How to document Luma Dream Machine work for client delivery

Dream Machine is Luma's generation workspace for images and video, and its organizing ideas are Boards and Ideas. A board is what Luma calls an individual project where you group related images and videos, and the Ideas view is the complete collection of everything you have generated, both images and videos, in one stream. For documentation this is a decent starting position, because the app itself keeps your work grouped and browsable. The catch is that all of that structure lives inside your Luma account, and none of it accompanies a downloaded clip.

The plan you generate under matters more in Dream Machine than in most tools, because it changes the output itself and the rights attached to it. Luma's plan documentation is explicit: output on the Free and Lite plans carries a watermark and is licensed for non-commercial use only, while the Plus, Unlimited, and Enterprise plans produce unwatermarked output with commercial use allowed. A delivered file does not announce which plan made it. If a client asks a year later whether a clip was generated under a commercial license, the answer has to come from your records, not from the pixels.

The generation flow adds one more thing to write down. When you select an image and use Make Video, Dream Machine generates two video versions beneath it, and you preview and choose. The version you reject stays behind in the app. Add the credit mechanics, where monthly credits do not carry over and top-up credits expire a year after purchase, and the shape of the documentation job is clear: capture the prompt, the source image, the plan, and the chosen version at the moment of generation, because the app is built for iteration, not for evidence.

What Luma Dream Machine stores on its side

• Dream Machine organizes work into Boards, which Luma describes as individual projects where you can group related images and videos. Source
• The Ideas view is a complete collection of everything you have generated in Dream Machine, including both images and videos. Source
• Free and Lite plan output carries a watermark and is licensed for non-commercial use only, while the Plus, Unlimited, and Enterprise plans produce unwatermarked output with commercial use allowed. Source
• Monthly credits do not carry over between cycles, while top-up credits remain valid for a year from the purchase date. Source
• Make Video generates two video versions beneath the selected image, and a clip is downloaded through the three-dots menu on the video. Source

What gets lost without your own record

• The exported clip does not state which plan generated it, yet the watermark and the commercial license both depend on the plan active at generation time.
• Make Video produces two versions per source image, and the version you reject remains only inside the app, so the choice itself goes undocumented unless you record it.
• Boards and the Ideas stream organize your history inside Dream Machine, but none of that structure or its prompts travels with a downloaded file.
• Luma's published guides describe no user-facing seed control, so re-creating a clip later depends entirely on the prompt, source image, and settings you saved yourself.
• Monthly credits do not carry over and the output records nothing about attempts, so the cost and effort behind a shot are only documented if you note them while working.

The documentation checklist for Luma Dream Machine

1. Create one board per client project before generating, so related images and videos stay grouped from the first attempt.
2. Record the plan your account was on for each generation date, because Free and Lite output is watermarked and licensed for non-commercial use only.
3. Save the prompt and the source image for every Make Video run, and note which of the two generated versions you selected.
4. Download the chosen clip through the three-dots menu on the video, then hash the file and store the hash with the prompt and the date.
5. When you change plans mid-project, record the date of the change so every clip can be matched to the plan that generated it.
6. At project close, capture the board contents in your archive, because the iteration trail otherwise exists only inside the account.

The license question deserves the most care because it is invisible in the file. Keep the subscription receipt or plan confirmation for every month a project generates in, and match each delivered clip to the plan on its generation date. If any shots were made on Free or Lite before an upgrade, say so in the delivery note, and treat regenerating them under the paid plan as a decision to record rather than an afterthought.

Everything else follows the usual notarial logic. Your record can show which prompt, source image, plan, and chosen version existed at a point in time, and that they have not changed since. It cannot show that a reference caused a look, and it does not need to. A client asking about a Dream Machine delivery is really asking whether you can produce the trail, and the trail is built at generation time or not at all.

Frequently asked questions