Drafts and directed films

When you make an animation you can choose how much work goes into it.

Draft

A Draft is the first checked cut. It takes about five minutes and uses far fewer credits than a directed film. It is a good way to see whether the idea works before you spend more on it.

A draft is marked This is a draft in the chat. When you like where it is going, press Direct this film to have it reviewed and improved.

Directed film

A Directed film goes further. A director scores each cut, then improves it in rounds until it is ready to ship. This usually takes 15 to 30 minutes, and you can keep working, or leave, while it runs. You can see running jobs in the sidebar.

Improving an existing animation

In the editor, Improve quality runs another round of review and polish on the current version, and Regenerate rebuilds the animation from the brief.

What it costs

On credits, a run holds an estimate when it starts and settles to what the AI actually cost when it ends. A draft holds much less than a directed film. If a run can't finish, you keep the best version it reached and pay only for the AI it used. See Credits, plans and the trial.

On a BYOK plan, making a new film, regenerating or making a variant counts as one animation from your monthly allowance; polish and revisions don't.