Use a canvas board

Make a canvas board, add and wire its boxes, check it, and make what the boxes describe.

A canvas board is one file of boxes joined by wires. A box holds a picture, a video, a voice, a note or an uploaded file. A wire feeds one box's result into the next. Your agent edits the file with minicut board commands, and the open 画布 tab in the MiniCut app redraws by itself.

Before you start, sign in and make a project. See Quickstart. Every command here needs a signed-in computer. Run them in the project folder, ~/.minicut/projects/rain-shop here.

Make the board

1. Make a board for episode 1:

minicut board new --project rain-shop --episode ep01 --title "Opening"

Board: ~/.minicut/projects/rain-shop/episodes/ep01/canvas/opening.board.json

The file name comes from the title. Without --project and --episode, the board gets its own folder in your MiniCut home folder.

Add and set the boxes

1. Find a model for each box that makes something. minicut models --kind image and minicut models --kind video list them. No model is chosen for you. Ask the person which one to use.
2. Add a picture box for a character. A box id is KIND:ID, so this one is character:lin.

minicut board add episodes/ep01/canvas/opening.board.json --kind character --id lin --label Lin --prompt "Lin Xia, shop owner, front view, plain background" --model IMAGE_MODEL

Board add: ok, rev 2, box character:lin.

3. Add a video box for a shot:

minicut board add episodes/ep01/canvas/opening.board.json --kind video --id s01 --label "Shot 1" --prompt "She walks into the rain." --model VIDEO_MODEL

4. Set the length of the shot in seconds:

minicut board set episodes/ep01/canvas/opening.board.json --box video:s01 --seconds 5

Board set: ok, rev 4.

The box kinds are character, location, prop, voice, note, upload, group, text, image, video, audio, editor, director, model3d and script. The kinds that make something are image, character, location, prop, video, audio and voice. A note or text box holds words.

Wire the boxes

1. Feed the character into the shot:

minicut board connect episodes/ep01/canvas/opening.board.json --from character:lin --to video:s01

Board connect: ok, rev 5.

2. If a wire is not allowed, the command exits with code 1 and says why. For example, a video box cannot feed a character box (video:s01 -> character:lin).
3. Optional: to remove a wire, run minicut board disconnect with the same flags.

Check the board

1. Check the board for problems:

minicut board check episodes/ep01/canvas/opening.board.json

Board ok: 2 boxes, 1 wires.

check finds boxes with the same id, wires to missing boxes, wires that are not allowed, and upload files outside the board folder.

It prints one line for each problem and exits with code 1.

Make the boxes

This step uses credits. It shows what it will do and asks before it spends.

1. Ask to make the character box:

minicut board run episodes/ep01/canvas/opening.board.json --box character:lin

2. The command sends nothing. It exits with code 3 and prints what it will do and the exact line to run after the person says yes. Show it to the person.
3. After the yes, run the line it printed. Add --wait SECONDS to it to wait and save the result.
4. If you did not wait, run minicut jobs later. It saves each finished result onto its box.
5. Run the video box the same way. A box whose wired input is not made yet waits. --box refuses it and names the box to make first. --all makes every box that is empty or failed and leaves the waiting ones for the next run.

A box that is refused keeps its reason on the board, and the other boxes still go. If the board changes after the yes, the command needs a new yes.

Change the board

Every edit prints Board COMMAND: ok, rev N. and raises the board's revision by 1. The flags are on Generate.

Check it worked

minicut board check prints Board ok. Each box you made has the state done and an artifactUrl in the board file.

If a step fails

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