# Creatives

A creative is a short ad video cut from an episode of a film your organisation holds export rights for. You can build creatives in bulk on the **Create** screen, where a formula picks the scenes for you, or by hand in the **Editor**. Every creative is first rendered as a watermarked draft, then reviewed by an admin, and only an approved creative gets a clean final render. Admins and marketers can build creatives; see [Roles and permissions](https://docs.wandura.ai/partners/roles).

## Lifecycle

```mermaid
flowchart LR
  A[Draft] --> B[Rendering preview]
  B --> C[Preview ready]
  C -->|Submit for review| D[Awaiting review]
  D -->|Admin approves| E[Rendering final]
  E --> F[Approved]
  D -->|Admin sends back| G[Rejected]
  G -->|Duplicate to edit| A
```

| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Not rendered yet. You can still edit it. |
| Rendering preview | The watermarked draft render is running. |
| Preview ready | The draft preview can be watched. The creator can submit it for review. |
| Awaiting review | Waiting for an admin to approve it or send it back. |
| Rendering final | Approved; the clean final render is running. |
| Approved | The final render is ready and the creative has been handed to your organisation's delivery feed. |
| Rejected | An admin sent it back with a reason. |

## Export budget

Your organisation has a monthly export budget, shown in minutes as **Org export budget** on Home and on each film page. Export time is counted when an admin approves a creative and its final render completes. Draft renders do not use the budget, but you cannot render a draft that is longer than the budget left this month.

## Create creatives in bulk

The **Create** screen is a table. Each row becomes one creative, and all rows you send together form one batch. A batch holds up to 100 rows.

| Column | What to set |
|---|---|
| Code | Your own reference for the creative. |
| Film | The film. Only films your organisation holds export rights for are listed. Type to search by title or film code. |
| Formula | The recipe that chooses and orders scenes. Only formulas your admins have published appear. |
| Episode | One or more episodes. Next to each episode you see how many of its scenes fit the chosen formula. |
| Scenes | Whether the episode has been read for ad moments yet. |
| Brand kit | The brand kit to apply, or **No branding**. Your organisation's default kit is preselected. |
| Call to action | One of the brand kit's CTA presets, or **No CTA**. |
| Status | Where the row stands: Incomplete, Not checked, Ready, Blocked, then its batch progress once sent. |

### Steps

1. Open **Create**. If you started from **New creative** or **Create from episode** on a film page, the film and episode are already filled in.
2. Press **Add row** or **Add 5 rows** at the bottom of the table.
3. On each row, choose a **Film**, then a **Formula**, then the **Episode**. Choose the formula first: the episode list then shows which episodes have scenes that fit it.
4. To use several episodes, tick them in the episode list and choose how to use them:- **Separate creatives**: the first episode stays on this row and each other episode gets its own new row.
  - **Combine into one**: one creative is built from the first episode, and you add scenes from the others later in the Editor.
5. Check the **Scenes** column. If an episode has not been read yet, choose **Read now** in the scene source list to have Wandura read it first; the row then waits and builds when reading finishes. **Existing scenes** only works for episodes that have already been read.
6. Optionally choose a **Brand kit** and **Call to action**.
7. To change many rows at once, tick them and use **Apply formula to … selected** or **Apply brand kit to … selected**.
8. Press **Generate creatives**.

Before anything is sent, Wandura checks every complete row. Rows that pass are sent as one batch; a row that fails stays in the table marked **Blocked** with its reason, and the button changes to **Generate N ready** so you can send the rest. Nothing is charged for a blocked row.

| Scenes column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| *N* scenes ready | The episode has been read and has scenes to choose from. |
| Not read yet | The episode has not been read. Choose **Read now**, or pick another episode. |
| Being read · builds when ready | Reading is in progress; the row builds when it finishes. |
| Not read · cannot build | The episode cannot be used right now. |
| Processing | The episode itself is still being prepared. |

While a batch runs, the summary bar above the table counts rows waiting, running, done and failed, and offers **Pause**, **Resume** and **Open batch**. When every row has finished, the portal tells you how many creatives are ready to preview. Use **Clear finished** or **Clear all** to tidy the table; this does not delete any creative.

## Follow batches

**Batches** lists every batch you submitted (admins see everyone's). Work continues on Wandura's side even when you close the tab. Open a batch to see each row.

| Row state | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Queued | Waiting to start. |
| Checking selection | Validating the film, episode and formula. |
| Creating draft | Building the edit from the formula. |
| Rendering | Rendering the watermarked preview. |
| Checking output | Verifying the rendered file. |
| Ready | The creative exists and its preview can be watched. |
| Waiting for episode analysis | The episode is being read first. |
| Waiting to retry | A temporary problem; Wandura retries automatically at the time shown. |
| Needs attention | The row failed. |
| Retry limit reached | Automatic retries are used up. |
| Skipped, Cancelled | The row will not run. |
| Outcome under review | The result of the last attempt must be confirmed before another attempt can start. |

On a batch page you can:

- **Pause**, **Resume** or **Cancel** the batch while it is running.
- **Retry this row** on a row that offers it.
- Press **Why did this fail?** under **Rows that need attention** to see the actual error, the formula's criteria, and what the episode contains. The most common cause is an episode with no scene that carries a label the formula filters for.
- Press **View creative** on a ready row.

If rendering is slow or paused on Wandura's side, a notice appears on Home and Create. New batches wait in the queue and start automatically; no action is needed.

## Edit a creative by hand

The **Editor** screen lists your drafts in three groups: **Sent back** (a reviewer asked for changes), **Rendered** (preview ready) and **Drafts** (not rendered yet).

### Start a blank creative

1. Open **Editor** and use **Start a new creative**, or press **Blank creative** on **Creatives** or on a film page.
2. Choose a **Film**, an **Episode** and a **Format**: Reels 9:16, Feed 4:5 or Square 1:1.
3. Press **Open editor**. The creative opens with a 5-second starter clip. Nothing is rendered or charged until you press **Render**.

### Work in the editor

The editor opens full screen. The left rail holds the panels:

| Panel | Use it to |
|---|---|
| Moments | Browse the scenes Wandura found in the episode. Click a scene to preview it; press **+** or drag it onto the timeline to add it. Search by dialogue or label. |
| Media | Add footage from licensed episodes and clips from your organisation's skit bank. |
| Text | Add text presets such as a hook for the first 3 seconds or a CTA end card. |
| Captions | Add burned-in lines timed to the cut. |
| Audio | Music bed. Music is not yet included in renders; the render dialog warns you. |
| Brand kit | Brand kit look for the cut. |

The top bar holds the creative name, the aspect ratio, the save state (**Unsaved changes** or **All changes saved**), undo and redo, **Save draft** and **Render**. Press the keyboard icon to see all shortcuts.

### Render a draft

1. Press **Render**.
2. The dialog shows the duration, how much export budget the cut will use, and what is left this month. Only the current aspect ratio can be rendered at a time.
3. Press **Render draft (watermarked)**. The creative moves to **Rendering preview**, and its page keeps checking until the preview is ready.

### Read-only creatives and Duplicate to edit

A creative becomes read-only once it has been sent to render, and creatives produced by a batch are read-only from the start. To change one, press **Duplicate to edit**. The copy is a new draft; nothing is charged. Each creative also has a limited number of draft renders; when they are used up, duplicate it to render again.

## The Creatives library

**Creatives** shows your creatives as cards with their status and aspect ratio. Admins see every creative in the organisation; everyone else sees their own.

- Filter by status with the tabs: **All**, **Draft**, **Preview ready**, **Pending**, **Approved**, **Rejected**. Admins also get **Awaiting review**.
- Search by name, and filter by film with **All films**.
- Start new work with **New creative** (opens Create) or **Blank creative** (opens the editor).

### A creative's page

Click a card to open the creative. The page shows:

- **The preview player.** Previews play on short-lived links; press **Refresh preview link** if one expires. Refreshing never re-renders.
- **Lifecycle**: Draft created, Preview render, Pending approval, Approved or Rejected (with the reason), Final render, Sent to marketing system.
- **Actions** available to your role at this stage, such as **Submit for review**.
- **Open editor**, for drafts that can still be edited or re-rendered.

### Submit for review

1. Open a creative whose status is **Preview ready** and watch the preview.
2. Under **Actions**, press **Submit for review**, then **Confirm**.
3. The status changes to **Awaiting review** and the creative appears in your admins' **Review** queue.

## Review and approve (admins)

**Review** is the admin's queue of creatives waiting for a decision. The sidebar shows a badge with how many are waiting.

1. Open **Review**. The first creative's preview loads on the right.
2. Watch the preview. **Approve** unlocks only once the preview has loaded.
3. Press **Approve (A)** to approve and start the final render, or **Send back (R)** to reject it. Sending back needs a reason, which the creator sees; pick a preset such as "A cut lands mid-sentence" or write your own.
4. Move through the queue with **J** and **K** (or the arrow keys). **Space** plays or pauses.

To approve several at once, tick them in the list and press **Approve selected**. Only creatives whose preview you have watched can be ticked. If a creative changed after you watched it, the portal asks you to watch the new preview before approving.

You can also approve or reject from a creative's own page under **Actions**.

## After approval

Approving starts the clean final render, without watermark. When it is ready:

- Admins see a **Final render · no watermark** panel on the creative's page. **Load final render** opens it at full resolution on a link that lasts 10 minutes, and every view is recorded.
- The creative's lifecycle shows **Sent to marketing system**, and it becomes available to your organisation's integration through the creatives feed. See [List creatives](https://docs.wandura.ai/developers/reference/creatives-list).

### Share link (admins)
An approved creative can have one **share link**: a fixed address such as `https://www.wandura.ai/api/c/3vQh0x…9fZ.mp4` that anyone holding it can open **without signing in**. Paste it into an ad platform, embed it in a page, or send it to a customer, and reload it as often as you need.

- Each time the link is opened, it redirects to a fresh signed link to the clean 1080p final render, valid for 15 minutes. The address itself does not expire.
- Only **organization admins** can create, copy or revoke it. One creative has at most one live link; creating it again returns the same link.
- **Revoke** stops it at once: anyone still holding it gets *410 Gone*. It also stops working on its own if the creative is no longer approved, your organization is suspended, or your export rights for the film end.
- Treat it like a password to the file: whoever has the link can download it. Opens are counted per day, and each link is limited to 120 opens per minute.
- In the portal: a **Copy link** button on the creative's page (rolling out). Through the API: `GET`, `POST` and `DELETE /api/partners/creatives/{id}/share-link`.

## Setup for admins

Two admin-only screens under **Setup** feed the creative workflow:

- **Formulas**: create formulas as drafts, test them against an episode, then publish. Only published versions can be picked on Create.
- **Skit bank**: upload short clips your team can add in the editor's Media panel. Every clip needs a rights record, such as self-produced, free stock or licensed, before it can be used in a render; clips showing identifiable people need a talent release.

## Next steps

- [Branding](https://docs.wandura.ai/partners/branding) — set up brand kits and CTAs.
- [Roles and permissions](https://docs.wandura.ai/partners/roles)