Video templates

TL;DR

• A template is a video you can make again with new words, photos and clips. It is a list of scenes on one timeline.
• The editor (Video → Templates → Edit) has a live preview that matches the final MP4, a timeline, undo/redo, versions and a Full screen button.
• Slots are the parts a person or an agent fills per video: a headline, a list of points, a photo, a clip, a link.
• Videos always come from templates. No video-generation model is involved.

Start a template

Video → Templates:

• Blank template starts with a title, a text scene, a list and an end card.
• Duplicate copies one of yours.
• Starters, when your organization has any, are ready-made templates you copy and then edit.

Templates are versioned. Saving writes a new version; old versions never change, and every render records the version it used (video.template.save, data.video.template.list, data.video.template.get).

Scenes

In the Scenes tab: add a scene after the one you selected, move it earlier or later, duplicate or remove it, and set its length. A video has at most 40 scenes and 3 minutes.

Chat scenes have their own editor: the chat window title, the agents (name, letter, colour), headlines beside the chat, and blocks you add at the playhead. Moving a block moves everything inside it. Drag blocks on the timeline.

Image and clip scenes use Choose an image / Choose a video to pick from Files: JPEG, PNG or WebP up to 25 MB; MP4, WebM or MOV up to 400 MB.

Slots and the Content tab

Put {{slot_id}} in any scene text to use a slot. The Slots tab defines each slot: label, type, help text, limits, required and default. Types: text, text with highlights ([[word]] is highlighted), link, colour, choice, number, yes/no, image, video and list.

The Content tab is what the next video says: fill the slots, see the preview change, and Make these the defaults when you want them saved into the template. Words you type there stay in your browser until you render or reset.

Preview, problems and versions

• The preview plays the template in Feed 4:5, Story 9:16 or Wide 16:9, dark or light. Space plays and pauses.
• Problems lists every rule the template or your words break, and jumps to the scene or block. Copy rules apply: no en or em dashes, links only from your brand kit's allowed list when it has one.
• Undo / Redo (⌘Z / ⇧⌘Z), Save version (⌘S), and the version picker to open an older version (saving it makes it the newest again).
• Full screen hides everything else; Esc leaves.

Brand kit

Video → Brand kit sets the name, accent colour, logo, demo badge text and allowed links for every video. See Set up the studio.

Templates made in code

Templates with a key (for example orkestia/backbone) were loaded from a repository. Editing one here saves a version, and the next load from code saves its own version on top when the code differs. See Templates as code.