Quick Start Guide

Slates is a desktop app for making AI images and video. You write prompts, generate images and clips, plan them on a board, and cut them together on a timeline. Every part is a tool you can pick up in any order. This guide walks through each one once, from sign-in to a finished video.

For every button and setting, see the complete Slates reference. This guide points to it rather than repeating it.

Before you start

You need two things:

1. ›Slates installed on your desktop (Windows or macOS).
2. ›Slates Credits so you can generate. Every license starts with credits, and you can buy more at any time (see pricing).

Step 1: Sign in

1. ›Open Slates. You'll see a sign-in screen.
2. ›Enter the email address you bought Slates with and press the sign-in button under it.
3. ›Check your email for a sign-in link from Slates and click it. It opens in your browser and confirms your login.
4. ›The app detects the confirmation and signs you in automatically.

No passwords. Your session stays active until you sign out or sign in on a third device (Slates allows two active devices).

Step 2: Check your credits

1. ›Your credit balance shows at the top-right of the title bar.
2. ›Click it any time to buy more credits on the Slates website.
3. ›Every generation shows its exact cost on the Generate button before anything runs.

Step 3: Create a project

1. ›You start on the Home screen, which shows your projects as cards.
2. ›Click New Project. Slates creates an untitled project and opens it straight away.
3. ›To rename it later, use the rename control on its card on the Home screen.

Everything you make (images, clips, audio, boards, Library items) lives inside this project, in a folder on your disk.

Step 4: Find your way around

A project is one workspace:

• ›Three tabs, at the left of the second row: Media (every image, clip and audio take), Script (the open board as its text) and Board (the same board as shot cards).
• ›The left dock (the [ key): your Boards, the Library (saved characters, locations, products and looks), Folders and Pinned references.
• ›The prompt box at the bottom, on every tab. This is where all generation happens.
• ›The timeline (the ; key), docked under the tab you are on.
• ›Find or run anything in the title bar, or Ctrl/Cmd+K, jumps to a shot, a scene or a command.

Step 5: Generate your first image

1. ›In the prompt box, set the lane pill to Image.
2. ›Click the model picker beside it. It starts on the default image model, and each row shows a model's capabilities and its rate.
3. ›Type a prompt, for example: a detective standing in a neon-lit alley at night, cinematic lighting
4. ›Click Generate (or press Ctrl/Cmd+Enter). The button shows the cost before you click.

Your image appears in Media.

Settings live on the bar

There is no settings panel and no gear. Every setting the chosen model has (resolution, aspect ratio, how many images, and so on) is its own control on the bar, and each option shows what it costs. When the window is too narrow, the extras collect in a More menu.

Step 6: Generate video

1. ›Set the lane pill to Video. The picker starts on the default video model.
2. ›Write a prompt describing the motion: the detective walks down the alley, camera tracking slowly behind him
3. ›Set the duration and the other controls on the bar. The price on Generate follows them.
4. ›Click Generate.

Video takes longer than images, often a few minutes. The clip appears in Media → Videos. If you close the app while it runs, Slates picks the result up when you reopen it.

Start from an image

1. ›Attach an image to the prompt box (see Step 7).
2. ›Click its role badge and choose First frame. On models that offer it, a second image can be the Last frame.
3. ›Describe the motion and click Generate.

Step 7: Use reference images

Reference images show the model what you mean instead of describing it in words.

• ›Paste any image into the prompt box (Ctrl/Cmd+V). It is also saved to Media as an imported image.
• ›Or right-click an image in Media and choose Add to Prompt.
• ›Each attachment carries a role badge (Reference, First frame, Last frame, Subject, Style) that says what it is for. Nothing is guessed: you choose.
• ›How many references a model takes is in the model table of the complete reference.
• ›When Slates adds anything to your prompt (reference numbers, for example), See what gets sent under the prompt box shows the exact text the model will receive.

Step 8: Save to the Library

The Library keeps the characters, locations, products and looks you reuse. It lives in the left dock.

1. ›Right-click an image and choose Save to Library.... Pick a category, keep or change the name, and press Enter.
2. ›In any prompt, type @name to attach a thing (a character, a location, a product) or #name to attach a look.
3. ›Open a category in the left dock to add items with New, including the sheet tools (Identity sheet, Establishing image) that generate a clean reference image for an item.

These are shortcuts, not magic. Typing @eric is just a faster way to attach Eric's image, and pasting the image does the same. Pinning an image (the Pinned section) keeps it one click away; a pin attaches nothing until you click it.

Step 9: Explore with grids

On an image model that offers it, the grid control on the bar makes one image holding 2×2 or 3×3 variations.

1. ›Set the grid control to 2×2 or 3×3 and generate.
2. ›Click the grid image in Media. It opens ready to extract: select the cells you like and click Extract.
3. ›Each cell becomes a full-size image in Media.

Step 10: Build a board

A board is your shot list: scenes, each an ordered list of Shots. A Shot holds its prompt, its references and their roles, its model and settings, and its words.

1. ›In the left dock, click + beside Boards.
2. ›On Board, add shots with the dashed tile at the end of a scene (From Media or New empty shot), or right-click images in Media and choose Add to board....
3. ›Click a shot to bind the prompt box to it. There is no save button: edits go straight to the shot.
4. ›Drag cards to reorder them. Add scene sits after the last scene.

Write it as a script

Switch to Script to write the piece as text. Paste script (in the board's menu or Ctrl/Cmd+K) drops a script in as words: scene headings open scenes, and no shot is made. To cut shots, select words and choose Make shot, or run Break the script into shots from Ctrl/Cmd+K.

Generate several at once

Select shots and open Generate..., or click the N of M have their video readout in the title bar (it counts pictures on a board of image shots). The Generate panel lists each shot's model and cost and the total, and Generate runs exactly that. Generate previews (Ctrl/Cmd+K) prices one picture for every shot that has none yet.

Each shot keeps its takes. Linked clips under each shot (the view control's Show menu, or Ctrl/Cmd+K) lists the clips made from each shot's picture on the Board, and which one goes to the timeline.

Step 11: Edit on the timeline

1. ›Press ; to open the timeline, or Shift+; for full height.
2. ›Put clips on it: right-click a clip in Media and choose Add to timeline, or choose Add to timeline on the Board (right-click its empty space, or Ctrl/Cmd+K) to put each shot's chosen clip on the timeline in board order.

Timeline basics

• ›Move clips by dragging them, and trim them by dragging their edges.
• ›Split (C) cuts a clip at the playhead. Snap to clips (S) makes clips snap to the playhead and to each other's edges.
• ›Each track has a volume fader, and the output fader sets the final mix.
• ›Markers (M) note cue points.

Keyboard shortcuts

Timeline settings

The first clip sets the timeline's resolution and frame rate. The resolution/fps chip on the timeline's toolbar changes them (1080p, 1440p or 4K; 24, 30 or 60 fps).

Step 12: Export

Export as MP4

1. ›Click Export on the timeline's toolbar, then Export MP4.
2. ›Choose where to save the file.
3. ›Slates renders the timeline at its resolution and frame rate, with every clip fitted inside the frame.

Export for DaVinci Resolve or Premiere Pro

1. ›Click Export on the timeline's toolbar, then Export for DaVinci or Premiere (in 1.6.2 and earlier, Export for DaVinci, Premiere or Final Cut).
2. ›Save the XML file.
3. ›Import it into your editor (in DaVinci Resolve: File → Import → Timeline). Your clips, cuts and markers carry over.

More tools

• ›Edit with AI: right-click a clip and choose Edit with AI, then describe the change.
• ›Lip sync and Motion control: pick them in the model picker.
• ›Audio: set the lane pill to Audio for scene sound, a voice or a sound effect.
• ›Templates: Export as template (the board's or a scene's menu, or Ctrl/Cmd+K for a selected shot) saves a .slatestemplate file. Start from a template (Ctrl/Cmd+K) brings one into a project.
• ›Slates Director (called Studio Agent in 1.6.2 and earlier): turn it on in Settings → AI tools, then press Ctrl+. to plan and build with the in-app agent.

Understanding costs

Every generation shows its exact credit cost on the Generate button before you click, and failed generations refund.

Slates Credits

Credits never expire, and there is no subscription. Buy packs from the Slates website; bigger packs cost less per credit (see pricing).

Slates Pro

Slates Pro gets more credits per pack, for life, plus 4K video generation on every model that offers it. Same models, same quality (see pricing).

Usage

Open Settings → Account to see your spending by model for this month, the last 7 days or all time.

Quick reference

Troubleshooting

Generation fails immediately

Make sure you're signed in and have enough credits. Click the credit balance in the title bar to top up.

"Insufficient balance" or "Low credits"

Your credit balance is too low for the generation. Click the credit balance in the title bar to buy more on the Slates website.

Images or videos don't appear in Media

The generation is still running: the badge on the Generate button counts the ones in progress. Video can take a few minutes. If it has been much longer, the generation may have failed, so try running it again.

"Session expired" or unexpected sign-out

Slates allows two active devices. Signing in on a third device signs out the oldest one. Just sign in again.

Video export produces a black screen

Make sure your clips are on the timeline's tracks, not only in Media. The export includes only clips on the timeline.