Watch & media
Scene art, narration and chapter video — optional media generated from your locked canon, priced in dollars when it costs real compute.
Alcove is a creation system, not a publishing platform. It generates canon-grounded media from your locked chapters so you can create here, publish anywhere — on Royal Road, AO3, your own site, or social. Alcove does not host comments, followers, or a public feed for your serial.
Anything granted is earned from canon.
Watch — your story on screen
The Watch surface turns locked chapters into episodes: scene art, optional narration, and a hosted video per chapter. A poster rail shows your canon as a season you can play through.
Lock a chapter first — media is always downstream of Canon Lock, never generated from a draft that might change.
Best practices — cast prep and video
The best results come from prep in this order:
- Set cast portraits first. Scene art and video anchor on each character's showcase portrait on the Cast Board. Without portraits, faces can drift shot to shot. Generate or pick a showcase portrait for anyone who appears in the chapter before you spend on illustration or motion.
- Design voices before narration or video (optional but recommended). Custom voices stay consistent across every line; auto-cast voices work but won't match your cast board.
- Render on Watch when cast prep is set. The primary path is a short movie clip via direct motion generation — independent of scene art on the gallery page.
Alcove nudges you through cast prep when something is missing.
Scene art and portraits
Scene art illustrates a locked chapter — about $0.25 for a single-character scene, about 80 for multi-character scenes with reference portraits. Cast portraits ground characters for consistency across art — about $0.25 each.
Set a world visual style on the cartridge (anime, film still, manga panel, and more) so every generated image matches the world's look.
Manga panel is a single black-and-white frame (~$0.25–$0.75) — G-pen linework and screentone for one moment in the chapter. Alcove does not generate multi-panel manga pages, stitched storyboard sheets, or per-panel manga grids; those formats were retired (2026-07).
Scene art is deliberate spend from the gallery — never an automatic post-lock award. Generate it when you want the still, after the chapter is locked.
Audio
- Browser read-aloud — instant, free, offline-capable.
- Studio narration — a higher-quality voice generated once per chapter and saved forever (about $0.25).
- Translation — read any chapter in another language; free for everyone.
Chapter video
A chapter video is a hosted MP4 from your locked chapter. The primary format is a short movie clip (~15s direct motion generation). Older montage formats may still appear for some recipes.
- Movie clip — the flagship path (~$27.50, metered at completion).
- Montage (legacy recipes) — beat-stitch assembly with stills, voice, and edit (~$20).
A free in-browser preview montage is always available; only the full hosted render is metered.
Video formats are chosen per chapter on the Watch page.
What media costs
| Media | About |
|---|---|
| Scene art (single) | $0.25 |
| Scene art (multi-character) | $0.75 |
| Cast portrait | $0.25 |
| Studio narration | $0.25 |
| Chapter video — movie clip | ~$27.50 |
| Chapter video — montage | ~$20 |
Exact costs can change as the economy is tuned — the in-app billing screen is the source of truth. See Plans & billing.
Export with your media
The Studio Bundle export packages locked prose plus generated images and a manifest — handy when you're moving the whole production out of Alcove. See Import & export.