A style is not a filter applied at the end. It is a sentence written by the director once (the style guide) and repeated in every cast sheet and every scene prompt. That is why the first scene and the last scene look like the same film, and why the style is the one choice you cannot change after the cast is drawn. This guide explains what each style does well, how the style travels through the pipeline, and how to steer it.

How a style is applied

When the director reads your story it writes one English sentence of art direction, the style guide, derived from the style you picked and from any descriptive notes in the text. That sentence is appended to the prompt for every cast sheet and every scene keyframe. The cast sheets are drawn first, in the style, on plain backgrounds; the keyframes are then composed from those sheets, so the style is enforced twice: once in the reference and again in the scene prompt. The video model animates the keyframe, which is why the drawn look survives into motion.

The eight styles

  • Anime. Cel shading, clean line art, large expressive eyes, painterly backgrounds. Best for fairy tales, youth stories and anything with strong emotion.
  • 3D animation. Feature-film look with soft skin, global illumination and shallow depth of field. Good for family films and product mascots.
  • Watercolor. Bleeding washes, paper grain, ink outlines. Storybooks and poetry.
  • Comic book. Bold inks, halftone, high contrast. Action and satire.
  • Cinematic realism. Photoreal, anamorphic lenses, film grain. Dramas, ads, corporate stories.
  • 1960s Yeşilçam. Faded Eastmancolor, period costumes, classic studio lighting. Nostalgia and melodrama.
  • Ink wash. Sumi-e brush strokes, negative space, one accent colour. Meditative pieces.
  • Pastel. Chalky shading, rounded shapes, warm palette. Picture books and children's content.

Matching a style to a story

Ask two questions. First, who is in the story? Non-human characters (animals, stars, objects with faces) read most naturally in Anime, 3D animation, Watercolor and Pastel, where a drawn firefly is expected; a photoreal insect next to a photoreal child is a harder picture to make charming. Second, who is it for? Children's content sits well in Pastel and Watercolor; an ad or a corporate story usually wants Cinematic realism or 3D animation; satire and action gain from Comic book's contrast; a melodrama set in Istanbul is what 1960s Yeşilçam was made for.

When in doubt, the cast sheets settle it. They are drawn before any scene, so you see your characters in the style before the expensive part begins. If they look wrong, create a second film in another style and compare.

Adding your own art direction

Write it into the story itself, as a short note before the first paragraph: "Night scenes lit by lanterns, everyone wears blue." The director treats descriptive notes as part of the world and folds them into the style guide, so the note reaches every sheet and every scene. Keep such notes about the world (light, palette, costume, weather, era), not about the studio. Instructions aimed at the studio ("make it 90 seconds", "use a deep voice") are ignored; use the wizard controls for those.

Two habits produce better results. Be concrete: "amber lanterns, wet cobblestones" steers a model; "beautiful and atmospheric" does not. And keep it short: one or two sentences. The style guide is repeated in every prompt, so a long note crowds out the scene description.

Style and the video model

Draft and Standard tiers animate the keyframe with a fast model that keeps the drawn look faithfully. Cinema tiers add motion complexity and lighting but may soften very flat styles such as Comic book, adding texture the style does not want. If the drawn look matters more than motion, Standard is often the better choice; if motion and physics matter (a chase, water, crowds), Cinema earns its price. A practical pattern is a one-minute Standard version to check the style, then choose the tier for the full film.

Keeping the style consistent when you edit

Every scene prompt ends with the style sentence. If you rewrite a prompt on a scene card, keep that sentence at the end; drop it and the regenerated scene may drift towards a generic look. Replace a cast sheet only with an image in the same style, not a photograph, unless the film is Cinematic realism.

Changing style later

Style is chosen once per film because the cast sheets depend on it. To try another style, create a second film from the same text; the screenplay is cheap, the cast sheets are a few images, and you can compare before producing either. Characters you have already saved remain usable in any film, but a sheet drawn in Anime will pull an Ink wash film towards Anime, so redraw the cast rather than reusing sheets across styles.

Frequently asked

Can I mix two styles in one film? No. One style guide is applied to every prompt so the film reads as one piece. For a deliberate style change, make two films and join them in Cinema Studio.

Will the video model change the look? Fast tiers keep the drawn look closely. Cinema tiers add richer motion and lighting and may soften flat, graphic styles.

Does the style affect the voices or the music? Not directly. Voices follow the cast profiles and the music follows the story's mood, though a note in the text such as "a quiet lullaby" reaches the director's music brief.

Where does my art direction note go? Into the story text, before the first paragraph, written as a description of the world rather than as an instruction.