Updated 10 November 2026 · Markdown

Making a film

A film on kitcut.ai starts in the idea box on the home page, or from a template: a finished film that Claude remakes as yours from a few words about what it is for (Templates). The person types an idea and can add pictures, text files and voice notes, and people to be drawn into the film. They pick a look and a length, and press Make the film. The film's own page then opens and shows it being made.

The idea

• Length: 3 to 30,000 characters.
  • A counter appears near the limit.
  • A longer idea is refused, not cut.
  • With a picture, a text file or a voice note attached, the text may be empty.
  • A longer brief (a script, notes, facts about a product) fits in a text file: see Text files.
• The box starts empty. Its grey hint types example ideas out, one after another; it is only a hint, never part of the film. With "reduce motion" on in the device's settings it stands still.
• What to put in it: what the film is about, who is in it, the tone, anything it must say or show, and how to use the pictures.
• The idea is the film's public title. It is shown on the film's page and in the gallery.
• Language: the narration is in the language the idea is written in, or in the one it asks for. The narrator's voice (Gemini) speaks many languages, Ukrainian among them. An idea in Russian, or one that asks for Russian, is refused (What KitCut doesn't do). On-screen words are limited to Latin and Cyrillic alphabets (Looks).
• A link can fill in the box: kitcut.ai/?look=collage&idea=<the idea> opens the home page with that idea in the box and that look picked (drawn, painted or collage; either part can be left out). Nothing is made until Make the film is pressed, and the idea can be changed first. KitCut's news emails use these links for ideas to try.
• What the idea can't set: the voice, the music or the style inside a look can't be picked from controls, because Claude chooses them. The idea can still ask for them in words, e.g. "a calm female voice, solo piano, clean line art". See Looks.

People

Add a person, at the bottom of the idea box under the look, the frame, the length and the button, puts a real person in the film from their photo: they become a drawn character who talks in their own voice. Up to 4 people, each with a name, drawn in one of several styles, with a tick to confirm you have permission to use their photos. See People in a film.

Pictures

• How many: up to 9 per film.
• In a project's episode box the picture button (its icon is a picture) adds them the same way, each with the same choice of what it is for, for that episode only (Characters and projects).
• If the idea says "attached" and nothing is: an idea like "see the car images I attached" with no picture attached gets one warning when Make the film is pressed, and nothing is made or charged. Add the pictures, or press it again to go on without them.
• Three ways to add them: the + button (on a phone it offers the photo library or the camera), dragging them onto the box, or pasting a screenshot.
• Formats: JPEG, PNG or WebP arrive as they are. The browser converts other pictures it can open (such as HEIC on an iPhone) before upload.
• Shrinking: the browser shrinks every picture to 2048 pixels on its long side before upload, and removes location data. One upload may be up to 4.4 MB.
• What each picture is for: every picture's tile has a choice under it, one of three. It starts at Show it as it is:

• Show it as it is: a logo, a product, a person or a place, shown in the film as it is, where the idea puts it. It is never repainted, and the painter is never asked to copy it.
• What the place has: a photo of the real place a scene is in (a classroom, a yard, a shop). Claude looks at it and writes two or three of the main things in it plainly into that painting's description: the painting has those things, in the film's own look, without the photo's detail, light or realism. The photo itself is never on screen and never goes to the painter.
• How we draw this: a drawing, in the look the film should have, of one kind of thing (a city, flowers, a phone). It goes to the painter with every painting that shows that thing, so those paintings are drawn the same way. It is not on screen unless the idea asks for it. It works in painted and collage films; a code-drawn film has no painter, so Claude only imitates it in code.
• Claude looks at every picture, whatever its role, and the film's making log states in one sentence what Claude took each picture to be. A screenshot of a written brief, a handwritten note or a sketch is read with the idea.
• Naming a picture in the idea: each picture's tile shows its name, @picture1, @picture2 and so on, in the order the pictures were added. Click the name to write it into the idea, or type @ to choose from the pictures. Write where each one goes, for example "@picture1 on the last frame, @picture2 behind the title". Claude puts each picture where its sentence says.
  • Every picture set to Show it as it is needs its place in the idea. Until the idea names it, its name on the tile is amber. When Make the film is pressed, an idea that never names such a picture is sent back with what to add, and nothing is made or charged. A picture only for Claude to look at should be set to What the place has or How we draw this instead.
  • An @picture that is not attached (@picture3 with two pictures) is sent back the same way.
  • Removing a picture moves the names after it down one, in the idea too: @picture3 becomes @picture2. Where the idea named the removed picture, it now says "the removed picture", so you can see what to change.
• Privacy: pictures are never shown on the film's page. Only what Claude puts into the film is shown. A picture the film doesn't use is left out of the final render.

Text files

• What they are for: a brief too long or too ready-made to type: a script, notes from a meeting, facts about a product or a business, a list of scenes.
• How many: up to 3 per film, each a .txt or .md file of up to 100,000 characters.
• How to add them: the + button, or dragging them onto the box. They show as tiles with the file's name.
• Formats: plain text in UTF-8 (what most editors save), or UTF-16 as Windows Notepad may save it. Word documents and PDFs are not read; save them as text first.
• What Claude does with them: Claude reads every text file before planning the film and takes it as part of the idea. Where the typed idea and a file disagree, the typed idea wins. Names, figures and quoted lines are kept as written.
  • The film keeps its length: from a long script Claude picks what matters most rather than reading it all out.
• Privacy: text files are never shown on the film's page.

Voice notes

• Recording: press the microphone and speak. ✓ attaches the note; ✕ (or Esc) throws it away.
  • Up to 3 notes per film, each up to 3:00.
  • A warning shows 15 seconds before the end; at the end the note stops and attaches itself.
  • Recordings under 1 second are not kept.
• Turned into text: every note is written out as text, in the language spoken. Hovering over a note's tile shows the words.
  • A note in which nothing is said stops the film being made; remove it or record again.
  • Claude gets the text of the note, not the recording. The recording is never used in the film's sound.
• The microphone: the browser asks for permission the first time. Some in-app browsers can't record; there the microphone button does not appear.
• Privacy: voice notes are never shown or played on the film's page.

Look, length and frame

• Look: Code-drawn, Painted or Collage: three names in one row under the idea, the chosen one in amber. See Looks.
• Length: from 5 seconds, in steps of 5 seconds, up to the plan's longest film. The slider starts at 30 seconds, since a film uses at least 30 credits however short it is.
  • The slider sits beside its value, with no marks under it. Its track runs to 8:00; the part past the plan's longest film is shown locked.
  • Under the slider, beside the button: the credits the film will use, the balance, and the renewal date.
  • A film uses at least 30 credits, however short it is.
  • If the balance is too low, the button says "Not enough credits".
• Let Claude choose the length (paid plans): a box under the slider. Ticked, the slider rests and Claude gives the film the length its idea needs, up to the plan's longest film or the credits left, whichever is less (with Standard or High pictures, the longest whose credits and extra fit).
  • The line under it says the most it may use: "Up to N credits: the film uses only the length Claude gives it".
  • That most is held when the film starts. As soon as Claude has picked the length, the rest comes back, and the film uses its own length in credits (at least 30), as any film does.
  • On Free the box is shown but can't be ticked: it says it is on the paid plans.
  • The tick is remembered in the browser, and Try again or Make it again on such a film leaves the length to Claude again.
• Frame: three choices beside the look, each its shape and its ratio (16:9, 1:1, 9:16); pointing at one names it. A film starts wide.

• Tall 9:16 is a YouTube Short, as the same frame is through an assistant (Shorts from a chat):
  • Claude composes it for a phone held upright, never a wide film cut down.
  • The narration's words are drawn into the picture, since a Shorts feed shows no subtitles.
  • The slider stops at 3:00, the longest a Short is. With Let Claude choose the length, Claude chooses inside it too.
  • It is made at 30 frames a second on every plan.
• The frame is kept through signing in, and by Try again and Make it again: a Short is made again as a Short.
• Pictures: Draft, Standard or High (a collage film only): a fourth choice beside the frame, how carefully the pictures are painted.
  • Draft (the default) paints them quickly. A finished film can be made sharper later (Sharper pictures).
  • Standard and High paint them finer from the start. They add 25% or 60% of the film's credits, rounded up and at least 5: the same as making a draft sharper later. A 60-second film uses 75 or 96 credits instead of 60.
  • The line under the choice says what it adds, and the credit line under the slider counts it.
  • It appears only for a collage, whose cut-outs are painted by GPT Image. A painted film made here is painted by Muse and a code-drawn film is drawn in code: neither has the choice. A project's painted episodes have it when the project's style is painted by GPT Image (Characters and projects).
  • Kept through signing in, like the frame.
• Its pages take its shape: the player, the share page and the film's cards show a square or tall film whole.

Signing in

• Anyone can type, attach and record without an account.
• Pressing Make the film while signed out opens the sign-in dialog: Google, or a one-time link by email.
• The idea, look, length, pictures, text files and voice notes are kept in the browser. They come back after signing in, even when the email link opens in a new tab.
• The film starts only when Make the film is pressed again.

After "Make the film"

1. The credits are held. The film's length (at least 30) is taken from the balance. They are charged only if the film is finished. When Claude chooses the length, the most it may use is held, and what its length doesn't use comes back as soon as Claude has picked it. See Plans and credits.
2. The film's page opens at kitcut.ai/film/<id>. Its address works at once and can be shared.
3. The page shows the film being made:
   • at the top, the latest review sheet (the stills Claude checks), where the video will be;
   • under it, a status line, including the film's place in the queue;
   • beside it, the making log, "What Claude is doing": each step and Claude's own notes;
   • Updated and the time the studio last answered. The page updates itself, so there is no need to reload it. When a phone is unlocked or the connection comes back, it looks again at once. While the studio can't be reached, it says Reconnecting… and keeps trying.
4. When the film is finished, the page plays it, and an email says it is ready (see Your account), so the page can be closed meanwhile. How long that takes: How a film is made.
5. Stop: the person who asked for the film can stop it from the browser they started it in. Its credits come back. A stopped film can't be resumed.
6. A film that doesn't finish says so on its page, with Try again. Try again opens the idea box under it, with the same idea, look and length (or the length left to Claude again). A finished film has Make it again under it, which does the same.

Limits on making films

• One film being made at a time per account, 2 on Pro. One more is refused until one of them is finished. Through an AI assistant, it waits in the account's own line instead and starts by itself (Several films in a row). On Pro, "Make the film" stays on while a film is being made: the new film opens in its place, and the first carries on (it is listed under Your films on the account page).
• 5 films per account per day. Every film asked for counts, including failed ones.
• When too many films are already waiting, a new film is refused with "the queue is full"; try again later.
• When the service has made all the films it can in a day, new films are refused until the next day. No credits are taken.
• While the film-making service is offline, new films can't start, and the home page says so.

Not possible here

• Uploading a video clip to use as footage. Pictures are the only visual material a film takes.
• Choosing a voice, a piece of music or a drawing style from a list. Ask for them in words instead.