Do's and Don'ts

A quick reference for getting the best results from StarZero Agents — and avoiding common pitfalls.

Do

Be specific about what you're looking for. Whether you're searching for visuals, dialogue, or a topic, concrete details get better results. "A person in a red jacket near a car" beats "a person" every time.

Provide dimensions upfront. Tell StarZero Agents your target duration, aspect ratio, and platform before it starts building. This saves rounds of revision later.

Use focus hints for non-native aspect ratios. When rendering landscape content in portrait (or vice versa), tell StarZero Agents what to keep centered. "Focus on: the speaker's face" or "Focus on: the product on the table."

Reference content clearly. When your library has multiple videos, be specific about which one you mean. Use video titles, @mentions, or descriptions to avoid ambiguity.

Iterate with free previews. Render low-quality previews after every significant change. They're free, fast, and save you from discovering problems during a high-quality render.

Use separate projects for separate videos. You can create multiple projects within a single chat and switch between them. Keep things organized by creating a new project for each new video.

Preview your renders before going high quality. Always check a free preview before committing credits to a final render. This is the single most effective way to avoid wasted credits.

Use undo freely. StarZero Agents has full undo/redo support. Experiment, try things out, and roll back if they don't work. There's no penalty for exploring.

Use overlays for layering. StarZero Agents supports overlays including picture-in-picture, images, and SVG graphics. Use them to layer b-roll over dialogue, add logos, or show a second video in a corner. See Overlays for details.

Don't

Don't ask to import external assets. StarZero Agents works with the content in your library. You can't add stock footage, stock music, logos, or images from outside sources. The one exception: you can import audio from a URL.

Don't request transitions or fades. Clips play back-to-back without crossfades, dissolves, or wipe effects. If you need transitions, export your project to Premiere Pro and add them there.

Don't ask for reverse playback or time ramping. Speed changes (slow motion, fast forward) are supported on all clip types (0.25x–12x), but reverse playback and variable-speed time ramping are not.

Don't request color grading or visual effects. Filters, LUTs, color corrections, stabilization, blur, and masking are outside StarZero Agents's capabilities.

Don't forget focus hints for portrait renders. If you're rendering landscape source material in 9:16, the system needs to know what to keep in frame. Without focus hints, important subjects may get cropped out.

When in Doubt

Describe the outcome you want in plain language. StarZero Agents will do its best to accomplish your goal using its available capabilities. If something isn't possible, it will explain the limitation and often suggest an alternative approach.

"I want a 60-second highlight reel with captions, rendered for Instagram Stories."

That's a perfectly good request. You don't need to know what's possible and what isn't before asking — just describe what you want.