A develop failed — what happened to my tokens
Nothing. Tokens are held before a develop and only spent when a frame lands. A failure closes the hold and the balance returns — and a run that half-worked charges for the half that worked.
Nothing was spent. Tokens are held before a develop starts and only spent when a frame actually lands. A failure closes the hold and charges nothing.
What a hold is
When you commit a develop, the house does not take your tokens. It writes a hold: a reservation for exactly the quoted amount, which stops that amount being spendable while the frame is developing. Your balance drops on screen because a held token is not a spendable one — but it has not left.
Three things can happen to a hold, and only one of them costs you:
| Outcome | What happens to the hold | What you are charged |
|---|---|---|
| The frame lands | Settled | The quoted amount |
| The frame fails | Released | Nothing |
| The develop hangs | Released by the sweep, at worst | Nothing |
A run that half-worked
A run takes one hold per frame, not one hold for the run. So a five-frame look where three land and two fail settles three holds and releases two: you are charged for the three, exactly as if you had asked for three.
This is why the number in a partial run's summary is smaller than the quote. The quote is what the whole run would cost; the charge is what came up.
If it hangs rather than fails
A develop that never reports back is swept, not left open. A job still queued after 30 minutes, or still running after 20 minutes, is terminated by a sweep that runs every five minutes, and terminating it releases the hold.
A hold also carries its own 10-minute expiry: past that it stops subtracting from your spendable balance whether or not anything has closed it. In practice you get the tokens back before the sweep even notices.
If a balance still looks wrong
Wait for the next sweep — five minutes — and read the balance again. If it is still short, raise a ticket from the studio. It arrives with the failed job's id and its error already attached, and that is usually the whole diagnosis.
What a failure does not do
- It does not consume your monthly grant early.
- It does not count against a rate limit.
- It does not leave the frame half-charged. A settle is the full quoted amount for that frame or nothing at all.
Related
- What a look actually costs
- The Darkroom — where a run in flight is watched and stopped
- Quality and cost
Help
The questions directors actually ask — a develop that failed, tokens running out mid-season, a face that drifted, a refund. Answered from the code, with the numbers checked.
The model's face changed between frames
A model in FLAM is a collage of several views, and the collage is what holds a face across a set. Drift almost always traces to a thin collage, a second collage, or a reference in the wrong order.