Previs Pro Wiki

Written and maintained by Ian Lynch Smith, co-founder of Previs Pro (Brooklyn, NY). Previously co-founded Freeverse, a Mac and iOS studio. · Kept current with Previs Pro 3.6.0 (October 2026).

Previs Pro is a previsualization tool for filmmakers. Import a screenplay, plan each scene’s shots on boards, give every shot a frame — made with AI or staged in 3D with virtual sets, characters and cameras — and cut it all together on an editorial timeline, on iPad, iPhone, or Mac.

Unlike storyboarding software that is only a 2D drawing canvas, Previs Pro’s 3D path is a simulation that obeys real-world optics: real camera sensor sizes and focal lengths decide what each shot sees.

Trying to figure out whether Previs Pro is the right tool for you? See our Previs Tool Comparison 2026 — a side-by-side look at nine previs and storyboarding tools indie filmmakers are actually using this year, with every claim linked to its source.

Platforms

• Mac — Native macOS app (macOS 12.0 or later).
• iPad — Native iPadOS app (iPadOS 17.0 or later).
• iPhone — Native iOS app with a compact layout (iOS 17.0 or later).

All three use the same .previs project files and the same project shell, with Breakdown, Boards and Timeline tabs. See System Requirements for supported devices.

Available on the App Store.

Resources

• Support & Knowledge Base — Articles on Quick Start, Camera, Characters, Props, and more.
• Updates & Release History — Changelog for every version. In the app, What’s New in the ☰ menu opens the same page, and a dot on that row means something new has been posted.
• YouTube Channel — Video tutorials and feature walkthroughs.
• Instagram — Tips, user showcases, and updates.

Core Workflow

A project moves through three stages, one per tab of the project shell:

1. Script — On the Breakdown tab, import your screenplay and Previs Pro breaks it into scenes, cast and locations. Bring in a revised draft later with Import revision. See Breakdown.
2. Boards — On the Boards tab, plan each scene’s shots. Suggest coverage proposes a shot list from the script (tap Why these shots? to see the reasoning), script lining shows which lines each shot covers, and Shot, Scene and Project info hold the details. See Boards. Each shot then gets a frame in one of two ways:
   • AI — describe the shot in Sketch with AI, restyle a frame with Enhance Shot, or open AI Studio, the full AI workspace.
   • 3D — Build in 3D or Edit in 3D opens the shot in the Canvas Editor. There you place characters, props, sets, lights and cameras that obey real-world optics, and add camera moves as animatics.
   You can mix the two: Enhance can restyle a 3D render, and Revert to Live returns a shot to its live 3D frame.
3. Timeline — On the Timeline tab, cut the shots together, add dialogue, music and sound effects in the audio lanes, play it back, then share or export. See Timeline.

Get it right before you get on set. Fix it in Pre.

Common Questions

Quick jumps to the answers people ask about most. Each link goes to the topical section where the full answer lives.

Script, boards & AI

• How do I get back to my projects from inside a project?
• Where do I see all my scenes and shots at once?
• Where do I check the scenes, cast and locations from my script?
• Can Previs Pro suggest a shot list from my script?
• How do I get an AI image for a shot without leaving the board?
• What is AI Studio?
• How do I replay the guided tour?
• Can I use a light theme or true black?

Subscriptions, payments, refunds

• I forgot to cancel my trial and got charged — how do I get a refund?
• I have Lifetime — why am I being charged a yearly fee?
• How do I cancel my subscription?
• How do I manage my subscription from inside the app?
• Where do I get a receipt or VAT-compliant invoice?
• I paid — why are my exports still watermarked?
• Is there a student or educator program? Can I use the app for class?

Devices & sign-in

• How do I use one purchase on my Mac, iPad and iPhone?
• I paid on iPad — why does my Mac still say trial?
• Is there a Windows or Android version? Which iPads / Macs are supported?
• Why do I have to sign in before I can start?
• Does help work without an internet connection?

Characters, props and 3D import

• How do I create a custom character? (or generate one with AI)
• Can I import a rigged character from Blender, Mixamo, or another tool?
• What 3D file formats does Previs Pro accept?
• My imported model is huge / tiny / gray — what do I do?
• How do I copy scenes, characters, or props between projects?

Crashes & updates

• The app keeps crashing — what should I check first?
• The screen is blank, black or stuck on “Please wait”
• A recent update broke something — can I downgrade or report it?
• My project won’t open / lost work — what now?
• Chinese / Hebrew / Japanese text isn’t rendering correctly

Working in the scene

• I keep accidentally dragging props — how do I lock them down?
• If I resize one prop, does it change every copy?
• How many keyframes can a camera move have? (and animatics vs video gen)
• My MP4 export doesn’t look how I expected

Privacy & AI

• Is my imported screenplay private? Where is it stored?
• Which AI models do you use? Was my prompt used for training?

Getting Started · Updated October 2026

First Launch

1. The first time you open Previs Pro, a short intro video plays.
2. A landing screen follows, with Sign In with Apple and View purchase options. If the app finds an existing subscription on your device, it says so and asks you to sign in.
3. After you sign in (“You’re in!”), tap Let’s get started. You need to sign in before you can use the app, even if you already subscribe (see Sign-in required).
4. New users then choose between two cards: View the Tour, which starts the Getting started tour, or Start Creating, which opens the Projects home with the Start new project chooser already open.

On later launches, a signed-in subscriber goes straight to the Projects home. If you subscribe but aren’t signed in on this device, you’re asked to sign in first. Without a subscription, the purchase options appear first (see Subscriptions and the free version).

The Projects Home

The Projects screen is where Previs Pro starts, and where you return whenever you close a project. It is one grid of poster cards, three per row in a regular-width window and two in a compact one:

• New project — the first card (dotted outline, red +) opens the Start new project chooser. See Creating a New Project.
• Your projects — most recently opened first. Each card shows the title and when you last opened it on this device (or when it was created, if you haven’t opened it here yet). Tap a card to open the project (“Opening project…”); it opens on the Boards tab.
• ⋯ — every project card has this button for Duplicate, Share and Delete. See Managing Projects.
• New user guides — a shelf below your projects with the guided tours and the example scene. See New User Guides.

In the top-right corner, ? opens Previs Assist and ☰ opens the menu. To add a .previs file, drop it anywhere on the screen (see Creating a New Project). The Projects home follows your theme, though the project cards themselves always stay dark.

Projects home UI elements at a glance

The Projects home menu

The bottom of the menu shows the app version and build, your plan, and the account you’re signed in as. It’s handy to include when you contact support.

New User Guides

The New user guides shelf on the Projects home holds five cards:

• Getting started — a guided tour of the whole loop, on a short sample scene (two characters in a police interrogation room). It starts on the Breakdown tab with the script, moves to the Boards tab, uses Suggest coverage to plan the shots and creates them, then turns a shot that was blocked in 3D for the tour into a stylized sketch — through AI Studio in the side panel, or ⋯ → Replace → Sketch with AI on iPhone. The last card offers ✨ Sketch the other shots, ▶ Play your scene, Next: Learn about casting → and End tour.
• Casting — a guided tour of the cast: the Breakdown tab’s Cast list, a character’s details, and the Character Creator, where you build a character, save it and name it. Its last card offers Start a new project → (which opens the Start new project chooser on the Projects home) and End tour.
• Example scene — opens a finished example project, with every shot blocked, rendered and cut together. A short guide points you to the Timeline tab and the Play button.
• AR viewer and Animatics — open a video walkthrough in your browser (the cards carry an external-link badge).

Each tour runs on a fresh copy of its own sample project, so you can replay it any time from the shelf. Tour copies never appear among your projects. The tour card docks at the bottom left and the app stays usable behind it. Skip tour is on every step except the last, where End tour takes its place; both close the tour project and return you to the Projects home. The tours use prepared results, so they don’t spend your credits.

The Example scene card behaves like one of your own projects: it has a ⋯ menu, and if you delete it, the card disappears from the shelf.

Creating a New Project

On the Projects home, tap the New project tile (the first card, with the red +). The Start new project chooser offers three ways in:

• New Project from Script (formerly Start from Screenplay) — Build scenes from a script file. See Starting from a Script below.
• New Empty Project — Start from an empty project. The New Project dialog asks for:
  • Title
  • Aspect ratio — 1.77:1 HD video (16x9, the default), 1.85:1, 2.00:1 Univisium, 2.35:1, 2.39:1, 1.66:1, 1.43:1 IMAX Film, 1.89:1 IMAX Digital, 3:2, 4:3, 1:1, and vertical 9x16 and 1:2
  • Sensor size — Full frame 35mm (the default), iPhone Native, Canon APS-C, Nikon APS-C, Super 35mm, Micro 4/3, 2/3" Video, Standard 16mm, Super 16mm, Alexa LF Open Gate, Alexa 65, Alexa 265 or Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K 65 (see Camera sensors)
  Tap Create and the project opens. Add scenes and shots on the Boards tab, and change the title, aspect ratio or sensor any time in Project info.
• Import Project — Open a .previs file from your device and add it to your projects.

To add a .previs project someone sent you, use Import Project in the chooser, drag the file onto the Projects home (up to 100 MB by dragging), double-click it in Finder on a Mac, or use Open With from the Files app on iPad or iPhone. When you drag a file in, double-click it or use Open With, Previs Pro asks Import Project? before adding it. If a project is open when you use Open With, it closes first. If a project with the same name already exists, Duplicate Project? lets you Replace it, Keep Both (optionally renaming the existing one), or cancel.

Starting from a Script

If you have a screenplay, Previs Pro can build the project for you. On the Projects home, tap the New project tile, then New Project from Script, and pick your file.

• Formats: Final Draft (.fdx, .fdxt), Fountain (.fountain), Fade In (.fadein), Celtx (.celtx), OSF (.osf) and plain text (.txt) on every device. Text-based PDFs (.pdf) import on a Mac only. Scanned PDFs with no selectable text can’t be imported.
• Review: the Import Screenplay summary shows how many scenes and characters were found, and Show details lists them. A script read from a PDF also shows a note asking you to check scenes, cast and dialogue. Tap Continue.
• Project Settings: confirm the title (taken from the script), aspect ratio and sensor size, then tap Create Project.

The new project’s scenes, cast and locations come from the script. As it opens, Previs Pro gives each character a body that matches their description (“Casting characters…”) and renders the shot thumbnails (“Preparing scenes”). The Script Import Checklist then lists what to check: the script, the cast and the locations.

Already working in a project? Import its script from the Breakdown tab’s Script view, or drop the file onto that view.

For what gets extracted, see Screenplay. To bring in a revised draft of the same script later, see Import revision.

Managing Projects

Every project card on the Projects home has a ⋯ button (on a Mac you can also right-click the card). Its menu offers:

• Duplicate — adds a copy of the project to your projects.
• Share — packages a copy of the project (“Preparing project…”). On a Mac you then choose Save to disk or Share with another app; on iPad and iPhone the share sheet opens.
• Delete — asks you to confirm first. On a Mac the project moves to the Trash; on iPad and iPhone it is deleted permanently.

A project that can’t be read shows a ! badge and won’t open; its menu offers only Delete. To rename a project, open it and change the title in Project info. On a Mac, Preferences › Show Projects Folder in Finder shows where your project files are stored.

Actions apply to one project at a time; the Projects home has no multi-select. To archive every project at once, use ☰ › Back Up Projects, which writes all your projects into one archive you can save or share. (Selecting several shots at once is done on the board: see Select mode.)

The Project Shell

When a project is open, a bar runs across the top of the window. It is the same on Mac, iPad and iPhone:

• Home (house icon, far left) — closes the project and returns you to the Projects home. Saving is continuous, so there is no Save button and nothing to save first.
• Breakdown | Boards | Timeline (center) — the three tabs. Breakdown holds the Script, Cast and Locations views; Boards is the grid of scenes and shots, where projects open; Timeline is the edit. The tabs show an icon and a label when there is room, and only icons in a narrow window.
• ? (right) — opens Previs Assist for the screen you’re on.
• ☰ (far right) — opens the project menu (below).

In the narrowest windows, Home and ? hide together to make room. ☰ always stays, so you can close the project with ☰ › Close Project.

Project shell UI elements at a glance

The project menu

In a read-only review session, Share, Export and Import From Project are hidden. Back Up Projects, Purchase Options and Log Out are only on the Projects home menu. On the Boards tab, when the side panel is showing and no shot is selected, its Project Actions view offers Project info, AI Studio, Export, Import From Project, What’s New, Contact Us and Preferences.

Selection and the Escape key

The shot you select stays selected when you switch between the Boards and Timeline tabs.

With a keyboard (on a Mac, or an iPad with a hardware keyboard), Esc on the Boards and Timeline tabs steps back one level per press:

1. closes an open dialog or full-screen preview;
2. closes a Shot, Scene or Project info panel;
3. closes AI Studio or the Audio workspace;
4. leaves drawing mode;
5. closes the ☰ menu;
6. leaves Select mode;
7. steps the side panel’s Coverage view back;
8. deselects the shot;
9. and, once nothing is open or selected, closes the project.

While a blocking progress screen is up (for example, while a newly imported script’s shots render), Escape does nothing. For the Timeline’s own panels, see Escape on the Timeline. While you review an Import revision, the tabs, ? and ☰ are locked until you finish or cancel.

Appearance & Preferences

Open ☰ › Preferences on the Projects home or inside a project. On the Boards tab it is also in the side panel’s Project Actions view when no shot is selected.

The Theme section at the top sets the look of the Breakdown, Boards and Timeline tabs, the Projects home and Previs Assist:

• Light / Dark / System — Dark is the default. System follows your device’s light or dark setting.
• True Black (OLED) — makes Dark use pure-black backgrounds, which saves battery on OLED screens. It also applies when System resolves to dark.

The project cards on the Projects home, and screens such as sign-in and purchasing, stay dark. (The Appearance heading further down Preferences holds the language setting.)

Tap Done to close Preferences.

Import From Project

Bring scenes, cast members, props and images from one of your projects into the open one with Import From Project (called Copy From Project in 3.5). Open it from the ☰ menu inside a project, or on the Boards tab from the side panel’s Project Actions view, which appears when no shot is selected. It isn’t available in a read-only review session.

1. Select Project To Copy From lists your other projects with their numbers of scenes, shots, characters in cast, props in library, imported props, imported characters and images. A project saved by an older version must be opened once to update it first. One made in a newer version of Previs Pro needs an app update.
2. Select the source project.
3. Pick what to copy, then tap Continue:
   • Scenes — tick the scenes you want (Select all / Deselect all) and choose whether to copy the First shot, the Poster shot or All shots of each. The copied shots bring their cast, props and images with them, including imported 3D characters, plus their audio clips and videos.
   • Cast members, library props, imported props and images — copy specific assets on their own, without a scene. Imported 3D characters can’t be picked on their own; copy a scene that uses them.
4. If the selected scenes contain set objects, Copy Set Objects asks whether to copy them too.
5. If copied characters have the same names as characters already in the project, Duplicate Characters lets you Replace the existing ones or Keep Both.

Copy Successful then lists what was added (new scenes, cast members, library props, imported props and characters, images, audio clips and videos) and notes any duplicates that were skipped. If the copy would take the project past its limit for images and imported props, Too Many Assets stops it before anything is copied.

Boards · Updated October 2026

The Boards tab is your project’s storyboard. Each scene is a row of shot tiles, in script order, and on Mac and iPad a side panel on the right holds the actions for whatever you have selected. It is the middle of the three tabs in the project’s top bar (Breakdown | Boards | Timeline; see the in-project shell), and it is the default tab when you open a project. The Boards tab (formerly the Scene Manager) is where you add, arrange and open shots.

Every shot can take a 3D path or an AI path. Build in 3D / Edit in 3D opens the shot in the Canvas Editor; Sketch with AI draws it from a text prompt (see Sketch with AI). To leave the project, tap the home button at the left of the top bar, or choose Close Project from the ☰ menu.

Where to find it

• Panel: Projects home → open a project → Boards tab (selected when the project opens)
• Target ID: shell.tab.boards
• First seen: New user guides → Getting started

Boards at a glance

Scenes and shot tiles

Scene rows

• The header reads like a slugline: the scene number, then the location and time, e.g. 2 - EXT. POND – DAY.
• A collapsed scene shows only its first row of tiles. Tap the header (or the empty part of the header row) to show the rest; the triangle shows which way it is. Only one scene is open at a time, and selecting a shot opens its scene. If a scene has nothing more to show, the shot count pulses instead.
• Preferences → Force scenes open on Board tab keeps every scene fully open: no triangle, every scene’s Add shot tile in view, and Edit coverage on every scene. It starts on in the Mac app and off on iPad and iPhone.
• Preferences → Preview Size (Fixed | Resizing): in a wide window, Fixed shows more previews and Resizing makes them larger. Narrow windows look the same either way.
• An omitted scene is grayed out with a red line through its header (see Omit Scene).
• Custom scene and shot numbers are shown in red; see Numbering.

Shot tiles

• Picture: the rendered 3D frame, an AI image or an imported still. A shimmer means the shot is still waiting for its first render (see Rendering progress). Arrows over the frame show the camera movement, if the shot has one.
• Number (bottom-left): scene, separator and shot, e.g. 3C, 3.C or 3-C, depending on the project’s separator.
• Badge (top-left): Animatic, AI video or Static image. If a shot qualifies for more than one, Animatic wins over AI video, and AI video over Static image.
• ⋯ and, under it, 3D appear on the selected tile, on keyboard focus, and when you hover over a tile with a mouse or trackpad. A tile showing a still image or an AI video has no 3D; it shows Revert to Live in its bottom-right corner instead, under the same rules. On a Mac (or an iPad with a trackpad or mouse) the selected tile hides its chip while the side panel shows the same actions; hover over the tile to bring it back.
• 3D selects the shot and opens it in the Canvas Editor behind a Loading scene… screen. Animatic shots open straight into animatic mode (see Animatics).
• Double-tap (or double-click) a live 3D tile to open it exactly as its 3D chip does; a single tap still only selects it. A tile showing a still image or an AI video doesn’t open this way, and double-tapping does nothing in Select mode.
• Revert to Live (bottom-right; shots showing a still image or an AI video; never animatics) asks Revert to Live? — “Replace this shot’s image or video with the live 3D shot?” A generated picture stays in Generation History.
• Video: only the selected shot plays, muted and looping. On Mac and iPad it plays in the side panel’s preview; on iPhone it plays on the tile. Tiles do not play on hover, and nothing plays while a dialog covers the board or in Select mode.

Selecting and moving shots

• Tap a tile to select it. Tap it again, tap empty board space, or tap the panel’s × to deselect. A double-tap on a live 3D tile opens it in the Canvas Editor instead.
• On a Mac, right-click (or two-finger click) a tile to open its shot menu.
• To reorder, hold a tile for about half a second until it lifts, then drag it; with a mouse or trackpad you can just drag. A placeholder shows where it will land. On touch, moving your finger during the hold scrolls the board instead.
• Shots move within their own scene only. Scenes are not reordered on the board; use the Breakdown tab’s Script view (see Script).

The shot menu

Open it with the tile’s ⋯ (or a right-click on a Mac). The rows, top to bottom:

• Info — opens Shot info. On Mac and iPad it also selects the shot.
• Select — starts Select mode with this shot ticked. Not offered during a guided tour.
• Insert — opens the Insert shot chooser, with the same three rows as Add new shot: Build in 3D, Sketch with AI and Import an image. Whichever you pick, the new shot goes directly after this one. It’s always offered, and it’s the way to put a new shot in the middle of a scene (Add shot always adds at the end).
• Paste — pastes the copied shots directly after this one (Pasting shot…). It appears only once shots have been copied.
• Export — opens the export panel with just this shot selected (see Export). Hidden for shots in an omitted scene.
• Delete (red, below a divider) — asks Delete Shot? (“This cannot be undone.”) and warns if the shot’s audio clips will be deleted too. Hidden when it is the scene’s only shot.

There is no Copy row. To copy shots, choose Select, tick them and tap Copy (see Select mode), or select a shot and press ⌘C. The copy board is shared with the Canvas Editor’s shot menu, so a shot copied there can be pasted here too.

Replace is hidden for now. It only appears on the Getting started tour’s render step on a phone. To redo an existing shot with AI, open AI Studio from the side panel on Mac and iPad, or from the Timeline. To put your own picture on a shot, drop it on the tile (see Drag and drop images) or use AI Studio’s Import tab.

Escape or a tap outside closes the menu. The menu is not available in Select mode.

The scene menu and Edit coverage

The scene header’s ⋯, right after the scene title and counts, opens:

• Info — opens Scene info.
• Add shot — opens the Add new shot chooser for this scene; the new shot goes at the end of the scene.
• Insert Scene — creates a new scene directly after this one, selects its shot and opens its Scene info.
• Duplicate Scene — copies the scene and all its shots directly after it (Duplicating scene… shows while it works) and selects the copy’s first shot.
• Export Scene — opens the export panel with this scene’s shots selected. Hidden while the scene is omitted.
• Omit Scene — grays the scene out with a red cross-out and drops it from exports. It keeps its number. On an omitted scene the row reads Restore Scene.
• Delete Scene (red) — asks Delete Scene? (“This cannot be undone.”) and warns about any audio clips that go with it.

Edit coverage sits under the header of the scene whose shot is selected (or under every scene with Force scenes open on Board tab). It opens that scene’s Coverage overview, where Suggest coverage lives (see Suggest coverage). If the project has no script yet, it opens Suggest coverage from your script instead, with Close, Learn more and Import script. On iPhone this button is the way into the Coverage overview.

Adding shots and scenes

Tap the dashed Add shot tile at the end of a scene, or choose Add shot in the scene’s ⋯ menu, to open the Add new shot chooser:

1. Build in 3D (“Block your shot in 3D”) — adds a 3D shot right away and selects it. It does not open the canvas; use the tile’s 3D chip or the panel’s Edit in 3D when you are ready.
2. Sketch with AI (“Draft an image from prompt”) — opens Sketch with AI. The shot is created only when you apply a generated image.
3. Import an image (“Use an existing image”) — opens the Photos library on iPhone and iPad, or a file panel on Mac. The shot is created once you pick a picture, exactly as if you had dropped it on the Add shot tile. The board shows Choose an image… while the picker is open. If Previs Pro is not allowed to use your photos, the app asks you to enable access in the iOS Settings app.

Cancel or Escape closes the chooser. Whichever row you pick, the new shot starts as a copy of the scene’s last shot and goes at the end of the scene, even when another shot is selected.

Insert shot (shot menu → Insert) is the same chooser for adding a shot right after a particular one. Build in 3D adds a copy of that shot’s 3D setup directly after it; Sketch with AI and Import an image work as above, but the new shot lands directly after that shot instead of at the end. With numbering locked, the new shot gets a revision number (see Numbering).

Replace shot (shot menu → Replace, hidden for now except on the Getting started tour’s render step on a phone) has the same three rows, applied to that shot: Sketch with AI opens the dialog for it, Build in 3D reverts any image, video or animatic to the live 3D shot and opens it in the Canvas Editor, and Import an image puts the picked picture on it.

Add scene at the bottom of the board creates a new scene with one shot, selects that shot and opens the new scene’s Scene info. The Add tiles are grayed out in Select mode.

Select mode

Select mode lets you act on several shots at once. Open any shot’s ⋯ menu and choose Select; that shot starts ticked.

• Tap tiles to tick or untick them (a round check badge, top-right). Nothing else on the board responds: menus, chips, video, image drops and the Add tiles are off, and the top bar is dimmed.
• On Mac and iPad the side panel shows the count (No shots selected, 1 shot selected, 3 shots selected…) and four rows; on iPhone a bar along the bottom shows the same.
• Copy — puts the ticked shots on the copy board in board order and leaves Select mode (“Copied 3 shots”). Paste them with a tile’s ⋯ → Paste.
• Duplicate — asks Duplicate Shots?, then adds each copy right after its original.
• Delete — asks Delete Shots? (“This cannot be undone.”). If your ticks cover every shot of a scene, that scene is deleted too, and the confirm says so.
• Cancel, or Escape, leaves Select mode. Copy, Duplicate and Delete are grayed out until something is ticked.
• If all the ticked shots are in one scene, hold a ticked tile to drag them together as a block.

The side panel

On Mac and iPad, in either orientation, the side panel is always on screen at the right of the board, and the grid reflows to make room. iPhone (and very narrow iPad windows) has no side panel: use the tile chips, the ⋯ menus, Edit coverage and the ☰ menu instead.

With a shot selected, the panel shows:

• A header with the shot number and the scene slugline, e.g. 3B - EXT. SUBURBAN – NIGHT, and × to deselect.
• A large preview, where the selected shot’s video plays. Once the shot has a picture (a render, a still or a video), tap the preview to see it full screen; tap anywhere, the × (Close full screen) or Escape to close it.
• The action rows. In a fresh scene (a single shot nobody has edited yet) they are Sketch with AI, Build in 3D, AI Studio and Coverage. For any other shot they are Edit in 3D, AI Studio and Coverage; to redo such a shot with AI, use AI Studio (its Create or Enhance tab). A shot showing a still image or an AI video gets Revert to Live (“Back to the live 3D render”) in place of Build in 3D / Edit in 3D.
• Build in 3D / Edit in 3D opens the shot in the Canvas Editor, the same as the tile’s 3D chip.
• AI Studio (“Create, enhance & edit with AI”) opens AI Studio on this shot, on its Enhance tab. Closing AI Studio brings you back to the Boards tab.
• Below a divider, Shot info, Scene info and Project info.

Shot info, Scene info and Project info open inside the panel on Mac and iPad and as a centered card on iPhone. Only one is open at a time. You can also drop an image on the panel to put it on its shot (see Drag and drop images). A read-only project’s panel shows only the Coverage row.

Sketch with AI. The board’s AI dialog opens from the panel row (fresh scenes) and from the Add new shot and Insert shot choosers (the shot is created only when you apply). It opens on its Create side (restyling an existing frame is AI Studio’s Enhance tab) and has an Open AI Studio hand-off. Full details are in Sketch with AI.

Coverage. In an editable project the Coverage row (“View/Edit Scene Coverage”) opens the scene’s Coverage overview, the same as the header’s Edit coverage; with no script imported it offers to import one. In a read-only project the row opens a Coverage view inside the panel instead: the scene’s script with each shot’s coverage drawn as colored lines, closed with Close. See Script lining. The Coverage row is hidden during a guided tour.

Project Actions

When no shot is selected, the side panel on Mac and iPad shows the project’s title and a list of project-wide actions. Apart from AI Studio, every row here is also in the ☰ menu, which is where iPhone finds them.

• Project info (“Title, aspect ratio & format”) — opens Project info in the panel.
• AI Studio (“Create, enhance & edit with AI”) — opens AI Studio with nothing selected, on its Create tab (see Create). Editable projects only.
• Export (“PDF, MP4, & PNG/JPEG”) — opens the export panel (see Export). Grayed out while an AI generation is running.
• Import From Project (“Reuse scenes from another project”) — see Import From Project.
• What’s New (a dot appears when there is news), Preferences and Contact Us.
• At the bottom: the app version, your plan (for example Yearly subscriber or Free user) and the account you are logged in as.

Shot info

Open it from the panel’s Shot info row or a tile’s ⋯ → Info. On Mac and iPad the board stays usable while it is open, and tapping another tile switches Shot info to that shot.

• It saves as you go. Each change is written straight away (Notes once you pause typing), a quiet Saving… line shows while it saves, and Done simply closes.
• Header: the shot number and slugline. The pencil (Edit shot details) opens a drawer with Shot: (the number, up to 8 characters) and the shot name, with Cancel and Save. Plain letters are reserved for automatic numbering, so a custom label needs a digit or a separator.
• Metadata (open by default; tap to collapse): Duration in seconds and frames, Size, Movement, Angle, Equipment, Framing, Focus and Frame Rate. Size, Angle, Equipment and Framing accept several choices. Duration and Movement are locked for animatic shots. See Shot metadata.
• Notes, the Transparent scene floor checkbox, and Post-Processing. The thumbnail at the top previews floor and Post-Processing changes.
• Footer icons: Duplicate shot and Delete Shot (unavailable for a scene’s only shot).

Scene info

Open it from the panel’s Scene info row or the scene menu’s Info; it also opens by itself after Add scene and Insert Scene. Unlike Shot info, nothing is saved until you tap Apply. Cancel throws your edits away, and so does Escape or tapping the dimmed board. If you had changed anything, a Changes applied or Changes discarded toast tells you which happened. The header shows the scene’s number and slugline, and updates as you edit.

• Scene: the number (up to 12 characters; locked while numbering is locked). Plain numbers are reserved for automatic numbering, so add a letter or symbol for a custom label.
• Type (INT | EXT | INT/EXT) and Time (Day | Night | Twilight). If the scene has custom lighting, changing either asks Reset Lighting?; if you picked a non-default floor, changing Type asks Reset Floor?
• Floor (preview and list) and Sky (preview and Edit, which opens the scene’s lighting editor; see Scene lighting).
• Location (None or one of the project’s locations) with New to add one. If you pick a location whose name matches a set in your set library, Matching set found offers to add that set’s objects to the scene.
• Save as Set saves the scene to your set library under the location’s name, with no name prompt. It is grayed out when the scene has no location. If that set name already exists, Set already exists offers Replace.
• Add existing set › opens the Set Library.
• Notes and Post-Processing.
• Footer icons: Duplicate scene and Delete Scene.

After an Apply, the shots whose look changed are re-rendered (see Rendering progress).

Set Library

Scene info → Add existing set › opens the Set Library as a sheet on the right (a centered card on iPhone). Pick a set from the list, which is grouped Built In and Custom (the sets you saved). The large preview and its thumbnails show what the set looks like; older sets may show No preview available.

• Done adds the selected set to the scene straight away; Cancel closes.
• A custom set can be removed with Delete (“This will permanently delete … from your set library.”).
• Sets can’t be added to a scene that has animatic shots.

For what sets are and how to build them, see Sets.

Project info

Open it from Project Actions, the panel’s Project info row, or ☰ → Project info. On the Boards tab it opens in the side panel on Mac and iPad, and as a centered card on iPhone. Like Scene info it uses Apply and Cancel, with the same toasts. The header shows the project name; its pencil lets you rename the project.

• Camera preview: a rendered sample frame at your chosen aspect ratio, sensor, Post-Processing and Tone Mapping, captioned with the aspect ratio and sensor.
• Aspect Ratio and Camera Sensor. A sensor change updates every shot’s field of view (see Camera sensors).
• Post-Processing and Tone Mapping (see Tone mapping).
• Miscellaneous: Show Camera Equipment, Show Lighting Equipment and Animatic Frame Rate (30, 25 or 24 fps, used for exported animatics).
• Watermark & Logo ›: a Watermark Image and a Logo Image (tap Import Image, or tap an image to replace it), a Show in exports switch for each, a Transparency slider for the watermark, Delete, and Custom export text (with the switch on and the field empty, exports read “Made with Previs Pro”). Importing, deleting and the Show in exports switches take effect immediately; Transparency and the custom text wait for Apply.
• Numbering/Locking › opens Project Numbering: the Scene/Shot Separator, the Lock script switch, Renumber, revision styles, the starting scene number and letters or digits for shots. Lock script and Renumber ask first and then act immediately. See Numbering.

Applying a new aspect ratio, sensor, Post-Processing or Tone Mapping re-renders the board, and then re-renders your animatic videos to match (see Rendering progress).

Drag and drop images

You can drag image files (PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF and other image types) onto the board on Mac, iPad and iPhone. A ring highlights the target. Drops work in editable projects only, and not in Select mode or while a dialog covers the board.

Each picture becomes the shot’s static image (badge Static image), with a 3D shot underneath. Revert to Live brings that 3D shot back at any time. Preparing image… shows while the system hands over the file, which can take a second or two on iPad and iPhone. If the image can’t be read or applied you’ll see Couldn’t apply the image. To do the same without dragging, use Import an image in the Add new shot chooser. For dropping scripts and .previs files, see Script import and Projects home.

Rendering progress

When shots need new thumbnails (opening a project with unrendered shots, after a Scene info or lighting change, after adding a set, or after a Project info look change), Previs Pro renders them in the background. Tiles that are still waiting shimmer.

• Smaller jobs show a pill with a progress bar at the bottom of the screen, on all three tabs: Preparing scenes, Rendering shots, Casting characters… or Rendering animatics; all but Casting characters… carry a count such as “12 of 40”. It fades out when the job is done.
• Jobs of 40 or more shots show a Preparing shots… card that covers the app until rendering finishes. If the progress hasn’t moved for 90 seconds, Continue in background appears and turns the card into the pill. Rendering carries on either way, and a long scene can show the button even when nothing is wrong.
• Rendering animatics is the last step after a project-wide look change: animatic videos that no longer match are rendered again.

Keyboard shortcuts and Escape

The shot shortcuts do nothing while you are typing in a field, while a dialog or menu is open, during the Getting started tour, or under the Preparing shots… card. Copy and paste also do nothing in a read-only project. With text selected, ⌘C copies the text as usual.

Escape steps back one level per press: first it closes whatever is open on top (a chooser, a dialog or confirm, the Coverage overview, the full-screen preview, Shot, Scene or Project info, or the ☰ menu); then it leaves Select mode; then it deselects the shot; and finally it closes the project and returns to the Projects home. It does nothing under the Preparing shots… card. For Escape on the Timeline, see Timeline Escape.

The Canvas Editor · Updated October 2026

The Canvas Editor (the 3D canvas) is where you stage one shot: place characters, props, walls, lights and cameras, then frame the shot through its camera. You open it from the Boards tab, and it fills the screen. Along the top bar are Back, Undo and Redo, the shot title, Script, ? (Previs Assist) and the ··· menu. The canvas is in the middle. The scene’s shot list runs down the right edge, with a column of mode tabs beside it (CAM, Viewer, AR, Animatics). Selecting an object brings up its object menu.

Where to find it

• Panel: Boards tab → tap the 3D button on a shot tile, double-tap (or double-click) the tile, or select the shot and tap Edit in 3D in the side panel (Build in 3D in a scene nobody has worked in yet)
• Target ID: canvasEditor.root
• Shortcut: Escape goes back to the Boards tab

A shot that shows an image or a video has no 3D button and doesn’t open on a double-tap: its tile shows Revert to Live in the bottom-right corner, and the side panel shows it in place of the Edit in 3D row. An animatic shot opened with its 3D button or a double-tap goes straight into the Animatic view.

Back (the arrow at the far left of the top bar) returns to the Boards tab with the shot you were last on in the canvas selected, and refreshes that shot’s thumbnail. With a keyboard, Escape does the same when no mode is active. Inside a mode it backs out of that mode instead: it cancels Pose Mode, leaves Look at, and closes a finished orbit. Escape does nothing in the Animatic view.

First-visit tips

The first time you open the canvas in one of your own projects, a short walkthrough points an arrow at each main control in turn:

1. CAM button — Fine-tune the camera position
2. Viewer button — Preview your entire scene
3. AR button — Project your shot in the real world (only on devices that support AR)
4. Animatics button — Turn this shot into an entire animatic sequence
5. 2D/3D toggle — Switch between overhead and 3D views
6. Add a new object — Add a new camera, character, prop, light, or wall to the shot
7. Add a new shot — Add a new shot to the scene
8. Script — View your script for this scene (only when the project has a script)
9. Back button — Return to the Board view

Each card shows its place (for example “1 / 9”). Tap Next, or anywhere outside the card, to move on; the last card says Got it!. Press Escape to skip the rest. If the shot list is closed, it slides open for the add-shot step and closes again afterwards.

The tips show once: after you finish or skip them, they don’t come back. They don’t appear in the bundled projects (the New user guides’ tutorial copies and the Example scene), and they wait while a guided tour is running, while the shot shows an image, video or animatic, or while a mode, the Script panel, the add-object menu or a popup is open.

Canvas & Modes

The middle of the screen is the canvas. The 2D / 3D switch (at the foot of the shot list) flips between a top-down overhead view and a full 3D view. The modes live in the tab column beside the shot list: CAM edits the shot through its camera, Viewer previews every shot in the scene, AR places your scene in the real world (iPhone and iPad), and Animatics turns the shot into a keyframed animatic sequence. The pencil beside the 2D/3D switch adds objects.

Canvas UI elements at a glance

Every persistent control on the canvas, where it lives, and how it's referenced internally. If you're looking for "where do I find X?", check here first.

Tap the pencil at the foot of the shot list to open the add-object menu (it takes the place of Draw Mode and its Add Objects tray from earlier versions). The pencil sits right of the 2D/3D switch when the window is tall enough for the open menu to clear the tab column (CAM, Viewer, AR, Animatics), and left of the switch in a shorter window. Six rows open above it, top to bottom: Import, Wall, Camera, Character, Light and Prop, and the pencil becomes a down chevron. Each row opens that object’s picker or editor, and the new object lands in the middle of your view (in 3D it’s selected for you). If you cancel the editor that opens for a new camera, wall or light, the object is removed again. When the pencil sits right of the switch, the menu stays open after you pick a row or tap the canvas, so you can add several things in a row; tap the chevron to close it, and it also closes when you select another shot or leave the canvas. When it sits left of the switch (a short window, such as a phone held sideways), the menu closes as soon as you pick a row or tap anything else, such as an object on the canvas or one of the tabs. The pencil stays available while an object is selected, but hides while a mode (Pose, Look at, grouping, the orbit, the Animatic view) is active or the shot shows an image, video or animatic.

3D Canvas

This is the primary working view. It shows the scene in full 3D allowing you to place characters, build sets, and compose shots.

• 1-Finger Drag: Move around the canvas.
• 2-Finger Vertical Drag (iOS/iPadOS only): Tilt the canvas view.
• 2-Finger Rotate: Rotate the canvas.
• Pinch/Pull: Zoom out/in.
• Mac: scroll or use the − / + buttons to zoom, and tilt with the tilt slider beside the compass (or Option-drag in the Mac app). The tilt slider and zoom buttons don’t appear on iPhone or iPad.

Object Controls — when you select an object in the 3D canvas, a row of edit toggles appears at the lower left. With a keyboard, Tab / Shift+Tab step through them and the arrow keys nudge the object along the active tool.

• Movement — Slide the object across the floor.
• Height — Raise or lower the object.
• Rotation — Rotate the object around the available axes.
• Aperture — Adjust a camera’s focal length. Displays current focal length with prime lens indicator. (Camera-only)
• Cone — Adjust a spotlight’s cone angle. (Spotlights only)
• Scale — Scale an object when applicable.
• Pose Mode — Manual posing for custom characters, including imported characters that meet the skeleton requirements (see Posing).

Orbit — 3D canvas only. The orbit button under the compass plays a camera orbit around your scene. When it finishes, tap Replay to watch it again, Record to capture it as a screen recording, or Done. Shortcut: O.

2D Canvas (Overhead View)

A top-down birds-eye view of the scene. Useful for blocking actor positions, planning movement paths, and seeing the spatial layout. In Animatic mode, object movement paths appear as dotted trails with Bezier curve nodes.

Canvas drawings — Draw Mode (formerly opened with Cmd+E, an Apple Pencil double-tap or an earlier pencil button) has been retired. The pencil at the foot of the shot list now opens the add-object menu. Freehand drawings already in older projects still show on the canvas; select one to Lock, Hide or Delete it. To mark up a shot now, use Draw in the Timeline viewer (see Doodle Annotations).

CAM Mode (Camera View)

Shows exactly what the shot’s camera sees (Director’s View). This is the view used for shot composition and the one captured as the shot thumbnail. Tap the CAM tab to enter; you can move the camera and frame your shot directly. Double-tapping a live shot in the shot list opens it too.

Focal Length Slider — Adjustable slider with 17 standard prime focal lengths from wide to telephoto: 10, 15, 20, 24, 28, 32, 35, 40, 50, 65, 70, 85, 100, 105, 135, 200, 270 mm. Current focal length and prime lens name are displayed. With a full-frame camera sensor (see camera sensors), the slider snaps to these primes and marks them along the track; with other sensors it moves freely.

Focus/Depth of Field Controls:

• OFF / AF / MF toggle to select the focus mode (off, auto, manual).
• Visual focus point — with focus on (AF or MF), tap an object to focus on it.
• Aperture (f-stop) slider controls aperture size. (Manual-only)
• Focus distance slider controls the distance within focus. (Manual-only)

Composition Guides — tap the grid button at the top-left to pick overlays:

• Rule of Thirds
• Quadrants
• Diagonals
• Reciprocal Diagonals
• Golden Ratio

CAM view UI elements:

CAM gestures:

• 1-finger drag — Pan and tilt the camera.
• 2-finger horizontal drag — Truck sideways.
• 2-finger vertical drag — Pedestal up or down.
• Pinch — Dolly in or out (on a Mac you can also scroll).
• 2-finger twist — Dutch roll.
• Tap — With focus on, set the focus point.

Viewer

The Viewer tab (under CAM) shows all of the scene’s shots as a grid. Use + and − to change the grid size, play the shots through as a slideshow, or tap a shot to see it full screen with its notes. Double-tap the notes in the full-screen view to open Shot info. The Viewer tab is hidden in the Animatic view.

Animatics Mode

Animatic Mode transforms the canvas into a keyframe animation editor. The vertical Shot List is replaced by a horizontal continuing shot list, and animation controls overlay the canvas. Available in both 2D and 3D views. See the Animatics section for full details.

Animatics Canvas UI:

• Animatics title bar — Replaces the standard title bar with the shot name, Undo, Redo, Done, Export and ?.
• Continuing shot list — A horizontal row of the sequence’s shots for managing the animatic.
• Progress slider — Horizontal scrubber with keyframe indicators (visual dots marking keyframe positions).
• Play / Stop buttons for animation preview.
• Loop toggle — Continuously replay the animation.
• 2D / 3D / Fullscreen playback view buttons — Switch between overhead, 3D, and fullscreen preview during playback.
• Motion path visualization — Position curves (spline paths), velocity curves, and timing markers (second markers on the path) appear in both 2D and 3D views.
• Leaving the Animatic view — two ways out. A tab appears right under CAM in the tab column; tap it to return to the regular canvas. Done in the title bar also returns to the canvas, except when you opened the animatic from the Boards tab (its 3D button or a double-tap): then Done takes you back to the Boards tab, and the tab under CAM is the way into the regular canvas. Either way, a changed animatic renders its video first. (Viewer, AR and the Animatics tab hide while you’re in the Animatic view.)

AR Mode

In AR Mode, the canvas is replaced by the device camera feed with virtual objects overlaid in the real world. Supports both life-size and tabletop scaling, with plane detection, scene placement, and frame selection. AR is available on iPhone and iPad models that support it, not on a Mac. See Environments > AR Mode for the full walkthrough.

Gizmos

Tapping an object in any canvas reveals the Gizmo for moving, rotating, or scaling along X, Y, and Z axes. With a keyboard, Tab / Shift+Tab step through the editing tools in 3D, W A S D nudge the selected object (hold Shift for bigger steps), and Q / E rotate it. See Canvas keyboard shortcuts.

Selected-object handles (3D canvas):

Handle types vary by context:

• Translation arrows — Drag to move on XZ plane or Y axis.
• Rotation rings — Drag to rotate around X, Y, or Z axes, plus a Spin handle.
• Scale box — Drag to uniformly scale.
• Aperture handles — Adjust camera focal length or spotlight cone angle directly via the gizmo.
• Stretch handles — Resize walls and blocks along individual dimensions.

Object Context Menus

Open the horizontal context menu on any object:

• Mac: click the object. Selecting it opens the menu.
• iPad / iPhone: tap the object. A single tap both selects it and reveals the menu. Tapping elsewhere (or starting to move/rotate the object) dismisses the menu silently — there's no close button.

Available actions depend on the object type:

• Common (characters, cameras, lights, props, walls): Edit, Duplicate, Delete, Lock/Unlock, Copy (Copy+ adds to what you’ve already copied) and Group; Hide/Unhide on characters, walls and props. More actions sit behind the ▶ arrow.
• Characters: Pose, Expression, Look at, Mirror. Pose, Look at and Expression are hidden for a custom character that can’t be posed or has no expressions.
• Cameras: the shot camera has PiP, Movement and Tracking and can’t be deleted; another camera in the shot has Enable instead.
• Lights: Gobo (spotlights).
• Props: Replace, Mirror; image props have Background and Face camera instead of Replace.
• Walls: Add Opening.
• Set pieces: objects can no longer be made into set pieces, but an object that is still one (from an older project) offers Remove from Set.
• Grouped objects: Lock and Hide aren’t offered while an object is in a group.
• Freehand drawings: Lock/Unlock, Hide/Unhide, Delete.

Shot-level actions (Info, Insert, Copy, Paste, Delete, Combine) are in the shot menu, not in object menus.

What "Lock" actually does

Lock freezes an object’s transform — it can’t be moved, rotated, or scaled, and the gizmo won’t engage on it. Locked objects can still be selected (so you can re-open the context menu to unlock them) and the canvas can still drag past them to pan. If you’re bumping the lock on a prop you wish you couldn’t even click, Hide it instead — Hide removes the object from the canvas surface until you Unhide.

Multi-Selection & Grouping

Tap Group in an object’s menu (behind the ▶ arrow) to pick more objects (“Select objects to group together”). Group isn’t offered for locked or hidden objects, or for set pieces. The multi-selection overlay provides:

• Group — Combine selected objects into a group.
• Add to group — Adds the object you just tapped to the selection.
• Ungroup all — Break apart all groups in the selection.
• Done / Cancel to confirm or discard the grouping operation.
• A 2D/3D mode switch is available during multi-selection.

Static Image & Video Overlays

A shot can show a still image, a video or an animatic instead of the live 3D render (added on the board or in AI Studio). In the canvas it covers the 3D view:

• Image or video shots show Static image in use or Static video in use with a Revert to Live to make changes button. Reverting an image asks Delete Image (“Do you really want to delete the image?”); reverting a video asks Revert to Live (“Are you sure you want to clear this video?”). Either way the shot goes back to its live 3D render.
• Animatic shots show Animatics shot and play the rendered animatic when one is available, with Edit animatic (opens the Animatic view) and Revert animatic (deletes the continuing shots and leaves one static shot — this can’t be undone).
• While a media shot covers the canvas, the pencil (add-object menu), the 2D/3D switch, the AR tab, the compass and the orbit button are hidden (and the Animatics tab over images and videos). CAM stays available.

Paste Clipboard

After copying objects, a clipboard control appears showing the item count with Paste and Clear buttons.

Canvas keyboard shortcuts

With a hardware keyboard (Mac, or iPad with a keyboard), these work in the canvas. The full list for the whole app is in Keyboard Shortcuts.

The Canvas Menu, Scene info & Shot info

The ··· at the far right of the top bar opens a menu over the live canvas:

• Scene info and Shot info — the scene’s and the current shot’s settings (see Scene info and Shot info).
• Export (PDF, MP4, & PNG/JPEG) — the export options. Unavailable for an omitted scene.
• Export 3D — opens 3D Export Options, where you choose which cameras, lights, characters, props, walls and other objects to include.
• What’s New, Contact Us and Preferences.

Tapping the shot title in the top bar also opens Scene info, and the shot menu’s Info opens Shot info. Scene info and Shot info look exactly as they do on the board at the same window size: a centered card on a small window, a sheet docked on the right otherwise. Your changes apply to the live canvas.

Preferences opened from the canvas work as they do elsewhere, except that the language can’t be changed there (“Exit the canvas to change the language”). The canvas’s snapping options live in Preferences → Snapping: Snap to Edit Camera, Snap to Canvas Object and Snap to Director View, all on by default.

The menu in CAM mode opens the same overlay; there Scene info is unavailable, and Shot info is unavailable while you’re editing the camera.

Coverage overview (the Script button)

When the project has an imported script, the Script button (page icon, top bar) slides in a panel from the left with the Coverage overview for the canvas’s scene — the same table as the board’s Coverage overview, in its compact form. Use it to adjust the scene’s shots while you look at them in 3D.

• Existing shots only. The canvas panel edits the shots the scene already has. It has no Suggest coverage (nothing here spends credits), no set row, and no way to add or delete shots. Why these shots? is still there when the shots carry AI rationales.
• Changes save as you make them. There is no Apply or Cancel: every edit is written to its shot at once. Close the panel with the × in its top-right corner.
• Columns. Each row shows the shot number (#), Size and Angle, plus more columns when the panel is wide enough. The row’s ··· (More fields) opens the rest, such as Move, Lens, Dur, In frame and Description.
• Lens is in the canvas’s millimeters. The Lens value is the same number the shot’s tile in the shot list shows. Changing the lens of the shot you have open re-frames the live camera in 2D and 3D at once (and can be undone); a changed shot’s thumbnail re-renders a moment after your last change. Lens changes you make in the canvas (the aperture handle, CAM mode, Undo/Redo) show up in the panel too.
• Script view. View coverage at the bottom swaps the table for the script with each shot’s coverage lines; View shots swaps back. Select a shot’s row to line it: tap script elements to add them to that shot’s coverage, optionally pick a color, then tap Done.

The panel isn’t available in the Animatic view. If you leave it open when you go back to the board, it opens again the next time you enter the canvas.

The Shot List (Right Sidebar)

The "spine" of your production. A vertical stack of thumbnails on the right edge representing the linear progression of your scene. Each label shows the shot number, the shot’s name (or, without one, a summary such as its size, movement and angle), and its focal length. The number is gray while numbering is locked, and red for a variant number.

• Select: Tap a thumbnail to jump to that camera setup (this also clears any selected object).
• Shot menu: Tap the selected shot again, or tap a shot’s label, to open its menu.
• Double-tap: On a live shot, opens CAM mode; on an animatic shot, opens the Animatic view; on an image or video shot, offers Revert to Live.
• Reorder: Long-press a shot (about half a second), then drag it up or down.
• Add the next shot: The key to speed — build shot A (your master), tap the dashed Add shot tile after the last shot (it fills the same space as a shot, picture and label, with a small red +, so it looks the same in every aspect ratio; or tap the + at the bottom of the list while the tile is out of view) to get shot B as a copy of the scene’s last shot at the end of the scene, then move the camera. Characters and props stay where they were, so continuity holds between shots. To add a copy right after a shot in the middle, use Insert in its shot menu.
• Show or hide the list: Use its tab, or drag the list sideways.
• Next / previous shot: Option+Cmd+→ / ←.

The shot menu offers:

• Info — opens Shot info.
• Insert — adds a copy of the shot right after it (it gets a variant number when numbering is locked).
• Copy and Paste — Paste appears only when something is copied: a copied shot, or copied objects (Paste (N) for several).
• Delete — only when the scene has more than one shot. The Delete Shot confirmation also warns when the shot’s audio clips will be removed with it.
• Combine — for live and animatic shots (not image shots) in a scene with at least two shots. It opens Add to Animatic, where you choose other shots of the scene to add to this shot’s animatic. See Animatics.

Object Menus & Info Panels

When you select an object in the canvas (3D or 2D), a horizontal action menu appears with options for that object type (see Object Context Menus). Edit opens the object’s editor: Edit Camera (lens and camera settings), Edit Light, Edit Wall or Edit Prop. Shot-level settings are in Shot info, from the shot menu’s Info or the ··· menu.

Environments · Updated October 2026

Walls & Set Building

Build your environment with walls and props. In the Canvas Editor, tap the pencil beside the 2D/3D switch at the bottom of the shot list and choose Wall, Prop or Light. The menu’s other rows are Camera, Character and Import, and it stays open until you close it, so you can place several things in a row. The scene’s floor and sky aren’t placed as objects; set them in Scene info.

• Tap the pencil → Wall to add a wall. The Edit Wall panel opens so you can size it right away; Cancel removes the new wall.
• Use the Gizmo to stretch walls to match the dimensions of your location.
• To change a wall later, tap it and choose Edit. Edit Wall sets the Texture, Wall Color and Wall Height. It also takes an exact length and height (Set Dimensions) or one of the Preset Sizes (4 x 8, 4 x 10, 4 x 12, 4 x 14).
• Cut doors and windows into a wall with Add Opening, which you’ll find in both the wall’s menu and Edit Wall. The Prop Library also has Doors and Windows categories.

Props & Set Dressing

The built-in Prop Library holds hundreds of props. They’re sorted into categories such as Furniture, Vehicles, Interior, Exterior and Nature, and there’s a search box. Tap the pencil → Prop to open Add Prop:

• New Prop picks a prop from the library.
• Create Custom generates one with AI (see AI Prop Generation below).
• Your Prop Library reuses props that are already in this project’s library.

Props & Sets

Props exist per-shot — moving a prop in one shot does not affect other shots. To reuse a whole room in other scenes, save it as a set and add it to those scenes; see Sets & Locations.

Duplicate vs. shared props

When you Duplicate a prop, the copy is an independent object. Resizing, rotating or moving the duplicate doesn’t affect the original or any other copies. This is what most people want when they place multiple chairs around a table.

Size, position and rotation always belong to the one placement you’re editing, so resizing a prop never resizes its copies. A prop placed from Your Prop Library does share its name, type, color and image with that library entry. Changing one of those updates every placement of it.

When you save a scene with Save as Set and add that set to another scene with Add existing set, the added objects are copies. Edits in scene B don’t echo back to scene A. Every shot in scene B also gets its own copy, so moving a set piece in one shot leaves the other shots alone.

The case where edits do propagate globally is the cast. Characters are global, so editing a cast member in one shot changes them everywhere. See the Cast List for the workaround: duplicate the cast member to get an independent entry, e.g. “Bond — Suit” vs. “Bond — Tux”. The copy button is on their card in Breakdown › Cast.

Per-Shot Object Limits

These limits apply per shot, not per scene. Imported 3D models count toward the props limit and use more memory than built-in library props.

A project also has a cap on imported assets in total: imported characters, images and props count together. When you reach it, Previs Pro shows Imported Asset Limit, and you’ll need to delete some of them before you can import more.

AI Prop Generation

If the library lacks a specific item, generate one: tap the pencil → Prop → Create Custom to open Describe Prop.

1. Type a short description of at least 3 characters, e.g. “1950s toaster”.
2. Tap Create (15cr). A unique 3D model is generated via AI.

This costs 15 credits and needs an internet connection and a signed-in account. Tapping Create without a usable description shows Prompt Required and nothing is generated. See AI 3D Generation.

3D Model Import

Import custom .glTF / .glb models from third-party tools (Blender, SketchFab, Polycam, etc.). See 3D Model Import below.

Sets & Locations

A set is a saved copy of a room that you can add to any scene: the walls, props and lights you built. Every shot owns its own objects, and anything you build exists only in that shot. Sets are how you reuse a room instead of building it again.

Where to find it

• Panel: Scene info. You can open it from three places: Info in a scene’s menu on the Boards tab, the Scene info row in the board’s side panel, or Scene info in the Canvas Editor’s menu. The rows you need are Location, Save as Set and Add existing set.
• Platforms: iPhone, iPad and Mac. The set rows appear only in the app, on a project you can edit.

Locations

Each scene’s Location is chosen in Scene info. Pick one of the project’s locations or None, or tap New to add one in New Location. When you import a screenplay, the locations come from the script’s sluglines. You can rename, merge and duplicate them in Breakdown › Locations.

Save a scene as a set

1. Build the room in the scene’s first shot, because only that shot is saved.
2. In Scene info, give the scene a Location. Save as Set stays unavailable until the scene has one.
3. Tap Save as Set. The set is saved under the location’s name, and saving can take up to about 45 seconds.

Characters aren’t saved with a set. If a set with that name already exists, Previs Pro asks Set already exists; tap Replace to overwrite it.

Your saved sets are stored on the device. They’re available in all your projects there, but they don’t carry over to your other devices.

Add a set to a scene

1. In Scene info, tap Add existing set. The Set Library opens.
2. Choose a set from the Set Library dropdown. The sets that come with the app are listed under Built In (a few come in more than one version), and your own under Custom. A preview shows the set; tap the thumbnails to see its other views when it has more than one.
3. Tap Done.

The set’s objects are copied into every shot of the scene. Each shot gets its own copy, so moving a set piece in one shot leaves the other shots alone. Adding a set also brings in its floor and sky, and in the scene’s first shot the set’s camera becomes the active camera.

Sets can’t be added to a scene that has animatic shots. To delete one of your own sets, select it in the Set Library and tap Delete; the sets that come with the app can’t be deleted. See also Set Library.

Matching set found: if you choose a Location whose name matches one of your saved sets, Previs Pro offers to add that set’s objects to the scene. Tap Add set to accept.

With Suggest coverage: the board’s coverage dialog has its own Set dropdown, with None, Generate Background, or one of your Built-in or Custom sets. The AI’s pick appears beside it as Suggested set: …, but it’s never chosen for you. A set you pick there is added to the scene when the shots are created. See Suggest coverage.

Augmented Reality (AR) Mode

Use your physical location as the set. AR mode runs on iPhone and iPad and uses Apple’s ARKit; a LiDAR sensor isn’t required. It isn’t available on macOS.

1. Tap AR in the column of buttons beside the shot list; the column also holds CAM and the Animatics button. When asked to proceed to augmented reality mode, tap Enter. Don’t show this again skips that question in future. AR isn’t offered while the shot is an image, a video or an animatic.
2. Scan: Point the device at the floor and move slowly to detect the plane. On-screen hints help, such as “Move your device around to find a flat surface” and “Move your device around more slowly”.
3. Anchor: Tap the grid to lock the virtual world to the real world (“Tap to place your shot”).
4. Block: Place virtual characters into your real environment.
5. Walk: Physically walk around the virtual actors holding the device like a camera viewfinder.

AR mode supports both life-size and tabletop scaling, plus PoseCap and FaceCap while in AR.

AR view UI elements:

Options holds these toggles: Show walls, Lights on/off, Show stage floor, Show matte, Show equipment and New shot background. If a new shot’s background image can’t be saved because the project already holds too many images, you’ll see Too Many Images. Delete some images or turn off New shot background.

While recording, the screen shows “Screen recording starting…”; tap anywhere to stop. For a walkthrough, the AR viewer card in New user guides on the Projects home plays a video in your browser.

3D Model Import

Import custom 3D assets from external scanning or modeling tools:

1. Scan a room using a 3D scanning app (e.g., Polycam, RealityKit) or create a model in Blender, Cinema 4D, Maya, etc.
2. Export as .glTF or .glb.
3. In Previs Pro, tap the pencil → Import → 3D Prop or Set. Use 3D Character instead for a rigged person; see Importing a Custom Rigged Character. In Recently Imported, tap the folder icon to pick the file from your device. The magnifying glass opens a Sketchfab search in your browser.
4. Use the scale tool to ensure the model is 1:1 for accurate lens simulation.

Supported formats

Previs Pro accepts glTF 2.0 — either the single-file .glb (binary) or the multi-file .gltf + textures bundle. We chose glTF because it is the open, modern, widely-supported transport format for the web and AR ecosystem.

If your source tool only exports .fbx, .obj, .dae, .skp (SketchUp), .3ds, or .usdz, convert to glTF first. The most reliable path is to open the file in Blender (free) and use File > Export > glTF 2.0 (.glb). Online converters like aspose.app/3d work for simple geometry but can drop textures and materials on complex models.

Tips for clean imports

• Keep textures in the same folder as the .gltf file when importing a multi-file glTF bundle. A single-file .glb embeds them automatically.
• Keep polygon counts modest. Previs Pro auto-simplifies on import to fit the device’s memory budget, but a 5M-triangle photogrammetry scan can take a long time to process. If you have a tool like RapidPipeline, gridded mesh decimators in Blender (Modifier > Decimate), or the optimize/decimate export option in your scanning app, run it before importing. Aim for under ~200k triangles per single prop and under ~1M for a whole set.
• Use meters as the unit. glTF stores positions in meters by convention. If your source tool uses centimeters or inches, the imported object can land 100× too big or 0.025× too small. Either correct the export units or rescale once with the Scale gizmo in Previs Pro’s 3D Canvas.
• Apply transforms before export. In Blender, “Object > Apply > All Transforms” before exporting eliminates surprise pivots and rotations.
• One model per import. If you have a set built from many separate components, joining them in your DCC tool produces a cleaner single asset in Previs Pro and counts as one prop against the per-shot 100-prop limit.
• LiDAR scans. Polycam, Scaniverse, and similar apps can export .glb directly — this is the recommended path for capturing real locations. See the Discontinued & Replaced note on LiDAR for context.

If a model imports as solid gray, the materials didn’t survive the export. Re-export with embedded textures, or use the glb (binary) variant which bundles them automatically.

See also: Props & Images articles and Walls articles on the support site.

Characters · Updated October 2026

The Cast List

Characters are global assets: edit a cast member and they update across all scenes and shots. Your project’s cast lives in Breakdown › Cast, where every row shows the character’s headshot.

• On an expanded card, tap the headshot or Edit character to open the Character Creator.
• Add character at the top of the tab builds a new cast member in the Character Creator.

A cast member whose body wasn’t made in the Character Creator (an imported, ActorGen or older character) shows Update model instead of Edit character. It replaces their body with a new one. If the current body is an imported or generated one, Previs Pro first warns you that it will be replaced and deleted, and that this can’t be undone. Then pick a source in Replace Character. From Breakdown, only Character Creator works there for now; the other sources show Coming Soon! and return you to the list.

When you import a screenplay, your cast is created for you. Each character in the script gets a ready-made body chosen to fit their description; you’ll see Casting characters… while the board opens. You can edit any of them later like any other cast member.

A new scene, and a new project’s first scene, also start with two ready-made people in the shot. They aren’t in your cast yet. Select one, choose Edit, then Body: Previs Pro asks for a name and adds that person to the cast before the Character Creator opens.

In the Canvas Editor, the pencil → Character opens Add Character:

• New Character — build a realistic custom person in the Character Creator. You pick a body, then dial in skin, hair, eyes and an outfit, with no AI credits and no external tools.
• Create Custom — generate a character from a text description with ActorGen. This needs an internet connection.
• Your Cast — place someone who’s already in your cast. It’s unavailable while the cast is empty.

To bring in a character built in another tool, tap the pencil → Import → 3D Character and choose a .glb file. See Importing a Custom Rigged Character. Imported characters can carry blend shapes for facial expressions.

Character Creator

The Character Creator builds a realistic, fully-rigged 3D person right inside Previs Pro — no external tools, no AI credits. A live 3D preview updates as you make changes. When you save, the character drops straight into your Cast List, ready to pose and place. It’s available in the iPad, iPhone and Mac apps, and on iPhone it works in portrait as well as landscape.

To open it, tap Add character in Breakdown › Cast, or tap the pencil → Character → New Character in the Canvas Editor. A person made from the Canvas Editor is also placed in the current shot. One made from Breakdown › Cast joins the cast without being placed. The Casting guide on the Projects home walks you through it; see New user guides.

Drag the preview to turn the character; on a Mac trackpad, a two-finger sideways swipe turns it too. Customization is organized into tabs, listed here top to bottom. The creator opens on Body.

• Clothing — browse and equip outfits; the list shows the items that fit the selected body. The None tile removes the item.
• Footwear — browse and equip shoes.
• Hair — choose a hairstyle (or None) and set any Hair color from the presets or the full color picker. The reset button restores the default.
• Eyes & Eyewear — pick an Eye color and add Eyewear. Default restores the body’s own eye color.
• Body — pick a base model from the headshot grid: men, women and children across five ethnicities. Choose a Body shape (slim, athletic or plus; adult bodies only) and fine-tune Skin tone (Default resets it). Height isn’t set here. A new person starts at a standard height for their body type, and you can change it afterwards in their Edit Character panel.

Tap Save character and give the person a name in Name your character. A name that’s already in your cast is refused with “That name is already taken”. The person is then added to the cast — there’s no separate “add to cast” step.

Because characters are global, editing one later updates that character everywhere in the project, and the creator asks you to confirm. If you want an independent variant, duplicate the cast member first. Character Creator people include facial blend shapes, so the Expression option and FaceCap work on them.

Posing

• Custom Posing: Tap a specific body part (Head, Arm, Spine) to rotate it manually. This works on custom characters: Character Creator people, ActorGen characters, and imported rigged models that meet the skeleton requirements. The original built-in (legacy) characters are being retired. When you open the Character Creator from the pencil → Character in the Canvas Editor, its Use Legacy Characters button still adds one, after a notice that support will be removed in a future version.
• Pose Library: Preset poses are grouped as Standing, Sitting, Lying, Moving, Action, Gesture and Special. Your own saved poses are under Custom.
• Hand Presets: Detailed hand pose options. Characters without usable finger bones show Invalid Bone Setup - Hand Posing Disabled, and ActorGen characters don’t support hand poses.

PoseCap (AI Motion Capture)

Use the device camera to capture body poses and apply them to 3D characters instantly. Requires the rear-facing camera on an iPhone or iPad (front camera and Mac cameras are not supported).

1. Select a character.
2. Tap Pose > PoseCap.
3. Point the rear camera at a person, a photo, or even an image on a screen.
4. Use the 5-second timer or tap the capture button on the right side.
5. The app tracks the skeleton via ARKit and applies the pose to the 3D character.

Limitations: Apple's ARKit body tracking does not currently support hand poses or head/face orientation — only major body joints are captured.

Custom characters: PoseCap shows and drives the character you selected, so the pose you capture is the pose you see. That includes Character Creator people, ActorGen characters and posable imported characters. PoseCap (like FaceCap) isn’t offered for imported Ready Player Me web avatars or for characters on a Reallusion Character Creator (CC) skeleton.

Works in both standard and AR modes.

Importing a Custom Rigged Character

Yes — Previs Pro accepts custom rigged humanoid characters as .glb files (glTF 2.0 binary) whose skeleton meets the requirements below. To import one, tap the pencil → Import → 3D Character in the Canvas Editor.

Export from Blender, Mixamo, Ready Player Me, or any tool that produces glTF with those bone names. .fbx is not accepted, so convert FBX to GLB in Blender first. Non-humanoid rigs (creatures, four-legged animals, multi-armed designs) land in your project as static meshes. The geometry is there, but the Pose menu’s body-part controls won’t apply.

Requirements for posing

• T-pose. The rest (bind) pose must be a T-pose: arms straight out to the sides, each wrist level with its shoulder and not swung forward or back (within about 5% of the character’s height). A character in an A-pose or any other rest pose is recognized, but it imports with a warning and without posing.
• Bone names decide the skeleton type. Mixamo naming is the reference: a bone whose name contains both mixamo and Spine1 (normally mixamorig:Spine1) marks the rig as Mixamo. These bones must then exist, spelled exactly with the mixamorig: prefix (not mixamorig1: or another variant): Hips, Spine, Spine2, Head, LeftUpLeg, LeftLeg, LeftFoot, LeftArm, LeftForeArm, LeftHand and the Right equivalents. Neck, shoulders, toes, eyes and fingers are optional. The skeleton needs at least 20 bones.
• Other skeletons. Ready Player Me, Character Creator (CC1, CC3 / CC3+ and GameBase) and Apple ARKit skeletons are also recognized by their own bone names — keep the names your tool exports.
• Orientation. Y-up and facing +Z is ideal. For a recognized skeleton the importer stands the character up and turns it to face forward in 90° steps.
• Blend shapes are optional and never affect posing. Facial expressions use the 52 ARKit face shapes, named as ARKit names them (eyeBlink_L, jawOpen) or with Left/Right spelled out (eyeBlinkLeft).
• Reference file: a Mixamo character downloaded in T-pose and converted to .glb in Blender with the bone names untouched meets all of the above.

ActorGen (AI Character Generation)

ActorGen lets you create custom 3D characters from a text description, powered by a 3rd-party AI service. Characters are automatically rigged with a skeleton for posing and animation.

ActorGen is currently free while we improve the results, so the button reads Create (0cr). If a price returns, the button will show it before you tap.

1. Tap the pencil → Character → Create Custom. ActorGen needs an internet connection and a signed-in account.
2. In Describe Character, enter a short description of the character of at least 3 characters, e.g., “tall woman in a red dress, professional, 30s”. Then tap Create. Tapping it without a usable description shows Prompt Required.
3. The system generates the full 3D model, then automatically rigs it with a skeleton.
4. Progress shows Submitting request → Waiting in the queue → Generating → Rigging → Downloading, about two minutes in all.
5. Check the result in Final Inspection. If it faces the wrong way, turn it in 90° steps. If the shoulders look off, pick another body frame (Small, Medium or Large), which re-rigs it. Then name the character and save; they join your cast.

If the service is busy, you’ll see Tripo Service Busy; wait a minute and try again.

ActorGen characters are stored as custom characters in your cast. They can be posed, placed in any scene and animated in animatics. They don’t support facial Expressions or hand poses, as the note under the prompt says.

See also: Characters articles on the support site.

Camera & Cinematography · Updated October 2026

Previs Pro simulates physical cameras, not just 3D viewports.

Where to find it

• Project-wide: Project info → Aspect Ratio and Camera Sensor, with a camera preview at the top of the sheet.
• Per camera: in the Canvas Editor, select a camera to show its context menu (including Edit, plus Enable on an inactive camera or Tracking on the active one) and its lens toggle for focal length.
• Through the lens: CAM mode — the focal-length slider and depth of field (OFF / AF / MF).
• Add a camera: the pencil (beside the 2D/3D switch, at the bottom of the shot list) → Camera.

Optics & Sensors

Camera Sensors

Every camera in a project uses the project’s camera sensor. Choose it in Sensor size when you create a project or import a screenplay, or change it later in Project info → Camera Sensor. The camera preview at the top of Project info renders a sample scene through a 50mm lens with the sensor and Aspect Ratio you picked, so you can see the framing before you tap Apply.

Changing the sensor keeps every camera’s focal length and recalculates each shot’s field of view for the new sensor, as if you’d swapped camera bodies behind the same lenses. Shot thumbnails re-render to match.

Focal Length

Focal length is set per camera, in three places:

1. In the canvas: select the camera and turn on its lens toggle among the object’s edit controls. The focal length shows on screen; drag the handles that appear on the camera to widen or narrow its view.
2. In CAM mode: drag the focal-length slider along the bottom; the pill on the slider’s thumb shows the focal length.
3. In the Coverage overview: type a value in mm in a shot’s Lens cell (see Suggest coverage and the Canvas Editor’s Coverage overview).

The range runs from 10mm to 270mm, and new cameras start at 35mm (both full-frame equivalents). On a project whose sensor is Full frame 35mm, the slider snaps to 17 prime focal lengths: 10, 15, 20, 24, 28, 32, 35, 40, 50, 65, 70, 85, 100, 105, 135, 200 and 270 mm. Dots mark each prime, and devices with haptics give a click at each one. With any other sensor the slider moves freely. Field of view is calculated from the focal length, the project’s sensor and aspect ratio, and the lens squeeze if the camera has an anamorphic lens, matching how real cameras behave.

Anamorphic Lenses

Each camera can have a spherical or an anamorphic lens. Select the camera and tap Edit in its context menu, then in Edit Camera tap Lens type and pick 1.0x Spherical (the default) or a squeeze: 2.0x, 1.85x, 1.8x, 1.6x, 1.55x, 1.5x, 1.33x or 1.3x Anamorphic. That camera’s focal-length readouts take the squeeze into account.

Depth of Field

All depth-of-field controls are in CAM mode; there is no depth-of-field control anywhere else. Open CAM mode for the camera you want to focus, then use the OFF / AF / MF toggle:

1. OFF — no depth of field; everything is sharp. New shots start here.
2. AF (auto focus) — turning depth of field on focuses automatically. Tap anything in the picture to focus on it; AF also sets the aperture for you from the lens’s focal length.
3. MF (manual focus) — two sliders appear beside the picture: the aperture (the f-stop) on the left, where a lower f-stop gives a blurrier background, and the focus distance (the in-focus distance from the camera) on the right. The previous/next-shot arrows hide while they’re shown. Tapping the picture still sets the focus distance but leaves your aperture alone.

Depth of field is saved with the shot. A shot that shows a static image, a video or an animatic has no camera controls in CAM mode, so there’s no focal-length slider or focus toggle for it.

See also: Camera & Lights articles on the support site.

Director's View (CAM Mode)

Director’s View is CAM mode, the view through the shot’s active camera. Its controls and modes are documented under CAM mode: the focal-length slider, depth of field (OFF / AF / MF), grid lines, POST mode and camera tracking (CAM TRACKING).

Multiple Cameras Per Shot

A single shot can hold multiple cameras, but only one is active (rendering) at a time. This is useful when you want to keep several angle setups inside one shot — e.g., a master, an OTS, and a close-up — and switch between them without duplicating the shot.

1. Add another camera: tap the pencil (beside the 2D/3D switch, at the bottom of the shot list) → Camera. The new camera becomes the shot’s active camera and the previous one is disabled. If you cancel the Edit Camera panel that opens, the new camera is removed and the previous camera is active again.
2. Position and frame each camera independently.
3. To switch which camera renders the shot, select the camera you want (tap or click it) and tap Enable in its context menu. The previously active camera is disabled automatically.

A shot can hold up to 10 cameras.

If you want different camera angles to actually cut across the timeline (rather than just stage alternates inside one shot), duplicate the shot per angle and pick a different active camera in each — that’s the standard multicam cutting workflow.

Lighting & Atmosphere · Updated October 2026

Where to find it

• Add a light: in the Canvas Editor, tap the pencil (beside the 2D/3D switch, at the bottom of the shot list) → Light.
• Change a light: select it to show its context menu → Edit (opens Edit Light) or Gobo.
• A scene’s lighting, floor and sky: Scene info → Type, Time, Floor, and Sky → Edit. See Scene Lighting, Floor & Sky.
• The project’s look: Project info → Tone Mapping and Show Lighting Equipment.

Default Lighting

A new scene — one you add yourself or one created from a screenplay import — starts with a three-point lighting rig: three spotlights named Key Light, Fill Light and Back Light, aimed at the cast. All three cast soft shadows at full strength. Their colors follow the scene’s time of day: by day a warm key against a cooler fill and back light, at twilight a warm orange key and fill, and at night cool blue light. How bright they are depends on the scene’s Type and Time: the rig adds to the scene’s sun and ambient light, so it’s a subtle accent in a daytime exterior and does most of the work in interiors (which have no sun) and at night. They’re ordinary lights — move, edit, add a gobo to, or delete any of them.

Light Types

Editing a light

Select a light (tap or click it) to show its context menu: Edit, Gobo (Spotlight types only), Duplicate and Delete, with Lock, Add to Set / Remove from Set, Copy, Copy+, Copy- and Group on its second page. Edit opens Edit Light, where you pick the fixture from the list above and set Intensity, Color, Shadows and Name.

A shot can hold up to 10 lights. To keep the fixtures themselves out of your rendered shots, turn off Show Lighting Equipment in Project info (under Miscellaneous); Show Camera Equipment does the same for camera bodies. Changing either re-renders every shot thumbnail.

Scene Lighting, Floor & Sky

Each scene has its own lighting environment, set in Scene info. Open it from a scene’s ⋯ menu → Info on the Boards tab, the Scene info row in the Boards tab’s side panel or the Canvas Editor’s menu, or the pencil on an expanded scene card in Breakdown’s Script tab. Changes take effect when you tap Apply; Cancel discards them. The one exception is Scene Lighting (below), which saves its own changes.

• Type (INT / EXT / INT/EXT) and Time (Day / Night / Twilight) choose the scene’s default lighting. Interiors have no sun.
• Floor shows a preview of the scene’s floor, with a list below it grouped as Chromatic, Interior, Exterior and Terrain. Switching Type swaps a default floor for the other location’s default; if you picked a different floor, the app asks Reset Floor? first.
• Sky shows a preview of the sky. Tap Edit below it to open Scene Lighting, where you drag to set the time of day and the sun’s direction and set the cloud cover, with a live preview. Tap Done to save the lighting and go back to Scene info; Scene info’s Cancel doesn’t undo it. On iPhone, Scene Lighting needs landscape; if you’re holding the phone upright, you’ll be asked to rotate it.

Once you’ve customized a scene’s lighting, changing Type or Time asks Reset Lighting? (asked once each time you open Scene info). Yes switches to the default lighting for the new Type and Time when you tap Apply; No keeps your custom lighting and still changes the Type or Time.

Gobos / Cookies

Spotlights can project a gobo (also called a cookie): a pattern in the beam that throws shadows and shapes onto the set, including the default walls. There are more than 200 patterns:

• Flashlight and spotlight beams (soft, hard, uneven, noisy, rays)
• Fences
• Trees
• Windows
• Signage
• Structures
• Mountains
• Square mesh, light patterns and general patterns

How to add a gobo

1. Add a light (the pencil → Light; new lights are Spotlights), or use any light in the Spotlight row above.
2. Select the light (tap or click it) to show its context menu.
3. Tap Gobo.
4. In Gobos, tap a pattern. The gallery closes and the light projects the pattern. To remove a gobo, open Gobos again and tap the first tile (no pattern).

Only Spotlight-type lights take a gobo. Lanterns and the Flood Light don’t show the Gobo button.

AI Lighting & Atmosphere

To try a lighting mood on a shot’s image without placing lights, restyle it with AI in AI Studio’s Enhance tab:

• Set Type to Image, choose shots under Range (Choose Shots, Choose Scenes or All Shots), pick a Style (Photo or Sketch), then tap Prompt and describe the light.
• Describe the atmosphere: “Golden hour, warm backlight”, “Moody film noir, high contrast”, “Cyberpunk city, neon blue and pink”.
• The image models (FLUX.2 Turbo, Seedream 4.5 and Nano Banana 2) read lighting, color grading and atmosphere from your text; see credit costs. This changes the shot’s picture, not the lights in the 3D scene.
• For a targeted fix to one part of an image, use AI Studio’s Touch Up tab.

Look & Tone Mapping

Tone mapping controls how Previs Pro turns the high-dynamic-range 3D scene into the final on-screen image — it sets the overall “film stock” feel of highlights, shadows, and color. It’s a project setting: it applies to everything rendered in that project (the 3D canvas, CAM mode, shot thumbnails and exports) and is saved in the .previs file, so every device that opens the project shows the same look. It’s separate from AI Studio’s Enhance, which restyles a shot’s image.

To change it, open Project info (the menu ☰ at the top right of the project shell → Project info, or the Project info row in the Boards tab’s side panel) and pick a mode in Tone Mapping, just below Post-Processing. The camera preview at the top re-renders a sample scene in the mode you pick. Nothing changes in the project until you tap Apply; the shot thumbnails then re-render.

If you’re not sure, AgX - three.js or ACES give the most cinematic result; None shows the unprocessed render.

Timeline · Updated October 2026

Where to find it

• Panel: Open a project → shell bar at the top → Timeline (the third tab, after Breakdown and Boards). See the in-project shell.
• Target ID: shell.tab.timeline (entry), timeline.root (tab content)

The shot you selected on the Boards tab comes with you: the Timeline moves the playhead to it and scrolls it into view (unless the Timeline is filtered to a different scene). To leave, tap another tab, or tap the home button (Projects) at the left of the shell bar to close the project. When the bar is too narrow to show the home button, use ☰ → Close Project. The Timeline is no longer opened from the Canvas Editor; it’s always one tap away in the shell bar.

The Timeline (formerly the Timeline Review screen) is the editorial stage of Previs Pro: your shots laid end to end with their timing, transitions and audio lanes, a large viewer, and playback controls. It is also where AI Studio and the Audio workspace open.

Timeline UI elements at a glance

The standard Timeline view, with neither workspace open. When AI Studio is open it fills everything above the transport bar; the Audio workspace replaces only the viewer.

Layout

Under the shell bar, the Timeline tab is laid out in six bands, top to bottom:

1. Header Row

• Left: the Script panel toggle (document icon) and the Scene Selector pill.
• Center: the project title.
• Right: the approval status pill (Pending / Approved / Notes, color-coded) for the shot under the playhead, and the comments toggle with the shot’s comment count.

2. Viewer Area

The large display showing the current shot, letterboxed to the project’s aspect ratio. Content depends on context:

• Default: The shot’s picture (a render of the 3D shot, an AI picture or an imported still). Shots with a camera move (Dolly In, Pan Left and so on) show movement arrows over the picture.
• Video shot: Plays the attached video clip, with its poster frame when paused.
• AI Studio open: AI Studio (Create / Enhance / Touch Up / Import tabs) fills the viewer and everything else above the transport bar; the playback controls are disabled until you close it.
• Audio workspace open: the Audio workspace (Create / Record / Import tabs) replaces the viewer; the shot lane stays and the audio lanes expand to all four.
• Recording: while you record audio, a stop button sits over the viewer.

Viewer Edit Overlay

A round … button at the bottom-right of the picture (Edit Tools) expands to show quick actions. When only one action is available, it shows on its own without the … button:

• Draw (D) — Start a doodle on the shot. The Draw button is unavailable during playback. Touching the picture with Apple Pencil starts a doodle too.
• Record audio (microphone) — Starts recording a voice-over straight onto the Voiceover lane; tap again to stop.
• Add Speech (Option+S) — Opens the Audio workspace’s Create tab to generate dialogue with text-to-speech.

If the shot already has doodles, Draw may ask first: when other people have doodled on it, the project’s creator sees Shot Markup (“This shot has markup from …”) with Draw / Clear All Doodles / Cancel; otherwise, if you have a doodle of your own on the shot, you see Your Doodle with Redraw / Clear My Doodle / Cancel. When you finish, Add Doodle Comment lets you add a note (Post / Discard). See Doodles.

Fullscreen Viewer

Press F or tap the expand icon at the top-right of the picture to fill the window with the viewer; the header, panels and lanes hide.

• Swipe navigation — Swipe left or right to slide between shots (not while drawing a doodle).
• Minimal transport at the bottom — Play/Pause, the timecode and an Exit button. It hides after 3 seconds; move the pointer to bring it back.
• Press F again or tap Exit to leave fullscreen. When you view a share link in a web browser, Esc also exits.

3. Info Bar

A thin black bar between the Viewer and the Shot Lane. Displays:

• Scene heading: INT. OFFICE — NIGHT (location type, scene name, time of day).
• Shot metadata: Shot number • focal length (mm) • f-stop • shot size • angle • movement, joined by bullets.

When no shot is under the playhead, the project title is shown instead.

4. Shot Lane

The primary horizontal timeline row. Each shot is a bar with:

• Thumbnail: The shot’s picture (3D render, AI-generated, or imported).
• Scene color: A shot with no picture yet shows its scene’s color and its shot number.
• Shot number and duration: In the lower-right corner (e.g., “1A 5.3s”).
• ✦ badge (upper-left): the shot’s picture came from AI (AI enhanced).
• Play badge: Triangle icon indicates a video is attached to the shot.
• Comment dot (upper-right): appears when the shot has comments, colored by approval — gray (pending), green (approved), amber (notes).
• Movement arrows: shots with a camera move show arrows over the picture, here and in the viewer.

A red playhead marks the current time; drag it to scrub. The ruler above the lane shows M:SS; click it to jump. A label at the start of each scene shows its number and name on the scene’s color.

The AI and Audio gutter buttons sit at the left end of the shot lane.

Transition Zones

Where two shots meet, a small diamond shows the transition (C cut, D dissolve, F fade, ⟷ continuous). Click it to change the type — see Transitions.

5. Audio Lanes

Below the shot lane are four color-coded audio lanes. They’re collapsed to a single Audio row until you open the Audio workspace, which expands all four (on phones, just the active one). Reviewers don’t see the lanes when the project has no audio.

• Dialog (Lane 0) — Character dialogue.
• Music (Lane 1) — Score, background music.
• SFX (Lane 2) — Sound effects.
• Voiceover (Lane 3) — Narration, commentary.

Each lane shows waveform bars for its audio clips. See Audio System for full details.

6. Transport Bar

Fixed at the bottom of the screen. Contains (left to right):

• Previous shot: Jump to the start of the current shot, or of the previous one.
• Play / Pause: Large central button.
• Next shot: Jump to the start of the next shot.
• Timecode: Current position and total length in MM:SS.S format.
• Shuttle speed indicator: Shows speed and direction (e.g. “2x ▶” or “1x ◀”) while you shuttle with J/K/L.
• Step toggle: Pauses at each shot boundary during playback for shot-by-shot review.
• Zoom slider: 20–300 pixels per second (+ / - also zoom).
• Connection status (when the project has a review session): a dot with Live, Connecting... or Offline.
• ? — the Previs Pro Timeline guide (reviewers see the Review Guide). Previs Assist is the ? in the shell bar.
• Credits — your balance; tap for the account menu.
• Export and Share — see the table above.
• Reviewers also see a Review Mode badge and a More button.

While shots render in the background, a progress pill (“Rendering shots — 12 of 40”) sits just above the transport bar. See board rendering.

Side Panels

Three optional panels, toggled independently:

• Script panel (document icon at the left of the header) — opens left of the viewer with the current scene’s screenplay, following the playhead. It opens by itself for scenes with screenplay content unless you’ve closed it; on phones and for reviewers it starts closed. See Script Panel.
• Comments (C) — opens right of the viewer with shot-level comments and replies. See Comments.
• Generation History (H, or AI Gen History in the credits menu) — opens over the Timeline. See Generation History.

Shot Management

Selecting & Navigating

• Click/tap any shot bar to select it. The viewer jumps to that shot and the playhead moves to the shot’s start.
• Deselect: Tap a selected shot again (not during playback).
• Arrow keys: ← / → move the playhead 1 second; Cmd+Option+← / → select the previous or next shot.
• Click the ruler: Seek to a specific timecode.
• Scrub: Drag the playhead.
• Swipe: Swipe across the viewer to move between shots — see Swiping Between Shots.

Duration Editing

• Drag the right edge of a shot bar to lengthen or shorten it, in 0.1-second steps from 0.2 to 60 seconds. The duration label updates as you drag.
• The timeline auto-scrolls when you drag past its right edge.
• Retiming is off during playback and for reviewers.
• For an animatic shot, letting go asks Re-render animatic?: Re-render keeps the new length and re-renders the animatic video; Cancel puts the old length back.
• Undo (Cmd+Z) reverts a duration change.

Shot Reordering

To reorder shots, use the Boards tab: hold a shot tile until it lifts, then drag it to its new place (with a mouse, just drag it). The Timeline follows the new order.

Shot Quick-Action Menu

Tap the thumbnail of a shot bar in the shot lane to select it and open its quick-action menu above the bar (tap again to close it and deselect). The menu isn’t available during playback or to reviewers:

• Revert — Remove the AI picture, imported still or video and return to the live 3D render. Shown only when the shot has one of those.
• Poster — For video shots: use the current video frame as the shot’s thumbnail.
• Comment — Open the comment panel focused on this shot.
• Enhance — Opens AI Studio on its Enhance tab with this shot selected.
• Speech — Opens the Audio workspace’s Create tab for this shot’s dialogue (text-to-speech).

Revert to Live

Reverting a shot clears its AI picture, imported still or video and its generation reference, then has the 3D canvas render a fresh frame. Revert is in the shot’s quick-action menu here, in AI Studio’s Enhance tab, and on the shot tile on the Boards tab.

Dropping an Image on a Shot

Drag an image file (PNG, JPEG, WebP or GIF) onto a shot bar in the shot lane, or onto the viewer to use it for the shot under the playhead. You’re asked Replace shot with image? (“Use … as the static image for Shot …?”); tap Replace or Cancel. If the shot already has a still or video, the dialog warns that it will be replaced. When it’s done you’ll see Image applied to shot.

• Video files are ignored.
• Reviewers can’t drop images, and the shot lane ignores drops during playback.
• A dropped image doesn’t create a Generation History entry. Revert brings back the live 3D shot at any time.

You can drop images on board tiles too — see Dropping images on the board.

Duplicating vs. Copying Shots

The Timeline has no copy or duplicate commands of its own; you make new shots from existing ones on the Boards tab or in the Canvas Editor. The two routes behave differently:

Swiping Between Shots

• Panel: Timeline → viewer
• Target ID: timeline.viewer
• Gesture: two-finger horizontal swipe on a trackpad, or a one-finger swipe on a touch screen

Swipe across the viewer to step through your shots:

• Trackpad (Mac, or iPad with a trackpad): swipe two fingers left for the next shot, right for the previous one. Each swipe moves one shot, however long the gesture; vertical scrolling and mouse wheels are ignored.
• Touch (and dragging with a mouse): swipe one finger left or right across the picture.

Each swipe selects the shot, moves the playhead to its start and scrolls the shot lane to it. Swipes are ignored while you’re drawing a doodle, recording audio, or while an AI generation is running. In fullscreen, swiping slides between shots with an animated carousel.

The keyboard equivalent is Cmd+Option+→ / ←.

Shot Metadata

Each shot carries cinematography metadata, set in Shot info on the Boards tab or in the Canvas Editor. The Info Bar shows the lens, f-stop, size, angle and movement, and the same values feed AI prompts — the system describes the shot using them.

Shot Size

Shot Angle

Shot Movement

Any other movement (Pan, Tilt, Truck, Pedestal, Arc, Whip Pan, Zoom, Roll and so on) is passed to the AI as written.

Shot Framing

Values: SS (single), 2S–5S (two- to five-shot), OTS (over-the-shoulder), OTH (over-the-hip) and POV (point of view). A shot can combine them, e.g. 2S OTS.

Additional Per-Shot Data

• Focal length (mm) — from the virtual camera lens setting.
• F-Stop — aperture setting, affects depth of field.
• Cast — characters visible in the shot, with name, gender, and expression (e.g., “Joy”, “Neutral”).
• Notes — free-text notes attached to the shot.
• Coverage color — the color of the shot’s line in script lining; choose it in the Coverage view on the Boards tab.

Scene Selector

The scene selector pill at the left of the header row controls which portion of the project is visible in the timeline:

• All Scenes — every scene end to end. Scenes you’ve omitted on the Boards tab (Omit Scene) are left out.
• Individual scene — Click the pill and pick a scene (each entry shows its heading and shot count). The Timeline reloads with just that scene; playback, the timecode and the ruler cover only it. The pill is hidden in projects with a single scene.
• Progressive loading: In large projects, scenes load incrementally. Entries marked “loading” can’t be picked yet.
• Approval indicator: The scene pill turns green when every shot shown is approved.

Each scene in the project has:

• Scene number — auto-generated or manually set (see Numbering).
• Name — typically the location from the screenplay slugline.
• Location type — INT (interior) or EXT (exterior).
• Time of day — DAY, NIGHT, etc.
• Color — assigned for visual differentiation in the shot lane.
• Screenplay — optional structured screenplay data (dialogue, action, transitions).

Scene & Shot Numbering

Previs Pro has a flexible numbering system with several configurable options.

• Panel: ☰ menu → Project info → Numbering/Locking (opens the Project Numbering page; ‹ goes back). Project info is also on the Boards tab’s side panel when no shot is selected — see Project info.
• Target ID: projectInfo.numbering

A worked example at the top of the page updates as you change the settings. Lock script and Renumber take effect as soon as you confirm them, without waiting for Apply.

Scene Numbers

Scenes are numbered in order from 1, or from the number in Start scene # (turn on the switch beside it; it must be a whole number of 1 or more). A scene with a custom number keeps it and doesn’t use up a number in the count (custom scene numbers need a letter or symbol; plain numbers are reserved for automatic numbering).

Shot Numbers

Shots are numbered within each scene, with letters (ABC, the default: A, B, C … then AA, AB …) or digits (123). A custom shot number is kept as typed and doesn’t use up a letter (it needs a digit or separator; plain letters are reserved).

Ambiguous Character Exclusion

By default, shot letters skip I, O and S (easily confused with 1, 0 and 5), leaving 23 letters. Turn on Allow ambiguous characters in shot numbers to use the full A–Z.

Combined Format

Scene and shot numbers are joined with the Scene/Shot Separator: None (1A), . (1.A) or - (1-A).

Revision Numbers

While numbering is locked, a scene or shot you insert gets a revision number instead of renumbering everything after it. Scene revisions (1A or A1) and Shot revisions (A-1 or 1-A) choose the style; they can only be changed while numbering is locked.

Locked Numbering

Turn on Lock script (Lock Script?) to freeze the current scene and shot numbers. After that, adding or removing shots doesn’t renumber anything, and inserted items get revision numbers — useful once departments are already referencing shot numbers. While locked, the page shows “Numbering is locked for this project.” and the separator, starting-number and lettering controls are disabled.

Turning the lock off (Unlock Script?) keeps revisions and custom numbers and renumbers everything else in order. Renumber (Reset Numbering?) renumbers every scene and shot by its position in the script. Neither unlocking nor renumbering can be undone.

Playback & Transport

Basic Controls

Shuttle Control (J/K/L)

Professional NLE-style shuttle for variable-speed playback:

Pressing the opposite key while shuttling slows down first, then changes direction.

Step Mode

Turn on Step in the transport bar (or press R) to pause at every shot boundary — handy for reviewing shot by shot. Shots joined by a Continuous transition play through without pausing.

Timecode Display

The Transport bar shows the current position in MM:SS.S format (minutes, seconds, tenths of a second).

Transitions

Click the diamond where two shots meet to choose a transition:

Transition lengths are fixed: 1 second for a dissolve and 0.5 seconds for a fade.

Viewer Modes & Workspaces

The viewer area switches between these modes; only one workspace can be open at a time.

AI Studio also opens from the Boards tab (Open AI Studio in Sketch with AI, or AI Studio in the side panel); closing it there takes you back to the board.

Timeline Tips (first visit)

The first time you open the Timeline in one of your own projects, a short series of tips points at the main controls with an arrow: Scenes & Script, Comments & Approval, Your Timeline, AI & Audio and Back to Projects. Reviewers get their own three: Shots, Comments & Approval and Visual Notes. Tap Next (or anywhere outside the card) to move on and Got it! to finish; Esc skips them. They don’t appear in the Getting started or Casting tutorial projects or over AI Studio, and they show only once. Press T on the Timeline tab to see them again.

Tease Overlay

When a reviewer taps the AI or Audio gutter button in a share link, the workspace doesn’t open; instead a Previs Pro card describes the app’s AI or audio tools. Close it with × or by tapping outside it.

Undo & Redo

The Timeline keeps an undo history of up to 25 steps. Edits on the Timeline tab — retiming shots, changing transitions, moving and trimming audio clips — can be undone:

• Cmd+Z — Undo.
• Cmd+Shift+Z — Redo.

These shortcuts work on the Timeline tab with a keyboard; the Timeline has no on-screen Undo buttons. A drag (resizing a shot, moving an audio clip) counts as one step. Generation History isn’t affected by undo, and every project opens with an empty undo history.

The Escape Key

• Platforms: macOS; iPadOS with a hardware keyboard

Esc steps back one level per press, through selection, panel and project. On the Timeline tab, each press does the first of these that applies:

1. Closes AI Studio or the Audio workspace.
2. Leaves Doodle (drawing) mode.
3. Closes the ☰ menu.
4. Deselects the selected shot.
5. If the Script panel, Comments panel, Generation History or fullscreen is open, or a dialog is up (help, keyboard shortcuts, export hub, share, tips), it goes no further: Esc never closes the project from under them. Close the panels with their own buttons or shortcuts.
6. Otherwise, closes the project and returns you to the Projects home.

Some dialogs and menus handle Esc themselves: the Timeline guide, the keyboard shortcuts overlay, the Scene Selector list and the approval status menu close, and the first-visit tips are skipped. While the blocking Preparing shots… window is up, Esc does nothing. In the app, Esc doesn’t leave fullscreen — press F or tap Exit.

Mobile & Tablet Layout

On a phone (portrait or landscape), or in a very narrow window, the Timeline switches to a compact layout:

• The shot lane and ruler are half height.
• The Script and Comments panels open full screen.
• Opening the Audio workspace shows only the active audio lane instead of all four.
• The AI and Audio captions under the gutter icons are hidden.

On any screen too narrow for it, the transport bar wraps onto two rows.

On iPad, fonts and touch targets are about 15–20% larger than on a Mac. On touch screens, each shot bar’s retime handle is wider so it’s easier to grab.

Reviewers opening a share link on a phone in portrait are asked to Rotate to landscape.

Interface Scaling

Text and control size is set with Interface Scaling in Preferences (☰ menu → Preferences): a seven-step slider shown as a percentage. On iPhone and iPad, Use System Text Size follows the text size in iOS Settings instead and disables the slider.

Among the web-based screens, the setting resizes the Breakdown tab, text and controls together. The Timeline and Boards tabs keep their own sizes.

The .previs File Format

Projects are saved as .previs files — either a raw SQLite database or a zip archive (detected by PK magic bytes).

Raw SQLite

A single SQLite file containing all project data: scenes, shots, camera objects, screenplay, transitions, audio clips, comments, generation history, and document settings.

Archive Format

A zip file with .previs extension containing:

• The SQLite database.
• A dot-prefixed cache folder (.hash/) with thumbnail JPEGs and videos (42.jpg, 42.mp4).
• Hash sidecar files (.jpg.hash) that track scene state to avoid unnecessary re-renders.

On import, the archive is extracted in-place. On share/export, the archive is assembled from the SQLite + cache folder.

File Version & Saving

The current format is file version 57. Opening a project made with an earlier version of Previs Pro upgrades it automatically. In the app, projects save as you work — there’s no Save button.

Standalone Mode

In the web app (standalone mode), .previs files can be opened by drag-and-drop onto the browser window. The file is read client-side using sql.js (SQLite compiled to WebAssembly). Changes can be saved back by downloading (Cmd+S).

Audio System · Updated October 2026

Where to find it

• Panel: Timeline tab → left gutter → Audio button (speaker icon, captioned Audio except on phone-size screens; the lower of the two gutter buttons, highlighted while open). The panel replaces the viewer; close it with the ⓧ button at top-right, the gutter button again, or Esc (not while recording). While it’s open the header reads PREVIS AUDIO SYSTEM (not on phones) and the audio row expands into four lanes (Dialog / Music / SFX / Voiceover); on phone-size screens the row shows just the lane you’re targeting.
• Also: the Timeline shot quick menu’s Speech button, or Option+S, opens it straight on Custom dialogue.
• Target ID: timeline.gutter.audio (entry), audio.root (panel)
• Shortcut: Option+A

The Audio Workspace has three tabs: Create (AI speech, music and sound effects — part of the AI Generation suite, credit-based), Record and Import. Audio plays across four color-coded lanes.

Audio Workspace UI elements

Create tab open with Dialogue type selected. All three tabs share the close button and the expanded lanes.

Create Tab (AI Audio Generation)

Generate audio from text using AI. Pick a Type — Dialogue, Music, SFX or Voiceover — and the result lands on that type’s lane.

Dialogue (TTS)

Generates speech from screenplay dialogue. Choose a scope:

• All Scenes — generate dialogue across the entire project.
• Selected Scene — the scene at the playhead (or the one picked in the scene selector).
• Selected Shot — the shot under the playhead, using the dialogue lines lined to that shot (see Script lining).
• Custom — type any line and pick a voice; it’s placed on the Dialog lane at the playhead. For narration, use the Voiceover type instead. In a project with no screenplay, All Scenes and Selected Scene are unavailable and the scope starts on Custom.

TTS Voice Models

A typed line (Custom dialogue or Voiceover) is billed per line. Script dialogue goes out in batches — one for Selected Shot, one for Selected Scene, one per scene with dialogue for All Scenes — and each batch costs a flat 10 credits on Kokoro or 15 on ElevenLabs, however many lines it holds. The Generate button shows the total before you tap.

Voice Assignment

The Cast section shows each character with a voice dropdown. Voices are assigned per scene, with a global fallback. Tap the speaker icon to preview a voice. Auto-assignment fills unassigned characters from the available pool.

Music Generation

• Enter a text prompt describing the music you want (e.g. “tense cinematic strings, 140 BPM”).
• Pick a length from the Duration dropdown: 3–15 seconds (default 15).
• 40 credits per generation (ElevenLabs Music). Instrumental only.
• Placed on the Music lane.

SFX Generation

• Enter a text prompt (e.g. “door slam, wooden door”).
• Pick a length from the Duration dropdown: 1–22 seconds (default 5).
• 5 credits per generation (ElevenLabs SFX).
• Placed on the SFX lane.

Generation Options

• Retime: extends shots so the speech fits (1 s padding at each end, 0.3 s between clips). For a whole scene, the extra time is spread evenly across the scene’s shots.
• Overwrite existing dialogue: off by default, so shots that already have a clip on the Dialog lane are skipped. Turn it on to generate for those shots too; existing clips are not removed.
• Skip approved dialogue: on by default; leaves out shots marked approved.

If a generation fails, a Generation Failed message explains why; tap Dismiss to close it.

Record Tab

1. Tap the red record button (Click to record).
2. 3-2-1 countdown (800ms per count).
3. Speak into the microphone; elapsed time is displayed.
4. Tap the stop button (Stop recording).
5. Preview in the bar, choose a lane, then + Add Audio.

Silence at the start and end is trimmed automatically, and recordings are saved as WAV. In the app on iPhone, iPad and Mac the device microphone is recorded directly; one take can run up to 5 minutes. The clip is placed at the playhead on the lane you pick.

Import Tab

Supported formats: .wav, .mp3, .ogg, .m4a, .aac.

Drop one file on the drop zone (Drop audio file here or tap to browse). It appears in the preview bar: play it, pick a lane and tap + Add Audio to place it at the playhead. You can also drop audio files straight onto the Timeline’s audio row (an empty row reads Drop audio files here); they land where you drop them — with the Audio Workspace open, on the lane under the pointer.

Audio Lanes

With the Audio Workspace closed, the Timeline shows all clips in one combined audio row. Open the workspace to see the four lanes; tap a lane’s label to make it the target lane (Select Dialog lane).

Clip Interactions

• Move: drag the clip along the timeline (on touch screens, press and hold first).
• Vertical drag: move the clip to a different lane (when the lanes are expanded).
• Trim handles: drag the left or right edge to trim the clip’s start or end.
• Volume: hover to reveal the volume slider (0–100%, default 75%).
• Rename: tap the i button (Rename clip).
• Delete: tap the × button (Delete clip).

A clip stays attached to the shot it starts in, keeping its offset from that shot’s start, and it can run past the end of that shot — handy for music that spans several shots. Select a clip and press Delete to remove it (you’ll be asked to confirm).

AI Generation · Updated October 2026

AI Generation is Previs Pro’s umbrella system for credit-powered asset creation. It covers four families — image, video, audio, and 3D — all drawing from the same credit pool. Each family has its own access point in the app:

The catalog below covers each family’s models, options, and behavior. For the unified credit cost reference, see Credits & Purchasing.

Models & Providers

Previs Pro uses third-party AI models (FLUX.2 Turbo, Seedream 4.5, Nano Banana 2, MiniMax H3 Max, MiniMax H3 (2K), Kokoro, ElevenLabs, Tripo3D) and does not train any of its own models on user content — your prompts, scripts, scenes, and images are not used as training data. Image, video, speech, music and sound-effect requests go through fal.ai; 3D requests go to Tripo3D directly:

• Images: FLUX.2 Turbo, Seedream 4.5, and Nano Banana 2 (via fal.ai).
• Video: MiniMax H3 Max and MiniMax H3 (2K) (via fal.ai).
• TTS / dialogue: Kokoro and ElevenLabs.
• Music & SFX: ElevenLabs Music and ElevenLabs SFX.
• 3D props and characters: Tripo3D (text-to-3D, with automatic rigging for characters).
• Touch Up image editing: Nano Banana 2.

If you have questions about a specific model’s training data, licensing, or output usage rights, the authoritative source is the model provider listed above. We pass your prompt through to the provider, return their output, and store the result inside your .previs project. Your prompt and the returned media are not used to train any model on our end — we don’t operate a training pipeline.

AI Studio

AI Studio is where image and video generation lives. It opens in the Timeline tab and replaces the viewer; while it’s open the header reads STYLE & VIDEO GRADING.

Where to find it

• Timeline: left gutter → AI button (sparkle icon, captioned AI except on phone-size screens; the upper of the two gutter buttons). Opens the Enhance tab on the shot at the playhead.
• Timeline shot quick menu → Enhance: opens the Enhance tab on that shot.
• Boards tab, with a shot selected: side panel → AI Studio (“Create, enhance & edit with AI”) opens the Enhance tab on that shot. With nothing selected, the side panel’s AI Studio card opens the Create tab with no shot picked yet (see the board’s side panel).
• Sketch with AI → Open AI Studio (see Sketch with AI).
• Opened from the Boards tab, closing AI Studio takes you back to the board.
• Close: the ⓧ button at top-right (Close AI Workspace), the gutter button again, or Esc when nothing is generating.
• Target ID: timeline.gutter.enhance (entry), enhance.root (panel), shotActionsPanel.aiStudio (Boards side panel row)
• Shortcut: Option+I (Enhance tab, Image) · Option+V (Enhance tab, Video); press again to close

AI Studio has four tabs: Create, Enhance, Touch Up and Import.

• Create — a new image or video from a description alone (see Create tab).
• Enhance — restyle existing frames as images (Photo or Sketch style) or animate them into video clips, for Choose Shots, Choose Scenes or All Shots; plus First/Last Shot Video (see Enhance tab).
• Touch Up — targeted prompt-based refinement of a single shot’s existing image (e.g. “make the lighting warmer”, “add a beard”; see Touch Up).
• Import — put an image file (JPEG, PNG, WebP or GIF) on the selected shot, with a before/after check first (see Import tab).

The shot you pick carries across tabs. Toggle AI Studio with the gutter AI button or Option+I. The estimated credit cost and time appear on the generate button, so each batch’s spend is visible before you commit.

While a generation runs

• The panel shows the status, ~Ns remaining, the model name and the credits being spent, with a Cancel button. Cancel asks you to confirm; shots that have already finished are kept.
• The other tabs are locked until the run ends.
• In a batch, tap a finished thumbnail for Try Again or Touch Up (each spends that shot’s price again, shown on the button), or a waiting one for Generate Next.
• Leaving mid-batch asks Generation in progress — “Leaving the generation view will cancel any generations not yet started. Do you wish to continue?” (Yes / No).
• Closing AI Studio while results wait in review applies the accepted images (videos are not applied). Tap Discard first if you don’t want them.

Spending and refunds

• Every spend button shows the estimate before you tap it (e.g. ~12cr · 15s).
• A generation that fails is refunded automatically.
• Discarding a result in a review, or rejecting it before you apply, returns its credits and removes it from Generation History.
• For prices and packs see Credit costs; for refunds of purchases see Refunds.

Create Tab

The Create tab makes a new image or video from a description alone; the shot’s current frame is not used. It’s where AI Studio lands when you open it without a shot (the side panel’s AI Studio row on the Boards tab with no shot selected; see the board’s side panel).

1. Tap a shot in the grid to pick it. Until you do, the button reads Select a shot first; tap the chosen shot again to deselect it.
2. Choose Type (Image or Video) and Model. The model choice is shared with the Enhance tab.
3. Describe what you want (“Describe the image you want to create. Be as detailed as possible.”; e.g. “A wide angle panorama of the NY skyline”). For video the hint reads “Describe the video you want to create. Be as detailed as possible.” (e.g. “A slow push in across the NY skyline”).
4. Tap Create (it shows the estimate, e.g. ~12cr · 15s). Progress reads Creating Shot 1C....
5. Review the result and tap Apply to put it on the chosen shot — or, with Add as new shot ticked, Add Shot.

Add as new shot (in the app; off by default): when ticked, the result becomes a new shot inserted right after the chosen one instead of replacing its frame. If AI Studio was opened from the Boards tab, Add Shot closes back to the board on the new shot.

A video’s price is the per-second rate × the chosen shot’s length, clamped to 5–15 seconds (see Video Generation).

Enhance Tab (formerly Style Grade)

The Enhance tab restyles existing shot frames into finished images, or animates them into video clips, for one shot or many at once. Opening AI Studio from the Timeline gutter, Option+I or Option+V lands here.

Enhance tab UI elements

Enhance tab open. All four tabs share the same shot grid and many of the same controls; differences are noted in their own subsections.

Range

Controls which shots are affected:

• Choose Shots — only the shots you tap in the grid.
• Choose Scenes — tap a shot to add or remove its whole scene.
• All Shots — every shot in the project. Tapping a shot in the grid switches to Choose Shots.

Shot Grid

Thumbnails labeled with their shot numbers (e.g. 1A). Tap to select; double-click or press and hold for a full-screen preview you can swipe through.

Options

• Skip approved shots — on by default; leaves out shots marked approved. Shown for Choose Scenes and All Shots.
• Overwrite existing static shots — shown when the project has shots with an AI image or an imported still. Off by default, so those shots are skipped; turn it on to include them.
• Style presets: Photo or Sketch.
• Prompt ✎: opens a popover where you can edit the auto-generated prompt.

In a browser, if you aren’t signed in, the generate button reads Sign In to Enhance (Sign In to Generate for video).

Image Generation

Turn shot frames into finished storyboard images. AI Studio builds the prompt from the shot’s metadata — interior/exterior and location, time of day, shot size, lens and shot notes. Use Prompt ✎ to edit it: + Actor adds a count of the people in the shot and + Scene adds up to three of the scene’s action lines.

When it finishes, a review shows Before and After. For one shot, tap Apply or Discard; for several, accept or reject each result (or Accept All / Reject All) and tap Apply 3 Enhancements. Every result is saved to Generation History. Discarding a result, or rejecting it before you apply, returns its credits and removes it from the history.

Video Generation

Animate shot frames into short video clips: on the Enhance tab set Type to Video (or press Option+V). The Create tab can also make a video from a description alone.

Video is priced per second, and the duration is the shot’s own length clamped to 5–15 seconds — so the cheapest clip you can generate is 5 seconds on MiniMax H3 Max, at 50 credits. The exact cost is shown on the Generate Video button before you commit.

Video Options

• Generate AI audio: MiniMax H3 clips always come with synchronized sound. Tick this to show an Audio direction field (e.g. “rain, distant thunder”); what you type is added to the video prompt and remembered for the scene.
• Retime shots to match video: on by default; when you apply, the shot takes the clip’s length.

First/Last Shot Video

Set Type to First/Last Shot Video to make one clip that moves from a shot into the next, using the two frames as start and end. Tap a shot to pick it and its neighbor; the hint reads “* Will use Shot 1B as the end frame”. The clip’s length is the first shot’s length, clamped to 5–15 seconds, and it is priced per second like any video. See also Transitions.

Touch Up

Refine or modify an existing shot image with a text prompt. Uses the Nano Banana 2 model (12 credits).

1. Switch to the Touch Up tab.
2. Tap a shot with an image in the grid to make it the target.
3. Describe the change (e.g. “Change the car from red to blue”). Be as detailed as possible.
4. Tap Touch Up (it shows the estimate, e.g. ~12cr · 15s). The current image is the input; check the before/after and tap Apply or Discard.

Import Tab

Put your own image on a shot, free of charge.

1. Tap a shot in the grid. Without one you’ll see Select a shot first.
2. Drop an image on the drop zone (Drop images here or tap to browse; JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF). One file at a time.
3. Check the before/after and tap Apply (“Image applied to shot”) or Discard. Closing AI Studio without applying drops the import.

• Target ID: enhance.import.dropZone

Sketch with AI

Sketch with AI is a small generate dialog that opens over the Boards tab, so you can draft or restyle a shot without leaving the board. It’s in the app (not in read-only or review projects). There are two kinds, and how you open it decides which:

• Enhance (restyle the shot’s frame) — open AI Studio from the side panel (or the Timeline’s AI gutter button) and use its Enhance tab. On iPhone, which has no side panel, open AI Studio from the Timeline’s AI gutter button. Tiles that show their live 3D frame carry 3D under ⋯; a tile showing an image or video shows Revert to Live in its bottom-right corner instead (see Board tiles).
• Create (paint a shot from your words) — any of:
  • the side panel’s Sketch with AI row (“Draft an image from prompt”), offered in a scene nobody has worked in yet (see the side panel);
  • the Add shot tile → Add new shot → Sketch with AI: there’s no shot yet; Apply creates it at the end of the scene (see Adding shots);
  • a shot’s ⋯ menu → Insert → Insert shot → Sketch with AI: Apply creates the new shot directly after that shot (see the shot menu);
  • on the Getting started tour’s render step on a phone only, a shot’s ⋯ menu → Replace → Sketch with AI, which repaints that shot. Replace is hidden everywhere else for now.

Create

• Titled Create Shot 1A. Type in the Shot description box (“Describe the shot you want to generate…”), up to 1,000 characters, with a counter.
• Tap Create (e.g. ~3cr · 8s). The image is painted from your words alone; the shot’s current frame isn’t used.
• When you tap Apply, your description is added to the shot’s notes.

Enhance

• Titled Enhance Shot 1A, with Photo / Sketch presets and the shot’s frame shown as the input.
• The Style Prompt disclosure (closed at first) holds the prompt if you want to edit it.
• Tap Enhance (e.g. ~3cr · 8s).

Both kinds

• No model picker: Sketch with AI always uses FLUX.2 Turbo at 3 credits. For the other models, use AI Studio.
• Credit balance: the header shows your balance; tap it to buy credits (see Credit packs).
• Need more? Open AI Studio (bottom-left) closes the dialog and opens AI Studio on the matching tab (Create or Enhance) for that shot, carrying what you typed. From Add new shot it opens Create with Add as new shot already ticked.
• While it works the dialog reads Generating Shot 1A... with ~Ns remaining. Then tap Apply or Discard; the ✕ during review discards the result and returns its credits.
• It won’t open while another generation is running (Generation in progress). Animatic shots get the Enhance an animatic? confirm first.

• Target ID: sketchWithAi.dialog, sketchWithAi.prompt, sketchWithAi.generateButton, sketchWithAi.openAiStudio, sketchWithAi.creditsPill

Audio Generation

Audio generation is the audio family of AI generation. It lives on the Audio Workspace’s Create tab rather than in AI Studio, but draws from the same credit pool. Four types:

For the whole Create tab — cast voice assignment, scope, prompt and duration, voice previews — see Create Tab.

AI 3D Generation

3D Props — 15 credits

1. In the Canvas Editor open Add Prop and choose Create Custom (needs an internet connection). The Describe Prop window opens.
2. Enter a short description of the prop (e.g. “A yellow convertible on the ground”) and tap Create (15cr). With fewer than 3 characters, tapping Create shows Prompt Required instead of starting.
3. Stages: Submitting request → Waiting in the queue → Generating → Downloading (about 60 seconds).
4. Result: a .glb model imported as a prop you can position and scale.

3D Characters — free

1. Add a character and choose the AI option (see AI-generated characters; needs an internet connection). The Describe Character window opens.
2. Enter a short description (e.g. “A beautiful woman in a black evening gown”) and tap Create (0cr). As with props, fewer than 3 characters shows Prompt Required. Generated characters don’t support Expressions or Hand Poses.
3. Stages: Submitting request → Waiting in the queue → Generating → Rigging → Downloading (about 120 seconds).
4. Result: a rigged .glb model with skeleton, ready for posing and animation.

Generation History

Every AI result — images, videos, transitions, speech, music and SFX — is kept in the project’s Generation History until you delete it; undo and redo don’t remove entries. Results you discard in a review are removed, and their credits returned.

• Open it with H on the Timeline tab, or from the account menu in the Timeline transport bar → AI Gen History. In AI Studio, Use Saved Image / Use Saved Video (end of the Model dropdown) open it as Select from History; the entry you tap goes on the shot selected on the Timeline.
• Filter: All, Images, Videos, Audio.
• Badges: Image Video Transition Speech Music SFX
• Each entry shows its model, prompt, shot (or Detached) and age; a dot marks one that’s currently applied. Actions: Apply to Shot 1A (the shot selected on the Timeline; you’re warned before it replaces something), Add to audio lane for audio (placed at the playhead), and Save to disk.
• Delete: the trash icon on an entry (Delete from project; a shot using it goes back to live 3D), or the trash in the header (Delete all unused assets → Delete Unused) to clear everything that isn’t on a shot.
• In the Audio Workspace, Use Saved Audio (end of the Model dropdown) lists your saved audio. To put a clip back on the timeline, open Generation History (H) and use Add to audio lane.

Credits & Purchasing · Updated October 2026

AI features are powered by a credit system. Credits (called “tokens” internally) are used each time you generate something with AI. AI features need you to be signed in (see Sign-In Required). Asking Previs Assist (the ? button) doesn’t use credits.

Your Credit Balance

Your balance shows up wherever you can spend credits:

• Timeline tab — beside the ? button: your balance as a number followed by a coin. Tap it for a menu with your account, your balance, Add Credits, Earn Credits / Referral, AI Gen History (see Generation History) and Sign Out.
• Sketch with AI on the Boards tab — the dialog shows the same balance; tap it before you generate to open Add Credits. See Sketch with AI.
• Canvas Editor — the Create Object and Create Character panels show your balance; tap it to open the credit packs. See AI 3D.

Buttons that spend credits show the cost before you tap — for example Create (15cr) on Create Object. Suggest coverage shows its estimated credits and time on the button, and is disabled (“Not enough credits”) when your balance is below its cost (see Suggest coverage).

Credit Costs per Feature

Image, video and Touch Up generation happen in AI Studio; dialogue, music and sound effects in Audio on the Timeline tab; 3D generation in the Canvas Editor.

* Create Character (ActorGen) is free for now while we improve quality — its button reads Create (0cr).

Credits are deducted server-side before generation. If a generation fails, the credits go straight back and the app tells you “No credits were deducted.”

Credit Packs

Buy more credits anytime from Add Credits (see Your Credit Balance). The dialog shows three pack cards, each with its credits, price, an estimate of what it buys and a Buy Starter, Buy Standard or Buy Pro button, plus a Purchase history toggle.

The pack cards round to whole dollars ($5, $15, $40); Apple’s purchase sheet shows the exact price in your currency before you pay. In the iPhone, iPad and Mac app, credit packs are bought through Apple In-App Purchase. Online review links are read-only and have no purchase flow. When a purchase completes you’ll see Purchase Successful! with your previous and new balance.

Low balance: below 20 credits the balance switches to its warning style, the balance menu’s first item reads Running low — Add Credits, and Add Credits opens with “Running low — add credits to keep creating.”

Running out: if a generation would cost more than you have, tapping generate opens Add Credits instead. If you’ve never bought credits, a dialog first celebrates what you made with your free credits (for example “You’ve created 12 images with your free credits.”) and offers the Starter pack (“Keep going — your next 100 credits are just $5”, Continue Creating — $5), with View all credit packs for the others.

Subscription Plans

A subscription (or the Lifetime purchase) lifts the free-mode limits: exports without a watermark, unlimited animatics and project images, and team sharing for online review. See Free Mode for exactly what the free version includes. AI features still use credits.

The purchase screen shows each plan’s price in your own currency, straight from the App Store. While it asks, it reads Checking prices…; if the App Store can’t be reached it says why (“You’re offline.”, “Sign in to the App Store to see plans.” or “Can’t reach the App Store right now.”) with Try again, and a plan without a price shows just its name and can’t be bought yet — it never shows a made-up price.

• How Your Free Trial Works (when you can still start a trial): the trial timeline, the trial price line and Start my free trial. View Plans at the bottom shows the other plans.
• Choose Your Plan: Monthly, Annual and Lifetime buttons with their prices.
• Along the bottom: Terms, Privacy and Restore, plus Site License on Choose Your Plan.

Free Trial

New users can start a 7-day free trial from the purchase screen (How Your Free Trial Works → Start my free trial). The trial is the start of the Annual plan: the screen reads “7-day free trial, then $119.99 / annual” (in your currency) and shows the date your subscription starts. Everything is unlocked during the trial — no watermarks, animatics unlocked and all professional features. Unless you cancel before it ends, it renews as the Annual plan.

One trial per Apple ID. If you’ve already used your trial in the past and you re-install the app, the App Store will offer you the paid plan immediately rather than another free trial — this is an App Store policy, not a Previs Pro choice.

Managing Your Subscription

On the Projects home, open the menu (☰) and tap Purchase Options (subtitle Subscription management). It’s on the Projects home only, not in the menu inside a project. What opens depends on your plan:

• No subscription: the purchase screen — How Your Free Trial Works if you can still start a trial, otherwise Choose Your Plan.
• Monthly, Annual (including a trial) or Lifetime: the Your Subscription panel.

The bottom of the Projects home menu always shows your plan (Lifetime All Access Pass, Yearly subscriber, Monthly subscriber, Free trial or Free user) and Logged in as … with your account. Credit packs aren’t sold here — use Add Credits (see Credit Packs).

Lifetime vs. Annual — “Why am I being charged again?”

The Lifetime plan is a one-time purchase — it does not renew and cannot be charged again by Apple. If you are seeing a recurring charge after buying Lifetime, one of three things is happening:

• You bought the Annual plan, not Lifetime. On the Projects home, open ☰ → Purchase Options: the Your Subscription panel names your plan (Monthly Access, Yearly Access or Lifetime Access), and the bottom of the menu shows it too (for example Yearly subscriber). You can also check in the App Store > your name > Subscriptions. The Annual plan is $119.99/year and renews automatically.
• You had an Annual (or Monthly) subscription that hasn’t been canceled. Buying Lifetime does not cancel a recurring subscription — Apple doesn’t let one purchase cancel another. That’s why Upgrade to Lifetime in the Your Subscription panel first shows Cancel Your Subscription First with a Manage in App Store button. If you already own both, cancel the recurring one (steps below); Lifetime stays in place permanently.
• You’re seeing a credit pack receipt, not a subscription. Credit packs (Starter $4.99, Standard $14.99, Pro $39.99) are one-time purchases and look like subscription charges in some email receipts. They are not recurring.

Canceling a Subscription

You can cancel from inside Previs Pro: on the Projects home, open ☰ → Purchase Options → Manage in App Store. On iPhone and iPad this opens Apple’s subscription sheet right in the app; on a Mac it opens your App Store subscriptions page. You can also cancel from your Apple account directly — Apple’s step-by-step instructions for iPhone, iPad and Mac are here:

support.apple.com/en-us/118428 — How to cancel a subscription from Apple

You retain access until the end of your current billing period after canceling.

Refunds

Refund requests are handled by Apple directly, the same way they are for every App Store app. Here’s the fastest path:

1. Go to reportaproblem.apple.com and sign in with the Apple ID you used to purchase.
2. Find the Previs Pro charge in your purchase history.
3. Tap Report a Problem and choose the reason that fits your situation (most common: “I didn’t mean to purchase this item” or “I meant to cancel my trial”).
4. Apple reviews the request and lets you know its decision by email.

Apple is the merchant of record for the App Store, so we don’t see your billing information and can’t process refunds on our side. If you’d like a second set of eyes on a tricky case, feel free to email hello@previspro.com with your Apple receipt number and a short description — we’re happy to point you to the right Apple resource.

Receipts, Invoices & VAT

Apple is the merchant of record for every Previs Pro purchase. Your receipt — including VAT/GST, business name, and reverse-charge information — comes from Apple, not from Previs Pro.

• Find every receipt at reportaproblem.apple.com, or in the original email from no_reply@email.apple.com with subject “Your receipt from Apple”.
• For a VAT-compliant invoice (required in the EU, UK, and several other regions), download the PDF invoice linked at the bottom of the Apple receipt email. Apple’s invoice carries the VAT registration of Apple Distribution International, which is the correct merchant for App Store sales.
• If your accounting team needs an invoice in a different format, Apple’s invoice is the document of record. Previs Pro cannot issue a separate invoice for an Apple-mediated purchase.

Sign-In Required

Previs Pro asks everyone to sign in with Sign In with Apple, free or paid. Here’s where you’ll meet it:

• First launch. After a short intro video, a welcome screen (“Your Storyboard. Brought to Life. Shared.”) offers Sign In with Apple and View purchase options — not a paywall. Once you’re signed in it reads You’re in! with one button, Let’s get started. See Getting Started.
• A purchase found on the welcome screen. If the app finds an existing subscription or Lifetime purchase while the welcome screen is up (after a reinstall, for example), it says “We found your subscription. Sign in with Apple to continue.” and drops View purchase options. Your purchase is recognized, but you still sign in before Let’s get started appears.
• Paid, but not signed in on this device. At launch the Welcome to Previs Pro sign-in card appears, with no back or close button. Without a paid plan, later launches open on the purchase screen; closing it while signed out brings up the same sign-in card (with a back arrow to the plans), noting “*login is required for access to free mode”.
• Signing out. Projects home → ☰ → Log Out, or Sign Out in the balance menu on the Timeline tab. The sign-in screen comes back; a project you had open stays open behind it.
• If sign-in fails you’ll see “Sign in failed. Please try again.” On the welcome screen, Details shows Apple’s error message.

Offline: a paid plan keeps working offline — the app reads your purchase from the App Store receipt saved on the device, so there’s no offline countdown or launch limit. If that receipt shows a subscription that is no longer current and the App Store can’t be reached to check it, you may see “We couldn’t reach the App Store. Your subscription couldn’t be checked right now.” Try again asks the App Store again; Continue for now carries on into the app without the check. See also Troubleshooting.

Using One Subscription on Mac, iPad and iPhone

Previs Pro signs in with Sign In with Apple, the Apple account system that’s built into iPhone, iPad and Mac. Your subscription follows the Apple ID that bought it, and your credit balance follows the account you sign in with — not the individual device. Projects are saved on the device where you made them — to move one, use ☰ → Share (“Save or send a copy of this project”) inside the project, or Back Up Projects on the Projects home. To use one purchase across multiple devices:

1. On each device, install Previs Pro from the App Store while signed into the same Apple ID you used to purchase.
2. Open Previs Pro and tap Sign In with Apple on the welcome screen — sign-in is required before you can enter the app (see Sign-In Required). Use the same Apple ID on every device.
3. If the app still treats you as a free user (watermarked exports, or the bottom of the ☰ menu reads Free user), open ☰ → Purchase Options on the Projects home and tap Restore at the bottom of the purchase screen (or Restore Purchases in the Your Subscription panel). This re-checks your Apple ID for an active subscription or Lifetime purchase.

“I paid on iPad — why does my Mac still say trial?”

The Mac App Store and Previs Pro both need to be using the same Apple ID that paid on iPad. If they are and the Mac still shows trial:

• In Previs Pro, open ☰ → Purchase Options on the Projects home and tap Restore at the bottom of the purchase screen. This asks Apple to re-deliver any active subscription on the signed-in Apple ID; you’ll see Purchases restored! when it works, or Restore needs a connection. if the App Store can’t be reached.
• On Mac, confirm the App Store is signed in with the right Apple ID: App Store > (your name in lower-left) > Account Settings.
• Sign out of Previs Pro (Projects home → ☰ → Log Out) and sign back in with Sign In with Apple using the same Apple ID.
• If Restore doesn’t bring the subscription across after all of the above, write us at hello@previspro.com with the Apple receipt number and the Apple ID you used to purchase.

Free Mode

Free mode is Previs Pro without a subscription or Lifetime purchase. You need to be signed in (see Sign-In Required), and the bottom of the Projects home menu reads Free user. Without a subscription, later launches open on the purchase screen; close it to continue in free mode.

Everything else is included: there’s no limit on how many projects you make, adding scenes and shots on the Boards tab isn’t limited, all characters are available, and AI features work in free mode — they spend credits, starting with your welcome credits. Upgrading means, in the purchase screen’s words, “No more watermarks. Animatics unlocked and all professional features unlocked.”

“I paid — why are my exports still watermarked?”

Tap Restore on the purchase screen (☰ → Purchase Options on the Projects home) while signed into the Apple ID that made the purchase — this fixes most cases. The watermark is added when the app thinks this device has no active subscription or Lifetime purchase at the moment you export, so once the purchase is restored, new exports come out clean. If Restore doesn’t clear it:

• Check the bottom of the ☰ menu on the Projects home: it shows your plan (for example Yearly subscriber or Free user) and Logged in as … with the account you’re using. If it’s the wrong account, tap Log Out and sign back in with the Apple ID tied to your purchase.
• Tap Restore on the purchase screen.
• If you bought on a different device or under a different Apple ID, see Using One Subscription on Mac, iPad and iPhone above.

If a purchase seemed to go through but the app said “This is taking longer than expected. If you completed your purchase, please restart the app to continue — your purchase is safe.”, restart Previs Pro and tap Restore if it still shows the watermark.

If the watermark persists after Restore on a device signed into the same Apple ID that made the purchase, write us at hello@previspro.com with your Apple receipt number and the device model and we’ll take a look.

Educators & Students

Previs Pro doesn’t issue student discount codes. For schools and teams, the Site License link on the plans screen opens our volume pricing page, and subscribers also see Bulk & Education Pricing in the Your Subscription panel. The good news for students: the free version is fully functional for storyboarding. You can build sets, place characters, find shots, line scripts and export PDFs — exports carry a small watermark, you get one animatic per project, and team sharing for online review needs a subscription.

For most film, theater, and animation course work, the free tier is enough.

Professors and instructors who want an unrestricted copy for personal use or class demos are welcome to email hello@previspro.com from an institutional address. Mention the school, the course, and what you’re teaching — we typically respond with a free copy.

If you’ve seen older mentions of a 70% student discount or an academic-year license, those programs have been retired. The watermark-on-export free tier replaces them.

Earn Free Credits

The Earn Credits dialog offers three ways to earn credits without buying them. To open it, tap your credit balance on the Timeline tab (the number with a coin, beside the ?) and choose Earn Credits / Referral.

Referral System

• Every user gets a unique 8-character referral code, shown under Your Referral Code.
• Send your code, or tap Copy Referral Link to copy a link that contains it (share.previspro.com?ref=CODE).
• Your friend signs in to Previs Pro, opens Earn Credits, types the code under Have a referral code? and taps Claim. You both get 50 credits.
• Each account can claim one code, you can’t use your own, and once a code’s owner has had 5 referrals that month the code stops working until next month (“This referrer has reached their monthly limit”).
• The Earn Credits dialog shows your stats: Total Referrals, This Month (X/5) and Credits Earned.

Social Share

Available in the iPhone, iPad and Mac app. Tap Share beside Share your work on social: Previs Pro renders the scene you’re in (or all scenes if none is selected) with branding and your logo watermark, then opens the share sheet. When the share completes you’ll see “Shared! Credits will appear shortly.” — 25 credits, once a week. All limits are enforced on our server.

See also: Pricing & License articles on the support site.

Script & Breakdown · Updated October 2026

Previs Pro treats your script as first-class project data. Import it once and its scenes, cast, locations, dialogue, action and transitions flow into the rest of the app: the Breakdown tab for checking and editing what came in, the Boards tab, where every scene is ready for shots, the Coverage overview for planning which shots cover which lines, and the Script panel in the Timeline. See the in-project shell for how the three tabs fit together.

Importing a script

Previs Pro imports every major screenplay format. There are three ways to bring a script in:

• Start a new project from it: on the Projects home, tap New project, choose New Project from Script and pick your file. The full walkthrough is in Getting started.
• Add it to a project you already have: open the Breakdown tab and tap Import script, or drag the script file anywhere onto the Breakdown tab. Previs Pro reads the file and opens a review so you can check the result before you tap Apply (the same review Import revision uses). A file dropped on the tab must be under 15 MB.
• From the Boards tab: in a project with no script, tapping Edit coverage or the side panel’s Coverage row opens Suggest coverage from your script. Its Import script button opens the file picker right where you are; once the file has been read, the app switches to the Breakdown tab with the review open, and returns to the board when the review ends.

Supported formats:

• Final Draft — .fdx, .fdxt
• Fountain — .fountain, and plain-text .txt files (read as Fountain)
• Open Screenplay Format — .osf
• Fade In — .fadein
• Celtx — .celtx
• PDF — .pdf, on Mac only, for PDFs exported from a writing app (the text must be selectable). Scanned PDFs have no text to read and are not supported. Because a PDF carries no screenplay markup, Previs Pro reads it from the page layout, and the import shows a note asking you to check the scenes and cast.

What gets extracted

• Scenes — one scene per scene heading (slugline), with INT/EXT, location, and time of day parsed out.
• Cast — every character name that appears above a dialogue block is added to the cast, and each one is given a 3D body automatically (see Cast).
• Locations — one per distinct place named in the sluglines, listed on the Breakdown tab’s Locations sub-tab.
• Dialogue, Action, and Transitions — preserved as structured script lines in each scene, with parentheticals and extensions (V.O., O.S.).

Each import also saves an import baseline — a snapshot of the script as it arrived. View changes compares your project with the most recent baseline, and Import revision uses it to merge a revised draft. Each successful import revision makes the new draft the baseline, and the version chip on the Breakdown tab (for example “v2 · MyScript.fdx · date”) counts up.

Script privacy and confidentiality

Imported scripts are stored inside your .previs project file on your device. Importing a script, the automatic casting that follows, and reviewing or editing it on the Breakdown tab send nothing from your script to Previs Pro’s servers.

The exceptions are features you explicitly trigger:

• AI features (AI Studio’s Create, Enhance and Touch Up, Sketch with AI, dialogue text-to-speech and so on) send the prompt and shot context for that one generation through Previs Pro’s AI service to the provider listed in Models & Providers. Suggest coverage sends the text of the one scene you run it on to a language model the same way. None of them sends your whole script.
• Publish to Web / Share for Review uploads the bits of the project needed for browser playback (shot stills, dialogue text, audio clips, etc.) to our review servers. If you don’t publish, nothing leaves the device.
• Copies you save or share — if you use Save to disk or Share with another app to put a copy of a project in a cloud folder or another app, that service’s own privacy terms apply to the copy.

If you’re working on a confidential project and want to keep everything on the device, skip the AI features and Publish to Web, and keep the project file in local storage. Reading the script, casting it and editing it on the Breakdown tab all happen on your device.

See also: How do I start a project with my script? on the support site.

Script Import Checklist

After every successful import — a new project from a script, a first import on the Breakdown tab, or an Import revision — a card titled Script Import Checklist (“Let’s ensure your script imported correctly.”) appears so you can check the result:

• Review changes from prior revision — after an Import revision only, listed first. Opens the Breakdown tab’s Script sub-tab with View changes open.
• Verify script, Verify cast, Verify locations — each opens the Breakdown tab on that sub-tab.

A row you have tapped is struck through. The top-most row you haven’t done yet is highlighted red as the suggested next step, but you can take them in any order. Review later closes the card without ticking anything and leaves you where you are. Once every row is ticked the button turns red and reads All set!; tapping it closes the card and takes you to the Boards tab.

The chevron in the card’s top-right corner (Hide checklist / Show checklist) slides the card down to a thin strip and back; tapping the card itself does the same. On a phone, tapping a Verify row slides the card aside by itself so it doesn’t cover the sub-tab. The card shows on the Boards and Breakdown tabs, hides (keeping your ticks) on the Timeline tab and while a guide or coach marks are on screen, and goes away when you open another project.

Where your script appears

Script data flows into several places once it’s imported:

• Breakdown tab — the first tab in every open project, for checking and editing the imported script, cast and locations. See The Breakdown tab.
• Boards tab — each slugline becomes a scene, with its number, location, INT/EXT and time of day filled in. See The Boards tab.
• Coverage overview — opened from a scene on the Boards tab; plan which shots cover which lines, and let AI suggest the shots. See Suggest coverage and Lining the script.
• Canvas Editor — the Script side panel opens the same Coverage overview beside the 3D view. See Coverage overview in the Canvas Editor.
• Script panel in the Timeline — tap the document icon at the far left of the Timeline’s header to show the script for the current scene beside the viewer, scrolling along with playback. See Script panel below.
• Audio Workspace › Create — dialogue lines feed straight into text-to-speech. Pick a voice for each cast member and generate scratch dialogue for one scene or all of them. See the Create tab.

The Breakdown tab

The Breakdown tab (formerly the Screenplay Manager) is where you check and edit everything that came in from your script — in film terms, the script broken down into its scenes, cast and locations. It is the left-hand tab of the three at the top of every open project, and it has three sub-tabs: Script, Cast and Locations.

Where to find it

• Tab: open any project → tap Breakdown (the left tab of the three).
• From the checklist: the Script Import Checklist’s Verify rows open the matching sub-tab.
• Target ID: shell.tab.breakdown (entry)

If you switch to Breakdown with a shot selected on the board, the tab opens with that shot’s scene expanded.

Layout

• Top row — the three sub-tab icons (document for Script, person for Cast, map pin for Locations), the active sub-tab’s name, and its add button: Add character on Cast, Add location on Locations.
• Second row — a Search... field and, on Script and Cast, the All Scenes menu for narrowing the list to one scene.
• Third row — the version chip (“v2 · MyScript.fdx · date”, or “No script imported”), View changes (whenever the project has a script) and Import revision (labeled Import script until the project has had its first import).

With no script yet, the tab says “No script imported” with an Import script button; the Cast and Locations add buttons still work. In a read-only project (an online review session) the edit and delete icons are hidden; Copy still works.

The first time you open the Breakdown tab in one of your own projects with a script, five coach marks name the controls: Script tab, Cast tab, Locations tab, View changes (“Track changes made from your originally imported script”) and the import button (“Import new script revisions to update your project as production progresses”). They don’t appear in tutorial projects, and they show only once.

UI elements at a glance

Script

One card per scene, in script order. Each card shows the scene number, the full slugline (for example “EXT. DINER - DAY”) and three counts: cast members, dialogue lines and action lines.

• Tap a scene to expand it and see its lines in script order. The pencil opens Scene info (number, INT/EXT, time of day, location and more); the trash deletes the scene with its shots and audio, after a confirm.
• Each line of the expanded scene has a Copy icon (action and dialogue lines) and Edit and Delete icons. Deleting asks first (“Delete dialogue?”, “Delete action?” and so on).
• Drag to reorder: drag a scene (press and hold first on touch) and drop it between two others to move it.
• Drag to merge: drop a scene onto another and confirm Merge Scenes to move all its script lines into that scene. If the scene you dragged has shots, the confirm warns that they will be removed.
• Search matches scene names, character names, dialogue and action. The All Scenes menu beside it narrows the list to one scene.

What you can edit on a line:

• Dialogue: edit the line, and pick which character (or characters) speaks it.
• Action: scene descriptions and stage directions.
• Transitions: CUT TO, FADE OUT, etc.

An edit opens a text box with Save and Cancel (Escape also cancels). Omit Scene is not here: it is on the scene’s menu on the Boards tab (see the scene menu).

Cast

After an import, every speaking character is cast automatically: Previs Pro picks a 3D body from its built-in cast, guided by the character’s name and by how the script describes them. The pick is made on your device, with no AI call and no credits, and the same body is used in every shot. After an Import revision, newly added characters are cast the same way.

• Each card shows the character’s headshot (a silhouette until a portrait exists), name, number of lines and number of scenes. Tap a card to expand it.
• On an expanded card, the accent button reads Edit character (reopens the Character Creator on a body made there) or Update model (choose a new body, which replaces the current one). Tapping the larger headshot does the same.
• The pencil next to the name renames the character; names must be unique (“Character already exists”). The icons on the right are Duplicate and Delete character, which asks first: “All dialogue for this cast member will become unassigned.”
• Below, every line the character speaks is listed by scene, each with Copy, Edit and Delete. The All Scenes menu narrows it to one scene. Lines with no speaker are gathered on an UNASSIGNED card.
• Add character (top right) opens the Character Creator, which asks for the name once the body is made.
• Drag to merge: drop one cast member onto another (press and hold first on touch) and confirm Merge Characters to give all their dialogue to the target. The one you dragged is removed from the cast and from every shot.

For managing characters in your scenes, see the cast list.

Locations

One card per location named in the sluglines, in alphabetical order, with the number of scenes that use it. Scenes with no location sit on an UNASSIGNED card at the end. Locations has a search field but no All Scenes menu.

• An expanded card has a Location description… box, a pencil to rename the location, Duplicate, and Delete location, which asks first and removes the location from every scene that uses it.
• Below that, one row per scene that uses the location, each with a Notes for this scene… box. Its pencil edits only the words after the location’s name in that scene’s heading (for example “(FLASHBACK)” or “- MOMENTS LATER”); its trash removes the location from that scene, which moves to Unassigned while its heading stays as written.
• Add location (top right) opens New Location. Names match regardless of capitalization (“Location already exists”).
• Drag to merge: drop one location onto another (press and hold first on touch) and confirm Merge Locations to move all its scenes to the target. Each scene keeps its own heading text.

To keep a scene’s 3D look for reuse, use Save as Set in Scene info; Add existing set there opens the Set Library. See Sets.

Suggest coverage

The Coverage overview lists the shots in one scene, lets you edit them as a table, and can ask AI to suggest a complete set of coverage from the scene’s script.

Where to find it

• Scene header: Boards tab → a scene’s header → Edit coverage. It appears while a shot in that scene is selected, or on every scene when the Force scenes open on Board tab preference is on. On a phone this is the way in.
• Side panel: Boards tab → select a shot → side panel → Coverage (“View/Edit Scene Coverage”). See the side panel.
• Canvas Editor: the Script side panel shows a compact version — see Coverage overview in the Canvas Editor.
• Target ID: sceneBoard.editCoverageButton, shotActionsPanel.coverage (entries), coverageOverview.root (dialog)

In a project with no script, both buttons open Suggest coverage from your script instead, with Import script and Learn more.

The shot list

Opening the Coverage overview costs nothing: the rows are the scene’s current shots. The columns are # (the shot number; tap it to select the row), Size, Angle, Move, Lens, Dur, In frame and Description. After a Suggest run a Type column (3D or Image) appears, and an Image Prompt column when any row is typed Image.

• Edit any field, use Add shot to add a row, or the row’s trash to remove one (“Nothing changes in the scene until you apply.”).
• The Set menu offers None, Generate Background, the app’s Built-in sets and your Custom sets. After a Suggest run, the AI’s pick is shown beside it as a hint (“Suggested set: …”).
• On narrower screens the right-hand columns fold into a More fields (…) row under each shot, and on the narrowest the script pane hides behind a View coverage / View shots toggle at the bottom.
• The script pane on the right shows the scene with each shot’s coverage lined over it — see Lining the script.

Suggesting shots

Under the shot list, Suggest coverage (or Regenerate coverage once the scene has a suggestion) asks AI to read the scene and propose its coverage. The button shows the price and time: about 4 credits and 15 seconds (see Credit costs). On a scene nobody has worked on yet, it sits in a two-step card: 1. Read & Suggest and 2. Confirm & Create.

• While it runs the button reads Suggesting…. The suggestion then replaces every row; nothing is saved until you press Create.
• A pill beside the title says AI, or heuristic when the AI couldn’t be reached and built-in rules made the list instead.
• If your balance is under 4 credits the button is unavailable (“Not enough credits”).
• A scene with no script lines answers “No script for this scene” — add lines to the scene and re-import your script, then try again.

Why these shots?

After a Suggest run, Why these shots? opens by itself, listing each shot’s number, size, angle and movement with the AI’s reason for it. Close it with Got it. The reasons are kept with the shots, so the Why these shots? button under the Suggest button reopens the list later, here or in the Canvas Editor’s Coverage overview.

Image rows

After a Suggest run, each row’s Type can be 3D or Image. Inserts, point-of-view shots of a vista, empty wide, establishing and aerial shots, and exteriors with nobody in them start as Image. An Image row gets an editable Image Prompt written for you, and when you press Create it is generated as a still with FLUX.2 Turbo, at 3 credits per image. The Create button then shows a sparkle and the total. If an image can’t be generated, that shot is left empty and you are not charged for it.

Applying

• Cancel closes the Coverage overview without changing anything.
• For the scene’s own shots the button reads Apply (available once you’ve changed something): edited rows update their shots, new rows become shots, removed rows’ shots are removed, and your lining and colors are saved.
• For a suggestion the button reads Create: the scene’s shots are replaced by the suggested ones (“Creating shots…”). If you have already worked on the scene (it has more than one shot, or its first shot has been changed), it asks Replace existing shots? first.
• A set chosen in the Set menu is applied to the scene. Generate Background makes an AI backdrop for the scene with Nano Banana 2, at 12 credits (“Generating background…”).

Afterwards the Coverage overview closes and the scene opens on the board showing its shots. To turn a shot into an image afterwards, use Sketch with AI.

From suggested shots to 3D

Create makes one shot per row, carrying its size, angle, movement, lens, duration, description, coverage lining and color. In each new shot the scene’s speaking characters stand in a row facing the camera (the one with the most lines first, about a meter apart), lit by the default three-point lighting, with the camera raised just enough to keep their heads in frame. A scene with no dialogue gets default shots with no characters.

From there, stage each shot yourself: select it on the board and use Build in 3D or Edit in 3D to open it in the Canvas Editor, where the Coverage overview stays beside the 3D view. Or turn the shot into an image with Sketch with AI.

Lining the script

A lined script shows which shot covers which part of the scene. Previs Pro draws it in the Coverage overview’s script pane: each shot’s coverage is a colored vertical line over the script, with a bubble carrying the shot number (for example “1A”) above the first line it covers and a small tick under the last. Coverage can skip lines — the line simply stops and starts again.

• A straight line means the shot is on camera for that line.
• A wavy line means the line is heard while the shot is up, but its speaker is off camera (for example, the other side of a single or an over-the-shoulder).
• The selected shot’s line is drawn solid; the others are drawn at half strength. Tap another shot’s line to select that shot.

Editing the lining

1. Select a shot: tap its # in the shot list, or its line in the script pane. Selecting a shot starts editing its coverage straight away: a color swatch and Done appear under the script.
2. Tap lines in the script to cycle that shot’s coverage: none → straight → wavy → none. Tap the swatch to pick a different color if you like.
3. Tap Done (or press Escape) to stop editing.

Up to four shots can cover one line; a fifth is refused with “Up to 4 shots can cover one line.” In the board’s Coverage overview nothing is saved until you press Apply or Create. In the Canvas Editor’s Coverage overview every change saves the moment you make it.

• AI-suggested shots arrive already lined: Suggest coverage marks the lines each shot covers on and off camera, and any shot it leaves unlined gets a sensible default from its size and characters.
• Coverage lined in earlier versions of Previs Pro carries over.
• In a read-only project, the side panel’s Coverage row shows the lining without editing.

View changes

View changes (on the Breakdown tab, beside the version chip) compares your project with the most recent import — the left column is headed with that import’s version (“v2 Import”), the right column Current Project. It shows scenes, cast or locations depending on which sub-tab you were on. Use it to see what you’ve edited since the import, or to check a project before sharing it. The back arrow at the top left returns to the Breakdown tab.

Scene, cast and location cards

• Plain border, no badge: unchanged.
• Orange, solid — CHANGED: matched, but the content differs. Tap it to see the line-by-line view.
• Orange, dashed — MOVED (or CHANGED and MOVED): the scene changed position.
• Green — ADDED: new since the import.
• Red, dimmed — REMOVED: in the import, gone now.

On the Script view, lines between the two columns connect each scene to its match, in the same colors. On the Cast view a character with no dialogue left shows NO LINES.

Line-by-line view

Tap into a changed scene to see a per-line comparison of dialogue, action, and transitions. The line view mirrors the scene-level layout: a left column (the import), a right column (current), and a gutter between them with connector lines linking matched pairs.

• CHANGED badge — the line exists on both sides but its content differs.
• MOVED badge — identical content, but its position in the scene changed.
• ADDED badge — new line, not in the import.
• REMOVED badge — was in the import, now gone.
• CHANGED & MOVED — both content and position changed (dashed border).

Move detection runs as a second pass after the line-by-line alignment, so a chunk of dialogue that simply got pushed earlier or later in the scene shows up as MOVED rather than as a paired ADDED/REMOVED.

In the line-by-line view, changed lines highlight the exact words: added words on a green background, removed words struck through in red. On the list view, the summary line counts modified, added, deleted and unchanged items, Show only changes hides unchanged cards, and the First / Previous / Next / Last arrows jump between changes.

Import revision

If your script changes after the project is built — new scenes, cut scenes, dialogue rewrites — bring the revised draft in with Import revision (formerly Import New Version) instead of starting over. Scenes that match keep their shots and blocking, and new characters are cast automatically.

1. Open the Breakdown tab and tap Import revision (to the right of the version chip). You can also drag the new file anywhere onto the Breakdown tab.
2. Pick the revised script. While the file picker is open and the file is read, the app shows “Waiting for screenplay file…”; after 10 seconds a Dismiss button appears if you need the app back.
3. Previs Pro compares the new draft with your project and opens the review, side by side: Current (your project) on the left, Incoming (the new draft) on the right.

Reviewing the revision

The review uses the same cards, colors and line-by-line view as View changes. Switch between Script, Cast and Locations with the icons at the top left, narrow the list with Filter (All, Matched, Added, Omitted, Conflicts) or Show only changes, and shape what gets merged:

• Drag to reorder the Incoming column. If you want a new scene to land somewhere other than where the script puts it, drag it (press and hold first on touch).
• Keep or skip scene changes. Added and removed scene cards have an Approved box, ticked by default. Untick it and confirm Skip this scene? to leave a new scene out, or Restore this scene? to keep a scene the new draft drops. This can’t be undone within the review.
• Resolve conflicts. When you edited a line and the new draft changed it too, a row under that scene offers Keep mine, Accept new or Merge manually (a text box with its own Apply). Apply stays unavailable until every conflict is answered.
• Look closer. Tap any changed scene card to see its line-by-line changes; the back arrow returns to the list.

The Cast and Locations views have no Approved boxes: characters and locations follow their scenes. A character with no lines in the new draft shows NO LINES and stays in your cast — remove it from the Cast sub-tab if you no longer need it. A revision read from a PDF shows a note asking you to check the scenes and cast.

While the review is open, the Breakdown, Boards and Timeline tabs and the ? and menu buttons are unavailable; the home button, the Escape key and Cancel all ask Discard this import? first.

Applying the revision

When the review shows what you want, tap Apply. “Importing screenplay…” covers the app until the merge finishes — a minute or more for a long script — and a “Script revision imported” message confirms it. Cancel asks Discard this import? first: Discard Import throws away your review choices and leaves the project unchanged; Keep Reviewing goes back.

Afterwards the Script Import Checklist appears with Review changes from prior revision at the top.

If an import fails

Problems before the review opens show in an Import failed banner with a Dismiss button; a failed Apply shows a Couldn’t apply this import banner inside the review instead. Canceling the file picker is not an error.

Script panel (Timeline)

Where to find it

• Panel: Timeline → header row, far left → document icon (tooltip: “Toggle script panel”). The panel opens to the left of the viewer and shows the script for the current scene. On larger screens it opens by itself for scenes that have script text until you open or close it yourself; after that it stays the way you left it. On a phone the panel fills the screen.
• Target ID: timeline.scriptToggle (entry), scriptPanel.root (panel)

Script panel

Displays the script for the current scene beside the viewer, following playback. Supports:

• Formatted pages with dialogue, action, and transitions, scrolling along during playback.
• Punch Up, an editable copy of the scene’s text for quick rewrites. The info bar marks it “Revisions for Quick Share. Unsaved.” and Revert to original script restores the original text. A scene with only plain text shows an editable box instead.
• Drawing on the script with pen, highlighter and eraser. Tap the pencil (Draw on script) — or, on iPad, just start writing with Apple Pencil — then use the toolbar: color, Pen, Highlighter, Eraser, ✕ Discard and ✓ Save. Cmd+Z undoes a stroke.
• Each saved drawing is kept as a comment on its script page (“Screenplay annotation added.”) and shows again whenever you return to the scene.

With no script in the project the panel says “No script imported”. In a read-only review session the bottom buttons are hidden.

Script panel UI elements

Lining the script

Script lining — colored lines showing which shot covers which part of the scene — lives in the Coverage overview on the Boards tab and in the Canvas Editor. See Lining the script.

Sharing & Review · Updated October 2026

Send your timeline to collaborators as a password-protected review link they open in any browser. Reviewers can play it, comment on shots, draw doodles and set approval statuses, and their feedback flows back into your project.

Share for Review

Create a time-limited, password-protected review link that anyone can use to review your project in a browser.

Where to find it

• Panel: Timeline tab → transport bar along the bottom → Share (right end, tooltip “Share for online review”) → Share for Review dialog
• Target ID: timeline.shareButton (entry), shareDialog.root (dialog)

1. On the Timeline tab, tap Share at the right end of the transport bar. (Share has no keyboard shortcut.)
2. Under Link expiration, choose 7 days, 30 days or 90 days (7 days is preselected), then tap Create Review Link.
3. When the upload finishes (“Review link created!”), the dialog shows the Link and a generated Password, each with a Copy button, plus Copy Link + Password to copy both at once. Reviewers need both.
4. Send the link and password to your reviewers. The link looks like https://share.previspro.com?session=SESSION_ID.

The review link carries your shot images, shot videos (including animatic and AI videos), transition videos, audio clips, comments, doodles and approvals, all uploaded to the cloud; from the app it also carries your cast headshots. In the app, sharing first re-renders any shot images that are out of date; a full-screen Sharing project… screen shows the upload’s progress (for example “Uploading thumbnails (3/20)...”) on whichever tab you’re on until it finishes. In 3.6.0 sharing is faster on large projects, and the app stays on screen with this progress instead of going dark during the upload.

Before you share

• Subscription (in the app): in the iPhone, iPad and Mac app, Share needs an active subscription. Without one, a Subscription Required dialog explains “Team functionality requires an active subscription.” and Continue opens the purchase options (see Subscriptions).
• Sign-in (in the app): sharing needs a signed-in account. If you’re signed out, the app asks you to sign in first and the share doesn’t start until you do (see Sign-in).
• First-share reward: if you’re signed in and have never shared a project, the dialog shows “Share for the first time and earn 25 free credits.” (see Earn credits).

Updating a review link

• Reopen Share on a project that already has a review link to see the same Link and Password, with “Shared version v2. Update to sync your latest changes.” (your version number).
• Tap Update Project to upload your latest changes. When it’s done (“Project updated!”), the URL and password stay the same and reviewers see the changes when they refresh.
• If someone else updated the shared project since you last synced, the dialog says “Another update was made since you last synced. Close and reopen to get the latest revision.” If an update fails (“Sync stopped”), tap Retry or Close.
• Comments and approvals that reviewers add in the browser arrive live in the project while you have it open in the app.

Joining a review

What your reviewers see when they open the link:

• A Review Session page asks them to “Enter the password provided by the project owner.” They type it into Session password and tap Join Review. A wrong password shows “Incorrect password. Please try again.”
• An expired or revoked link shows Session Expired (“This review session has expired or been revoked.”).
• If the reviewer is signed in to a Previs Pro account in that browser, their account name is used for their comments.
• The project opens read-only on the Timeline, with a Review Mode badge in the transport bar. Reviewers can play the timeline, read and post comments, draw doodles and set approvals; the Export and Share buttons are hidden.
• Comments sync live between everyone in the session.

Comments

Where to find it

• Panel: Timeline tab → header row, far right → speech-bubble icon (beside the shot’s status pill). A badge counts the comments on the current shot (replies aren’t counted). The icon pulses for a few seconds when the playhead reaches a shot that has comments and isn’t approved, and flashes when a reviewer’s comment arrives live. The panel opens on the right; on phones it opens full screen with a × to close it.
• Target ID: timeline.commentToggle (entry), commentPanel.root (panel)
• Shortcut: C

• Shot-level comments: Attach feedback to specific shots.
• Threaded replies: Reply to a comment; replies are indented under it.
• Real-time sync: Comments update live between all reviewers via WebSocket (Supabase Realtime).
• Author colors: Each reviewer gets a deterministic color from an 8-color palette.
• Copy all: Copy all comments in a scene to the clipboard as text.

Comment Panel UI elements

Reviewer Colors

Assigned deterministically based on reviewer name (same person always gets the same color):

Doodle Annotations

Draw directly on the shot viewer to provide visual feedback.

Where to find it

• Panel: Timeline tab → shot viewer → Edit Tools (the ⋯ button at the bottom right of the shot image) → pencil (tooltip “Draw annotation (D)”). When the pencil is the only edit tool, it shows directly with no ⋯ button.
• Target ID: timeline.viewerDrawButton
• Shortcut: D

• Toggle drawing mode with D or the pencil. The pencil is disabled while the timeline is playing, and you can’t draw during a transition.
• Drawing uses a pen in your reviewer color; press Cmd+Z to undo the last stroke. (There is no eraser on shots; the eraser and highlighter belong to script-page markup in the Script panel.)
• With Apple Pencil, touching the shot starts drawing straight away. Squeezing the Pencil turns drawing on or off (or script-page markup, when the Script panel is open).
• Add Doodle Comment: when you finish drawing, a prompt opens with the text “Doodled.” ready to edit. Post saves the doodle with that comment and, if the shot was Pending or Approved, sets it to Notes. Discard throws the drawing away after a “Discard this doodle?” check.
• Everyone’s doodles at once: all doodles on a shot show together, each in its author’s color. Posting a new doodle replaces your own previous doodle on that shot.
• Doodle dialog: tapping the pencil on a shot that already has doodles opens a dialog first:
  • Project creator, when others have drawn: Shot Markup (“This shot has markup from …”) with Cancel, Clear My Doodle (if you have one), Clear All Doodles and Draw (or Redraw).
  • Anyone with their own doodle on the shot: Your Doodle (“You already have a doodle on this shot”) with Cancel, Clear My Doodle and Redraw.
• Where doodles travel: review links always include them; the HTML export includes them only when Include doodles is ticked; Publish to Web leaves them out.

Approvals

Each shot has an approval status visible in the timeline:

Change the current shot’s status with the status pill at the right of the Timeline header, next to the comment icon (tooltip “Change approval status”); anyone in a review can set it. Posting a comment (not a reply) or doodle on a Pending or Approved shot sets it to Notes automatically. Shots with comments show a marker on their bar in the shot lane, colored by status, and the scene pill turns green when every shot in the scene is approved. Each change is kept as a new revision and the newest one wins.

Publish to Web

Publish a permanent web page of your timeline, separate from the time-limited review link. Publish to Web is a tab of the export hub in the browser version of the Timeline only; it isn’t offered in the iPhone, iPad or Mac app, and it needs you to be signed in.

• Uploads shot images and audio, plus video shots if you tick Include video shots. Compress thumbnails (on by default) keeps the upload small, and the tab shows the Upload size before you tap Publish. Doodles are not included.
• When it’s done (“Your timeline is live!”), Copy the permanent URL or Open in new tab.
• Manage exports lists everything you’ve published, with a delete button for each (“Delete this published export? The URL will stop working.”).

See also: Save & Share articles on the support site.

Animatics · Updated October 2026

Animatic Mode adds time-based motion to your storyboard. It is a full canvas mode — switching to Animatics replaces the vertical Shot List with a horizontal continuing shot list and overlays animation controls on the 2D or 3D canvas.

Where to find it

• Panel: Canvas Editor → Animatics button (the tab beside the shot list)
• Target ID: canvasEditor.animaticsButton
• First seen: the Canvas Editor’s first-visit coach marks (“Animatics button”); the Animatics card on the New user guides shelf opens a video guide

Entering Animatics Mode

In the Canvas Editor, tap the Animatics button (the tab beside the shot list; its coach mark reads “Turn this shot into an entire animatic sequence”). The title bar switches to the animatics title bar (scene and shot name, Done, Undo, Redo), and a horizontal continuing shot list holds the sequence. To leave, tap the tab right under CAM to return to the standard canvas, or tap Done, which also returns to the canvas, or to the Boards tab when you opened the animatic from there. Either way, if the animatic changed, the app first renders its video (see Animatic videos).

Keyframing

Camera and actor moves in Animatics Mode have no fixed keyframe limit — add as many as the shot needs. Each keyframe stores a position and rotation; the timing between any two is editable inline. In free mode a project can hold one animatic (“You’ve reached the maximum number of animatics allowed in a project.”).

Workflow:

1. Set "Start" position (Keyframe A).
2. Scrub the progress slider forward — keyframe indicators (dots) appear on the slider marking set positions.
3. Move the Camera or Actor.
4. Set the next keyframe. Repeat to add as many keyframes as you need — you’re not limited to a start and end.

Tap the duration box between keyframes to enter precise timing (e.g., "push in over 5.0 seconds").

Two object actions help keep a sequence consistent: Reset returns an object’s position and animatable properties to the prior continuing shot, and Propagate copies them to every later continuing shot. Both ask for confirmation and can’t be undone.

Playback

• Play / Stop buttons preview the animation.
• Loop toggle for continuous replay (iPad and Mac; hidden on iPhone).
• 2D / 3D / Fullscreen buttons to switch between overhead, 3D, or fullscreen playback views.
• Progress slider with dual-state graphics (different appearance when playing vs. scrubbing).

Motion Paths

In the 2D overhead view, each moving object’s path is drawn as a smooth curve through its keyframe positions, with a marker at each keyframe showing position and facing. On the selected object’s path, a small tick marks every second of movement: closely spaced ticks mean slow movement, wide spacing means fast.

Animatic videos

Each animatic has a rendered video, which is what plays for that shot outside the Canvas Editor.

• Rendered when you tap Done. When you leave Animatics Mode (with Done or the tab under CAM) and the animatic has changed since its last video, the app renders the video right away under a progress panel titled Generating animatic, with a Cancel button. You leave Animatics Mode either way; a canceled or failed render is tried again the next time you leave Animatics Mode.
• Where it plays: the board’s side panel and the Timeline viewer play the animatic’s video, and animatic shots carry an Animatic badge on their thumbnail. The video also travels in the HTML export, in review links and in NLE export.
• Re-rendered after a project-wide look change (new in 3.6.0). Changing Aspect Ratio, Camera Sensor, Post-Processing or Tone Mapping in Project info removes the old animatic videos and re-renders them at the end of the board’s refresh, shown as “Rendering animatics — 2 of 5”.
• Scene and shot look changes too. Changing a scene’s or shot’s look (for example switching a scene’s Time from Day to Night in Scene info) marks the affected animatic videos out of date. The board re-renders them right after a change made on the board, and after a change made in the Canvas Editor when you return to the board.
• Frame rate: the project’s Animatic Frame Rate (30, 25 or 24 fps, in Project info under Miscellaneous) sets the frame rate of exported animatics.

Editing or reverting an animatic

• Select an animatic shot in the Canvas Editor outside Animatics Mode and an Animatics shot notice appears, with Edit animatic (back into Animatics Mode) and Revert animatic.
• Revert animatic asks Revert Continuing Shots: “Do you want to permanently delete all … continuing animatics shots in this sequence and leave a single static shot? This cannot be undone. Proceed?”
• Enhancing an animatic shot in AI Studio also turns it back into a single static shot, removing its continuing shots and animatic video, after an Enhance an animatic? confirmation.

Limits:

• In free mode, a project can hold one animatic. Pasting an animatic shot past your plan’s limit on the board shows “You’ve reached the animatic shot limit for this plan.”
• Sets can’t be added to a scene that has animatic shots (see Set library).
• A scene that still contains legacy set pieces can’t hold an animatic (“Legacy Set Pieces Found”); remove the set pieces first.

Animatic Export

The export button in Animatics Mode steps out of Animatics Mode, opens the export panel for this shot (see PDF Storyboard & Images) and brings you back into Animatics Mode when you close the panel. Choose MP4 for a video of the move; a regular project MP4 export also plays every animatic shot in full. For stills, the Animatics Frames layout writes a frame every 2 seconds. Animatic videos also travel in the HTML export (with Include video shots), in review links and in NLE export.

See also: Animatics articles on the support site. Watch video tutorials on the Previs Pro YouTube channel for step-by-step walkthroughs of the animatics workflow.

Export · Updated October 2026

There are two export surfaces. The native export panel makes PDF storyboards, PNG/JPEG images and MP4 video: open it from Export in the in-project menu (☰) or the Boards panel’s project actions, from Export Scene in a scene’s menu or Export in a shot’s menu on the board, or from Export in the Canvas Editor’s menu. The export hub (the Export button in the Timeline tab’s transport bar) handles the HTML player, NLE handoff and, in the browser version only, Publish to Web.

The export hub

A tabbed dialog for the exports that come from the Timeline.

Where to find it

• Panel: Timeline tab → transport bar along the bottom → Export (just left of Share; tooltip “Export project (HTML, web, NLE)”)
• Target ID: timeline.exportButton
• Shortcut: Cmd+E on the Timeline tab (opens the hub on Export for NLE)

UI elements at a glance

PDF Storyboard & Images

Choose PDF in the export panel for a printable storyboard; JPEG or PNG writes the same pages as image files. The same panel makes MP4 video.

Where to find it

• Panel: in-project menu (☰) → Export (“PDF, MP4, & PNG/JPEG”); or the Boards panel with no shot selected → project actions → Export; or a scene’s menu on the board → Export Scene (that scene; hidden for omitted scenes); or a shot’s menu on the board → Export (that shot); or the Canvas Editor’s menu → Export; or the export button in Animatics Mode (that shot). All of them open the same Export Options panel.
• Target ID: projectExportSettings.root (panel), sceneBoard.sceneMenu.export, sceneBoard.shotMenu.export

• Layouts (picked from thumbnails in the panel’s Layout row): two Two-Up layouts that pair each shot with its overhead view, two Six-Up layouts, Annotated shot, Annotated overhead view, Full (one shot per page), Shot List (ten shots per page), and Animatics Frames (a frame every 2 seconds of each animatic; offered only when every shot in the range is an animatic). Export Scene on the board preselects Two-Up; a shot’s Export preselects Full.
• Data included (varies by layout): project title and date, scene number, heading and notes, cast names, shot number, name, notes and duration, shot size, framing, angle, movement, focus and equipment, and camera lens, height and tilt. The watermark, logo and Custom export text come from Project info → Watermark & Logo.
• Options (the Export Options panel): Format (JPEG, PNG, PDF or MP4), Quality (High or Good), the scene and shot Range (all scenes, a scene range, a shot range, or a scene and shot range), and Show markup (on by default; still formats only) to include markup drawn on your shots. A PDF can hold up to 999 pages.
• Progress: an Export panel shows “Creating images”, “Creating document” or “Creating video” with a Cancel button. On some devices a large image export is written in batches, and the panel tells you how many.
• Export is unavailable while an AI generation is running. If every scene is omitted, the app says “There is nothing to export because all scenes have been omitted.”
• Export 3D, the row under Export in the Canvas Editor’s menu, opens 3D Export Options instead, for exporting the scene’s objects (cameras, lights, characters, props, walls, set, floor plan) as 3D.

MP4 Video

Choose MP4 in the export panel to render your storyboard as a video with the Timeline’s audio, at the project’s Animatic Frame Rate. Layouts are Simple or Annotated. Force 1s shots (shown when the project has no animatics) holds every shot for one second; Omit titles (shown when it has animatics) leaves out the project and scene title cards. An MP4 can hold up to 999 shots. MP4 export is available to everyone, including in free mode (the free-mode limits are the ones listed there).

If the MP4 doesn’t look how you expected

• Animatic shots. An MP4 export plays each animatic shot’s full move, using the animatic’s own length rather than the shot’s duration. Still formats (PDF, JPEG, PNG) show one frame per shot unless you choose the Animatics Frames layout.
• Audio missing in the MP4. The MP4 mixes the Timeline’s audio lanes at each clip’s volume and fades, and leaves out muted clips (drawn dimmed in the lane). Before exporting, check on the Timeline that your dialogue, music and SFX clips are there and not muted.
• Frame rate. MP4 export uses the project’s Animatic Frame Rate (30, 25 or 24 fps), set in Project info under Miscellaneous. For an editorial round-trip at another rate, use NLE export, which has its own frame-rate picker.

HTML Player

On the Timeline tab, tap Export in the transport bar and choose the Download HTML tab to produce a single self-contained .html file you can email, drop into Dropbox, or open directly in any modern browser — no Previs Pro install, no internet, no login required. In the app, Export hands the file to the Mac’s save panel or the iPhone/iPad share sheet; in a browser it downloads. The file is named after the project with a timestamp.

• Embedded media: shot images, audio on every lane (including audio you recorded in the app), transitions, comments and approval state are all baked into the file. Doodle drawings are included only if you tick Include doodles (off by default); comment text is always included.
• Optional video: tick Include video shots (off by default) to embed video shots, including animatic and AI videos, for a fully playable animatic; leave it off for a smaller stills-and-audio file. A size table (Thumbnails, Audio, Video, Estimated total) shows the estimate before you export.
• Compress thumbnails (960px, q70) is on by default to keep the file emailable; turn it off for full-quality stills.
• Standalone player: the exported HTML runs on a vanilla-JS player with no React, sql.js, or external dependencies — it just plays.

NLE Export (FCP7 XML)

Hand off the editorial timeline to a non-linear editor for finishing. On the Timeline tab, tap Export in the transport bar and choose the Export for NLE tab to produce a Final Cut Pro 7 XML (xmeml v5) project as a zip archive containing the XML plus all referenced media (still images, video clips, audio). Cmd+E on the Timeline tab opens the export hub straight on this tab.

• Frame rate: choose 24, 23.976, 25, 29.97 or 30 fps. The option matching your project is starred (“★ matches your project’s frame rate (24 fps).”).
• Resolution follows the project’s aspect ratio: 16:9 → 1920×1080, 9:16 → 1080×1920, 2.39:1 → 2048×858, 1.85:1 → 1998×1080, 4:3 → 1440×1080, 1:1 → 1080×1080.
• Before you export, the tab shows the scene, shot and audio-clip counts and an Estimated zip size. While it runs (“Exporting for NLE”) it reports “Preparing export…”, “Extracting media”, “Assembling archive…” and “Saving…”, with Cancel. The finished file is <project title>_NLE.zip.
• Compatible with Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve.
• Filenames are scene-qualified with shot-id disambiguators (e.g., 1_A_2723.jpg) so DaVinci doesn't auto-merge numerically adjacent files into image sequences. Media sits in video/ and audio/ folders inside the zip, and animatic videos are included.
• Audio formats (MP3, WAV, OGG, M4A, FLAC) are detected from file headers and translated into the XML's audio channel metadata.
• Works in the app and in the browser. In the app, the zip is handed to the system save or share sheet. In a browser it downloads, and an export estimated above 250 MB asks first (“Large export”), because browser memory can run out on very large projects.

Markup & Annotations

Freehand drawings on your shots in the Canvas Editor (from older projects; Draw Mode has been retired) appear in still exports while Show markup is on in the export panel (it is by default). Reviewer doodles from the Timeline travel with review links, and with HTML exports when Include doodles is ticked (see Doodle Annotations).

See also: Storyboards articles on the support site.

Keyboard Shortcuts · Updated October 2026

Keyboard shortcuts work on a Mac, and on an iPad with a hardware keyboard. Each place in the app has its own set: the Boards tab, the Timeline tab and the Canvas Editor. On the Timeline tab, press ? to open the in-app Keyboard Shortcuts list. Single-key shortcuts don’t fire while you’re typing in a text field.

Key symbols: ⌘ Command, ⌥ Option, ⇧ Shift.

Boards tab

• Copy and paste do the same thing as Select mode’s Copy and the Paste row in a shot’s ⋯ menu (the menu has no Copy row). In Select mode, ⌘+C copies the ticked shots, and paste and next / previous shot are off. If you have text selected, ⌘+C copies the text instead. Copy and paste need a project you can edit, so they don’t work in a shared review.
• Next / previous shot stops at the first and last shot. With no shot selected, → selects the first shot and ← the last.
• Escape steps back one level per press. It first closes whatever is on top, such as Add new shot, Sketch with AI, the suggested shots from Suggest coverage, a shot preview, or Shot info, Scene info or Project info in the side panel. Next it closes AI Studio or the Audio workspace, leaves Doodle, closes the ☰ menu, leaves Select mode, steps the side panel back from Coverage, and deselects the shot. The last press closes the project and returns you to the Projects home. An iPad keyboard’s Escape key does the same.
• These shortcuts stand aside while a dialog is open and while the Getting started guide is running.

Timeline tab

• While doodling, ⌘+Z removes your last stroke, and Return or Esc finishes the doodle.
• Escape closes AI Studio (unless it’s generating) or the Audio workspace (unless you’re recording), then leaves Doodle, then deselects the shot, then closes the project.
• There’s no Save shortcut. Previs Pro saves your work as you go.
• ⌘+E isn’t available in a shared review. On a Mac trackpad you can also swipe between shots in the viewer.

AI & Audio (Timeline tab)

These aren’t available in a shared review.

Canvas Editor (3D and 2D)

In the Canvas Editor most keys act on the selected object. With nothing selected, the arrow keys and Q / E move the view instead. Hold ⇧ with a move, nudge or rotate key, or with ⌘+↑ / ⌘+↓, for a bigger step.

• In the pose editor, Return applies the pose and Esc cancels and discards it. Every other shortcut is off until you leave.
• While you’re working on an animatic, Esc, Delete and ⌘+D do nothing.

Director’s View (CAM)

While you’re framing a shot in CAM, these keys move the camera. Hold ⇧ for a bigger step.

In AR (iPhone and iPad), Space switches between tabletop and life-size, and Esc closes the AR options, then returns to the canvas.

Discontinued & Replaced Features · Updated October 2026

The following features from earlier versions of Previs Pro have been replaced or removed, including the changes in 3.6.0. If you’re looking for one of them, here’s where to find the equivalent.

System Requirements · Updated October 2026

Previs Pro runs on iPad, iPhone, and Mac. The main limitation — and the source of almost all unexpected quits — is RAM (memory). More RAM means more 3D props, larger scenes, and smoother exports.

Minimum OS

• iPhone and iPad: iOS / iPadOS 17.0 or later. The App Store offers Previs Pro to any device that runs iOS 17, including some with less than 4 GB of RAM (such as the iPad 6th and 9th generation). Those devices are below our supported minimum — see the chart below.
• Mac: macOS 12 (Monterey) or later. Apple silicon recommended. Intel Macs are supported but not the primary target.

RAM by Device

Every iPhone and iPad released in 2022 or later has at least 4 GB of RAM. Older models are listed below by memory.

If your device — or a more recent model of the same name — is listed in the table, you’re good. Devices with less than 4 GB of RAM (for example iPhone XR, iPhone SE 2nd generation, iPad 6th–9th generation, iPad mini 5th generation and iPad Air 3rd generation) can install the app on iOS 17 but are not supported: expect crashes on anything but small projects.

Using Previs Pro on a 4 GB Device

If you're on the minimum 4 GB tier, these tips help avoid memory pressure and crashes:

• Restart your device before working on large projects. This frees up RAM consumed by background apps and system processes.
• Use fewer imported props and images. Custom 3D models and high-resolution images are the biggest memory consumers. Stick to built-in library props where possible.
• Split large projects. Instead of one massive project for a feature film, break it into acts, reels, or sequences. Use Import From Project (in the ☰ menu while a project is open) to bring scenes, cast, props and images across from another project.
• Close background apps. iPads don't have swap memory like Macs — when RAM fills up, iOS terminates apps.

On iPads with less than about 3.5 GB of RAM, and on the 2017 iPad Pro models (10.5-inch and 12.9-inch 2nd generation, which can’t update past iPadOS 17), Previs Pro automatically keeps fewer shot thumbnails in memory and uses lighter textures in the Character Creator to avoid running out of memory. iPhones and Macs are unaffected.

As iOS versions grow larger, older devices have progressively less available memory for apps. If you're experiencing persistent crashes on a supported device, contact hello@previspro.com with your device model and what you were doing when the crash occurred.

See also: Why did Previs Pro crash? and Using Previs Pro on older devices on the support site.

Troubleshooting · Updated October 2026

Crashes & Memory

Almost always RAM related — especially on export or in large scenes. See System Requirements for device-specific RAM details and tips on reducing memory usage. If crashes persist on a supported device, email hello@previspro.com with your device model and what you were doing when it happened.

Blank, Black or Frozen Screen

The Projects home, the Breakdown, Boards and Timeline tabs, and Previs Assist are drawn by a web view built into the app. If one of them misbehaves, Previs Pro tries to fix it for you and gives you a button when it can’t:

• Blank screen. If a screen comes up blank, the app nudges it and checks again. If it’s still blank, you’ll see Display Error: “The screen failed to display correctly. Please try again.” Tap Try Again to rebuild the screen.
• Black screen after coming back to the app. Previs Pro quietly rebuilds a screen that has stopped working. If that doesn’t fix it, you’ll see the Display Error message above. On the Projects home, as a last resort, the app reloads itself and starts fresh there.
• Stuck on “Please wait…” (iPhone and iPad). If the Please wait screen hasn’t cleared after 15 seconds, it changes to “This is taking longer than expected. If the issue persists, try reloading.” Tap Reload app for a fresh start on the Projects home.
• “Something went wrong.” If a whole page shows Something went wrong (“An unexpected error occurred. Reloading usually fixes it.”), tap Reload. If the message appears inside a single panel, tap Try again.
• “Unable to connect to Previs Pro” means the app didn’t respond in time. Close the panel and open it again.

Previs Pro saves your work as you go; there’s no Save button to press before you reload.

Two messages that look similar aren’t errors. On an iPhone, “Rotate your device to continue” means the screen you’re on needs landscape. On an iPad in a narrow Split View window, “Increase window size to continue” means the window is too narrow. While the Canvas Editor is open, Return to board takes you back to the Boards tab.

Still stuck? Force-quit Previs Pro and reopen it. If the problem keeps coming back, email hello@previspro.com with your device model and what you were doing.

Working Offline

Your projects live on your device and the app’s screens are built into it, so you can open and edit projects without a connection.

These need a connection:

• AI generation: AI Studio and Sketch with AI. (Suggest coverage still runs offline, but its suggestions then come from simpler built-in rules instead of AI.)
• Adding custom or AI-generated 3D characters and props. Offline, those buttons are disabled and the add window shows “No internet connection detected”.
• Sharing review links (and, in the browser version, Publish to Web).
• Answers from Previs Assist (see below).
• Buying or restoring a purchase (“Restore needs a connection.”).

Help offline. If you ask Previs Assist a question with no connection, it shows “No network connection, load local wiki?”. Tap Load wiki to open the copy of this wiki that’s built into the app, already searching for what you asked.

The App Store can’t be reached. On the purchase screen, the price area shows “You’re offline.” or “Can’t reach the App Store right now.” with Try again (it reads Checking… while it retries). If no App Store account is signed in on the device, it says “Sign in to the App Store to see plans.” While prices are unknown, the plan buttons show the plan name (Monthly, Annual, Lifetime) instead of a price, and “Checking prices…” shows while the app waits for the store.

If you already subscribe and the App Store can’t confirm it, you’ll see We couldn’t reach the App Store. “Your subscription couldn’t be checked right now.” Tap Try again, or Continue for now to carry on into the app. You keep your access either way.

Signing in offline. Previs Pro asks you to sign in (see Sign-in required). If you’ve paid — a subscription or Lifetime purchase on this device — and sign-in can’t reach the server, the sign-in screen offers Continue without signing in. The app asks again at the next launch. The free mode always needs a signed-in account, even offline.

Missing Textures on 3D Import

Import the single-file .glb, which carries its textures inside it. If your model is a multi-file glTF with separate texture files, see Tips for clean imports.

AR Plane Not Detected

Ensure the room is well-lit. AR relies on visual contrast to detect and lock the floor plane. Move slowly while scanning. AR is available on iPhone and iPad only.

Audio Not Playing

• Check your mute switch. On iPhone/iPad, make sure the physical mute switch (or Control Center mute) is off.
• In a web browser (a shared review link), audio starts only after you interact with the page. Tap Play again.
• Audio only plays at normal (1×) speed. If you’ve sped up with the shuttle keys, press K to stop, then L to play forward at normal speed.
• Your existing lanes stay silent while you’re recording, so the microphone doesn’t pick them up.
• Check that clips aren’t muted on their lane (a muted clip’s waveform is grayed out).

Credit Balance Not Updating

Your credit balance refreshes after you sign in, after a purchase, after you earn credits, and whenever you switch back to Previs Pro. If it still looks wrong, sign out and back in to force a refresh.

Non-English Text Rendering or Input

If Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, or Arabic text isn't rendering correctly in Previs Pro, that's a bug — not expected behavior — and the fastest path to a fix is to email hello@previspro.com with a screenshot. The app’s interface is translated into 11 languages (English, Italian, Swedish, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Korean). Workarounds and reporting tips:

• Update first. Install the latest version of Previs Pro from the App Store; text-rendering fixes ship in regular updates.
• Report it with a screenshot to hello@previspro.com: which language, which input method, which panel (scene info, dialogue, screenplay, etc.), and what you typed vs. what appeared.
• Workaround for now: if typing drops characters, type the text in another app and paste it in.

After an Update, Something Doesn’t Look Right

An update can occasionally introduce a regression. If a feature that worked before the update now misbehaves — missing buttons, mis-rendered text, layouts breaking, or a panel that doesn’t open — the fastest path to a fix is to flag it:

• Email hello@previspro.com with the device model, app version (shown at the bottom of the ☰ menu, for example v3.6.0), and a screen recording or screenshot of the problem.
• If your project has become unusable after an update, attach its .previs file if you can: on the Projects home tap ⋯ on its poster and choose Share (or use Share in the ☰ menu while it’s open). A direct copy of the project is the single most useful thing in a bug report.
• The App Store always serves the latest version of an app, so rolling back to an older Previs Pro build isn’t generally possible. If you’re mid-production and a regression is blocking you, get in touch — we’ll prioritize a fix and help you find a workaround in the meantime.

Recovering a Project That Won’t Open

If a project crashes the app on open, freezes during load, or shows an empty canvas:

• Force-quit the app and reopen it. Previs Pro starts on the Projects home, so the problem project won’t reopen by itself, and your work is saved as you go.
• On the Projects home, tap ⋯ on the project’s poster and choose Duplicate — a copy will sometimes open where the original fails. If the file is too damaged to read, Delete is the only item in that menu.
• If neither works, send us the project: tap ⋯ > Share on its poster, save or AirDrop the copy, and email it to hello@previspro.com. The .previs file is a self-contained SQLite database plus cached media; we can often inspect what went wrong and send a fixed copy back.
• Tip: Back Up Projects in the ☰ menu on the Projects home saves all your projects into one archive for safekeeping — worth doing before a big update.