# Setting

> Pick one of 66 settings, from a coffee shop or a rooftop to a desert or an alien planet, and Nodaro adds a tested description of the place to your prompt.

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

The **Setting** picker sets where an image or a video takes place. You choose one place from its catalog, such as a coffee shop, a rooftop, a desert or an alien planet. Nodaro adds a tested description of that place to the prompt of every node you connect it to. The picker never calls a model, so it costs no credits.

- Found in: Creative Controls › Scene
- Output: text
- API type: `setting`

## When to use it
- An establishing shot for a story or a video clip.
- Try the same subject in different places: change the picker and run the node again.
- Build a full scene together with the [Atmosphere](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/creative-controls/atmosphere) and [Lighting](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/creative-controls/lighting) pickers.

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

Open the node picker and choose **Creative Controls › Scene › Setting**.

### Choose a setting

Select the node and choose a place in the settings panel. The tiles are grouped as Indoor, Urban, Nature and Fantastical. Each tile shows a drawn preview of the place.

### Connect it

Drag from the picker's output to the **Look** 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. You can also connect it to a [Text](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/automate/text) or [Prompt](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/automate/prompt) node to include the wording in a longer text.

### Run the image or video node

The setting's wording is added to the end of the prompt when the connected node runs.

Workflow: Setting, Atmosphere and Lighting pickers feed the Look input of Generate Video to build a rainy night scene.

- Text → Generate Video (prompt)
- Setting → Generate Video (look)
- Atmosphere → Generate Video (look)
- Lighting → Generate Video (look)

## Settings
| Setting | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Setting** | The place to add. The default is **Forest Clearing**. |
| **Custom text (before)** | Your own words, added before the setting's wording. |
| **Custom text (after)** | Your own words, added after the setting's wording. |
| **Prompt hint** | **Full** adds a description of the place. **Compact** adds only its short name. See [Creative Controls](https://nodaro.ai/docs/guides/creative-controls). |

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**.

For example, **Forest Clearing** adds this text in **Full** mode:

```text
set in a sunlit forest clearing with moss-covered stones, dappled light through tall trees and a soft carpet of fallen leaves
```

In **Compact** mode, it adds only `forest clearing`.

## Every setting

The catalog has 4 groups: Indoor, Urban, Nature and Fantastical. Search it or filter it by group. The words under each name are the term the picker adds in **Compact** mode.

**Indoor**

- Coffee Shop
- Library
- Modern Office
- Home Office
- Bedroom
- Living Room
- Kitchen: `home kitchen`
- Bathroom: `home bathroom`
- Hotel Room
- Restaurant
- Nightclub
- Gym
- Classroom
- Hospital: `hospital corridor`
- Laboratory
- Courtroom
- Industrial Warehouse
- Subway Car: `subway car interior`
- Taxi Interior
- Car Interior: `parked car interior`
- Cathedral: `gothic cathedral interior`
- Art Gallery
- Balcony: `apartment balcony`
- Attic
- Basement
- Sauna
- Dorm Room
- Locker Room
- Music Studio: `recording studio`
- Conservatory: `conservatory greenhouse`

**Urban**

- City Street
- Rooftop: `rooftop terrace`
- Back Alley
- Neon Alley: `rain-soaked neon-lit alley`
- Urban Park
- Backyard Patio
- Open Highway
- Suspension Bridge
- Train Station: `train station platform`
- Airport Terminal
- Parking Lot
- Penthouse
- Gas Station
- Open-Air Market

**Nature**

- Forest Clearing
- Beach
- Mountain Peak
- Desert Dunes
- Jungle
- Grassland
- Snowy Tundra
- Lake Shore
- Riverbank
- Waterfall
- Cave
- Western Canyon: `southwestern red-rock canyon`

**Fantastical**

- Alien Planet
- Spaceship Interior
- Underwater: `deep-ocean underwater scene`
- Fantasy Castle: `fantasy castle courtyard`
- Medieval Village: `medieval village square`
- Ancient Ruins
- Cyberpunk City
- Haunted Mansion
- Dreamscape
- Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland

## Setting, Backdrop or Location Asset

| Use | When |
| --- | --- |
| **Setting** | The subject is somewhere real or imagined, and the place can change from shot to shot. |
| [Backdrop](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/creative-controls/backdrop) | The subject stands in front of a studio background, such as white seamless paper. |
| [Location Asset](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/assets/location) | The same exact place must appear in every shot. The asset sends approved pictures of the place with every run. |

Read [Locations](https://nodaro.ai/docs/guides/locations) to build a place you can reuse.

## Tips
- **Change the state of the place.** Use **Custom text (before)**, for example `abandoned`, or **Custom text (after)**, for example `with mist creeping in`.
- **Add weather and light.** A **Beach** with [Atmosphere](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/creative-controls/atmosphere) set to **Storm** reads very differently from the same beach at **Golden Hour** in [Lighting](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/creative-controls/lighting).
- **Set the period.** Pair the picker with [Era / Period](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/creative-controls/era), for example **Train Station** with **1940s Wartime**.

## Frequently asked questions

### What does the Setting picker do?

It describes a place, such as a coffee shop, a rooftop or a desert. The description is added to the prompt of every image or video node it is connected to. It never runs a model and costs no credits.

### Does the Setting picker cost credits?

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

### What is the difference between Setting and Backdrop?

Setting is a real or imagined place around the subject, such as a library or a beach. Backdrop is a studio background, such as white seamless paper or a velvet drape, for product and portrait shots.

### Does the Setting picker show the same place in every shot?

No. It describes a kind of place, so each run draws a new one. To show one specific place again and again, use a Location Asset, which keeps approved pictures of it.

### What is the difference between Full and Compact hint mode?

Full adds a sentence that describes the place and its details. Compact adds only the short name of the place, such as forest clearing.