# Location Asset

> Build a reusable location in the Location Studio, with time of day, weather, season, angle and lighting variants, and keep the same place in every shot.

Source: https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/assets/location

The **Location Asset** node holds a reusable place: an approved establishing shot, a written description, variants for time of day, weather, seasons, camera angles and lighting, and short atmosphere clips. You build it in the full-screen **Location Studio**, or choose one you already have. Wire the node into [Generate Image](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/image/generate-image) or [Generate Video](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/video/generate-video), or mention it with `@`, and every shot shows the same place.

- Found in: Assets › Places
- Output: data
- API type: `location`

## When to use it
- You want the same setting to look the same in every scene of a story.
- You need an establishing shot and cutaways of one place, such as dusk, a storm or an aerial view.
- You want image and video nodes to receive the place's description and reference photos automatically.
- You want short ambient clips of a place, such as drifting fog or a slow dolly-in, for B-roll or as start frames.

## Quick start
### Add the node

Press Tab on the canvas and choose **Assets › Places › Location Asset**. To reuse a location you already have, click **Choose existing** on the node instead, and skip to the last step.

### Open the Location Studio

Click **Open Studio** on the node, or **Open Location Studio** in the settings panel. The studio opens on the **Appearance** page.

### Describe the place and generate the main image

Type a name and a description, and choose the category and the style. Choose how many candidates to make, then click **Generate**. With one candidate, the result becomes the main image. With two or four, click **Approve** on the one you want.

### Add variants

Generate time of day, weather, season, angle and lighting variants, or motion clips, on the pages in the sidebar. With Style Lock on, every variant starts from the approved main image.

### Use the location

Close the studio. Connect the node's **Location** output to the **Assets** input of Generate Image or Generate Video, or type `@` and the location's name in their prompt.

Workflow: A location and a character feed one image, and the location also anchors the video made from it.

- Text → Generate Image (prompt)
- Location Asset → Generate Image (assets)
- Character Asset → Generate Image (assets)
- Generate Image → Generate Video (start frame)
- Location Asset → Generate Video (assets)

## The node on the canvas

The node is a compact summary of the location. It shows:

- The approved main image, or a placeholder until one is approved.
- The location's name, its style and category, and **Style locked** when Style Lock is on.
- Six counters for the variants: **TOD** (time of day), **Weather**, **Seasons**, **Angles**, **Lighting** and **Motion**. A counter shows a spinner while a variant is generating.
- An **Open Studio** button that opens the Location Studio.
- A **Choose existing** button, which becomes **Replace** once the node has a location.

All editing happens in the Location Studio. The settings panel shows a summary, an **Open Location Studio** button, the **Choose from library or gallery** row and the **Style Lock** switch.

## Inputs and outputs
| Input | Accepts | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Prompt** | Text nodes and pickers | Extra context for the main image when the node generates it. |
| **Cinematography** | Look and camera pickers, such as Lighting, Atmosphere or Lens | Their wording is added to the location's description when the node generates its main image. |

| Output | Carries | Connect it to |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Location** | The location's identity: the main image, the canonical description and the Style Lock state | The **Assets** input of Generate Image, Generate Video and other nodes that accept locations |
| **Image** | The establishing shot as a plain picture, with no description | Any image input, such as **References** or **Start Frame** |

## Style Lock

**Style Lock** is the most important consistency switch of a location. It is on by default. Toggle it in the studio header or in the node's settings panel.

| Style Lock | Variants | Image and video nodes that use the location |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **On** (default) | Made from the approved main image, so the same building, materials and layout appear in each one | Receive the canonical description as written |
| **Off** | Made from text alone, so each one can reinterpret the place | Treat the description as loose guidance |

Keep Style Lock on for a film or a series. Turn it off only for mash-ups, alternate looks or A/B comparisons.

## The Location Studio

The Location Studio is a full-screen editor with a sidebar of pages:

| Group | Pages |
| --- | --- |
| **Resources** | References |
| **Identity** | Appearance |
| **Environment** | Time of Day, Weather, Seasons |
| **Composition** | Angles, Lighting |
| **Atmosphere** | Motion |
| **Sheet** | Sheet, Board |

The studio saves as you work. Generation runs on the server: if you close the studio or the tab while a variant is generating, the result is still added to the location. If the location was changed in another tab, the studio asks you to reload instead of overwriting the newer version.

### Appearance

The **Appearance** page holds the identity of the location and its main image:

- **Name**, **Description**, **Category** and **Style**. The categories are indoor, outdoor, urban, nature, fantasy, sci-fi, historical, futuristic and other. The styles are realistic, anime, 3d-pixar and illustration.
- **Generate** makes candidate main images. Choose 1, 2 or 4 candidates. With 1, the result becomes the main image directly. With 2 or 4, each candidate appears with **Approve** and **Discard**.
- **Main image** shows the approved establishing shot.
- **Canonical description** shows the detailed visual description written automatically when you approve the main image, about 80 to 120 words. Edit it freely. If writing it failed, the main image is still set, and **Retry caption** writes it again.

Earlier candidates stay available: the studio shows the most recent ones, up to 5, and the current main image does not change until you approve another.

### References

The **References** page holds a mood board of up to 20 reference photos. Give each photo a kind: **wide**, **interior**, **exterior**, **detail**, **mood board** or **other**. The kind tells the model what each photo is for, for example a wide-angle reference or a detail.

The photos travel with the location. Every image and video node that uses the location receives them as extra references. To leave them out on one node, remove them from that node's injected references with the × button.

Before you add the first photo, confirm that you have the rights to the photos and that any people in them agreed to their use as references. For an unfamiliar or fantastical place, 3 to 6 photos give the model enough context to get it right the first time.

### Environment and composition variants

The five variant pages share one layout: the variants made so far, a row of preset chips, a field for your own prompt and a **Generate All** button that queues every missing preset.

| Page | Presets |
| --- | --- |
| **Time of Day** | dawn, morning, noon, afternoon, golden hour, dusk, blue hour, night, midnight |
| **Weather** | clear, cloudy, light rain, heavy rain, storm, snow, blizzard, fog, mist |
| **Seasons** | spring, summer, autumn, winter |
| **Angles** | wide, medium, closeup, aerial, low-angle, eye-level, bird's-eye, dutch tilt |
| **Lighting** | soft natural, harsh sunlight, golden, blue hour, neon, candlelit, cinematic, dramatic chiaroscuro |

Click a preset chip to generate that variant, or type your own, such as "after a sandstorm". The name of each variant is the tag you use to pick it later.

### Motion

The **Motion** page makes short, looping atmosphere clips from the approved main image, such as drifting fog, a slow dolly-in or a drone fly-over. It needs an approved main image first.

- **Presets**: slow dolly-in, slow pan-left, slow pan-right, push up, drone fly-over, gentle drift, parallax and static atmospheric.
- **Your own prompt**: describe what moves and how, for example "fog rolls in from the left while light beams shift slowly".
- **Models**: [Kling 2.6](https://nodaro.ai/docs/models/video/kling-2-6) (default), [Kling 2.5 Turbo Pro](https://nodaro.ai/docs/models/video/kling-2-5-turbo-pro), [Kling 3.0](https://nodaro.ai/docs/models/video/kling-3-0), [Wan 2.6 I2V](https://nodaro.ai/docs/models/video/wan-2-6-i2v), [Wan 2.7 I2V](https://nodaro.ai/docs/models/video/wan-2-7-i2v) and [Seedance 2](https://nodaro.ai/docs/models/video/seedance-2).
- **Frame**: `16:9`, the shape of a cinematic establishing shot.

A clip costs the same as the same image-to-video generation on that model.

### Sheet and Board

The **Sheet** page composes reference sheets from the location's images, such as a turnaround, a variation sheet or a detail sheet. See the [Reference Sheet](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/image/reference-sheet) node. The **Board** page combines several of the location's images into one board image.

## Use the location in a prompt

Wire the location into the **Assets** input, or mention it with `@` and its name in the prompt of an image or video node. A mention can also pick one variant and a role:

- `@oldlibrary:1` uses the main image.
- `@oldlibrary:1:weather/rain` uses the rain variant.
- `@oldlibrary:1:weather/rain:lighting` takes only the lighting from the rain variant.

The default role of a location is `location`. Other roles include `background`, `atmosphere`, `layout`, `lighting` and `style`. Add `~lock` to a mention to make the model match the place's architecture, layout and lighting exactly. Read [Reference roles](https://nodaro.ai/docs/guides/reference-roles) for every role.

## Choose an existing location

Click **Choose existing** on the node, or **Choose from library or gallery** in the settings panel. The picker has two tabs:

- **My Library**: the locations you saved.
- **Public Gallery**: locations shared with everyone. Choosing one copies it into your library first, and the node uses your copy. The Public Gallery is available on Nodaro Cloud and the Business edition.

Once the node has a location, the buttons read **Replace**. The node takes the whole location, with its main image and every variant and clip. If you pick a gallery location you copied before, the picker asks whether to use your copy or **Make a new copy**.

## Delete and restore

Deleting a location archives it. An archived location disappears from your lists, but nodes that already use it keep working, and you can restore it.

- To remove a location from **My Library**, point at its card in the picker and click the trash icon.
- The **Location Library** page lists your active and archived locations. **Restore** brings an archived location back. If its name is now taken, "(restored)" is added to the name.
- **Permanently delete** on an archived location removes it for good. To confirm, type the location's exact name.

## Credits
Generations in the studio are charged at the price of the model you choose. A motion clip costs the same as the same image-to-video generation on that model.

## Tips
- **Approve the main image first.** Every variant, every clip and the canonical description start from it.
- **Make several candidates for unusual places.** For a fantastical or unfamiliar place, generate 2 or 4 candidates and pick the best one.
- **Let the description write itself, then refine it.** The automatic description gets the model-friendly words right, such as architecture, vegetation, light and scale. Edit it from there.
- **Add a mood board for unfamiliar places.** 3 to 6 reference photos lead to more faithful first results.
- **Keep one style per project.** Use the same style for every location of a project.
- **Make a clip of every location you cut away to.** A 5-second drift or dolly works as a start frame for video nodes and as filler between scenes.

## From the API
Every studio operation is also available to code and to AI assistants: create a location, generate and approve the main image, add variants and atmosphere clips, and archive or restore it. See [Locations](https://nodaro.ai/docs/developers/api/locations) and the [MCP tools](https://nodaro.ai/docs/mcp/tools).

## Frequently asked questions

### How do I keep the same place in every shot?

Approve a main image in the Location Studio and keep Style Lock on. Then wire the Location Asset node into the Assets input of Generate Image or Generate Video, or mention it with @ in the prompt. Its main image and description are sent with every run.

### What does Style Lock do?

With Style Lock on, the default, every variant is made from the approved main image, so the same building, materials and layout appear in each one. With it off, each variant is generated from text alone and can reinterpret the place.

### Can I show the location at night or in the rain?

Yes. The Time of Day, Weather, Seasons and Lighting pages make variants of the approved main image, such as night, storm, winter or neon. You can pick a variant in a prompt mention, for example @oldlibrary:1:weather/rain.

### What are atmosphere motion clips?

Short, looping video clips made from the main image, such as a slow dolly-in, drifting fog or a drone fly-over. Use them as start frames for video nodes or as B-roll between scenes.

### Why must I confirm consent before adding reference photos?

Reference photos can show people. Before the first photo is added, you confirm that you have the rights to the photos and that any people in them agreed to their use as references.