# Your First Hour in Loft

_LOFTai › Your First Hour_

A guided hour that takes you from an empty account to a finished, published take. Do the lessons **in order**, with the app open beside this page — every step is something you actually click. Nothing here is a demo sandbox: what you build in this hour is a real project you can keep working in.

## What you'll have at the end

-   A project of your own, with libraries and a preview image
-   An asset holding your first files
-   At least one generated image (or video) you directed to a result you like
-   A prompt you saved as a primer, and a project playbook so you stop repeating yourself
-   A reviewed, annotated, Published take — the signal the rest of the pipeline runs on
-   A working mental map of where everything lives

## Pick your track

The hour works either way; a few steps differ. If you're not sure, take the browser track — it needs nothing installed.

**Browser (Virtual)**

Files live on the Loft server. Nothing to install, and generation runs on Loft's keys against your credit balance. **Recommended for your first hour.**

**Your folder (Local)**

Files stay in a folder on your machine or a shared drive. Needs the LoftDesktop app, and can run generation on your own provider keys.

Steps that only apply to one track are labeled **Local only** or **Virtual only**. See **Virtual & Local Modes**for the full comparison.

## The hour at a glance

`0:00`

Sign In & Get Your Bearings

Make a project; learn the layout

`0:10`

Create Your First Asset

Somewhere for work to live

`0:20`

Your First Generation

Model, prompt, queue, result

`0:35`

Iterate Like a Director

Refine on purpose, then teach Loft

`0:45`

Review, Triage & Publish

Decide what's good, out loud

`0:55`

What You Built & Where Next

The loop, and hour two

## Before you start

-   An account you can sign into, and a project you're allowed to create (if New Project is missing, ask an admin — creating projects is a paid-seat action).
-   Some credits on your balance, or a model that runs on your own key. Generation is the one part of the hour that costs money; the amounts here are small.
-   Local track only — the LoftDesktop app installed and signed in.
-   Optional but nice: one or two reference images on your computer to bring in.

Tip: Don't skim ahead. Each lesson ends with a **Checkpoint** — if what you see doesn't match it, the fix is almost always in that same lesson, not the next one. Every lesson also names the reference topic that covers the same ground in depth, for when you want the whole story.