Walkthrough · UGC Ad Studio
Cast an AI creator and cut the ad from the takes.
Pick one of fourteen creator formats, add your product, and an actor is cast and filmed to that format's beats. Then the same editor from Video Director cuts the takes into a branded spot, and you change it by talking.
The whole walk · seven stops
From a format you pick to a creator ad you never had to shoot
Seven stops, in the order the studio runs them. Where it is, how the actor gets cast and filmed, how your own footage joins, how you trim, what the director writes and scores, how the cut gets made and changed, and where the keeper goes.
Your client wants creator-style ads, and there's no creator, no shoot, and no time to book either.
UGC Ad Studio is in the sidebar under Video, once you've picked the client's kit. Here's exactly where to click.
Step 1 · Open UGC Ad Studio
It's in the sidebar, under Video
Pick the client you're working on. Then open Video in the left sidebar and click UGC Ad Studio. Every take it makes lands in that client's kit.
First, you pick the kind of creator ad, and the studio casts and films the creator for you.
Fourteen proven formats. Pick one, add the product, click Generate takes, and a fresh actor's reel lands on your timeline.
Step 2 · Pick the format, cast the actor
Pick one of fourteen creator formats, add the product, click Generate takes — a fresh actor is cast and filmed to that format
The Style is where a UGC ad starts. Fourteen creator formats sit as badges — Testimonial, Unboxing, Try-On, Street Interview, Mirror Selfie, Podcast and the rest — and See examples shows you three reels of each. Pick one, drop in the product shot, set the spoken language, and click Generate takes. A fresh actor is cast and filmed to that format's formula: its cast, its beats, its pacing, a real room, the product in frame. The reel lands on your timeline and in the kit, already read, ready to cut. Or skip this step and cut footage you already have.
Then you add anything you already have, and it all sits on one timeline.
Your clips and product shots join the cast reel as one pool of footage, each one read on the way in.
Step 3 · Add your own footage
The reel and anything you bring sit on one timeline — the director cuts from all of it
The generated reel is already on the timeline. Add the clips and product shots you have — a real customer's phone video, the studio pack shot, last season's spot — from the kit or straight from the desk. Each one is read on the way in: what happens in each scene, what's said, where the subject sits and where type can go. Generated takes and your own footage become one pool of coverage, and the cut can mix them freely.
click, or drop
You trim each take to the moment that matters, without clipping a word.
The hook, the demo, the close. The words are timed, so every window lands clean.
Step 4 · Trim to the moment
Click the star on a take and trim it to the moment — the hook, the demo, the close — without clipping a word
You don't cut the take; you pick the slices of it to show. Window the reel to the hook, then to the demo, then to the close — the same take dropped in three times, three moments. Because the actor's words are timed, a window never clips a word, and it leads with the breath before the line. Drag the slots to reorder. Nothing regenerates when you trim.
You set the words and the sound, and the actor's voice stays the lead.
Captions follow her words. Type lands in the safe zones. Music ducks under her, and a narrator only speaks where she doesn't.
Step 5 · The words and the sound
Captions follow the actor's words, the type lands in the safe zones, and the actor's own voice carries the cut
The Words has the four lines — kicker, headline, subline, call to action — and Auto Caption, which karaokes the spoken words onto the frames as the actor says them, so the ad works with the sound off. Leave any line blank and the director writes it from the brand, placed off the subject in the kit's fonts and colours. The Sound keeps the actor's voice as the lead. Add a music bed to your direction and it ducks under her; add a narration direction and the narrator speaks only on the beats where nobody is talking.
You create the cut, watch it, and change it by talking.
One line of direction and the ad plays in the preview. Every note becomes a new numbered take, instantly.
Step 6 · Create and iterate by talking
One line of direction, Create Video Cut, and the ad plays — then change it by talking, take after take
Say what the ad is for in the line at the top, keep Story 9:16 for a creator ad, and click Create Video Cut. The cut plays in the preview right away: the take windows, the captions, the type, the bed under her voice. What you're watching is a real finished UGC cut. Then use the Iterate bar under it — re-cut a take, hold the hook, drop a beat, bring the CTA forward, ask for a square version. Each turn is a new numbered take beside the last, instantly, and nothing regenerates.
When it's right, you render it, and the project is on Brand Videos.
An MP4 with her voice and the captions baked in, reopenable on the timeline, or hand it to Claude to keep going.
Step 7 · Render and keep
Render the keeper — an MP4 with her voice, the captions and the bed baked in — and it's a project on Brand Videos
When a take is right, render it. Rendering is your click, never automatic, and the file lands in a couple of minutes: an MP4 with the actor's voice, the captions and the music baked in, and a looping GIF beside it. The ad is already a project on the client's Brand Videos page, under UGC — reopen it and every take, shot and trim loads back onto the timeline, or hand it to Claude and keep iterating in conversation. Re-cut it to a new format and swap the CTA in minutes.
Or you say the whole thing to Claude, and it casts, shoots and cuts.
One playbook per format. It asks before anything costs, and renders on your word.
Or · Say it to Claude
Tell Claude the format and the product — it casts the creator, shoots the takes, cuts the ad, and asks before anything costs
Everything above can be said instead of clicked. Name a format and the product and Claude casts a fresh actor to that format's formula, shoots the takes, reads them, cuts the windows, captions the words, scores under the voice and hands you a live preview. You react in plain English, and it renders only when you say render. There's a playbook for every one of the fourteen formats, named for the ad you want.
“Cast a testimonial creator for the trail shoe and cut me a 9:16 ad — honest, the grip is the point. Show me the takes before you cut.”
- Start with nothing, or with footage. No footage? Pick a format and a fresh actor is cast and shot for you. Already have creator clips? Cut those instead, or mix both. A pure product ad from stills is Motion Ad Studio's job; the two cross-link.
- Casting new takes is the step that costs, and the studio names it and asks first. Preview and iteration are instant, and rendering lands in about two to three minutes.
- The actor's voice is never muted. Music is optional and ducks under it; the narrator speaks only on beats where nobody is talking.
- Generated takes carry no music and no baked-in text, on purpose. Both are layers the director adds after, so every window stays cuttable.
- The spoken language is a setting in The Style. It defaults to English; set it before you generate.
Pick the client's kit. Pick a format. Add the product. Generate takes, then cut the ad.