Blind and Blink
The chat's two controls — Blind hands the work to ROUTIX's blind mind to do on its own; Blink stops at each step and checks it with you.
Beside the composer sits a small capsule with an eye on it: BLIND on one side, BLINK on the other. These are the chat's two controls, and they decide one thing — who checks each step:
- Blind — ROUTIX does the work on its own. You hand it to ROUTIX's blind mind — ROUTIX Blind, its way of seeing and thinking — and it carries the work from the first step to the last.
- Blink — ROUTIX stops at each step and checks it with you. If something is not right, you tell it, and the next step starts from your word.
On the switch itself, each side says it in a line:
- Blind — "ROUTIX sees it through — start to finish." The eye on the switch is closed. This is where every chat starts.
- Blink — "Eye to eye. Fovea sits beside you — before ROUTIX makes the next thing, it shows you where it stands and waits for your word: approve it, refine it, or call for another take." The eye is open, and it blinks.
Your choice is kept for that chat — it is still there after a reload, and it goes with every message. You can change it between messages; while ROUTIX is working, the switch waits.
Blind: ROUTIX sees it through
In Blind, ROUTIX makes everything the work needs — references, frames, the video — without stopping to ask. It is not unchecked: Fovea still reviews every take, and a take that does not hold up against your source is remade before it is built on. You see "Preparing another take" when that happens.
Blink: every take waits for your word
- Switch the capsule to BLINK.
- Ask for what you want made, as usual.
- Each time ROUTIX makes a picture — a reference sheet, a frame, a storyboard — it stops and says so: "… is on the desk — I've stopped for your word. Approve it, refine it with a note, or call for another take."
- Read Fovea's read on the card, look at the take, and answer with one of the three buttons.
- ROUTIX goes on to the next thing it makes, and stops again.
When you change a video in the chat, or add a new moment to one, Blink stops once — after ROUTIX has prepared what the change will use and before the video is made: "Here is what I prepared for your change. If anything should be different, tell me what; if not, tell me to go on."
The three answers
| Button | What happens |
|---|---|
| Approve | The take is accepted on your word — even if Fovea had doubts — and the work goes on. |
| Refine with a note | Type what should change in "What should change in the next take?" Your note becomes the instruction for one new take. ROUTIX reads it for what it means — a short note and a polite one asking for the same change get the same change. |
| Another take | Sent back with no note. Fovea looks again, more closely, and the next take avoids what it finds. The take you sent back stays in the chat to see, but it is never used again. |
With any of the three you can press Attach an image: your picture joins the next take as your own reference.
Each card takes one answer. After you press, its buttons give way to one line — "You approved this take", "You asked for a change on this take" or "You called for another take" — so a second press can never buy a second take by accident.
When a stage is settled
A take you have answered is settled: ROUTIX never asks about it again, and an approved take counts as done, so the video can be made from it. When every picture of a stage is answered, the stage closes and the chat shows everything it built together — "Everything this stage built is on the desk — say the word and I'll carry it into video." Then folder cards appear, and what the stage made becomes a library you can browse.
What it costs
Waiting costs nothing: a chat that has stopped for your word uses no credits while it waits. A new take — one you ask for with Refine with a note or Another take — is a new picture, priced like any picture the chat makes. Your answer itself travels as a chat message, priced as messages are (see What a chat costs).
Blind and Blink, and "How I think"
The switch decides who checks each step. How I think in How I'll make this is a different choice: how long ROUTIX Blind thinks before it answers — Blind, Blind · Considered or Blind · Deep. Both carry the Blind name because both are ROUTIX Blind at work; you can use any of them with either side of the switch.
Frequently asked questions
Which should I choose?
Blind when you want the finished thing and trust ROUTIX and Fovea with the steps; Blink when the look matters to you take by take — a character's face, a product's exact shape — and you want your eye on every picture before it is built on.
Does Blink stop before the video is paid for?
On a change to a video, yes: it stops once, with what it prepared, before the video is made. When the chat builds a new video from frames, it stops after each frame it makes, so every frame the video uses has your word.
Can I switch back halfway?
Yes. Choose Blind before your next message, and ROUTIX carries on without stopping.