The classic that taught everyone to prompt
Before the flagships, there was SDXL. Stability AI's open model that turned AI images into a global hobby and a professional tool. It's not in the OpenClips composer yet. Exploration is the most credit-hungry phase of any visual project, and SDXL built the draft-cheap culture around it.
The pocket-change strategy
Bulk concept drafts, meme templates, mood exploration, "what if we tried it teal". SDXL absorbs all of it, once it lands. Today the pattern runs on the live roster: draft on Seedream 4.0 (the free-tier pick), finish typographic polish there too, or hand precision work to GPT Image 2. Draft cheap, finish flagship: the same pattern as video, the same wallet, the same library.
