mangfufu/director-desk

DirectorDesk – 3‑D Pre‑visualisation for AI‑Generated Shorts

What it is

• A desktop application (Windows & Linux) that lets you build a simple 3‑D stage, place characters and props, choreograph their movements, and design camera moves.
• The resulting “reference video” (or depth video) can be fed to a video‑generation model together with prompt text, turning a rough storyboard into a full AI‑generated short.
• Includes an AI Director Assistant that can understand natural‑language instructions and automatically set up scenes, routes, or camera cuts, and it can also be driven by external agents (e.g., Claude, Codex) via an MCP bridge.

Key features

Feature	What you can do
Scene building	Use built‑in white‑model assets or import GLB/FBX/OBJ models; arrange furniture, props, and characters.
Action & choreography	Drag‑and‑drop built‑in or custom animations onto a timeline; hand‑draw movement paths; record keyboard‑controlled walks.
Camera design	Multiple cameras, POV, zoom, dolly, handheld shake, lens distortion, depth‑of‑field, focus pulls.
Timeline editing	Split, trim, speed‑curve, multi‑selection, automatic snapping of clips, history snapshots.
Export	Render a normal colour video or a grayscale depth video (useful for downstream AI pipelines).
AI integration	Built‑in Director Assistant (natural‑language prompts) and support for external MCP agents to manipulate the project programmatically.
Plugins & extensions	Install community plugins for extra effects, import/export formats, or custom tools.
Cross‑platform	Native Windows installer/ZIP and Linux AppImage/tar.gz; works in WSL.

Typical workflow

1. Create a stage – start from a template (night street, hallway, bedroom, etc.) or a blank scene and place characters/props.
2. Schedule actions – assign animations, draw movement paths, set camera positions on a timeline.
3. Preview & export – watch the camera view in real time, then export a reference video (or depth map) for an AI video model.
4. Iterate with AI – describe changes in plain language; the assistant updates the scene, or an external agent runs scripted edits.

Installation

• Windows: download the installer or the portable ZIP from the Releases page and run DirectorDesk.exe.
• Linux: download the AppImage (make it executable) or the tar.gz and run DirectorDesk.
• The app checks for updates automatically; AppImage updates are applied on restart.

License

• Core code is released under the MIT license. Third‑party assets (animations, models) retain their original licenses as listed in NOTICE.txt.

Who might benefit

• Creators of AI‑generated short films or marketing videos who need a quick storyboard with realistic camera moves.
• Teams building pipelines that combine 3‑D pre‑visualisation with text‑to‑video models.
• Researchers exploring how structured scene data (positions, depth maps) can improve video generation quality.

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All information above is taken directly from the repository’s README.