Podcast Thumbnails: Rotating Guests, Locked Host
Podcast Mode in the Quick lane lets you lock the host's face and swap in a guest per episode — same style, different guest, every time.
What is Podcast Mode?
Podcast Mode is a specialization of the Quick lane built for interview-format content. You set a host Person once (your consistent face across all episodes), and each time you generate you can pick a guest Person (the person you're interviewing that week).
The resulting thumbnail keeps the same visual template, the same color treatment, the same energy — but with the correct pair of faces for that episode.
Setting up Podcast Mode
1. Create Person profiles
Before using Podcast Mode, you need at least one Person profile. Navigate to Persons in the sidebar and create a profile for yourself (the host) and optionally pre-create profiles for recurring guests.
See the Person Profiles guide for how to upload face photos and what makes a good reference image.
2. Use a podcast template (the host is bound to it)
Podcast Mode activates when you select a podcast template — a saved template that has a host Person bound to it. (Curated archetypes are never podcast templates; a podcast template is one you create and save with a host.) The host is fixed by the template, set once when the template is created — not chosen at generate time.
In Quick → Generate, select your podcast template. The scene then shows a locked host row (your host's face with a lock icon) and a single guest picker.
3. The host is already locked
You don't pick the host on this screen — it's locked by the template and shown read-only (with a lock icon). That's what keeps your face identical across every episode.
4. Set the guest per episode
Select the guest's Person profile in the Guest slot. If the guest is a one-off, create a quick Person profile for them with one or two photos. You do not need to keep guest profiles long-term if you don't need them again.
5. Generate
Write a short one-line description of the episode topic (optional but helps ground the concept) and hit Generate. Generate stays disabled until you've picked a guest, so you never accidentally render a host-only thumbnail. The output will feature both faces in the podcast template's style.
Under the hood
When Podcast Mode runs, both the host and guest are treated as FOREGROUND-locked persons. Their identity signals are equally weighted — neither face is subordinated. The template directive adds the podcast-specific framing (dual-person composition, energy, background) on top of the identity locks.
Tips
- Vary the guest photo when the quality is inconsistent. If a guest has only one usable photo, the output face may be less stable. Upload a second photo of the guest from a different angle if available.
- Reuse the same template for the whole series. The template locks the visual identity of your podcast format. Switching templates between episodes creates inconsistency — that is the opposite of what Podcast Mode is for.
- The host is fixed by the template. You never re-pick it — selecting the same podcast template each episode keeps the host locked. You only choose the guest.