KIE • Camera Path

What it is

KIE • Camera Path turns a move you can picture into two things a video model can actually consume: a sentence, and a block of keyframe JSON. Dolly in, orbit round the subject, crane up, or hand-place a curved path - then check the top-down map before you spend credits on a generation that ignores your intent.

Here's the part the author is unusually honest about, and you should internalise it before you touch a slider: these coordinates are editorial intent, not native camera conditioning. Unless the model you're calling documents matching camera controls, "dolly in from 0,1.6,−4 to 0,1.6,−2" goes into the prompt as prose and the model does whatever it feels like. The node's own JSON says so: "application": "prompt_guidance_unless_model_adapter_documents_native_fields".

So treat it as a way to write consistent, precise camera language across your shots.

How it works

You give it path_mode, a duration, an easing curve, a start point, an end point, a look_at target, and - depending on the mode - a midpoint or an orbit angle. The optional mid_x/mid_y/mid_z is the control point; orbit_degrees is how far around the subject you swing.

It samples the trajectory into keyframe_samples steps (3 to 61, 9 by default). Coordinates are in metres-ish scene space, which is why the defaults are y = 1.6 - eye height. look_at stays fixed; the camera is what moves.

The modes are:

• dolly - straight interpolation start → end.
• crane - also straight interpolation. Look at the source: crane and dolly share the same lerp; the difference is the mode name in the direction string and, in practice, that crane implies you're changing Y while dolly implies you're not. It's a naming convention with your own discipline behind it.
• orbit - rotates around look_at by orbit_degrees, with Y interpolating separately. The midpoint is ignored here.
• custom path - a quadratic Bézier through the midpoint, so the move curves.

easing applies to the parameter before sampling: linear, ease in, ease out, ease in out (smoothstep). Easing is why a dolly doesn't feel like a robot.

Inputs and outputs

The three outputs are the whole point:

• camera_direction - one sentence: mode, duration, easing, start and end positions, look-at target, plus the "treat these as editorial intent" caveat. Wire this into a video node's prompt, or into KIE • Variation Matrix's fixed constraints so every take keeps the same camera.
• camera_path_json - schema-tagged keyframes with time_seconds, position, look_at. This is what you paste into KIE • Save Generation Recipe's camera_plan_json so a shot you liked is reproducible later.
• top_view - a rendered 640×460 map, pink ring for look-at, green start, amber end, path drawn in blue. Saved to output/KIE-Camera/Path so it survives a reload.

The node is an output node, so it always executes - the preview writes a PNG every run.

Install

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/felipederosilva/ComfyUI-KIE-Nodes-Next
python -m pip install -r ComfyUI-KIE-Nodes-Next/requirements.txt

It needs Pillow and numpy for the preview; no API key is required for this node, because it never calls KIE. Set the key once anyway if the rest of your graph is KIE nodes - Settings → KIE.ai Nodes Next → Connection.

Where people get burned

• Reading coordinates as centimetres. They're scene units. A start_z of −4 is four units back, not four metres of cable.
• Assuming the model obeys. It usually won't, not literally. Short moves with clear subject framing work; a 30-second orbit of a face won't.
• Forgetting the JSON is the artifact. The direction string is what the model reads today, but the JSON is what makes the shot reproducible. Save it with the recipe.
• Out-of-range values. Duration is clamped to 0.5–120 s, orbit to ±360°, samples to 3–61. The node validates rather than silently clamping, so an out-of-range value is a hard error.