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The Create Wizard (4 Steps)

The Create Wizard is the single entry point for every new production. This guide is the complete reference — every field, every toggle, every gotcha, in the order you actually meet them. It was written against the live create_production_template.xml and create_production.js.

The wizard has four steps: Content & Style, Voice & Audio, Branding & Media, Review & Create. Auto-save runs after each step. You can click any completed step circle at the top of the page to jump back without losing data.

How to launch

From the dashboard: the prominent New Production button.
From the sidebar: the Create entry.
Direct URL: /video_production/create.

Step 1 — Content & Style

Subtitle: "Title, source content, format and audience." This is the longest step.

Identity

Field	Notes
Video Title (required)	Internal name. Not the published video title — that's auto-generated in Phase 5.

Content source

Pick a Content Type and the matching input field appears. The ten types and what each one expects:

Content type	What you provide
Topic / Idea Only	A few words ("Compound interest in 60 seconds")
Article / Blog Post	Paste a full article — AI distills it
Pre-written Script	Your exact narration
Bullet Points / Outline	Key beats — AI expands
Tutorial / How-To Steps	Numbered steps
Product Information	Specs / description
URL / Web Page	A link — extras: an Images to extract number input (0–10) and an Import Images from URL option
RSS Feed	Pick a feed library, then a specific item from a preview list
PDF / Image Upload	Upload one PDF or image
Bulk Import from JSON	Opens the bulk-import modal — paste/upload JSON to create one or many draft productions at once

For URL/RSS inputs, a Strip source content checkbox appears beneath the content textarea — discards page boilerplate.

Voiceover script (optional, in Step 1)

Note: the voiceover script field lives in Step 1, not Step 2.

Field	Notes
Voiceover Script	Collapsed by default — click + Add custom voiceover script to reveal. Paste your exact narration if you want to control wording. Otherwise the AI writes from the source content above.
Enhance script with AI	Checkbox — when on, the AI polishes your draft for cadence and emphasis without changing meaning.

Format & platform

Field	Notes
Video Format	Landscape 16:9 (1920×1080) · Portrait 9:16 (1080×1920) · Square 1:1 (1080×1080)
Target Platform	YouTube · YouTube Shorts · Instagram Reels · TikTok · Facebook Stories · Multi-Platform
Duration	Range slider. Min/max enforced by platform and your plan. If you exceed your plan's max, the slider snaps back.

Style controls

Field	Notes
Video Style	15 built-in options + Custom (free text up to 150 chars).
Quality & Cost slider	Five tiers — Draft / Economy / Balanced / Premium / Showcase. The `⋯` button opens an Advanced panel for per-modality (LLM / TTS / image / video / music) tier overrides. The label shows the live token cost and your available-token balance — moving the slider updates both.
Video Tone	8 built-in + Custom (150 char).
Video Look	48 built-in visual-treatment options (cinematic, anime, whiteboard, pixel art, etc.) + Custom (free text up to 400 chars). Pairs with Video Tone in the two-column grid.
Target Audience	13 built-in + Custom. Selecting Custom reveals a Custom Audience Description textarea.
Experience Level	7 built-in + Custom (150 char).

Step 2 — Voice & Audio

Subtitle: "Pick the language, voice and background music."

Skip voiceover

A Skip Voiceover Generation toggle at the very top. When enabled, every other control on this step (language, voice selection, delivery, background music) collapses — the video uses planned scene durations and on-screen text only.

Language

Two side-by-side dropdowns with an "auto-synced" hint:

Field	Notes
Voiceover Language	The language the AI will speak. Languages your plan doesn't allow are tagged (Upgrade); languages your selected voice doesn't support are tagged (Not supported).
Content Language	The language the source content is written in. Auto-syncs to the voiceover language unless you change it (relevant when you write in one language and want narration in another).

If your plan blocks multi-language, both selectors are disabled with a "Multi-language requires a plan upgrade" hint.

Multi-language batch (collapsed by default)

A + Also generate for additional languages (Batch) button expands a panel where you can add up to 5 language-variant rows. Each row has its own Voiceover and Content dropdowns.

A token-cost notice is always shown inside the panel:

"Each additional language creates a separate video and adds <n> tokens to your total (currently +<n> tokens for <count> extra language(s) — total <total> tokens)."

Plan-gated: if your plan doesn't allow batch multi-language, an Upgrade link is shown and the Add language variant button is disabled. See Multi-Language Production.

Voice selection

A reusable voice selection card (slider-driven) lets you preview and pick from the catalogue. Custom voices added via the Voice Library appear here.

Delivery Style

Field	Range
Speed	Slow / Normal / Fast / Very Fast
Pitch	Low / Normal / High
Excitement	0–5 slider, labelled live: Calm · Mild · Moderate · Energetic · Intense · Super Excited

Background Music

A single Background Music dropdown (mood). 10 options (including No Background Music) + Custom (free text up to 200 chars). Picking Custom reveals a text input.

Music mood lives in Step 2, not in the Branding step.

Step 3 — Branding & Media

Subtitle: "Brand presets, colors, fonts and input media." This step bundles brand fields, plan-gated, plus media upload.

Brand preset

Field	Notes
Brand Preset dropdown	Custom (manual) or any preset from your Brand Library. Picking a preset fills every brand field below. A Manage presets link opens the library in a new tab.

If your plan doesn't allow custom branding, a yellow gate banner appears with an Upgrade link, and every brand field below is greyed out.

Brand identity

Field	Notes
Brand Name	Free text. Appears in lower-thirds and the outro.
Call to Action	Free text. The end-of-video prompt ("Subscribe for more!").

Brand colours (5-cell strip)

A horizontal colour strip with five cells: Primary, Secondary, Accent, Background, Text. Each cell has a colour picker plus an editable hex input. Background and Text default placeholder is "Auto".

Fonts

Field	Notes
Heading Font	Free text input (placeholder "e.g. Montserrat") — you type the font family name. Not a curated dropdown.
Body Font	Free text input (placeholder "e.g. Open Sans").

Save / Update brand preset

A context-aware single button below the fields:

Save as Brand Preset — when no preset is selected.
Update Brand Preset — when a preset is selected and you've edited any field (brandPresetIsDirty() is true).

It's hidden if your plan blocks branding or if the preset is unmodified.

Special requirements + Auto-Approve

Field	Notes
Special Requirements	Free-text textarea — "Any specific elements to include or avoid…"
Auto Approve Plan	A checkbox (with a yellow lightning-bolt icon when ticked). When on, every review gate is auto-approved. See Auto-Approve Mode.

Input Media (Optional)

A drop zone + two action buttons:

Drop files here or click to browse — drag-and-drop or file picker.
From Library — opens a Asset Library modal showing how many assets are available.
From Canva — opens a Canva picker (requires Canva integration).

Heads up — what you can upload here:

Images: .jpg .jpeg .png .gif .webp .svg .bmp — max 10 MB each
Documents: .pdf .txt .csv .json .xml .doc .docx .xls .xlsx — max 5 MB each
Total upload cap: 200 MB
Audio and video are NOT accepted by the wizard's upload zone. Use the Asset Library for audio/voiceover assets, or pick them via From Library.

For each file you can edit (in the media item editor that appears below the drop zone): name, scene hint, must-include flag, AI-enhance flag, and AI-enhancement instructions.

Step 4 — Review & Create

Subtitle: "Review your settings before creating the video production." Read-only summary cards for every field on Steps 1–3. The footer has:

Previous (left) — returns to Step 3 with all values intact.
Save as Draft / Save & Exit (right) — persists the production without starting it. The label reads Save as Draft for a brand-new production, Save & Exit once a draft has been created.
Create & Start Phase 1 (right) — commits the production. The webhook fires immediately and you're redirected to the production detail page.

Heads up — quota: Clicking Create & Start Phase 1 consumes one monthly video slot. Drafts (anything you abandon before this click) do not consume a slot. Cancelling a started production does not refund the slot.

Real scenario — "Reusing last week's setup"

A marketer is producing the third instalment of a weekly product-update series.

Wizard opens. Step 1: Content type = Article; pastes this week's update post; everything else stays from defaults.
Step 2: language stays English; voice unchanged; clicks Next.
Step 3: picks the brand preset "Acme Product Updates" — every colour, font, music-mood, and CTA snaps in. Auto Approve Plan stays on.
Step 4: glances at summary, clicks Create & Start Phase 1.

Elapsed time: ~90 seconds. Most of the wizard's complexity is one-time setup; from week two onward it's a copy-paste-and-go.

Tips & gotchas

Drafts persist. A draft survives across browser sessions; find it in Productions with a Draft badge and resume any time.
Plan-gated controls show inline Upgrade hints. Audio/video are not gated — they're never accepted by the wizard's upload zone, period (use the Asset Library).
Step click-back is non-destructive. Going back from Step 4 to Step 1 doesn't lose Steps 2–3 values.
Custom values in dropdowns have per-field length caps — 150 chars for Custom Style / Tone / Experience, 400 chars for Custom Video Look (Step 1), 200 chars for Custom Music Mood (Step 2).
Quality slider drives token cost. The token-required estimate updates live as you move the slider. Moving the slider in Step 1 also affects the multi-language batch token notice in Step 2.
Skip Voiceover is permanent for the production. You can't add a voiceover later without recreating.
Image extraction count (0–10) for URL imports lives next to the URL input — useful for blog scrapes that have hero images you want pulled in.
Custom audience description has a free-text textarea that only appears when Target Audience = Custom.