Getting started

A show holds everything its episodes share: what the world is, how it looks, its shape on screen, and its cast. You set it up once. Every episode you make from it inherits all of it, so faces and places stay the same from episode to episode.

1. 1Step 1: Go to ShowMaker and press Log in.
2. 2Step 2: Press Continue with Google. Or, under Or get a link by email, type your address, press Email me a link, and open the link on the same device.
3. 3Step 3: Use the Google account or email address your invitation went to. There is no sign-up form: ShowMaker is invitation-only for now.

You stay signed in for five days on that browser. (Sign-in is not shown in a recording: the recordings were made in a rehearsal copy of the app that has sign-in turned off.)

The menu on the left has the places you will use most:

• Shows: your shows. Start here.
• Brands: like shows, but for ads. A brand holds what you sell, who it is for and its look.
• Library: every episode you have made, newest first.
• Help: these guides, inside the app.
• Account: your details, plan and credits, and your connected accounts for publishing.

(If you are an admin you also see Admin, the door to the install's own pages; they are not covered here.)

On a phone, the same menu opens from the menu button at the top.

Video, about 46 seconds, no sound. The steps below say the same.

1. 1Step 1: Open Shows. A new account has no shows yet, so press Create your first show (or New show at the top right).
2. 2Step 2: Type the show's name, for example Power Couple, and press Create show. Nothing is generated and nothing is spent yet.
3. 3Step 3: On the show's page, press Set up the world.
4. 4Step 4: Under Kind of show, leave Story picked for a drama or comedy. Pick News explainer, Documentary, How-to or Educational explainer for a show about real things: each kind gets its own episode shape.
5. 5Step 5: Choose a Genre, such as Sitcom. It sets the tone every story is written in.
6. 6Step 6: Write the Backstory in a sentence or two: who the show is about and where it happens. Press Enhance if you want help filling it in.
7. 7Step 7: Press Save the story.
8. 8Step 8: Under Look, press Choose a look and pick one, such as 3D animated feature. Every picture and clip of the show will be drawn in it, and the look brings two style frames with it.
9. 9Step 9: Under Format, pick the shape: 9:16 for phones, 16:9 for wide screens, 1:1 for square. Press Save format.

Video, about 32 seconds, no sound. The steps below say the same.

1. 1Step 1: On the show's page, under Cast, press Add character.
2. 2Step 2: Type their Name. Add a Role (such as Lead) if you like; it is only for the cast list.
3. 3Step 3: Under Appearance, describe what must stay the same in every shot: face, hair, build. Clothes go in Usual outfit.
4. 4Step 4: Add a reference image. Press Create reference image to have one drawn in the show's look, or Upload artwork to use a picture you already have. This model sheet is sent with every picture and clip the character is in, so their face does not drift.
5. 5Step 5: Press Save character in the bar at the bottom of the screen. Until you do, the character is only a draft on that screen, and no episode knows about them.

You can give the character a voice too: see Characters and voices.

You do not set up places before your first episode. Each episode's story names the places it needs (a meeting room, a car) and one picture is drawn for each. When a place should come back in later episodes, keep it in the show from that episode's Story step. See Your first episode.

Tips

• Running gags are optional: one per line, and the writer pays off one to three of them in each episode.
• You can change any of this later. Changes reach new episodes; an episode that already has pictures keeps the world it was made in.
• Help in the menu opens these guides again whenever you need them.