LOFTai › Your First Hour

0:35 · Iterate Like a Director

Goal: turn one lucky result into a deliberate one — and then teach Loft what you learned so you never have to say it again. Ten minutes. This is the lesson that separates using Loft from using a prompt box.

Three levers, in order of leverage

1 · The words

Cheapest and most direct. Change one thing at a time — light, or framing, or treatment — so you learn what actually moved the result.

2 · The inputs

Show, don't describe. A reference image pins down style or subject far better than another paragraph of adjectives.

3 · The model

When a prompt keeps almost-working, the model may simply not do that. Go back to the gallery rather than fighting it.

Step 1 — Regenerate with one change

  1. Expand your completed queue card and click Regenerate — it brings the whole setup back, prompt and parameters intact.
  2. Change one thing. Swap "dusk" for "hard noon light", or "wide establishing" for "low-angle close".
  3. Generate again, and compare the two results side by side in the asset's Files.

Do this twice. Two deliberate revisions teach you more about a model than twenty random rerolls.

Step 2 — Bring in a reference

Now use the image you marked Reference in lesson 2. Pick a model that takes image input (an image-to-image or image-to-video type pill). Its setup form shows input slots above the prompt, each labeled by the role it plays — First Frame, End Frame, Reference Images, Input Video, Reference Audio.

  1. Click a slot to open the picker; it browses this asset's own files. Click Pinned to see what's pinned in the Assistant instead. Select your reference and click Done.
  2. Each tile carries a status badge. By default the picker offers only Published files, plus Selected ones when they belong to this asset. The status dropdown widens that if you need a New or Dropped take.
  3. Notice the @-mention badge it gets — @Image1, @Image2, and so on.
  4. Name the badge in your prompt to say what each image is for: "match the color palette of @Image1". Attaching an image without saying its job is the most common way references get ignored.
Note: Some models offer scenario modes — "First / Last Frame" vs "References" — as a toggle above the inputs. Only the active scenario's slots are submitted, so you can't accidentally mix incompatible inputs.

Step 3 — Keep the language that worked

When a phrasing earns its keep, click Save current prompt as primer above the prompt box. A primer is a reusable prompt block you inject on demand — yours (My Primers), the project's, or system-wide. Next time you generate, it's one click instead of retyping.

Step 4 — Write your project playbook

This is the highest-value five minutes in the whole hour. Go to Project Detail and click the book icon in the header to open the Project Playbook.

A playbook is free-form standing guidance the Assistant reads every turn — house style, default sizes, naming conventions, model preferences. Write three or four short declarative lines, like:

  • House look is 35mm film, warm, slightly hazy. Avoid clean digital renders.
  • Default to 16:9 for shots, square for character reference.
  • Always generate one image first; only make variations when I ask.
  • Name shots SHxxx, three digits, zero-padded.

Keep it short and declarative — it's read on every request, so concise rules beat long prose. Playbooks layer: project, then asset, then your personal defaults, each refining the last. Primers are pull; playbooks are always-on.

Tip: The tell that a playbook is working: you stop retyping the same clause in every prompt. Anything you've typed three times belongs in a playbook, not a prompt.

Step 5 — Try it in words instead

Now open the Assistant from the header and just ask: "generate another take of this shot, tighter framing, same light."Same generation machinery, no form. The Assistant reads your playbooks on every turn, so the guidance you just wrote is already in play.

One phrasing rule worth internalizing: imperative phrasing executes, desiderative phrasing discusses. "Generate X" acts. "I'd like to explore X" talks it through first. Choose deliberately.

Checkpoint

  • Your asset holds three or more takes, and you can say why each differs from the last.
  • At least one generation used a reference image, named in the prompt by its @-badge.
  • Your project playbook has a few lines in it.
  • You've asked the Assistant for something and gotten a result.
Note: Reference topics for this lesson: Generation, Primers, Playbooks, and Assistant.