Scene Explorer

Scene Explorer is a 3D previs editor inside Cask Film. You place grey stand-ins on a set, frame them with a shot camera, animate the camera and the objects, and render. The model receives your blockout as a guide video and builds the real picture on top of it: same composition, same camera move, same timing.

A scene lives on the Storyboard as a Scene card. Opening the card fills the window with the editor. Renders stay inside the scene until you send them out.

Add a scene

The Scene tool is on the Storyboard rail, after Magic and before Text. Its icon is a wireframe cube with a camera cone.

• Drag it onto the canvas to place a Scene card where you drop it.
• Click it to place one in the centre of the view.

A new scene is called Untitled scene, runs 10 s at 24 fps, and starts with a cinematic Vibe already filled in. You can set its length anywhere from 1 s to 120 s.

The Scene card

The card’s face tells you where the scene stands:

The card shows	What it means
A grey grid floor and Open to build your set, with an Open button	Empty scene
The guide still at frame 0 and a footer such as 0:10 · 1 shot	Built, not rendered
The latest take, a clay bar with a tick at each shot join, and 0:24 · 3 shots · 2 takes	Rendered
A progress strip and Shot 2 of 3	Rendering
A hollow clay ring and · Scene changed	Edited since the latest take
Scene missing	The scene is no longer in this project

The card’s menu (right-click, or the ··· button on hover) holds Open, Rename, Duplicate scene, Add latest take to Montage, Send latest take to Storyboard and Delete. Duplicate scene copies the set, camera and animation without the renders.

With a Scene card selected, the inspector shows its Length, Shots, Takes and Model, and an Open Scene button.

Open and leave the editor

Open a scene with any of these:

• Double-click the card.
• Click Open on an empty card, or Open Scene in the inspector.
• Choose Open from the card’s menu.
• Select the card and press Return.

An empty scene opens in the Free view so you can build. A built scene opens looking through the lens.

The header holds ‹ Storyboard, the scene’s name (click it to switch to another scene in the project, or to make a New Scene), and arrows for the previous and next scene, ⌘[ and ⌘]. Export is off while a scene is open. Export renders the cut in Montage.

Press Esc or click ‹ Storyboard to go back. Esc does nothing while a popup is open, a text field has focus or a gizmo drag is running. Going back restores the Storyboard view you left.

Once the scene has takes, a bar along the bottom reads Takes: Render 1 · Render 2. Click a take there to go back to the Storyboard with that take’s card selected.

The editor

• Objects rail on the left: the shot camera, the sun, every object and the ground.
• The viewport in the middle, in Lens or Free view.
• The inspector on the right, with Object, Camera and Environment tabs.
• The shot track along the bottom: shots, test frames and keyframe lanes, with the render buttons.

Pages in this section

1. Build a set: stand-ins, imported models, the viewport and gizmos, the Object and Environment tabs.
2. Frame and move the camera: the Camera tool, the lens, focus, handheld and motion presets.
3. Plan shots and keyframes: how the scene splits into shots, and how you animate.
4. Render a scene: Test Frame, Shot Render, Full Render, models and cost, and the join review.
5. Use a scene’s renders: send takes to the Storyboard, and use the scene as a video input.
6. How Scene Explorer writes the prompt: what the model receives, sentence by sentence.