Wrap shops: the vehicle still is the contract
I2V. Midjourney wrap designs are concept art, not the job.
5 min read
Replace one slideshow slide after the order is locked
replace_slideshow_slide bills a new image; remove and reorder do not refund or generate. Surgery on a board you have not locked, or on a reel you already exported, is the expensive order.
3 min read
Yacht listing video: animate the hull, keep the teak
I2V from the broker photo. A new T2V yacht is a different vessel to the buyer. Lot tours are inventory, not listings.
6 min read
Zip-line video: lock the platform, then move the rider
Seedream the launch tower. Hailuo Fast for a slide only after the platform holds. A paragraph will not time the brake.
5 min read
AAF and XML Roundtrips With Generated Media
Transcode on ingest, XML for picture, AAF for audio, and the handles a mixer needs when the media started as generated MP4s.
8 min read
Set AD Level Against the Dialogue
AD that ducks the whole mix is unusable; AD under the music is inaudible. Match description to dialogue, keep HI and VI mixes apart, and check on a phone speaker.
10 min read
Stop Banding After You Grade AI Skies
Generated skies posterize under contrast. Use a 10-bit intermediate, dither, and a stills-plus-motion checklist before you add grain or reroll.
8 min read
Best lip sync API: Sync Labs $0.04/sec
Sync Labs is the batch lip sync API, from $0.04 per second on lipsync-2, with webhooks. HeyGen speed mode is $0.0333 per second. Hedra fits stylized inputs.
10 min read
Run a Broadcast-Safe Pass Before Delivery
RGB and composite illegal values still fail cable and FAST QC. A Rec.709 16–235 checklist, a legalizer after the grade, and a stills compare to keep the look.
9 min read
Caption Accuracy Targets and a Spot-Check
Looks fine is not a rate. Set a word-error-rate target, count punctuation and speaker misses, and sample a 200-clip library instead of reading every file.
9 min read
Time Captions to Shot Changes, Not Only Speech
Captions timed only to speech feel late at cuts and cover new faces. Shot-change rules, lead-in/out frames, and a QC pass that never covers a new speaker.
9 min read
Chapters as Keyboard Navigation for Long Video
Treat chapter lists as a keyboard skip map. Write titles that match the transcript, keep every marker reachable, and skip chapters on a 90-second spot.
9 min read
Characters-Per-Second Limits by Language
English CPS caps wreck German, Finnish, and CJK. Starting CPS and CPL figures by script, and a QC method for cutting captions without changing what was said.
9 min read
Closed GOP and Keyframes for Editable Masters
Specify closed GOP, a one-second I-frame interval, and a transcode-on-ingest so a human editor can recut generated MP4s without a render farm.
9 min read
Color is not the only indicator in graphics
Generated infographics encode meaning in hue. Add patterns, labels, and shape so a color-blind viewer can read the chart, then check deuteranopia.
8 min read
Write Color Tags on Every Export
Players guess Rec.709 and gamma 2.2 when nclc and colr are missing, so grades shift after upload. Tag Rec.709, P3 and PQ, then inspect before you send.
8 min read
DCP Basics for a Festival or Pop-Up
A DCP is JPEG 2000 picture in MXF, uncompressed PCM audio in MXF, plus XML for the cinema server. Not an H.264 file on a USB stick.
9 min read
De-Ess Generated Voices Without a Lisp
TTS and clones hiss in a way live VO does not. A split-band de-esser setup, and when the real fix is a different take or engine rather than more processing.
9 min read
A Delivery Spec Sheet With Every Master
A signed one-pager for codec, luma range, loudness, captions, textless and checksum, so the master the client accepts is the file you send.
8 min read
Describe On-Screen Text in the AD Track
Rules for reading supers, prices, and URLs in audio description without hitting the VO, and when a textless-plus-VO cut is the cleaner deliverable.
9 min read
Check Dialogue Intelligibility Before Sign-Off
Pass a speech-to-noise check and a mono phone test before sign-off, and fix masked words with EQ and reverb moves rather than raising the VO.
8 min read
False Color Before You Touch the Grade
A 30-second false-color pass that flags clipped highlights and muddy faces before any LUT, with the IRE bands to watch on generated skin and chrome.
9 min read
Add Grain in Finishing, Not in the Prompt
Prompted grain is baked and fights the compressor. A post stack for size, amount, and chroma you can turn down per platform, after legalizer and loudness.
9 min read
Keep Finishing Audio at 48 kHz
Resample every 44.1 kHz generate on ingest, use a real anti-alias filter, and keep the project at 48 kHz / 24-bit so export does not click.
9 min read