Quick start: your first channel

This page takes you from an empty browser to a channel with its first episode, screen by screen. Your part takes a few minutes. The rest runs on our GPUs while you do something else: the app estimates about two hours to the first video, and it emails you when it is ready.

There are two ways in. Start from a proven format is one click and is the path the Trial covers. Or describe your own channel researches niches for your brief and builds a renderer just for the winner; it needs more credits than the Trial holds.

Before you start#

• An email address you can open now. The trial credits arrive only once it is confirmed.
• Optional: the YouTube channel you want to post to. You can connect it at the end, after the first episode exists.
• Nothing else. There is no card to enter.

1. Create your account#

1. Open Start free.
2. Fill in Your name, Work email and Password. The password needs at least 10 characters, at least five different characters, and no common word or sequence ("password", "123456", "qwerty" and the like are refused).
3. Tick I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy. Send me occasional product updates is optional.
4. Press Create account.

You are signed in at once and asked to set up your workspace.

2. Name your workspace#

A workspace holds your projects, channels, connected accounts, team and billing. The page greets you by your first name and asks you to set up your workspace. Workspace name is filled in from your first name — "Sam's studio" for Sam; change it to your company, brand or network (2 to 60 characters) and press Create workspace. You can make more workspaces later from the workspace switcher at the top of the sidebar, up to 10 of your own.

You land on the workspace's Overview.

3. Confirm your email#

A banner at the top of every page says Confirm your email to unlock your trial credits. Open the email we sent and press its link. The link works for 24 hours; if it has expired, press Resend link in the banner.

The confirmation page says Email confirmed and Your trial credits are in your workspace. 400 credits are now on the workspace — the credits meter at the bottom of the sidebar shows them. A welcome email follows with a link to the start page.

4. Check the workspace's clock#

New channels post on the workspace's default time zone. Open Settings → Workspace, check Default time zone and press Save changes. Until a workspace saves one, new channels are set to Rome time (Central European). A channel's own time zone can be changed later on its page, under Schedule & generation.

5. Start your first channel#

On the Overview, press Start a channel in the Start your first channel card (or New channel at the top right). The Start a channel page offers both paths.

Path A: a proven format, in one click#

1. Under Start from a proven format, choose one of the eight cards — for example How machines work or Space, to scale. See Proven formats for all eight.
2. A dialog shows What the videos show, Episodes like (three example titles) and The autopilot then does, by itself — the four steps below, each with its time.
3. Read the price line under the steps. It says what the setup typically costs to the first episode and in all, and what each step reserves as it starts.
4. Optionally fill in Focus (optional) to steer the channel inside the format, in up to 300 characters — "cars and engines", "the Roman empire", "the Moon and Mars". Leave it empty for the whole format.
5. Press Start autopilot.

The channel gets its own name, handles and colour look, and a narrator suited to the format that you can change later. The format's renderer is already built and tested, so no kit has to be built: this is the path the Trial's credits cover, through the first episode — and, at typical costs, the brand suite too.

If your plan has room for another project, the setup makes an English one for the channel. If not (the Trial allows one project), the start page names the project the channel goes into, and the channel takes that project's language.

Path B: describe your own channel#

1. Under Or describe your own channel, write in What should the channel be about? who it is for, what it shows and what to avoid — at least 20 characters, up to 2,000. Specific beats broad.
2. Read the price line, then press Research and build it.

A brief that works well names the subject, what is on screen, the audience and what to leave out:

Short, visual explainers of how famous bridges and skyscrapers stand up: loads, wind and
earthquakes shown on the structure itself. For curious adults. No disaster footage.

The autopilot researches niches for the brief, picks the strongest (its shortlist first, then the highest score), drafts the channel and has an agent build a renderer kit just for it on our GPUs.

Came from the niche finder?#

If you pressed Build this channel in the free niche finder before signing up, your pick waits for you: the Overview shows Your pick from the niche finder and the start page From the niche finder. Press Build this channel there. It skips the research and builds a renderer for exactly that niche, so it costs what Path B costs, less the research. Your browser keeps the pick for 7 days.

Prefer to steer every step?#

Start a project by hand (under Path B) opens a project with its niche research, where you choose the niche, draft the channel and start each build yourself. See Niche research.

A third section of the start page, Or show a product, makes cutaway "how it works" shorts of one product for a business; see Product videos for businesses.

6. Watch the setup run#

Starting a setup takes you to its project page. The Autopilot card lists the steps and lights the one working now, with a link to that job's live log and a progress bar. The page refreshes itself.

The times are the app's own estimates of each step's work; a busy GPU queue adds waiting time. You can close the tab. When the first episode passes its checks, you get an email, Your first episode is ready, and the card shows First episode ready with a link to it. The brand suite and two more episodes follow by themselves, so the channel launches with a stock to post.

On the Trial, the credits typically last to the brand suite. Each further episode reserves more than is left, so the setup then waits for credits, as below. The first episode and the brand suite are yours either way.

The card can also say:

• Waiting for credits, with the step's need and your balance, and an Add credits button, which opens Settings → Billing. You get one email when it first waits, and it carries on by itself within about five minutes of credits being added. Checkout is not open yet: for more credits now, contact us.
• Waiting for the spending cap, with See the cap. It carries on next month, or once the cap is raised.
• Stopped, with the reason and Continue the setup, which shows the price of the step it will run again. Nothing more is charged while it is stopped.

A step that fails on our side is tried once more before the setup stops. An episode that fails or is held does not stop it: the setup tries another topic, up to five episodes in all to reach its three, and stops once three render failures in a row show our GPUs are at fault. A held episode stays in your library with its reasons.

Stop after this step lets the running job finish (and be charged as usual) and starts nothing new.

7. Look at your first episode#

Open it from the email, the card or Episodes in the sidebar. The episode page has the video with Download, its state (ready), the Original & reviewed badge, and further down:

• Quality report — the critic's score out of 10, its entertainment score, and any notes. See The quality gates and the critic.
• Post it yourself — the files and the words for each platform, fitted to its limits. See Ready-to-post packs.
• Share for review — a private link for someone outside the workspace. See Review links for clients.
• Other languages — the same episode narrated and rendered again in another language. See Languages, translations and twin channels.

If an episode could not pass its checks after its fix rounds, it is held in the library with the reasons, and it is not charged. The setup tries another topic in its place.

8. Connect YouTube#

1. Open Settings → Connections.
2. On the YouTube card press Connect, and choose the channel on Google's consent screen.
3. Back in ChannelForge, the page says YouTube connected. Under Which account each channel posts as, pick the account in your channel's row and press Save.

On the Trial, YouTube is the platform you can publish to; the other platforms show upgrade. Every paid plan publishes to every platform. Editors, admins and owners connect and link accounts; admins and owners disconnect them. Each platform's details are in Publish.

To post the first episode now, open it and press Post now beside YouTube under Publishing.

9. Turn the schedule on#

Open the channel (Channels in the sidebar) and find Schedule & generation:

1. Tick Post automatically on these slots.
2. Check Times — HH:MM in the channel's time zone, separated by commas, up to 12 a day. A new channel starts with 09:00, 15:00, 21:00.
3. Check Time zone — a zone's name, such as Europe/London or America/New_York — and tick the platforms under Post to.
4. Set New episodes a day (0 to 6) and Keep ready (1 to 60; 6 to start with). Keep ready is how many finished episodes the channel keeps waiting: generation pauses while that many are ready.
5. Optionally tick Ask for approval before each episode posts — every new episode then waits in Approvals for a yes.
6. Press Save schedule. The page answers Schedule on: with your times and zone.

A new channel starts at 0 new episodes a day, so it posts the stock its setup made and then stops. Each slot posts the oldest ready episode a platform has not had yet, so a channel with more slots a day than new episodes a day runs dry. Choose a pace your credits can carry: a standard episode typically costs 193 credits on Creator, whose monthly credits typically make 3 of them.

Calendar in the sidebar shows the next 7 days of slots, with how many episodes each channel has ready. How slots, retries and missed slots work is in Schedules and autopilot.

What it costs#

Every button that starts paid work shows its price beside it: what jobs like it typically cost, and what it reserves while it runs. A job is charged what it really used when it ends. A job that fails on our side and an episode held by its checks cost nothing. The details are in Credits and plans.

Troubleshooting#

More symptoms and fixes are in Troubleshooting.

Related#

• Concepts — the words used across the app
• A tour of your workspace — every page of the sidebar
• Proven formats and Niche research
• Channels and kits and Episodes
• Schedules and autopilot