighting model: captured frame-for-frame as an MP4. Useful when you need to see the blocking move, hand a director a structural cut, or sanity-check a long animated shot before spending credits on AI generation.

Visualizer panel with Video (from scene) set as the mode and Direct Render selected as the model; a Capture Animation button sits below

What it does

Direct Render captures the shot's 3D scene as a video. Same camera move, same animation, same viewport lighting, exported as an MP4. Deterministic: run it twice, get the same file.

Distinct from the AI video paths (Seedance 2.0, Luma Ray 3.14, Veo, Kling, Runway) which interpret your scene through a diffusion model and produce a stylized result. Direct Render does no interpretation. What's in the viewport is what ships.

Previously labeled "Shot Animation Capture" in the visualizer. The behavior is the same; only the label changed.

How to use it

1. Switch to Visualize mode on a shot whose animation is set up in Compose.
2. Set the mode dropdown to Video (from scene).
3. Pick Direct Render from the model dropdown.
4. Click Capture Animation. The job runs server-side. No prompt needed.
5. The output lands as the shot's video. Download or use it as the start frame for a later AI pass.

When to reach for it

• Blocking review. Walk a director or producer through the structural cut before committing renders.
• Pre-render preview. Confirm the sequence reads as authored before spending credits on Visualize.
• Reference handoff. Hand a downstream artist a video of the wireframe they can match against.
• Tight iteration. No AI cost. Run it as many times as the shot needs.

When not to reach for it:

• Final delivery. The wireframe isn't a finished shot. For finished output, render through one of the AI video models (Veo, Kling, Seedance, Luma, Runway).
• Stylized or photoreal look. Direct Render is structural, not visual. For style, use an AI model.

Direct Render vs Scene to video

Two ways to get a wireframe video out of Intangible, at different scopes:

Path	Scope	Where it lives
Direct Render (this page)	One shot	Visualize mode, model dropdown
Scene to video	One whole scene	Compose / Publish mode, Scene Timeline action

Use Direct Render when you're working on a specific shot in Visualize and want a quick non-AI preview of just that shot. Use Scene to video when you want the whole scene's animatic across all its shots, in their authored order, as a single file.

Limits and known issues

• Wireframe / greybox output only. No materials, no shading, no textures. That's the point: it's structural.
• No audio. Capture the audio separately and add it in your editing tool.
• Per-shot only. For multi-shot exports, see Scene to video (full scene) or the export menus at scene / sequence level (see Export video).

Related

• Video (from scene) – the parent mode that contains Direct Render.
• Scene to video – the Compose-side export of the full scene animatic.
• Animate an object – authoring the motion that Direct Render captures.
• Models – the AI video models you'd use for a finished render instead.