Finishing is the most expensive station on the floor, and the one least able to repair what arrives broken. Before a clip goes there, inspect it in three passes at working size, where a failed inspection costs nothing.
Three passes, three questions
First — the character. Line card beside the screen. Hair, face and signature should hold through the movement; most drift arrives mid-turn.
Second — the joins. Hands entering frame, hair crossing the face, fabric edges, changes of light. Transfers strain exactly at joins.
Third — the loop point. Watch the seam five times in a row; the seam is what a viewer’s eye learns fastest.
Then, and only then, finish it
A clip that holds across all three passes has earned the finishing station. A clip that fails returns to the still, where character is decided at 6 credits. Inspect cheap, finish dear — that ordering is the floor’s whole cost discipline.