ClayStage Guide

Getting started

Sign in with Google, GitHub, or email. You're in the studio right away — every account starts on the Free plan with 15 one-time credits, and you can upgrade any time from your name (top right) → Account & billing. Once you're in, the flow is always the same:

Everything autosaves continuously under the project title at the top left — there is no save button to remember.

Plans & features

ClayStage has four plans. Credits are spent on generations; each plan unlocks a different set of tools.

Annual billing is available on the paid plans. The studio shows your current plan and remaining credits next to your name; when a tool is locked for your plan, ClayStage tells you which plan unlocks it.

Projects

• New scene: Projects dropdown → + New scene.
• Open or delete: click your name (top right) → My projects. Opening a project loads its scene and its generations.
• Your projects and renders are private to your account.

Building a scene

Cyc walls

The room itself. Pick one from the first library section — seamless sweep, corner, C-curve, round, U, ramp, or flat wall. Select it to adjust width / depth / height / roundness (seamless) or stretch any wall with the Width× / Height× / Depth× sliders. Follow keeps the wall opposite the camera automatically.

Platforms

Pedestals, steps, slabs and block sets — the furniture only. Platforms no longer carry a built-in wall; pair any platform with any wall from the Cyc Walls section. Adjust edge Bevel per platform, and once a platform is textured its Texture Mapping rows (Tile / Rotate / Offset) appear in the Inspector.

Objects & text

Click any object in the library and it lands on your set. 3D text uses Google Fonts — pick any family and weight from the picker — with depth, kerning and rounding controls. The Google Fonts picker is open to every plan. (Using your own system / installed fonts is a Teams feature.)

The Scene panel

• Rename anything: double-click its name, type, press Enter.
• Multi-part uploads: a disclosure chevron () appears on segmented models — expand it to see each part nested under the parent. Click a part to focus it: the next material you click or drop applies to that part only, and the Inspector shows that part's material with its preview.
• The lock, hide and delete controls live on every row; click empty space below the list to deselect.

Moving, rotating, scaling

• Move: just drag the object. It always stays in contact with what's below — platforms, steps, other objects (drop-to-floor).
• Lean / tilt: hold ⇧ while dragging.
• Rotate: drag the indigo ring under the selected object. Hold ⇧ for 5° steps.
• Scale: drag the indigo cube floating at the object's corner, or type exact X/Y/Z values in the Inspector.
• Duplicate & drag: hold ⌘ and drag an object — a copy follows your cursor. (⌥ is reserved for camera orbit, as in Cinema 4D.)
• Deselect: press Esc, click empty viewport space, or click the empty area at the bottom of the Scene panel.

Camera

⌥ + drag orbits around the exact point under your cursor — click a spot on any geometry and the view swings around it, Cinema 4D-style, with no jump when you start the drag. Space + drag pans, scroll dollies — and keeps flying through when you're in close. Multiple cameras live in the bottom bar; each can be locked. The frame-darkness slider (eye icon, bottom bar) controls the aspect-ratio mask.

The grid button beside it cycles composition guides over the render frame: rule of thirds → golden ratio (phi lines + spiral) → off. The phi lines span the frame; the spiral keeps its true golden proportion fitted inside whatever output ratio is selected. Guides never appear in captures or renders.

Materials

Drag a swatch from the library onto any object. On platforms and multi-part uploads, the drop lands on exactly the piece under your cursor (or focus a part in the Scene panel first). The viewport shows a faithful preview; the generation uses the true material by name, from its prompt phrase — the photoreal grain, veining and weave come from the AI, not the preview texture.

• Mapping: select the object (cyc walls and platforms included) → Texture Mapping → Tile / Rotate / Offset. Tiling is mirrored, so there's no visible grid of seams on big surfaces.
• Wear: every object carries it natively — Inspector → Wear slider + type (Dust, Fingerprints, Fine Scratches, Mixed, plus any admin-uploaded wear maps).
• Untextured objects don't block Generate anymore — they render in a clean studio finish, and the button warns you what's still clay.

HDRIs & lighting

Pick a preset in Lighting · HDRI (chrome-ball previews show each environment). The Environment item in the Scene panel gives you rotation, intensity, and two independent toggles: Lighting on/off and Background visible/hidden — so you can light with an environment while showing only your cyc wall. With Lighting off the scene goes truly dark — gobos or a custom HDRI become the only light. Portrait and Outdoor categories are tuned for the upcoming character workflow.

Gobos

Light patterns — blinds, windows, foliage, spots. Click one to add it, then select it and use its three grips:

• Drag the crosshair grip — moves the target; the light stays planted.
• Drag the cone / arrow — swings the light around its target; the target stays.
• ⌘ + drag — moves light and target together as one rigid unit.

Color (with a White reset), Blur, Pattern scale and Pattern rotate live in the Inspector. The crosshair never appears in captures or renders. Gobos never block clicking your objects.

Characters & Poses Creator+

Characters, clothing and poses are unlocked on Creator and up (not available on Free). Characters work like materials, but for people. An uploaded character is the person who gets rendered; a mannequin stages their body.

• Upload a character sheet in the Characters section (this is one of your Custom assets — see below). The front-neutral headshot is auto-cropped as the thumbnail (replaceable with the thumbnail button), and a consistency phrase + tag is stored so the person stays identical across renders.
• One click to place — click a person and they drop into the scene as a posed figure (the mannequin is created for you). No separate "add mannequin" step.
• Pose — pick a built-in pose in Poses, or upload a pose photo (even a snapshot of yourself) and the render matches that body pose. Position, scale, outfit, expression and the cast person all survive a pose swap.
• Outfit — upload a flat-lay in Clothing and click it onto the figure.
• Expression & gaze — once a person is cast, the Controls panel shows Expression (smile, laugh, serious…) and Gaze (to camera, away, left/right…). These direct the face in the render and override the sheet's neutral expression.
• Consistency model: use Gemini Image 3 Pro for character work — strongest at keeping the same person across generations (GPT Image 2 is the solid alternate).

Generating images

1. Pick the model (GPT Image 2 is the default), aspect ratio, resolution (1K/2K, plus 4K on Creator and up), and ×1 or ×4.
2. Choose Light or Dark world.
3. Hit Generate. Untextured items don't block — a toast lists them and the render runs anyway, with those pieces in a clean studio finish.

Progress shows on the card; long renders show elapsed status and a Cancel option. 4K (Creator+) uses the model's native 4K when available, otherwise a precision upscale runs automatically after. Models textured per-part send each part's material to the AI by name. On Free, renders are watermarked on download.

Your generations

• The feed shows renders for the current project.
• Hover a render to reveal its actions: the download control () saves it straight to your computer; the full-screen control () opens it large (press Esc or use the close control to dismiss).
• Layers Creator+ (the layered-export control, , on renders from this session) builds a layered PSD: the photo on the bottom plus every object cut out on its own named, transparent layer with feathered edges — cyc, platform, each model and text. Opens straight into Photoshop/Affinity.
• The delete control removes a render permanently.
• A card reading "image file missing" is a leftover record whose file was replaced (usually by its 4K upscale) — Remove from feed cleans it up.

Sending renders to Figma

1. One-time install: in Figma → Plugins → Development → Import plugin from manifest… and pick figma-plugin/manifest.json from the ClayStage folder (ask an admin for the three plugin files).
2. In ClayStage, open a render full screen and hit → Figma — the render's URL is copied.
3. In Figma, run ClayStage Import, paste, Place on canvas — the render lands at full resolution at your viewport center.

Your custom assets Creator+

Custom assets let you bring your own content into ClayStage alongside the built-in catalog: your own models, characters, gobos, clothing and poses (plus materials, HDRIs and wear maps). This is a paid feature — Free can't upload; it unlocks on Creator and up.

Turn on Library Mode (click your name → Library Mode) and every section gains its own upload zone, pre-wired to the right file types. Uploads land in your library next to the built-in items and behave identically once placed. The Render description field is what the AI is told whenever the asset appears in a scene — it auto-fills from the filename; make it vivid.

What each upload becomes

Every section's upload zone is pre-wired to the right file types. The Render description auto-fills from the filename — refine it for the best results.

Managing your library

While Library Mode is on, every tile gains controls: hide, rename, reset, and delete (your uploads only, with confirmation). Hidden items stay visible to you in Library Mode, shown dimmed.

Teams — seats & shared library Teams

Teams ($199/mo) is built for studios working together. It adds, on top of everything in Studio:

• Seats. 5 seats included; add more at $35/seat/mo. Invite teammates by email from your name → Members; invitees join your org and share its plan.
• Pooled credits. The org's 1,200 credits/mo are shared across all seats rather than split per person.
• Shared custom assets. Uploads can be published org-wide so every member places the same models, characters, gobos, clothing and poses. The 50 GB cap is the org's shared pool.
• System / installed fonts. In addition to the all-plan Google Fonts picker, Teams can use the fonts installed on the machine for 3D text.
• Member management. An org owner/admin invites, removes, and sets roles for members — no Supabase needed.

Animation (AutoDrive) Creator+

Animation and video export are unlocked on Creator and up (not on Free).

Open Animation at the bottom of the Library — the timeline pops up (it's hidden otherwise). AutoDrive is keyframeless: select any object and, in Controls, tick Position, Rotation or Scale. Each group eases from a Min to a Max over a Start → End frame range, with an Offset that delays the move and a click-to-change easing curve (your full easing library). Set playback to Once or Ping-pong.

• Nulls compound motion. Select an object and click the Null button — it's grouped under a new null in one click. Animate the object (it lifts), then animate the null (it sets back down) — the hierarchy composes the moves.
• Cameras animate too. Pick a camera in the Animation panel; AutoDrive its Position, look Target and Focal (zoom). "Edit pose freely" lets you orbit to frame a shot, then the capture-view button records it into Min/Max.
• 24 fps. The timeline runs at 24 fps (what the video models use); the frame count turns accent-coloured on whole seconds (24, 48, 72…).
• Export clip. Records the viewport animation to a .webm you can hand to a video model as a motion reference. Keep the tab focused while it records.

Keyboard shortcuts

Troubleshooting

• Controls or panels look blank / missing — turn off your ad-blocker for ClayStage (or allow-list the site). Aggressive blockers (uBlock, AdBlock, Brave Shields, some privacy extensions) can hide UI elements they mistake for ads. This is the #1 cause of "a control isn't showing up."
• "Rendering anyway — for best results: texture …" — the named items are still clay; they'll render in a clean studio finish unless you texture them.
• Render fails immediately — the card shows Runway's reason; check credits (top right).
• Mystery shadows on the floor — usually a gobo pattern. Check the Scene panel for gobos you forgot.
• Can't see the whole set — press H to frame everything.
• Stuck render — Cancel appears on the card after a while; ×4 batches finish independently.