Make AI films that don't look like AI films.
A working library of techniques, prompts, storyboards, and case studies — written by directors who actually ship. The tools change every quarter. The craft doesn't.
Six kinds of resource. One working library.
Curriculum tracks.
Structured paths from "what is a storyboard" through "writing a pool request." Self-paced, free, lessons in order.
The Library.
Every guide we've ever published. Tutorials, video breakdowns, project teardowns — all shipped with the storyboard and the prompts.
The Cookbook.
Annotated prompt recipes — model + version stamped, the storyboard slot they came from, one-click fork into your vault.
Storyboard templates.
Skeletons for the most common AI-film shapes — 30-second teaser, 90-second short, music video, scene-of-the-week.
Weekly workshops.
Every Thursday we open a room. Directors, prompt engineers, vault-funded creators — break something down, take Q&A, archive the replay.
The Discord.
Shot review, prompt swaps, provider gossip, screening room, vault feedback. Real-time, no promo, no AI-art-grifter energy.
Four ways in — pick where you actually are.
Storyboarding for generative film.
Why the 2×2 storyboard is the unit of work in AI film, how to scaffold scenes and beats, when to plan and when to brainstorm, the difference between a prompt and a shot.
- 01·The 2×2 mental model
- 02·Beat → storyboard → keyframe
- 03·When to abandon a board
- 04·Reading silhouette at 24px
- 05·Cumulative timing math
Cinematography by prompt.
Lens language, blocking, light direction, and continuity — translated into the words and refs that actually move a model. Twelve case studies, frame by frame.
- 01·Focal length, in words
- 02·Holding eyeline across cuts
- 03·Practicals vs. global light
- 04·The 180° rule in latent space
- 05·Reference-image weights, honestly
- 06·Continuity without LoRAs
The Seedance prompt grammar.
How to write video prompts that respect cumulative timing, panel positions, and card spelling — and how to refactor them when the model misreads you. Includes the full grammar sheet.
- 01·The four-clause structure
- 02·Camera moves that survive
- 03·Card spelling failsafes
- 04·Audio direction, briefly
- 05·Reading the take you got
- 06·When to switch providers
Vault, backing, and the pool.
How to get paid for the work you're making now: launching a vault, building Community Backing, structuring a pool request, and reading your multiplier honestly.
- 01·Your first vault, in 4 min
- 02·What patrons actually want
- 03·Writing a pool request
- 04·Tier I → II → III
- 05·Receipts, taxes, and Bankr
Every guide ships with the parts you actually need.
We refuse to publish a tutorial that doesn't include the prompts in copy-paste form, the storyboard that produced the shot, and the final clip. Words alone aren't a guide. Screenshots alone aren't a guide. Receipts, end-to-end, or it doesn't count.
The hardest thing to keep across two AI shots is a character's gaze. Models are very confident about where eyes go, and they are very rarely correct twice in a row. Here's a four-shot pattern that survives every model I've tested in the last six months.
# shot · B1 · 0:14 → 0:18 · cumulative subject: "young woman, late 20s, weathered linen shirt, brown hair pulled back, single freckle below left eye" gaze: "35° camera-right, soft, just past lens — not at it" light: "window-left, 4500K, soft falloff to right cheek" lens: "50mm equiv, f/2, shallow but readable iris" # continuity from A2 (same hair part, same earring)
Browse the whole working library.
Holding an eyeline across a cut — a four-shot pattern.
The hardest thing to keep across two AI shots is a character's gaze. Models are very confident about where eyes go, and they are very rarely correct twice. Here's the pattern that survives every model I've tested in the last six months.
The 2×2 mental model.
Why two columns and two rows is enough — and why three is too many to direct in your head.
Cumulative timing, by hand.
A walkthrough of how Seedance reads time. Why "0:00→0:24" beats "24 seconds" every time.
Card spelling failsafes.
Ten tested patterns for text that has to render correctly — signs, books, screens, subtitles.
Neon-noir, seven minutes past two.
The full teardown of k.iglesias' music-video opener — every shot, every prompt, every cut decision.
Practicals over global light.
Why "lamp on the table" beats "warm interior lighting" — and the five practicals that work in any scene.
Writing a pool request that gets approved.
What pool reviewers actually look for, and the four-section structure that gets you to the next tier.
1,820 prompts, indexed and forkable.
Every recipe ships with model + version, the storyboard slot it came from, the seed/temperature notes that actually mattered, and a one-click fork → my vault. No quoting; no scraping. The prompt is the source.
Window light, 4500K, soft falloff.
A reliable open-room light setup — fails gracefully across Seedance, Veo, and Sora.
soft falloff to right cheek,
no rim, slight haze in air"
ambient: "low, cool, +shadow under chin"
50mm equiv, f/2, readable iris.
A close-up grammar that holds eye colour and texture without going hyper-real.
iris visible, readable color,
shallow but not creamy"
focal_plane: "front of eye, +eyelash"
Character lock without a LoRA.
A 6-line description schema that holds a face across 14+ shots in our internal tests.
"weathered linen shirt,
brown hair pulled back,
single freckle below left eye,
thin silver hoop, right ear"
Signs that actually spell.
The "type-only, large, single-color" failsafe that survives every video model we've tried.
one word, weathered edges,
centered, no extra glyphs"
word: "PHARMACY"
Push-in that doesn't morph.
How to write a 4-second dolly-in that holds the subject's silhouette stable end-to-end.
4s, ease-in-out,
silhouette unchanged,
no parallax on hair"
Room tone without music.
A 3-line direction that asks the model to generate dialogue-ready ambience, not a score.
occasional muffled traffic,
no music, no foley peaks"
Open a starting point. Don't start from blank.
Drop-in templates for the most common AI-film shapes — 30-second teaser, 90-second short, 5-minute music video, scene-of-the-week. Each ships with a pre-filled scene tree, suggested beat counts, and the prompt skeleton it expects.
Live workshops, recorded for the archive.
Every Thursday we open a room — directors, prompt engineers, vault-funded creators — and break down something that's working right now. Free, captioned, recorded the moment they end and added to the library.
Tearing down a music video — Neon-noir, frame by frame.
Lighting practicals — five lamps, no excuses.
Writing a pool request live — start to submit, 50 min.
Continuity without LoRAs — the 6-line schema, applied to a face.
Talk shop with 8,341 filmmakers already in the room.
The Lyra Story Discord is where the actual work happens between guides — feedback in #shot-review, prompt swaps in #cookbook, gear talk in #provider-keys, and weekly demo nights in #screening-room.
- Channels in 6 languages — Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, French, English
- Weekly screening room every Friday — open mic, rough cuts welcome
- Verified-creator roles for vault holders & pool-funded shorts
- Office hours mirror — workshop links posted 1h before each session
- No promo bots, no NFT shilling, no AI-art-grifter energy
Write a guide. Get paid for the work.
If you've shipped an AI film you can explain end-to-end, write it up for the library. Accepted guides earn a one-time $400 honorarium from the Common Pool, plus a verified-creator role and ongoing share of read-time revenue.
- Full prompts, no redactions — readers can fork
- The storyboard that made the shot, not a recreation
- At least one failed take, with a note on why
- One reviewer + one round of edits before publish
Friday digest. Six links. Zero filler.
What we published this week, what shipped on Explore, the prompts everyone forked, and one short essay from a creator in the timeline. 8,341 readers. No tracking pixels.
The week in AI film — №47
- Eyeline pattern: m.tanaka's four-shot rig (published Tuesday)
- Neon-noir teardown gets the full case-study treatment
- 3 new templates: 30s teaser, 90s short, MV verse/chorus
- Pool: 8 new shorts approved, $52k disbursed
- Workshop replay: cumulative timing, by hand
- Essay: "Why I stopped writing camera moves"
Learn the craft. Then ship the shot.
Free to read. Free to fork. Free to publish. Your vault appears the moment you sign up.