# Your first render

> The path from an empty composer to a downloaded MP4, one step at a time, with each step's detail linked.

Source: https://docs.kutly.io/first-render/

A video needs one thing from you: a topic. Every other control on the composer
arrives already set, and the rest of the path is two presses and a wait.

## Open the composer

**Home** is the composer: one screen headed **Editron 1.1**, with the input box
in the middle. It opens in **Idea**, the mode that writes a script from a topic
you type. The button beside it, [**Voiceover**](https://docs.kutly.io/writing/voiceover/), takes a
recording of your own instead.

## Type a topic

The box asks **What should this video be about?** Ten characters is the floor,
and the spaces at either end do not count.

Under the floor the submit button is dead, and the slot beside it says why:
**Add a topic** over an empty box, **A bit more** once something is in it. That
button is the arrow at the end of the row below the box, and it is called
**Generate** — no word is printed on it.

What you type is the whole brief. [Idea](https://docs.kutly.io/writing/idea/) is where a subject
becomes one, and the [prompt library](https://docs.kutly.io/writing/prompt-library/) has finished
topics to work from.

## Leave the settings alone

Four settings sit in that row under the box, and every one arrives already set:
[**Length**](https://docs.kutly.io/settings/length-and-credits/), [**Voice**](https://docs.kutly.io/settings/voice/),
[**Style pack**](https://docs.kutly.io/settings/visual-style/) and [**Music**](https://docs.kutly.io/settings/music/). A
topic on its own is enough to render — open one only to change it.

## Press the arrow button

**Generate** — the arrow at the end of the settings row — spends nothing. Its one outcome is the receipt, unless something
is in the way: too few credits for this render, or too many of your renders
already running. Either of those replaces the receipt with a sheet that says
which, and neither sheet charges anything. Both are in
[Length and credits](https://docs.kutly.io/settings/length-and-credits/).

## Read the receipt

The receipt is headed **Generate video**, and every line on it is a charge the
reservation will make — the video at its per-minute rate, a style pack that
carries a surcharge, and **Thumbnails** when you have turned them on. In
**Idea** the total reads **Held now** over the top of the length band you
picked, and the difference returns to your balance if the video runs shorter.

The **Generate video** button at the foot of the receipt is the press that
spends. Nothing is metered after it.

**Screenshot to add:** The receipt headed Generate video, carrying all three lines it can hold at once: a video line with its length and its rate per minute, a style pack line with its per-minute surcharge, and a thumbnails line priced once. Under them a total labelled Held now, and the sentence promising the difference back if the video runs shorter.

## Wait

The render moves to a screen of its own, headed **In queue** until a slot frees
up and **Rendering** once it has one. From then on the screen prints the range
for the video you asked for: on the **14 – 16 min** band it reads
**Usually takes 30-40 min**. Close the tab if you want — the render does not
need it open.

## Download the MP4

The render's screen turns into the finished one the moment it completes. The
video plays right there in the page, and **Download MP4** saves the file
without leaving it.

> **Caution — Finished videos are deleted after 30 days**
>
> Kutly keeps the file for 30 days from the moment the render completes, then
> deletes it. After that the button reads **File deleted** and there is nothing
> left to download.