How to make an AI micro-drama

This guide follows the AI Micro-Drama Series Maker, but the order holds in any tool: story, then people and places, then pictures, then sound and language. For a list of what each stage produces, see the micro-drama kit.

Write the premise and the bible

A premise that can hold a season names a person, what they want and what stands in the way, with a deadline if you can manage one. “A wedding planner finds out the groom she's working for ruined her family, and the wedding is in ten days” gives you ten episodes. “A story about betrayal” gives you none.

Type your line in the Bible tab and press Draft my bible, or fill it in yourself: title, genre, logline, tone, world, rating (Teen or Mature), platform, episode length and count, language and look. Series run 10 to 80 episodes of 60, 90 or 120 seconds, always vertical. Pick the languages you'll localise into and a music theme here too.

Lock the cast and places

In Cast & places, make a portrait of each character, a sheet of extra views, and any named looks the story needs, such as an outfit or an injury. Make a vertical picture of each recurring place and say its time of day and light. Every episode reuses these same pictures, and that's what keeps faces and rooms the same.

Spend your attention here. Describe the face, hair, build and usual clothes precisely, because a vague description is what makes a character drift. Once episodes are rendered, a new portrait is a new face, so if someone's appearance changes in the story, add a look instead of replacing the portrait.

Outline the season

In Season, plan up to 12 episodes at a time. Each outline has a 3-second hook, rising beats, a reveal, a cliffhanger and a “Previously on” line, and for drama apps, suggested paywall points. Read them in a row. If you can't say what the viewer is waiting for at the end of each one, fix it now: editing an outline costs nothing, and a rendered episode can't be fixed the same way.

Plan each episode's shots

In Episodes, press Plan the shots. The shot list goes into a new Movie Director project and every shot gets a model on Auto: dialogue close-ups on models that keep faces and speak the line, scenery on lower-cost or cinematic ones. You can change any shot's model, words, cast, place, look or length, and the price updates before you render. Keep spoken lines to about 18 words, because vertical dramas cut fast and short lines fit their shots.

Render a draft, then upgrade what works

Production compares three quality profiles before anything renders: Draft (480p), Standard (720p) and Premium (1080p for the cast), each with its price per episode and for the season. Draft the first few episodes, watch them on a phone, and only upgrade the ones that work.

• Tick the episodes and press Render. Scenes render a few at a time. Each is charged when it starts and refunded automatically if it fails, unless the video model's provider refused it under its own safety rules and charged us for the attempt.
• Keep the tab open while new scenes start. Scenes already rendering finish even if you close it.
• When every shot is done, Render episode joins it in the cloud with its sound and theme. The finished file stays available for 7 days, so download it or send it to your Social Library.

Subtitle and dub it

In Localise, translate each episode's subtitles into your languages and download SRT or VTT files. Add a voice dub if you want new voices over the original music and sound, or use the AI Video Translator for a dub with lip-sync. Our guide on translating a video covers how to check the result.

Publish

In Publish, write the titles, descriptions and hashtags, make a cover per episode, and finish each episode with burned-in subtitles, a title card and a “Next episode” end card. Follow the AI-disclosure checklist for your platform, then download the season as one ZIP.

What a 10-episode season costs

Here's the sum for a small series: two characters, two places, 10 episodes of 90 seconds, with one extra language.

The three episode rows are alternatives. A sensible plan is a mix: Draft everything, then render the episodes that work again in a higher profile. See plans and credit prices for what a credit costs.

Where seasons go wrong

• Rendering before the outline is right. Rewriting costs nothing until the shots exist.
• Long speeches. A line that takes ten seconds to say means a long hold on one shot, and that's where a vertical drama loses people.
• Too many characters. Each one needs a portrait, a sheet and screen time. Two or three are plenty for a first season.
• Judging it on a laptop. Your audience is on a phone. Watch every Draft there, with the sound off once, to see whether the story still reads.