Render a scene

The render bar on the Shots row has three buttons. Each shows its price before you click it.

Button	What it renders
Test Frame	One AI still of the frame at the playhead. ⌘T.
Shot Render	The selected shot, or the shot under the playhead, as video.
Full Render	Every shot, joined into one take.

Each button is split. The left part runs it. The chevron opens its model list.

Check the look with a Test Frame

1. Move the playhead to a frame worth checking, in the Lens view.
2. Click Test Frame, or press ⌘T.

A dot appears in the Test frames lane while the frame renders. A hollow, pulsing dot is on its way. A filled dot is done. A red dot with ! failed. A grey dot was cancelled. Click a dot to go to its frame.

Paused on a finished test frame in the Lens view, the viewport shows a wipe: Guide on the left, AI on the right. Drag the grip to compare. The row under it offers:

• Use as start frame: Shot 1 of the next render starts on this image.
• Use as reference: the next render matches this frame’s look. It becomes the Look reference.
• Send to Storyboard: places it as an image card.
• Regenerate, with its price, and remove. Removing a test frame keeps the image in the project’s assets.

Right-click a dot for the same options, plus Regenerate with the model it used. A running test frame offers only Cancel. A frame the model has already started finishes and is billed.

The Test Frame list holds only image models that take input images, because the guide frame goes in as image 1.

Render a shot or the whole scene

1. Pick the model from the chevron on Shot Render or Full Render. Both use the same model.
2. Pick the resolution at the bottom of the list.
3. Click Shot Render to render the selected shot, or Full Render for all of them.

During a Full Render, the button becomes a strip with one segment per shot, a status such as Shot 2 of 3 · AI rendering, the credits and Cancel. Shots in a chain wait for the last frame of the shot before them. Shots after a cut start at once. When every shot is done, Cask Film joins them into one take, such as Render 2.

Cancel stops the shots that haven’t started. A shot that is already rendering finishes and is billed. If a shot fails, the render stops and tells you which shot and why.

Pick a model

The render list holds only video models that can follow a guide video and that state how long a shot can be. Each row gives the shot cap, the resolutions and the join kind, for example Up to 15 s per shot · 480p, 768p, 1080p · Soft joins:

• Seamless joins: each shot starts on the last frame of the one before.
• Soft joins: each shot is guided by the last frame of the one before. Joins can shift slightly.

The right side of each row shows how many shots the scene becomes on that model, and its price for this scene. Picking a model re-plans the Auto boundaries, so the shot count changes with it.

Models that take fewer reference images than your shots need are left out. If none takes them all, the list shows the three closest, dimmed, each with how many references it drops.

The model you pick becomes this project’s default for new scenes. Test Frame remembers its own model the same way. Changing either is an undo step.

Credits

Every button that spends shows the price in its cost slot: Test Frame, Shot Render, Full Render, Regenerate, Retry, Re-render and the rows of each model list. A spinner means Cask Film is still estimating. A dash means it can’t estimate the price, and the button still works.

The bar blocks a render you can’t pay for, such as This render needs 48 credits. You have 30.

Compare a rendered shot with the guide

In the Lens view, the newest take of the shot under the playhead plays on the right of the same wipe, in step with scrubbing and playback. A test frame on the playhead takes its place while you’re paused.

The badge reads AI, or AI · out of date with a clay ring when the scene changed after the render. The row offers Send to Storyboard and Re-render, which renders this shot alone on the scene’s model.

Review a join

A Join marker sits on the ruler over each continue where both shots are rendered. It turns amber and reads Start frame changed when the right shot no longer starts on the left shot’s newest last frame.

Click it to open the join review: the last frame of one shot beside the first frame of the next, and a muted 2 s loop across the join.

• Re-render Shot 3 renders the right shot again from the left shot’s newest last frame. It shows its price.
• Make Cut turns the join into a cut. It’s free and applies to the next render.
• Move Join takes you to the boundary handle so you can drag it.

When a re-render changes a shot’s last frame, the shots after it in the chain no longer match. Re-render Next Shots renders the rest of the chain up to the next cut, and runs only when you click it.

Result

The scene’s takes show in the bar along the bottom (Takes: Render 1 · Render 2), each shot has a green check, and the Lens view plays the AI take against the guide. Nothing has gone to the Storyboard yet. See Use a scene’s renders.

If it doesn’t work

Full Render says “Add a reference image to an object, or run Test Frame first.” The model needs at least one reference image. Give an object a reference image, or render a Test Frame and use it as the look reference.

Shot Render says “Select a shot, or move the playhead over one.” Click a shot in the Shots row.

There is no Test Frame button. No image model that takes a guide frame is available right now. The button comes back when one is.

A shot failed. The render stops and names the shot and the reason. A failed generation is refunded. Fix the cause and click Shot Render on that shot.