# Animal/Creature Asset
> Create a reusable animal or creature asset with angle, pose, variation, and motion sets, edited in the full-screen Creature Studio — or choose an existing creature from your Library or the Public Gallery.

## Overview
The Animal/Creature node creates a persistent creature asset with a base image and multiple asset categories. Creatures can be viewed from different angles, rendered in different poses, generated as visual variations, and animated into motion clips. You can either build a new creature or bind the node to an existing one from your Library or the Public Gallery. Creatures are stored per-project in the database and can be referenced by downstream scene, image, and video nodes for consistent appearance across compositions.

Unlike the [Object](./object.md) node, the creature's `Category` / `Species` field is **free text** (not a fixed enum) — so mythical and hybrid creatures (e.g. "griffin", "dragon") are not locked to the built-in animal catalog. A 126-entry animal catalog powers autocomplete suggestions, but any value is accepted.

The full editing experience lives in the **Creature Studio**, a full-screen modal (opened from the node's config panel) organized into a config-driven sidebar: **Resources** (References) · **Identity** (Appearance) · **Composition** (Angles, Poses) · **Variants** (Variations) · **Motion** · **Character** (Voice). The **Voice** page lets you browse, clone, or design a voice and preview it with a Talk panel; the chosen voice auto-fills a connected Text to Speech node (talking creatures). The creature node also exposes a plain **image** output handle (alongside the identity Creature handle) that connects to any image/reference input downstream.

## The Canvas Node

Alongside the existing **⬡ Studio** button, the Animal/Creature node shows a **Choose existing** button that opens the **Asset Picker** to bind the node to a creature you already have. Once a creature is bound, this button becomes **Replace** — use it to swap in a different creature.

## Configuration

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|-------|------|---------|-------------|
| Name | string | `""` | Creature name. |
| Species / Type | string (free text) | `""` | The animal or creature kind, e.g. `red fox`, `griffin`, `dragon`. Autocomplete suggests from the animal catalog but accepts any text. |
| Description | string | `""` | Detailed text description of the creature's appearance and features. |
| Category | string (free text) | `""` | Free-text grouping (cats / dogs / wild / birds / sea / mythical / etc.). Distinct from Object's hard category enum. |
| Style | enum | `"realistic"` | Visual style. Options: `realistic`, `anime`, `3d-pixar`, `illustration`. |
| Reference Image | image URL | `""` | Optional uploaded reference image to guide the creature's appearance. |
| Style Lock | boolean | `true` | When enabled, every variant generation passes the approved main image (plus the canonical description) as a reference, keeping form and species consistent across assets. |
| Choose from Library / Gallery | button (row) | — | Opens the **Asset Picker** to bind the node to an existing creature. Becomes **Replace from Library / Gallery** once a creature is bound — use it to swap in a different one. |

### Asset Categories

| Category | Status Field | Description |
|----------|-------------|-------------|
| Angles | `anglesStatus` | Multiple viewing angles of the creature. |
| Poses | `posesStatus` | The creature in different poses and stances. |
| Variations | `variationsStatus` | Visual variations of the creature (color, age, markings, etc.). |
| Motion | `motionStatus` | Short animated motion clips generated from the creature's images. |

A canonical, LLM-authored description is set when the main image is approved; it anchors downstream generations when Style Lock is on.

## Choosing an existing asset

Instead of building a new creature in the studio, you can bind the node to one you already have. Open the **Asset Picker** from either the **Choose existing** button on the canvas node or the **Choose from Library / Gallery** row in the config panel. The picker has two tabs:

- **My Library** — your own saved creatures.
- **Public Gallery** — creatures shared by the community. Selecting one **clones it into your library first** (you can't reference another creator's private asset), then binds the node to that fresh clone.

This works both for an empty node (first-time selection) and to **replace** a creature that's already set — once a creature is bound, the buttons read **Replace** / **Replace from Library / Gallery**. Binding or replacing carries the full creature (main image plus every variation bucket — angles, poses, variations, and motion), so downstream nodes immediately use the new creature.

In two more cases the picker helps you avoid clutter:

- **Already have a copy?** If you pick a Public Gallery listing you've cloned before, the picker asks whether to **use your existing copy** or **make a new copy** — so a gallery pick never silently piles up duplicates.
- **Delete from My Library.** Hover a card in the **My Library** tab and click the trash icon to remove a saved asset. It's archived (recoverable), and any nodes already using it keep working.

## Inputs & Outputs

**Inputs:**
- `in` — Optional text or image input for additional context.

**Outputs:**
- `creatureRef` — Creature reference (identity) for use in scenes and compositions.
- `image` — The creature's image as a **plain image**. Connect this anywhere a Generate Image output can go (image References, Image-to-Image, Generate Video image input, List columns, etc.). Unlike `creatureRef`, it carries no identity injection — it is just the picture.

## Credits

The creature node itself is a setup/reference node and does not bill credits to exist on the canvas. Generation inside the Creature Studio bills per the chosen provider, the same as the standalone generation nodes:

- **Image assets** (angles / poses / variations / main image) bill per the selected image provider (default `nano-banana`, 1 credit). See [Generate Image](../ai-image/generate-image.md) for the per-provider credit table.
- **Motion clips** bill per the selected image-to-video provider (default `kling-turbo`, 11 credits). See [Image to Video](../ai-video/image-to-video.md) for the per-provider credit table.

## Best Practices
- Approve a strong main image first — it becomes the visual anchor for every other asset when Style Lock is on.
- Use the free-text Species field for precise prompting (e.g. "arctic fox with thick winter coat") rather than relying on the category alone.
- Generate angles before poses and variations; angles give the most useful reference for downstream compositions.
- Use a reference image for creatures that need to match a specific look or an existing design.

## Common Use Cases
- Creating recurring animal or creature characters for scene-based video compositions.
- Generating consistent multi-angle and multi-pose reference sheets for animation.
- Building a library of reusable creatures that survive across sessions and workflows.
- Producing motion clips of a creature for use in larger video assemblies.

## Tips
- Creatures are persisted in the project database and survive across sessions.
- Custom variations can be generated with a free-text prompt beyond the standard angle/pose/variation categories.
- The `creatureRef` output lets downstream nodes reference this creature consistently.
- Style Lock (default on) trades a little creative variance for much stronger species/form consistency — turn it off when you want freer reinterpretation.