LOFTai › Your First Hour

0:10 · Create Your First Asset

Goal: a named place for work to live, with a file or two in it. Ten minutes. This lesson is where Loft's vocabulary clicks.

First, the four nouns

Everything in Loft nests in the same four levels. Learn them now and the rest of the app stops needing explanation:

  • Project — the body of work (you made one in lesson 1).
  • Library — a category inside it: Characters, Environments, Shots, Editorial. These are the sidebar entries.
  • Asset — one thing in a library: a character, a shot, a cut. It has metadata, tasks, notes, and a set of tools.
  • Asset item — one file inside an asset: an image, a video, an annotation. Assets hold many items, and successive items are your takes.
Tip: The mistake newcomers make is treating an asset like a folder. It's closer to a subject: "the hero character", "shot 010". Everything you ever make for that subject — every take, every reference, every note — accumulates inside it, and that accumulation is what the Assistant reasons over later.

Step 1 — Open a library

Click a library under LIBRARIES in the sidebar — Shots or Characters is ideal. This opens the Files Browser for that category. It'll be empty; that's expected.

If you have no libraries, add one from MANAGE ▸ Librariesfirst, then come back.

Step 2 — Create the asset

  1. Click + New (top-right) and pick what you are making — Shot, Character, Cut… The list is the project's asset types; Folder is at the top for plain structure.
  2. Name it something concrete — SH010, or Hero. Names are for humans; Loft tracks it by an internal code either way.
  3. Create it, then click the asset to open its Asset Detail page.

Asset Detail is a preview on the left and a row of tools (tabs) across the top — Files, Tasks, Notes, Generate, and others depending on the asset type. Tabs are customizable: + Add tool adds one, the × removes one, and you can drag to reorder. If you don't see a Generate tab, add it now — you need it next lesson.

Step 3 — Put something in it

Open the asset's Files tool and bring in a reference image — anything from your machine will do:

  • Drag files anywhere onto the browser — you'll see "Drop files here to upload", and progress appears in an uploads shelf.
  • Or use Action ▸ Create ▸ Upload Files.
Note: Local track: files you copy into the project folder outside of Loft appear here marked Untracked, and a yellow Register button shows up in the toolbar. Select them and click Register — until you do, Loft can't use them as generation inputs. This is the one Local-mode step people miss.

Step 4 — Learn the status pill

Every file carries a review status, and it is not decoration — it's the signal the rest of the pipeline reads:

New — not yet reviewed. Everything starts here.
Selected — a candidate worth keeping.
Published — final. Other assets and Editorial only ever see Published takes.
Dropped — rejected. Hidden from the browser by default.
Reference — an input for generation, not a deliverable.

Mark the reference image you just uploaded as Reference — click its status pill, or open it and press 5. You've just told Loft what that file is for.

Checkpoint

  • Your library shows one asset, and opening it shows an Asset Detail page with tabs.
  • Its Files tool lists at least one image (registered, if you're on the Local track).
  • That image's status reads Reference.
  • There is a Generate tab on the asset.
Note: Reference topics for this lesson: Core Concepts, Files Browser, and Asset Detail.