The Hexcoded blog

Learn to make it.

Model guides, prompt libraries and production workflows for creative teams making short drama, trailers and narrative video.

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Models
The 11 image models, grouped by what they're actually for

Two different quality systems, reference ceilings from sixteen down to one, and only three models that batch at all.

A technician checking a printed spec sheet against an equipment rack under work light
Models
How to tell when a model spec on the roster has changed

Nothing notifies you. The picker is the only current source, and four settings are worth checking before any delivery you've promised.

A wall of reference photographs taped in rows above a cluttered production desk
Models
How many reference files each model accepts

From fifty down to none, and the type matters more than the number. One model won't take an image at all.

A grid of short text blocks of varying widths, suggesting an index
Production
Glossary: AI video and short drama terms

Forty terms you'll meet making AI video, each defined from the source that actually defines it.

An empty press-conference stage with one lit lectern against a dark backdrop
Models
There is no Veo 4: what Google actually shipped

Comparison posts quoting Veo 4 specifications are describing a model that doesn't exist. Here's what Google's own documentation says.

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Models
Which models generate native synchronised audio

All eighteen generate audio. Only six let you switch it off, and that's the setting that decides your workflow.

Three camera bodies of descending size lined up inside a padded flight case
Models
Fast, Lite and Mini: what you give up on a cheaper tier

Three naming conventions, and none of them tells you what changes. One Fast tier gives up nothing, and two models are identical.

A circle of EU-blue stars with a small green disclosure badge sitting at its edge
Production
The EU AI Act for US creators: what Article 50 requires

Whether it applies to you turns on a scope test most coverage skips — and fiction gets a lighter obligation than you'd expect.

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Elements
What goes in a series bible for a rights review

A series bible is usually a creative document. Add four sections and it answers the questions a rights reviewer asks first.

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Product
When a talking head is the wrong format

A talking head is the easiest AI video to make, which is why it gets used for things it can't carry.

A vertical strip of four stacked scene panels with a continuous line running down through all four
Production
Why a scripted series is the safest AI format on YouTube right now

YouTube's own description of what it demonetizes is, read backwards, a specification for short drama.

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Product
Building a 70-episode series with the composer

The composer resolves your blanks against your prompt, not against your last episode. That single fact decides how you have to work.

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