Docs / Plan your channels
Proven formats
Start a channel from one of eight formats whose renderer is already built and tested: its own name, voice and colour look, its first episode the same day, and no kit to build.
A proven format is a kind of channel ChannelForge already renders well: its renderer, its episode template and its places are built and tested. Starting from one skips the longest and most expensive step of a new channel — building its kit — so the first episode can be made the same day, and it is the path the Trial covers. The channel is still yours alone: its own name, handles and colour look, and a narrator you can change.
The eight formats#
| Format | What the videos show | For | An episode like |
|---|---|---|---|
| How machines work | A machine on a studio stage that comes apart into its parts, then runs in a section cut while labels follow each part | Engineering-curious adults and students | "The 200 parts of a mechanical watch" |
| Space, to scale | A camera travelling through a simulated solar system and beyond, with real scale bars and familiar objects for size | Space fans of every age | "Light-speed from the Sun to Neptune" |
| What if…? | A low-poly city, coast or planet where the scenario plays out, with the consequences shown on cars, homes and people | Broad, curious audiences | "What if the Moon were half as far away" |
| Oddly satisfying physics | Particles, pendulums, fluids and dominoes simulated live, building to a payoff, then the rule that explains it | Fans of satisfying loops who stay for the why | "Why 1,000 pendulums make a wave" |
| Journeys into the deep | A descent through the ocean zones with a depth gauge, fading light, real animals at their real depths and the pressure shown on familiar things | Nature and ocean lovers | "What the deep does to a foam cup" |
| Be there in history | Reconstructed places and crowds in period dress, with a timeline, building stages and the scale of the work | History enthusiasts and learners | "How the pyramids were really built" |
| What happens to your body | A translucent human figure whose organs light up as the process runs, with clear labels and a timeline | Health-curious viewers — education, never medical advice | "What 24 hours without sleep does to you" |
| Illusions and brain teasers | The illusion first, full screen, then a reveal that measures what is really there and explains the trick | Puzzle lovers | "Your blind spot, found in ten seconds" |
A format's card shows a real episode once one of that format is in the public showcase.
What your channel gets#
- Its own identity, drafted for the format and your focus like any channel: a name, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram handles, a tone of voice, a palette, a tagline and a call to action.
- Its own copy of the format's kit, renamed for your channel, with the places its episodes rotate through.
- A colour look of its own. Every picture the kit renders — each episode, each still, the brand suite — goes through the channel's look in the final grade: a split-tone, an accent colour (taken from the channel's own palette where it has one) and, for the formats whose colours may change, a hue rotation. The formats whose colours must stay true — Journeys into the deep, Be there in history, What happens to your body and Illusions and brain teasers — keep their hue and get the split-tone and accent only. The look is fixed for the channel, so every episode looks like the same channel.
- Its first topics, planned as soon as the identity is drafted.
- A narrator: one of three voices suited to the format, the same for the channel every time — so two channels of one format may share it. Choose any of the 30 voices on the channel page under Narrator.
- Updates. When a format's template improves, each new episode of your channel brings its template up to date, file by file — wherever you never changed a file. A file an Improve the kit round changed for your channel is kept as it is.
- Films. Every format has a long-form film template too; see Long-form films.
The independent critic is told each format's style, so a deliberate look — low-poly worlds, a glass human, a neutral stage for an illusion — is judged as a choice, not a fault.
How to use it#
- Open New channel on the Overview, or Start a channel in its first-channel card.
- Under Start from a proven format, press a format's card.
- The dialog shows What the videos show, Episodes like and The autopilot then does, by itself — the four steps in the table below.
- Optionally fill in Focus (optional) to steer the channel inside the format.
- Read the price line, then press Start autopilot. The project page shows the setup's card as it runs.
| Step | What happens | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Identity and look | Its own name, handles and voice, and its colour look | 1–2 min |
| First episode | Written, animated on a GPU and passed by the critic; you get an email | 30–50 min |
| Brand suite | Logo, banners, avatar and covers, rendered with the channel's own look | 15–30 min |
| Two more episodes | So the channel launches with a stock to post | 1–1½ h |
The times are the app's estimates of each step's work; a busy GPU queue adds waiting time.
To add a format channel to a project you already have — several formats can live in one project — open the project and press Add a channel from a format. The start page then says The new channel goes into that project, and the channel takes the project's language.
When the setup is done, the channel's page says it was started from the format and is ready to render. Improve the kit there has an agent work on the kit for this channel, as a priced job.
Settings#
| Option | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Focus (optional) | Steers the channel inside the format, in up to 300 characters — "cars and engines", "the Roman empire", "the Moon and Mars" | Empty: the whole format |
Everything else is set on the channel's page after the setup: its narrator, episode style, schedule and the rest.
Credits and plans#
Formats are on every plan, the Trial included. The setup's price line says what it typically costs to the first episode and in all, and the most it reserves at once; each step reserves its credits as it starts and is charged what it really uses. A format's identity step costs a few credits, where a kit built for a channel is the largest one-time cost a channel has — which is why the Trial's 400 credits cover a format channel's identity and first episode and, at typical costs, its brand suite. See Credits and plans.
Limits and good to know#
- A one-click setup from the start page makes an English channel in a new project. If your plan has no room for another project, the channel goes into one of your projects instead — the start page names it — and takes that project's language. For a channel in another language, create a project in that language first (New project), then use Add a channel from a format on its page.
- A channel stays in its format: the format is its renderer. For a niche no format covers, describe your own channel and a renderer is built for it.
- Channels of the same format are kept apart from each other's episodes by the originality guard, so your focus and topics matter as much as the format.
- What happens to your body is education, never medical advice; the critic holds every channel to that.
Related#
- Quick start — a format channel from sign-up to first episode
- Niche research — for a niche no format covers
- Channels and kits — the kit, the gallery and changing a channel later
- Brand suites
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