# A Reference Board That Plays Video > 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. _Source: https://clusters.soleilpictures.com/tools/video-reference-board · Updated 2026-10-20_ 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. ## 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. ## 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.