Studio & content.

The output window is a camera: what you see — grade, grain, overlays, all of it — is exactly what records. This mission takes one track from "playing" to "publishable assets" in under an hour.

The mission

1. Feed it the track, clean

   Source: your DAW or music app directly — not System audio.

   why: notification pings do not belong in your render.

2. Choose the world for the piece

   Step through scenes with the track playing. Shortlist three that answer the song's mood; pick by the drop, not the intro.

   why: a scene's character shows at its loudest moment — audition there.

3. Grade like a colorist

   Set the mood in the color section: a LUT as the base (Noir / Teal Orange / Warm Film or your own .cube), then trim exposure, contrast and lift. Film pack to taste: grain 0.2, halation 0.15, vignette 0.3 is a classy start.

   why: the grade is what separates "screensaver" from "video".

4. Brand the frame

   Logo overlay: your mark, corner of choice, 40–60% opacity, pulse off for edits (on for live).

   why: clips travel. Make sure your name travels with them.

5. Frame-rate & tier for the export

   Festival tier if the Mac holds it (check the perf readout), Max FPS matching your edit timeline (30 or 60).

   why: record at the rate you'll publish — no retiming artifacts.

6. Roll long, cut later

   Start recording, play the full track, stop. Record 20 extra seconds of quiet at both ends.

   why: the quiet tails are your fade handles in the edit.

7. Grab stills at the peaks

   Snapshot at the drop, the breakdown, the final chord — full-quality frames, grade and overlays included.

   why: covers, thumbnails and posts want stills, not screengrabs of video.

8. Make it a look

   Save the whole setup as a look named after the project ("NIGHT DRIVE — video").

   why: the client asks for one more version in three weeks. One keypress, identical frame.

9. Optional: commission a custom scene

   For a signature piece, have the AI copilot author a scene that belongs to this song alone — brief it like a director, let it audition and iterate, then record in it.

   why: nobody else's video can look like yours if the scene exists only in your library.

Looks that cut well

• For edits: longer trails read beautifully at 100% speed but smear in slow-mo — halve trails if you\'ll retime.
• For loops: the seamless family (Smoke, Tide, Kaleido) loops visually even when the audio doesn\'t.
• For text-over: nocturnes leave honest negative space for titles — that darkness is designed in.