For motion reference

A Reference Board That Plays Video

Clips, GIFs and stills on one canvas in the browser: step to the exact frame, loop the move you are studying, and share the whole wall with one link.

Soleil Clusters is a free reference board that plays video: clips, GIFs and stills share one canvas in the browser, a clip steps frame by frame or loops like a GIF, and one link shares the board. PureRef’s format list is images and animated GIFs. The free plan holds 50 cards or 5GB of files, whichever comes first.

Motion reference, beside the stills

A reference wall for animation, VFX, fight choreography or camera movement is half moving pictures. In Clusters a clip is a card like any other: it sits next to the stills it belongs with, plays where it is, and shows its poster frame and length at rest. Hover it to step a frame back or forward, scrub along its bottom edge, read the timecode and mute it — the controls stay a usable size at any zoom. GIFs keep moving on the board too.

  • Clips play in place, next to the stills
  • Frame steps, a scrubber and timecode on every clip
  • GIFs animate on the canvas

A review player for the exact frame

Double-click a clip, or click ⤢, and it opens full size in a dark room on the frame you were on. Step frame by frame with the arrow keys, shuttle with J, K and L, set in and out points and loop between them, run it from a quarter speed to double, and lay framing guides — 2.39, 16:9 and more — over the picture. A copied link opens the player paused on that frame, for anyone who can open the cluster.

  • J, K, L and frame-by-frame keys
  • In and out points, a loop, ¼× to 2× speed
  • Framing guides, and a link to the exact frame

Loop a clip like a GIF, and keep the real file

Right-click a clip for Autoplay (muted) and Loop and it becomes the moving still a GIF used to be on a reference wall — while the file stays a real video you can scrub, download and hand to an editor. Autoplay is always muted, because browsers block clips that start themselves with sound, and a clip only plays while it is on screen, so a board of twenty takes does not stutter.

Big files, and the ones a browser can’t play

No plan has a size or length limit on video: a reference clip, a cut-down and a full-resolution master land the same way, and a large file uploads in parts that pick up again after a dropped connection. The drive is the only limit — 5GB free, 1TB on Creator. A clip your browser can’t decode, such as ProRes outside Safari, says so instead of showing a black frame, and you can still download it. Anything else — a PSD, a zip, a project file — lands as a card you can download too.

One wall for the whole team

A board in a browser tab travels: the same wall opens on the studio workstation, the laptop and the iPad, and one link shows it read-only to a supervisor without an account. Invite the team as editors — free on every plan — and everyone adds to the same wall at once, with comments pinned to the clip they are about.

Where PureRef still wins

If your reference has to float always-on-top over a paint or 3D app, offline, PureRef does that and Clusters does not: Clusters lives in a browser tab and needs a connection. And if your reference never moves, PureRef is hard to beat — its format list is images, PSD, RAW and EXR among them, plus animated GIFs it can step through frame by frame.

How to make a video reference board

  1. Start a board — Open Clusters in the browser and make a cluster for the project — there is nothing to install.
  2. Drop in clips, GIFs and stills — Drag video files, GIFs and frames onto the canvas together. A clip lands as a card showing its poster frame and its length, and a big file uploads in parts.
  3. Find the frame — Hover a clip to step one frame back or forward, scrub and read the timecode — or open the review player for J, K and L, in and out points and a loop.
  4. Loop what you are studying — Right-click a clip for Autoplay (muted) and Loop, and it moves on the board like a GIF while it stays a real video you can scrub and download.
  5. Share it — Send one link for a read-only view in any browser, or invite the team to add to it live. Comments pin to the clip they are about.

Comparing more than two? See every PureRef alternative, ranked by a film studio.

Made with Clusters

Real boards published from the canvas — open one and explore it live.

Frequently asked questions

Does PureRef play video?

Not according to its own format list, which is images — PSD, RAW and EXR among them — and animated GIFs, with frame-by-frame GIF playback since version 2.0. Clusters plays video clips on the board itself, beside the stills, and can loop them like a GIF.

Can a mood board include video?

Yes. On a Clusters board a clip is a card like an image: it plays in place, can autoplay muted and loop, and sits with the stills, notes and palettes it belongs with. Audio files play on the board too, with a waveform drawn from the file.

Which video formats play?

Whatever your browser can play; H.264 MP4 is the safe choice everywhere. A clip the browser can’t decode, such as ProRes outside Safari, says so instead of showing a black frame, and you can still download it from the board.

Is there a size or length limit on clips?

No, on any plan. A large file uploads in parts and picks up again after a dropped connection; the only limit is the drive — 5GB free, 1TB on Creator.

Can a clip loop like a GIF?

Yes. Right-click the card for Autoplay (muted) and Loop. Autoplay is always muted, because browsers block clips that start themselves with sound, and a clip plays only while it is on screen.

Can I trim or edit a clip?

No. Clusters plays video; it does not edit it. Trim in your editor and drop in the version you want on the board.

Is it free?

Yes. The free plan holds 50 cards or 5GB of files, whichever comes first, clusters themselves are free, and editors you invite are free. Creator ($25/mo) removes the card cap and gives you a 1TB drive.