# Animals and creatures

> Build a reusable animal or creature in Creature Studio, from a family pet to a dragon, with angles, poses, variations, motion clips and a voice.

Source: https://nodaro.ai/docs/guides/creatures

An **animal or creature** asset keeps one specific animal looking the same in every image and video, from a family dog to a dragon. You build it once in Creature Studio from an approved main image, then add angles, poses, variations, motion clips and a voice. Connect the [Animal/Creature Asset](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/assets/creature) node wherever the creature appears.

## Which asset to use

| You want | Use |
| --- | --- |
| Any animal of a kind in one prompt, such as "a fox" | The [Animal](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/creative-controls/animal) picker. It adds words to the prompt and keeps no identity. |
| One specific animal or creature across many shots | The Animal/Creature asset, described on this page. |
| One specific person across many shots | The Character asset. See [Character Studio](https://nodaro.ai/docs/guides/character-studio). |

## What a creature holds

| Part | What it is |
| --- | --- |
| **Main image** | The approved picture of the creature. Every variant and motion clip is made from it. |
| **Canonical description** | A description of 80 to 120 words, written from the main image when you approve it. Connected nodes add it to their prompts. |
| **Angles** | The creature from other viewpoints. |
| **Poses** | The creature in other postures, such as sitting or running. |
| **Variations** | The creature at another age, coloring or look, such as juvenile or battle-scarred. |
| **Motion clips** | Short videos made from the main image, such as a walk cycle. |
| **Reference photos** | Up to 20 photos of the real animal or of the look you want. |
| **Voice** | A voice for a talking animal. |
| **Style Lock** | Keeps every variant anchored to the main image. On by default. |

## Create a creature

### Add the node and open the studio

Press Tab on the canvas and choose **Assets › Creatures › Animal/Creature Asset**. Click **Open Studio** on the node, or select the node and click **Open Creature Studio** in the settings panel.

### Add reference photos

On **References**, add photos of the animal. For a real pet, a clear front photo and a side photo help the model match it. Choose the kind (front, side, detail, context, mood board or other), paste the photo's URL and click **Add**.

### Name the creature and set its species

On **Appearance**, enter a **Name**, such as "Ember the fox". In **Species / Type**, choose a suggestion or type any animal or creature, such as "red fox", "griffin" or "dragon". Add a **Description** of the form, fur or scales, colors and distinctive features.

### Generate and approve the main image

Choose 1, 2 or 4 **Candidates** and click **Generate**. With one candidate, the result becomes the main image automatically. With two or four, click **Approve** on the one you want, or **Discard** on the others.

### Save

Click **Save** in the header to keep the name, the species, the description and Style Lock. Generated pictures and clips are saved to the creature on their own.

Approving costs no credits and writes the **Canonical description**, which appears under the main image. Be precise in **Species / Type**: "arctic fox with a thick winter coat" gives the model more than a category.

The node also has a **Creature type** input. Connect an [Animal](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/creative-controls/animal) picker to it, and the picker's choice is added to the creature's generation prompt.

## Angles, poses and variations

| Page | Presets |
| --- | --- |
| **Angles** | front, side, top, back, three-quarter, detail, in-context, low-angle, high-angle |
| **Poses** | standing, sitting, lying-down, walking, running, jumping, alert, playful, aggressive |
| **Variations** | juvenile, adult, elder, albino, melanistic, battle-scarred, majestic, fluffy, sleek |

- Click a preset to generate that variant. **Generate All** generates every preset that is still missing.
- Type in the custom prompt and click **Generate** for any other variant.
- On **Poses**, click **Browse Pose catalog** to pick a pose from the catalog. Each pick generates a variant with the catalog's wording.

Each picture costs one image on the creature's image model. Generate the angles first. They are the most useful references when the creature appears in a scene.

## Style Lock

Style Lock is on for every new creature. While it is on, every variant is generated from the approved main image and its canonical description. The form and the species then stay the same across poses and variations.

Turn it off in the studio header or in the node's settings panel when you want a freer take. For example, turn it off to explore designs for a new creature.

## Motion clips

The **Motion** page turns the approved main image into short clips of the creature moving.

- **Approve a main image first.** Until then, **Generate** is disabled.
- **Presets**: idle-breathing, walk-cycle, run-cycle, head-turn, tail-wag, pounce, stretch, roar, fly-loop.
- **Models**: [Kling 2.5 Turbo Pro](https://nodaro.ai/docs/models/video/kling-2-5-turbo-pro) (the default), [Kling 2.6](https://nodaro.ai/docs/models/video/kling-2-6), [Kling 3.0](https://nodaro.ai/docs/models/video/kling-3-0), [Hailuo 02 I2V Pro](https://nodaro.ai/docs/models/video/hailuo-02-i2v-pro), [Hailuo 2.3 Standard](https://nodaro.ai/docs/models/video/hailuo-2-3-standard), [Wan 2.6 I2V](https://nodaro.ai/docs/models/video/wan-2-6-i2v), Seedance and [Bytedance Lite I2V](https://nodaro.ai/docs/models/video/bytedance-lite-i2v).
- **Frame**: `1:1` by default. `3:4`, `16:9` and `9:16` are also available.
- **Cost**: a clip costs the same as an image-to-video run on the chosen model.

## Give the creature a voice

The **Voice** page works like the one in [Character Studio](https://nodaro.ai/docs/guides/character-studio#voice-and-personality).

- **Browse** the ElevenLabs voices, or **Design from text** to audition a described voice.
- Describe the voice in free text, for example "gravelly, slow, ancient".
- In **Talk**, type a line and click **Speak** to hear it in the creature's voice. With an approved main image, **Speak + lip-sync portrait** renders a short talking clip.

Connect the creature to a [Text to Speech](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/audio/text-to-speech) node, and the creature's voice fills in that node when the workflow runs. A voice set on the Text to Speech node itself always wins.

## Use a creature in your scenes

Connect the node's **Animal/Creature** output to the **Assets** input of a [Generate Image](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/image/generate-image) or [Generate Video](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/video/generate-video) node. The node receives the main image, the reference photos and the canonical description.

Workflow: A creature and a location feed the same image node; the image then becomes the first frame of a video.

- Animal/Creature Asset → Generate Image (assets)
- Location Asset → Generate Image (assets)
- Generate Image → Generate Video (start frame)

To place the creature exactly where you want it in the sentence, mention it in the prompt. The mention name comes from the creature's name: "Nessie" becomes `@nessie:1`.

| Mention | What the node writes into the prompt |
| --- | --- |
| `@nessie:1` | "the creature from reference image A", in place of the mention. |
| `@nessie:1:markings` | "the markings from reference image A". |
| `@nessie:1:scales` | Any custom word works: "the scales from reference image A". |
| `@nessie:1~lock` | Turns the identity lock on for this mention: a short line asks the model to keep this creature exactly. |
| `@nessie:1~nolock` | Turns the identity lock off for this mention only. |

The roles for a creature are **creature** (the default), **anatomy**, **markings**, **pose**, **color** and **style**, or any word of your own.

Type creature mentions by hand. The `@` menu and the mention pills cover characters, locations and named images, not creatures. The mention matters: without one, the creature's phrase is added at the end of the prompt, apart from the name in your sentence.

```
a wide shot of @nessie:1 rising from the lake at dawn
```

With the mention, the prompt reads "a wide shot of the creature from reference image A rising from the lake at dawn". Read [Reference roles](https://nodaro.ai/docs/guides/reference-roles) for the full grammar.

The **Image** output of the node is the main image as a plain picture, without the description.

## Use a creature you already have

Click **Choose existing** on the node, or **Choose from Library / Gallery** in the settings panel.

- **My Library** lists your own creatures.
- **Public Gallery** lists creatures shared by the community. Choosing one copies it into your library first. The tab appears on multi-user installs, such as Nodaro Cloud.

Choosing or replacing a creature brings its main image and every variant and clip, so connected nodes use it at once.

## Delete and restore a creature

In the asset picker's **My Library** tab, point at a creature and click **Delete from library**. The creature is archived, and nodes that use it keep working. An archived creature can be restored with the API or the SDK. If a restored creature's name is already taken, "(restored)" is added to it.

## Tips

- **Approve a strong main image first.** With Style Lock on, it anchors every other picture.
- **Write the species precisely.** "Arctic fox with a thick winter coat" beats "fox".
- **Use reference photos for real pets.** They give the model the real animal to match.
- **Generate angles before poses and variations.** Angles are the most useful references in scenes.

## From code and agents

The REST API and the SDK create creatures, generate and approve main images, add variants and motion clips, and archive and restore creatures. See [Creatures](https://nodaro.ai/docs/developers/api/creatures).

The MCP tools include `generate_creature`, `approve_creature_main_image`, `recaption_creature`, `generate_creature_motion`, `list_creatures` and `get_creature`. They cannot delete or restore a creature. See the [MCP tools](https://nodaro.ai/docs/mcp/tools).

## Frequently asked questions

### Should I use a Character or an Animal/Creature asset for my pet?

Use Animal/Creature for animals, pets and fantasy creatures. It has poses and variations made for animals and a free-text species field. Character is built for people, with a portrait, expressions and roles such as face and clothes.

### Can I make a creature that does not exist, such as a griffin?

Yes. Species / Type is free text. The suggestions come from an animal catalog, but you can type any creature, such as griffin or dragon.

### Can a creature talk?

Yes. Choose a voice on the Voice page of Creature Studio. When you connect the creature to a Text to Speech node, its voice fills in that node when the workflow runs.

### How do I mention a creature in a prompt?

Type @ with the creature's name and a number, for example @nessie:1, or add a role, such as @nessie:1:markings. Type creature mentions by hand, because the @ menu does not list creatures.