Canvas best practices

Layouts, naming, and connection habits that keep a large canvas workable.

Think in connections, not in nodes

The canvas is not a moodboard with a generator attached. Its value is that context flows along the wires. Before adding a node, ask what it should be connected to — a generation node with nothing wired in is just the standalone generator with extra steps.

Split canvases by sequence

One board per sequence or act beats one board for the whole project:

• Performance stays good
• The 50-node cap on select-all stops mattering
• Generation defaults can differ — vertical on one canvas, 21:9 on another
• Viewer access is granted per canvas, so you can show a client one sequence without exposing the rest

Copying nodes between canvases with ⌘C and ⌘V keeps their connections.

Name your color tags and use them as status

Eight colors with names turn into a workflow. A common set: draft, needs revision, approved, client-visible. Then:

• ⌥1–⌥8 filters the board to one status
• ⇧1–⇧8 selects everything at that status for a bulk action
• Viewer access shows a client only the approved color

Rename nodes that get referenced

A reference is addressed by name in the prompt — @image1 means nothing six weeks later. Double-click a node’s label and call it lead-closeup or alley-night. Prompts become readable and so does the board.

Use tables for shot lists

A shot list pasted as a table, with the prompt column mapped, becomes one generation node per row when you drag out of it. This is by far the fastest route from a written list to a set of shots.

Review before bulk submit

Bulk submit opens a review dialog for a reason. Generations cannot be cancelled, so that dialog is your last chance to notice that half the nodes lost their references when you switched models.

Compare with node history, not with copies

Rather than making four nodes to try four versions, generate repeatedly on one node and flip through its history picker. The board stays legible and you can still promote any result to be the main one.

Rough-cut early in the director bar

Put clips on the timeline while they are still rough. Whether a sequence works is a question about order and rhythm, and one polished shot tells you nothing about either.

Remember what undo will not save you from

Creating, pasting, duplicating, uploading, and generating are not undoable, and undo is cleared when you switch canvases. Before a large paste or a bulk generation, make sure you are on the right canvas.