A client project moves through 9 stages: brief, references and asset setup, storyboard and previz approval, generation, selection, editing and post-production, client review and revisions, adaptations, and final QA and delivery. Each stage has an owner and a result. Previz is a set of storyboard stills or rough moving shots that the client approves before full generation. Stages can overlap: approved shots can go to editing in batches while other shots are still being generated.
Stage | Owner | Result |
|---|---|---|
1. Brief | Producer | Deliverables, formats, deadline, revision allowance, what must not change |
2. References and asset setup | AI director, AI artist | Shared references; saved characters, locations and products |
3. Storyboard and previz approval | AI director | Storyboard stills or rough shots the client approves |
4. Generation | AI artists | Takes for each shot, made from approved frames |
5. Selection | AI director | One take per shot that matches the brief and the approved previz |
6. Editing and post-production | Editor | Cut with sound, titles and finishing |
7. Client review and revisions | Producer, with the stage owners | Feedback classified as corrections or scope changes, then applied |
8. Adaptations | Editor, sometimes an AI artist | Cut-downs, aspect ratios, language versions |
9. Final QA and delivery | Named reviewer, editor | Checked files, brand and rights notes, delivery |
Studios on Higgsfield work in a similar order. Sinecera, an Istanbul production studio behind films for Lacoste, SuperStep and Nesine, works through script, boards, previz, offline and online, with client approval at every step. Alterworld Studios cut a storyboard revision round from two to three days to a few hours, with clients leaving notes on every storyboard frame.
Why Asset Setup Saves Time Later
Saving recurring characters and products before generation helps keep faces and products consistent across shots and across jobs for the same client. In Higgsfield, save them as Soul ID characters or as Elements in a Cinema Studio project. Elements have three types: Characters, Locations and Props. Higgsfield is a generative platform for creative production, with 35+ frontier models for generating images and turning them into video scenes. Saved characters and references stay in one place when a shot needs a different model.
Case details in this guide come from Higgsfield customer stories published between July and November 2026.
Who Owns the Work in a 3-to-20-Person Studio?
A client AI video studio needs 5 responsibilities: producer, AI director, AI artist, editor, and brand and rights checks. In a small studio one person often holds two of them. Plan each person’s hours once: if an AI artist also edits, split that person’s week between the two tasks instead of counting the full week twice.
Role | Owns stages | Decides | Can combine with |
|---|---|---|---|
Producer | 1, 7 | Scope, dates, revision allowance, correction or scope change | Brand and rights checks |
AI director | 2, 3, 5 | Look, previz, which take goes to editing, creative approval | AI artist on the most important shots |
AI artist | 2, 4, 8 | Characters, assets, takes | Editing on short-form work |
Editor | 6, 8, 9 | Cut, sound, adaptations, final files | AI artist |
Brand and rights checks | 9 | Likeness consent, licenses, brand rules | Producer or AI director |
Assign a named owner for creative approval and brand and rights checks. Where staffing allows, have another person review the work before client delivery.
Larger studios split these responsibilities further. At BITT Animation, a Chief Creative Officer who is also Chief AI Officer decides where AI fits each job, a full-time director does AI-led direction himself in Cinema Studio, and an executive producer runs production. BITT trained all of its more than 15 full-time artists on Higgsfield “instead of leaving knowledge with whoever specialised in a given tool.”
How Do You Calculate Weekly Capacity Across Clients?
A new order fits only if its required hours stay within every assigned person’s remaining availability and the work can be scheduled before the deadline. Remaining availability is the hours a person has left this week after meetings, sales and work already planned. For combined roles and teams with several AI artists, check each person too: total free hours can hide an overload on the only specialist with the skill a job needs.
The Example Studio
The example below follows one studio through this section and the next. All numbers are illustrative assumptions, not benchmarks. Planned hours include expected corrections and internal checks; available hours already exclude meetings, sales and other duties.
The studio has five people: a producer, an AI director, two AI artists (Artist A, who can also edit, and Artist B) and an editor. The AI director handles creative approval, and the producer handles brand and rights checks; both are included in their hours below. This week the studio has three kinds of work for several clients:
Work this week | Producer | AI director | Artist A | Artist B | Editor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
One campaign master with agreed adaptations (new concept) | 3 h | 3 h | 5 h | 5 h | 6 h |
Three social packages in formats the clients already approved | 6 h | 3 h | 6 h | 6 h | 9 h |
Two adaptation packages of finished masters | 1 h | 1 h | 1 h | 1 h | 4 h |
Planned hours | 10 h | 7 h | 12 h | 12 h | 19 h |
Available for this work | 24 h | 18 h | 24 h | 24 h | 24 h |
Can the Studio Take Another Order?
A client asks for two more social packages this week. In this example one package needs 2 producer hours, 1 AI director hour, 2 hours from each AI artist and 3 editor hours.
Person | Planned | New order | Total | Available | Fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Producer | 10 h | 4 h | 14 h | 24 h | Yes |
AI director | 7 h | 2 h | 9 h | 18 h | Yes |
Artist A | 12 h | 4 h | 16 h | 24 h | Yes |
Artist B | 12 h | 4 h | 16 h | 24 h | Yes |
Editor | 19 h | 6 h | 25 h | 24 h | No |
The AI artists still have 16 free hours between them, but the editor is 1 hour short. The order does not fit as it stands. The studio lead has three options:
- Move the date. Deliver one of the new packages early next week.
- Change the scope. Agree on fewer cut-downs for one package.
- Move work to a person with the skill and the hours. Artist A takes over the two adaptation packages (4 editor hours). The editor drops to 21 of 24 hours, and Artist A rises to 20 of 24.
Option 3 assumes Artist A edits at a speed comparable to the editor’s. In practice, add time for handing over the material and for the AI director’s check of the first adaptation.
Hours Are Not the Same as Dates
A job can fit into the week’s hours and still miss its date if it waits for client approval or for another stage to finish first. Track four numbers separately:
- Hours per person this week, planned and available.
- Deliveries finished this week.
- Calendar time of each project, from brief to delivery.
- Waiting time for client decisions.
The case studies report capacity in parallel projects, not hours. BITT Animation moved from one major project at a time to around six in parallel, and Alterworld Studios ran four productions in parallel in August and September 2026. People are still the main cost. The Alterworld story says the largest cost “remains the experienced artists who direct, curate, refine, composite and revise the material.”
What Happens When Feedback or Revisions Disrupt the Plan?
When a plan breaks, find the earliest affected stage and the people it involves, then recheck their remaining hours and the delivery dates. Some events free hours but move dates; others add hours for one person. Each disruption below starts from the example week after option 3 is accepted.
Event | What can continue | What to replan | What to agree with the client |
|---|---|---|---|
A client delays approval of the campaign storyboard | Social packages and adaptations | Use the master’s free artist hours for stage 2 of next week’s jobs (references and asset setup) | A new delivery date for the master, or a shorter review window |
Feedback arrives on time but changes the approved concept | Other clients’ work | Stages 3 to 6 run again: storyboard and previz approval, generation, selection and editing | New date and scope |
A client needs an urgent language version | Generation for other jobs | Editor hours: decide which delivery moves | Which delivery moves, if the editor has no spare hours |
A difficult shot fails internal review after several attempts | All other shots | The AI director changes the method or simplifies the shot | A simpler shot, if the brief allows it |
The Concept Change, Recalculated
If the new concept sends the campaign master back to stage 3, storyboard and previz approval, it adds the master’s director and artist hours again: 3 for the AI director and 10 for the AI artists. The editor’s 6 hours for the master move to next week, because the new cut cannot start until the new shots exist.
Person | After option 3 | Concept change | New total | Available |
|---|---|---|---|---|
AI director | 9 h | +3 h | 12 h | 18 h |
Artist A | 20 h | +4 h | 24 h | 24 h |
Artist B | 16 h | +6 h | 22 h | 24 h |
Editor | 21 h | −6 h | 15 h | 24 h |
Together the AI artists have 46 of 48 hours planned, which looks like 2 hours of room. Split evenly, the extra 10 hours would put Artist A at 25 of 24 hours, so the producer gives Artist B the larger share. Artist A has no hours left for corrections. The work fits in hours, but the master misses its original date, so the producer agrees on a new date with the client before anyone generates.
When Client Feedback Sets the Pace
BITT Animation describes where the delay moved: “We now spend more time waiting for client feedback than generating the animation they’re giving feedback on.” Sinecera’s clients now ask about dates, not tools: “Most clients no longer ask whether it was made with AI. They ask whether we can deliver Thursday.” Set review dates and the revision allowance in the brief, so waiting time is in the plan from the start.
How Do You Keep Quality Consistent Across More Projects?
Consistent quality across more projects comes from approved references, written client rules and a limit on attempts before the method changes. Decide in advance how many attempts or hours a shot gets before it goes to the AI director, and what the director can do next.
Situation | Rule | Who decides |
|---|---|---|
A face or product changes between shots | Return to the saved character or product reference before generating again | AI artist |
A shot reaches the agreed attempt or hour limit | Stop and escalate | AI director |
The escalated shot still fails | Change the method (new reference frame, split the shot, composite with live footage) or simplify the shot with the client | AI director, then producer |
A take is good but differs from the approved previz | Show the client before using it | Producer |
Brand or rights question at delivery | Delivery waits until the check is done | Named reviewer |
Examples from three studios:
- Approved references. Sinecera’s AI artists generate from approved keyframes, and text-to-video is the exception, not the default.
- Client rules. One of One, the studio behind the official Maradona label, agrees with the client on what must stay true to the person: how they look, move and feel. That becomes “the rulebook everything else follows”.
- Planning for failed attempts. Gaia’s David Kalish, who runs the post department and its AI team, says: “However good you think you are at prompting, no one has a 100% non-fail rate. That ratio eats into your credits.” A limit on attempts lets the producer plan for failed shots.
What Should You Fix Before Taking Another Client?
Before taking another client, check that each person the new work needs has the hours and the skill, and that recent jobs met their dates. If any answer below is “no,” fix that point first.
Question | Where to look | If the answer is no |
|---|---|---|
Does each assigned person have the remaining hours for the new work? | Weekly plan by person | Move dates, change scope or move work to someone with the skill and the hours |
Did the last few jobs finish on the promised dates? | Delivery log | Find the stage where jobs waited, for example client review |
Does every job have a work type and a revision allowance? | Briefs | Add both to the brief template |
Is feedback classified as corrections or scope changes? | Feedback lists | Classify each item before planning the next week |
Can a second person run each stage? | Who did what last month | Train the team on the same workflow, as BITT did |
Gonzalo Canepa of BITT: “Traditional production doesn’t scale by working harder, it scales by adding people.” A weekly plan by person shows who is short of hours before the studio decides to hire.
To scale client AI video, define work types, estimate hours by person and check dates separately from hours.
- Studio of three to five people: combine roles, plan each person’s hours once and name who approves and who checks rights.
- Studio near full capacity: check each person before you hire; free hours on the team can hide one overloaded specialist.
- Studio with repeat clients: save characters and references, and classify every piece of feedback before you replan.
For choosing a platform, see AI Video Platforms for Agencies; for seats and credits, see Team Collaboration and Access; for the cost of a single video, see How Much Does It Cost to Make an AI Video.
