Director Workbench: Camera Blocking, Capture Preview, and Send Back

Director Workbench works best right before final generation: decide where people stand, which camera angle matters, and which saved frames are worth sending back to the main canvas.

Where to open Director Workbench

Director Workbench lives inside the Director 3D node. You do not need to leave the main canvas or switch into another tool first. Open it from the node and start blocking actors, planning coverage, and saving reference frames.

That separation helps turn “how should this shot be framed?” into its own focused step.

How to create the node first

If your canvas does not have this entry point yet, create the node first.

The usual flow is:

1. Open the Add Node menu on the main canvas
2. Find Director 3D in the node list
3. Place it on the canvas
4. Open Director Workbench from that node

If you see a Beta badge next to it in the menu, that is expected. It simply means the feature is still evolving, not that it is unusable for previs work.

Top mode switch

The top bar gives you two important modes:

• Director: review the whole scene and arrange actors and cameras
• Camera: look through the active camera and check the final framing

A practical habit is to block the scene in Director mode first, then switch into Camera mode to confirm composition and negative space.

Left scene list

The left scene list is the fastest place to move around once the setup starts growing.

You can use it to:

• quickly select actors or cameras
• search for scene objects
• rename actors and cameras
• toggle visibility
• lock items temporarily to avoid accidental edits

If the scene already has several actors and multiple cameras, this list is usually more reliable than selecting everything directly in the viewport.

Bottom action bar

The bottom action bar is the most frequently used control strip in Director Workbench, so it is worth learning first:

• Add Actor to place people or simple stand-ins before you worry about detailed assets
• Add Camera to create common coverage like wide, close-up, over-the-shoulder, or low angle
• Aspect Ratio to decide what framing format you are checking before saving a frame
• Capture to save the active camera frame as a reference image
• Current View to turn a view you already found in the viewport into a reusable camera

A practical habit is to pick the ratio before capturing. That makes it much easier to judge whether a shot still works in landscape, portrait, or square output.

Right camera panel

The right panel is where rough camera ideas become more precise.

Once you are looking at camera controls, this is the place to check:

• which camera is currently active
• whether the field of view feels right
• what the camera is looking at
• whether the shot is close to the composition you actually want

For ad shots, dialogue coverage, or storyboard planning, this panel is often the step where “almost right” becomes “ready to keep.”

Capture preview and confirmation

There are three important capture-related actions in Director Workbench:

1. Reviewing saved frames

The saved frames list helps you compare multiple candidates from the same camera and decide which one is worth keeping as a reference.

2. Opening frame preview

Each saved frame can be opened in a larger preview. That is the best place to check:

• whether the composition is too tight or too loose
• whether the actor facing and eye line still work
• whether there is enough negative space for subtitles, titles, or UI
• whether the same camera idea still works across multiple aspect ratios

3. Confirming destructive actions

The saved frames area includes two actions that require extra care:

• delete a single frame
• clear all saved frames for the current camera

Both actions require confirmation. That matters because one camera often accumulates several framing candidates, and you do not want to lose them to an accidental click.

When to send a frame back to the main canvas

Once a saved frame clearly represents the intent of the shot, send it back to the main canvas.

That is especially useful when the frame will be used as:

• a visual reference for a later prompt
• a communication frame between storyboard steps
• a review artifact for teammates
• a framing checklist before final generation

So Director Workbench is not the final output stage. It is the stage where camera intent gets compressed into reusable reference frames.

Practical habits

If you want Director Workbench to stay fast, start with a few simple rules:

• keep actor blocking rough and readable instead of overbuilding the scene
• save 2 to 3 candidate frames for each key shot
• open the preview before deleting so you compare the frame one more time
• if a project ships in both landscape and portrait, test both ratios from the action bar early
• only send frames back to the main canvas when they actually help the next decision

If your pipeline already includes script, storyboard, and generation nodes, the main value of Director Workbench is that it turns “how should this shot be framed?” into a visible, inspectable, reusable UI step.