Docs · Getting started

Make your first film

The fastest way to a first film is to let the director run each stage. Import your pages, press Direct this stage, then press Direct the Source stage. Look at what it made, then point it at the next stage.

You do not have to learn the steps first. The director picks and runs them for you, one stage at a time, and stops at the end of each stage so you can look. When you want more control, every stage has its own page in these docs with the steps in order.

1 · Put your pages in

Create a project and import your chapter on Source. A comic, a .cbz or loose images all work. Check the pages are in reading order. A project with no pages has nothing to direct yet, so this is the one thing to do by hand.

2 · Press Direct this stage

The purple Direct this stage button sits in the bar at the top of the studio, beside the stage name. It is the button to reach for on your first film, and on every stage after it. You can run the steps yourself, but the director is the shorter way to a finished film.

Direct this stage in the studio bar opens the run dock, with one button to direct the stage — **Direct this stage** opens the run dock on the right. This capture is the Video stage; Source works the same way.

3 · Press Direct the Source stage

The run dock opens with three optional settings and one big button at the bottom: Direct the Source stage. Press it. The director looks at what the project already has, picks the next step that needs doing, runs it, checks the result, and goes on.

Try it on a few first: Runs the stage on a few files before the rest. It stops when the sample is done so you can look; Run on the rest continues from there. This is the cheap way to check the director understood.
Skip what an earlier run already finished: On by default. Turn it off only to redo the stage from the start.
Direction: Say what you want in words, like “keep the motion subtle” or “warmer colour grade”. It applies to this stage.

You can pause, continue or stop at any time, and closing the page does not stop the run.

4 · Look, then direct the next stage

When the stage is done the panel says Source is ready and stops. It does not start the next stage, because every stage's output is the next stage's input: a mistake left here is carried the rest of the way. Look at what it made.

If it is right, press On to Art, then Direct this stage again, and Direct the Art stage. Repeat for Story, Video, Sound and Deliver. That is the whole first film.

What to check, stage by stage

Stage	Look at
Source	Every panel is cut cleanly and the speech bubbles are gone.
Art	The panels share one anime style and the bubble holes are filled.
Story	The script matches the pages, and the file is marked as the video script.
Video	The storyboard and the clips: the right shots, in order, each moving the way you meant.
Sound	Every character has a voice you like, and the levels are even.
Deliver	Play the finished film before you download it.

When something is wrong

You are not stuck with what a stage made. Open the file that is wrong and fix it with the editors, or run that one step again with a note about it. A director run costs what its steps cost, so a small fix costs a small amount. See Fix things by hand.

Doing it by hand

The director is the shortcut, not the only door. Under the stage bar are the stage's steps as numbered chips; run them left to right and you will make the same film with more control at each part. Run the plan step first, read what it wrote, then run the steps that make pictures, video or sound. Each stage has its own page with the order and the settings: Source, Art, Story, Video, Sound, Deliver.

Last updated 2026-11-04. Prices here are guides from our own runs.