Cut, paint, command. Then ship it.

1. 1

   Pick your surface

   Video work starts at /studio/video, sprites at /studio/image, terminal at /terminal, luck at /luck, plugins at /games/mods.
2. 2

   Follow the walkthrough

   Media Mogul and DictatePic guides are step-by-step; Commander and Luck Factory are exact references; the plugin page is a submit checklist.
3. 3

   Respect the boundary

   Render export is stub-only, AI paint tools are marked stubs, Commander never touches a server, luck draws are entertainment-only previews.

1. 1

   Cut the footage

   Drop gameplay clips on the Media Mogul timeline: playhead, razor split, snap, zoom, voiceover. Follow the Media Mogul walkthrough until the preview plays clean end to end.
2. 2

   Paint the thumbnail

   Open DictatePic, sketch the boss silhouette on one layer and the title text on another, tune opacity and blend modes, export a transparent PNG. The DictatePic walkthrough covers all five working tools.
3. 3

   Ship it as a plugin

   Wrap the trailer page and thumbnail as a mod: manifest fields, slug and version rules, permission allowlist, sandbox limits. The plugin checklist gets validation passing on the first try.

Power users drive the evening from the terminal with the allow-listed commands in the Commander reference, and the Luck Factory odds page explains the deterministic dice math behind any thumbnail roll effects. Render export stays stub-only, so the timeline preview plus the PNG are the shippable artifacts tonight.

1. 1

   Timeline preview stutters

   Shorten the preview range and close heavy tabs. Preview is the deliverable until render export graduates from stub-only, so optimize for smooth preview rather than final output.
2. 2

   PNG export looks wrong

   Recheck per-layer opacity and blend modes, then confirm the background layer is transparent before export. Flattened surprises are almost always a hidden layer or an opaque backdrop.
3. 3

   Plugin validation fails

   Read the exact failing field: slugs must match the naming rules, versions must parse, and every permission must sit on the allowlist. Fix fields, revalidate, and only then mount.