# Camera Motion

> Tell an AI video model how the camera moves. Pick one of 66 camera motions, such as Dolly In, Orbit Left or Crane Up, and Nodaro adds tested wording.

Source: https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/creative-controls/camera-motion

The **Camera Motion** picker sets how the camera moves in a video. You choose a move from its catalog: Static, Dolly In, Orbit Left, Crane Up, Whip Pan, Drone Follow and more. Nodaro adds tested wording for that move to the prompt of every video node you connect it to. The picker never calls a model, so it costs no credits.

- Found in: Creative Controls › Motion & Time
- Output: text
- API type: `camera-motion`

## When to use it
- Give an AI clip a deliberate camera move instead of letting the model choose one.
- Keep one camera language across the scenes of a storyboard, or alternate moves from scene to scene for variety.
- Match the move to the story: a push in for a reveal, a pull out for an ending, a pan across a landscape.
- Hold the camera still with **Static**, so that the subject's own movement carries the shot.

## How to use it
### Add the picker

Open the node picker and choose **Creative Controls › Motion & Time › Camera Motion**.

### Choose a move

Click the node and choose a move from the grid. Point at a tile to play its preview clip. A new node starts with **Static**.

### Connect it

Drag from the picker's output to the **Look** input of a [Generate Video](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/video/generate-video) node. Camera Motion also works with the **Look** input of [Generate Video Pro](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/video/generate-video-pro) and [Retake Video](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/video/retake-video).

### Run the video node

The move's wording is added to the prompt when the video node runs.

Workflow: A Dolly In that begins with a wide shot and ends with a close-up, applied to a clip made from a generated start frame.

- Generate Image → Generate Video (start frame)
- Framing → Camera Motion (start state)
- Framing → Camera Motion (end state)
- Camera Motion → Generate Video (look)

## Settings
| Setting | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Camera Motion** | The move to add. The default is **Static**. **Auto** adds nothing and lets the model choose. |
| **Custom text (before)** | Your own words, added before the move's wording, for example `starts handheld`. |
| **Custom text (after)** | Your own words, added after the move's wording, for example `settles to a lock-off`. |
| **Prompt hint** | **Full** (default) adds the tested description of the move. **Compact** adds only the short professional term, such as `locked-off static camera`. See [Full or Compact](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/creative-controls#full-or-compact). |

To see the exact words the picker will add, switch the node to the **Prompt** or **Both** display mode. The settings panel shows the same text under **Will inject into prompt**.

## Start and end the move on a look

Camera Motion has two inputs on its left edge: **Start state** and **End state**. Each one accepts any picker, such as [Framing](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/creative-controls/framing), [Lighting](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/creative-controls/lighting) or [Tone](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/settings/tone). Nodaro folds their wording into the camera move: the move is described as beginning with the start-state look and ending with the end-state look.

- **Connect several pickers to one input.** All of them are joined into the same clause, for example a Framing and a Lighting picker on **Start state**.
- **One level of detail.** When Camera Motion is set to **Compact**, the pickers on its inputs switch to Compact too. A picker that has its own **Prompt hint** set keeps its own mode.
- **Check the result.** The preview under **Will inject into prompt** includes the start and end clauses.

On [Retake Video](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/video/retake-video), a connected Camera Motion also sets the model's own camera-motion option when the move has a match there, in addition to the prompt wording.

## Every camera motion

Filter by type of move or search by name. Point at a tile to play the move's preview clip. The words under each name are the term the picker adds in **Compact** mode.

**Basic**

- Auto
- Static: `locked-off static camera`
- Handheld: `handheld camera`
- Steadicam: `smooth steadicam shot`

**Pan**

- Pan Left
- Pan Right
- Whip Pan Left
- Whip Pan Right

**Tilt**

- Tilt Up
- Tilt Down

**Zoom**

- Zoom In
- Zoom Out
- Crash Zoom In
- Crash Zoom Out

**Dolly**

- Dolly In
- Dolly Out
- Dolly Zoom
- Push In: `fast push-in`
- Pull Out: `fast pull-out`
- Breathing Camera
- Push-Pull / Swing: `push-pull swing`
- Creep-In: `slow creeping push-in`
- Creep-Out: `slow creeping pull-out`

**Truck**

- Truck Left
- Truck Right

**Pedestal**

- Pedestal Up
- Pedestal Down

**Roll**

- Roll Left
- Roll Right
- Dutch Angle
- Full 360 Spin: `full 360 degree camera roll`

**Orbit & Arc**

- Orbit Left
- Orbit Right
- Arc Left
- Arc Right
- Full 360 Orbit: `full orbit, one complete circle around the subject`

**Crane & Boom**

- Crane Up
- Crane Down
- Boom Up
- Boom Down

**Tracking**

- Tracking Shot
- Follow: `follow shot from behind`
- Lead: `leading tracking shot`
- Drone Follow: `aerial drone follow shot`
- Dolly Track: `parallel dolly tracking shot`
- Gimbal Walk: `smooth gimbal walking shot`
- Ronin Glide: `slow gliding gimbal move`
- Serpentine Track: `serpentine tracking shot`

**Angles & Rigs**

- POV: `first person pov shot`
- Over The Shoulder: `over-the-shoulder shot`
- Bird's Eye: `bird's eye view`
- Worm's Eye: `worm's eye view`
- Aerial: `high altitude aerial drone shot`
- Helicopter: `sweeping helicopter aerial shot`
- Fly Over: `low aerial fly-over pass`
- Flythrough: `flythrough shot`
- Reveal: `rising reveal shot`
- Snorricam: `body-mounted snorricam shot`
- Rack Focus

**Basic**

- Handheld Vlog: `handheld vlog-style camera`

**Tracking**

- POV Walk: `first person walking pov`

**Angles & Rigs**

- Velocity Edit: `rapid speed-ramped camera move`

**Zoom**

- Match Cut Zoom

**Angles & Rigs**

- Screen Tap: `abrupt snap-cut transition`
- Phone Flip: `fast flip-cut transition`

**Basic**

- Gentle Drift: `slow gentle camera drift`
- Parallax: `lateral parallax camera move`

In the editor, the preview clip loops over its still on the picker, the canvas node and a published app's input card. With reduced motion turned on in your operating system, only the still shows. On Nodaro Cloud you can switch the tiles to drawn illustrations with the switch beside the picker's heading. Self-hosted installs show the illustrations only.

## How these motions were tested

The wording behind this picker comes from our research study [Camera Motion Lab](https://nodaro.ai/docs/research/camera-motion-lab). It tested and tuned 64 of these motions on 147 AI videos. Three findings matter when you use the picker:

1. **The move is described as geometry.** Each motion says what the camera physically does, what stays constant, how near and far elements shift, and where the shot ends. That is why the **Full** wording is longer than the name of the move.
2. **The start frame is part of the instruction.** In image-to-video, the first frame already tells the model where the camera is. A move can fail because the image invites a different move, even when the wording is right.
3. **Clip duration shapes the move.** The same move travels further in a longer clip. If a move finishes and then starts to reverse, try a shorter clip before you change anything else.

## Tips
- **Start with Static.** When the subject's own movement is interesting enough, a locked-off camera keeps the attention on it.
- **Check the start frame when a move keeps failing.** If the same failure repeats, first look at what the start frame invites the model to do. For example, a point-of-view move needs a start frame with no person in it.
- **Separate the camera from the subject.** Camera Motion says how the camera moves. [Character Motion](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/creative-controls/character-motion) says what the subject does.
- **Combine it with a transition.** To move the camera during a transition, connect Camera Motion to the **Start state** or **End state** input of [Transition](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/creative-controls/transition).
- **Test important moves.** The move is written into the prompt, and each video model follows it in its own way. Test an important move on the model you plan to use.

## Frequently asked questions

### What does the Camera Motion picker do?

It adds a tested description of a camera move, such as a dolly in, an orbit or a crane shot, to the prompt of every video node it is connected to. It never runs a model and costs no credits.

### Does the Camera Motion picker cost credits?

No. Pickers only change the prompt. You pay only for the video node that uses it.

### Why can't I connect Camera Motion to Generate Image?

A camera move needs time, so Camera Motion works only with video nodes. Still-image nodes never receive its wording, and the Look input of Generate Image does not offer it.

### Why does my camera move in the wrong direction?

Check the start frame first. In image-to-video, the first frame already tells the model where the camera is. If the same failure repeats, try a start frame that invites the move, or a different clip length.

### How do I make the shot start wide and end close?

Connect a Framing picker set to a wide shot to the Start state input, and one set to a close-up to the End state input. The move then begins with the first framing and ends with the second.