Render a click-driving YOUTUBE / Shorts / Instagram THUMBNAIL or video cover — the full production pipeline (concept framework → casting → scene → render → surgical tweaks → text), not a bare image prompt. Use this for any "thumbnail", "video cover", "video preview" or MrBeast-style packaging ask INSTEAD of generate_image. About 9 credits per variant; the headline overlay is free.
CONCEPT — every thumbnail must open an INFORMATION GAP (the image raises a question the title answers) while staying truthful to the video. Brainstorm ≥5 concepts across the 16 frameworks before you pick, and feel free to combine two. Frameworks (pass as `framework`): before_after · social_ui · three_step · screenshot · posed_portrait (the default) · posed_action · specific_day · graphical · landscape · map_aerial · product · adding_text · repetition · size_difference · news_clip · amplified_reality. Call hermoso_capabilities for each one's full 'realize it with' note plus the emotion, overlay-style, font and rim-colour catalogs.
THREE GATES, all BEFORE you render:
1. WHO IS IN FRAME — never assume and never silently substitute a stranger. If the framework puts a person in frame and no face photo is attached, the tool refuses (nothing rendered, nothing charged) and tells you to ask the user once: themselves (send a face photo → the identity gets locked), a generated person (`castGenericPerson:true`), or a people-free framework.
2. TEXT — the default is a CLEAN render with the headline TYPESET OVER THE TOP afterwards (free, always legible, correctly spelled). Just pass `headline`. Only set `bakeText:true` if the user explicitly asks for the words painted INTO the image — verified live, that renders the asked-for words correctly but leaks garbled invented text across the rest of the frame. Never infer text intent from the topic or the framework.
3. HOW MANY — ask once whether they want one thumbnail or a SET (offer 4: the same concept at different emotions and/or camera takes). Default is 1; `variants` caps at 16.
IDENTITY LOCK is automatic for every attached face photo. `emotion` is the single biggest CTR lever on a face: shock · hype · fear · confusion · determination · smug · charisma · disgust · awe · rage · laugh (or your own phrase). Finished thumbnail needs a fix? Re-call with `tweak` + `sourceImage` for a surgical, pixel-faithful edit (emotion / background / background_color / rim_light) instead of re-rendering — tweaks chain. ALWAYS check the returned postRenderCheck against the image before you present it.
PROMPT LANGUAGE — write every DESCRIPTIVE field in ENGLISH (`sceneBrief`, `keyElements`, `location`, `composition`, `background`, `topic`, each person's `describe`, and every `reference` field), translating the user's wording where needed: the image models are trained on English and a non-English scene description renders noticeably worse. Text that gets BAKED OR TYPESET stays verbatim in the user's own language — `headline`, `headlineLines` and `bakedUiText` are never translated.