How to create videos

Use this guide to set up a project and produce videos manually from the dashboard: Projects → Videos → publish. Configure creative settings once per channel or niche; the same settings apply to every video in that project (including Auto Mode later). For hands-free scheduling and posting, finish project setup here first, then follow Automatic video generation.

Create a project

In the dashboard, open Projects and click Create Project. Your first project uses a short wizard: enter Title and Channel Description, then continue to full settings. For later projects, the configure modal opens with all sections at once. Use Configure on any row to edit an existing project.

Project settings

Everything below lives in the project configure modal (Create Project / Configure). Match labels in the app when you look for a field.

Basics

Title
Channel or niche name for your reference in Projects and Videos.
Content Types
Select one or more types. The AI mixes segment types within each video.
Video orientation
Vertical (9:16) for Shorts/TikTok (target up to 2 minutes). Landscape (16:9) for widescreen (target up to 15 minutes).
Channel Description
Required, 100–5,000 characters. This is the main creative brief for ideas, screenplays, and visuals.

Content type options:

AI Video
AI-generated motion clips per scene.
AI Images
Slideshow-style scenes from AI images; narrator is required.
Stock Videos
Licensed stock footage segments.
AI Influencer
Lip-synced presenter segments; Reference Image is required.
Web Pages
Screen-style segments from web pages; enable Web search in project settings.
Web Images
Segments built from web-sourced images.

Reference Image

Optional for most projects; required when AI Influencer is enabled. Upload a recurring character or visual reference (crop matches project aspect ratio). This is separate from Talking Avatar (Optional), which overlays a lip-synced presenter on the final video. See Talking avatar overlays.

Ideas and web search

Web search uses real-time web data when generating titles, transcripts, and full ideas (3 credits per step instead of 1). Required for Web Pages content. Ideas per batch controls how many titles are generated at once (3–10; default 10). Lower values (e.g. 3–5) keep Auto Mode fresher for news or timely topics.

Voice

Use narrator voice adds spoken narration (xAI, Speechify, or ElevenLabs). It is always on for AI Images and AI Influencer. Pick a voice, adjust narrator speed (1.0–1.2), and optionally choose Talking Avatar (Optional) for a UGC-style overlay.

Video

Target Video Duration (seconds)
10–120 seconds for portrait; 10–900 seconds for landscape. Drives screenplay length and generation cost.
Image models (priority)
Pick 1–4 models in order; the next model is tried if one fails. Used for AI Video frames, AI Images, and related segments.
AI Video models (priority)
When AI Video is enabled: 1–3 video models in priority order (e.g. Grok, Veo, Sora).
AI Influencer models (priority)
When AI Influencer is enabled: 1–3 lip-sync models in priority order.
Generate cover photo
Optional thumbnail/cover per export (uses credits; can be used as YouTube thumbnail when posting).
Background music & sound effects
Optional music under narration; optional short SFX on certain scene transitions.
On-screen text / caption preset
Full captions, sparse highlight titles, or none — plus a visual preset when captions are on.
Watermark
Optional branded watermark on exports (position and opacity in the watermark editor).

Channel description tips

Describe your topic, audience, structure, visual style, and tone. Include example titles or hooks. A strong description improves both manual ideas and Auto Mode output.

From idea to finished video

Generate video ideas

Go to Videos and click Generate Video Ideas. Pick your project and confirm. VidMachine creates a batch of titles from your channel description (1 credit per batch; batch size is set in project settings).

Pick an idea and generate the video

Open an idea from the list and use Generate video or One Shot to run the full pipeline: idea expansion, screenplay, segments (AI video, images, stock, web, influencer, etc.), optional narrator, captions, and export. Generation uses credits based on length and models.

Schedule or publish

When the video is ready, set status to Upcoming with a post time, or publish immediately. Connect YouTube and TikTok (and Instagram Reels when available) under Accounts in the sidebar. For fully automatic creation and posting, use Schedule settings on the project — see Automatic video generation.

Credits and generation time

Video generation, narrator, captions, and covers consume credits. Cost depends on duration, content types, and model choices. See Credits & billing. One Shot queues work immediately — you can leave the page. The Videos list shows status (queued, processing, draft, error, etc.).