Plein

Lay out a wholeshort drama onone canvas

Plein is a local-first AI infinite canvas for short drama. Script, characters, storyboard, shots, voiceover and the final cut are wired-up nodes on one canvas. Every step stays visible and editable, and if one shot is off you redo just that shot.

Download for macOS View source on GitHub

Free and open source. Runs on Apple silicon Macs, or self-host it with Docker. The app UI is in Simplified Chinese for now.

Script

A note slips out of the folded newspaper.

It reads: it wasn't suicide.

Character · Lin Wan
Character sheet for Lin Wan: front, side, back and props
Shot images
On a rainy rooftop, Old Zhou stops Lin Wan A badge, old newspaper and note inside the iron box A man in black reaches for the iron box
Voice · Lin Wan
Final cut · 28 s

How the sample was made

The clip above, "It Wasn't Suicide", started from a one-line idea and went through seven steps on one canvas. Every result stays on the canvas, can be edited on its own, and downstream nodes show what needs a re-run.

  1. IdeaStep 1

    On a rainy rooftop, a courier finds a locked iron box and is pulled into an old case.

  2. ScriptStep 2

    A chat model writes a vertical script scene by scene: conflict in the first three seconds, a hook at the end.

    The note reads: it wasn't suicide.

  3. Setting cardsStep 3
    Character sheet for Lin Wan Key prop: the iron box
  4. StoryboardStep 4
    Visual Line
    Rooftop, a man in black closes in Who are you?
    A note falls from the box —
    Outside her flat Wanwan, open the door.
  5. ShotsStep 5
    Old Zhou stops Lin Wan on the rooftop Lin Wan crouches to pick up the iron box A badge and note inside the iron box Lin Wan at her door, Old Zhou at the end of the hallway A man in black reaches for the iron box The doorbell lights up as an old phone gets a text
  6. VoiceoverStep 6

    Each line is voiced with the character's bound voice and can be redone line by line.

  7. Final cutStep 7

    The sequence editor lines up shots, dialogue and subtitles, then exports a vertical MP4.

Generated with Alibaba Cloud Model Studio and Doubao Speech, with no post-production on picture or sound.

Why Plein

Review before you spend
Inserting the short drama template only builds the skeleton and never calls a model on its own. Review the storyboard and shot images first, then generate video and voiceover in batches.
Change one thing, redo one thing
Any shot can switch candidates, regenerate or be replaced by hand. Unchanged nodes hit the cache, so you never pay twice.
Your data stays on your machine
One local server, one SQLite file, one asset folder. API keys stay on your machine and never reach the browser.
Let AI operate the canvas
The built-in agent reads the canvas, creates nodes and batch-generates the storyboard. You can also hand the work to Claude Code or Codex on your machine, or drive the canvas from Cursor over MCP.

Works with Volcengine Ark, Doubao Speech, Alibaba Cloud Model Studio and MiniMax. Node parameters adapt to the model you pick.

Get started

macOS app

For Apple silicon Macs. Signed and notarized by Apple, ships with ffmpeg, and updates itself.

Download installer

Self-host with Docker

Run it on your own computer or server, then open localhost:8787.

git clone https://github.com/hoobnn/plein.git && cd plein && docker compose up -d

Source

Open source under AGPL-3.0. Issues and plugins for new model platforms and nodes are welcome.

Open the GitHub repo