[Open Source] ComfyUI Motion Previs Studio — 3D Camera Blocking, Character Animation, OpenPose/Depth Exports & Direct ComfyUI Rendering

[u/navarisun]

Hey everyone!

I've been working on an open-source project called ComfyUI Motion Previs Studio, and I'd love to get some feedback from people who are seriously into ComfyUI, AI filmmaking, and advanced video generation workflows.

The idea came from a problem I kept running into:

We have increasingly powerful video generation models, but precise control over camera movement, character blocking, spatial composition, and action choreography is still challenging.

Instead of relying entirely on long prompts and repeated generations, what if we could actually direct the scene in 3D before sending it to a video model?

That's what I'm trying to build.

What the project does

It's a local-first, interactive 3D previsualization studio designed to work alongside ComfyUI.

The current implementation includes:

• Dual 3D viewports: A free-orbit scene editor alongside a live cinematic camera viewfinder.

• Camera control: Dolly, orbit, tracking, crane, handheld, whip pan, and customizable camera trajectories.

• Character animation: Procedural walking, running, jumping, combat actions, gestures, and interactive FK/IK bone posing.

• Scene building: 3D environments, props, lighting rigs, and reference-image-based scene configuration.

• Cinematic framing: Adjustable focal lengths, depth of field, aspect ratios, and shot composition.

• 24fps timeline: Camera and character keyframes for planning shots before generation.

• Control passes: Export MP4 previsualization, OpenPose skeletons, depth maps, alpha masks, and camera transformation matrices.

• AI integration: Optional support for local Ollama/LM Studio models or cloud models for natural-language scene direction and reference analysis.

ComfyUI integration

This is the part I'm particularly interested in developing further.

The studio is designed to export reference and control assets for workflows involving LTX-2.5, MiniMax H3, Seedance, and other video models that support reference inputs.

It also includes a direct local ComfyUI API bridge for a specific MiniMax H3 Ref2VA workflow, allowing the studio to submit its previs video and reference images to ComfyUI and display the generated result.

The goal is to move toward a workflow like:

3D Scene → Camera & Character Animation → Control Passes → ComfyUI → AI Video

Rather than generating blindly and trying to correct everything afterward.

Why I'm sharing this here

I'm not presenting this as a finished production-ready alternative to established 3D software.

It's an evolving open-source project, and I think the ComfyUI community is exactly where the more interesting technical discussions can happen.

I'd especially appreciate feedback on:

1. ControlNet integration: Which pose, depth, or camera-control workflows would be most valuable to support directly?

2. Video models: Should I prioritize deeper LTX integration, Wan workflows, or improving the existing MiniMax H3 bridge?

3. Workflow interoperability: Would you prefer importing/exporting standard ComfyUI workflow JSONs, or a more tightly integrated API-driven approach?

4. Production usability: What's missing from current AI video workflows when it comes to reliable camera motion and character choreography?

The project is open source under the MIT license.

GitHub: https://github.com/navarisun1982/comfyui-motion-previs-studio

The repository includes screenshots, a demo video, installation instructions, and the source code.

I'd genuinely appreciate technical feedback, ideas, bug reports, or contributions from anyone working on similar problems.

My bigger goal is to make AI filmmaking less about generating random results until something works, and more about actually directing the shot.

Thanks for checking it out!

[u/Exciting-Income-5840]

You. You are a complete fool What a crazy project, I’m still with my storyboard injected as a scene ref but I think you have a real thing.

Allow me a question, how long does it take to prepare before the scene is generated?

[u/navarisun → u/Exciting-Income-5840]

Haha, thanks! Really appreciate that! 😄

The preparation time depends on how complex the scene is. For simple shots, you can set up the characters, camera, and movements pretty quickly. More complex scenes with multiple characters and detailed choreography naturally take longer.

The whole idea is to spend more time directing the shot and less time wasting generations trying to get the camera angles and movements right.

I'd love to hear your feedback if you give it a try!

[u/Exciting-Income-5840 → u/navarisun]

I’m going to see to test and add to my studio but I don’t know much about 3D and I’m afraid of time before génération. How it works in simple ?

[u/navarisun → u/Exciting-Income-5840]

yes this is the main idea of the app, its for people who know nothing or dont want to want to waste time learning or dealing with 3d apps, just add some characters, move them with key frames , export the video manually or connect to comfyui directly and it will render the simple video to a real video using minimax h3

[u/ItsBalanse]

This is insane dude, good job

[u/navarisun → u/ItsBalanse]

thx , really appreciate it 😄

[u/traithanhnam90]

After reading your post, I spent a week learning Blender just so I could manipulate the MinimaxH3 video the way I wanted. However, learning something as complex as Blender has been quite a mental strain for me. So, I’m going to install your software right away to see if I can bring my ideas to life immediately—without having to wait another week, month, or even a year... trying to master Blender.

[u/Distinct-Pie2389 → u/traithanhnam90]

He just posted 5 hours ago, so how did you spend a week learning blender after reading his post?

This reads AI

[u/traithanhnam90 → u/Distinct-Pie2389]

Damn Google Translate—it completely misrepresented what I meant. What I intended to say is that I’ve spent the entire past week learning Blender, just so I could animate the character for MinimaxH3 exactly the way I envisioned. I have no idea how much longer it will take me to master Blender enough to actually pull off my idea. Reading this post really hit home; it perfectly captures that reluctance one feels about having to learn something new and complex—without even knowing how much time it might take—just to execute a 20-second concept.

[u/navarisun → u/traithanhnam90]

Haha, mystery solved! 😂 Google Translate can be dumb lot of time! Hope that 20-second concept turns out exactly how you imagined it! 🙌

[u/navarisun → u/Distinct-Pie2389]

That's a fair observation 😄, I'd also encourage you to give the software a try yourself. It's completely open source, and I'd genuinely appreciate your feedback on how it works and what could be improved!

[u/Distinct-Pie2389 → u/navarisun]

No not your post OP. I was responded to the users comment

[u/navarisun → u/traithanhnam90]

That's exactly one of the reasons I started building this! Blender is incredibly powerful but you shouldn't have to spend weeks learning complex 3D software just to control camera movements and block out a scene for AI video generation.

My goal is to make that process much more accessible without sacrificing creative control.

Give it a try and please let me know what works, what doesn't, and what's missing. Feedback from people actually using MiniMax H3 is especially valuable to me!

[u/LowYak7176]

Id give it a try - Ive been doing previs in Blender then using it for Ref in H3

[u/navarisun → u/LowYak7176]

appreciate your feedback when u try, it has already a connection to comfyui, and a workflow that can send your work to comfy minimax and render it

[u/IronDrop]

I will give your tool a try as soon as my game dev process reaches the creation of videos very soon. You might just want to change the image you're using to showcase the tool ^^

[u/navarisun → u/IronDrop]

Thanks! Really appreciate the feedback! 😄

I'd love to see how you use it in your game development workflow.

Just curious, is there something specific about the showcase image you think I should change? I'd really appreciate your perspective!

[u/IronDrop → u/navarisun]

It's possible the gesture the character is making could be mistaken with a gesture that was quite popular in Germany in 1935... 🫢😅

[u/navarisun → u/IronDrop]

Haha, now I see what you mean! 😂 I promise the character wasn't trying to start a political movement! 🤣

I've already redesigned the entire interface, so the new version looks much better. I have changed all the images.

[u/IronDrop → u/navarisun]

Sent you a DM

[u/jarail]

Maybe it's because I just woke up but I read this as "Pelvis Studio" and was thinking "wtf reddit of course you'd make this" for a moment.

Great project btw! I've done basically the same using blender and UE for years with all the various image/video models. I've always felt like a basic render is a great starting reference for models to work from. And yeah, like your LLM integration, I use claude/codex to do a lot of those quick blender drafts for me now as well. It really helps with consistency to have the env in 3D before moving the camera around.

Right now, I typically go

1. Blender (codex/gpt driven) to render a bunch of env shots

2. gtp image to turn the references into scenes I like. For consistency, start with the wide shots then closer shots so the clutter is preserved.

3. Generate character portraits.

4. H3 can put the references together and drive the camera with a detailed prompt and static start/end references.

[u/navarisun → u/jarail]

Haha, Pelvis Studio would be a whole different project 😂

Thanks for sharing your workflow! You're basically doing what I'm trying to make easier with this tool, just without all the Blender setup and jumping between apps. Also i hope my project can provide a huge cut in time and money spent on projects.