How the Kirkify neon look is built: pipeline breakdown

Kirkify looks loud but the pipeline is intentionally small so renders stay fast. Here is the full sequence we run today, why each step exists, and what is changing next quarter.

Step 1 · Fingerprint & queue

We create a short-lived fingerprint (device + IP-derived country) to stop bot floods. If the queue is spiking, Bronze/Silver/Gold users jump to a priority lane; free users still get a spot but see a slower ETA.

Step 2 · Face detection with guardrails

We block private individuals and minors by default. Our filter allows one face per frame for the Kirk overlay to avoid group-harassment use cases. If detection fails, we return a quick error instead of silently producing a bad swap.

Step 3 · Swap model selection

Model routing today:

Free tier: fast SD face-swap tuned to preserve expression, capped at 1024px.
Bronze: higher-fidelity checkpoint with better teeth/eyebrow retention.
Silver/Gold: same as Bronze plus an auto-cleanup pass to fix edge halos.
Gold video: frame-level swap with light optical flow smoothing for 6–10s clips.

Step 4 · The neon treatment

After the swap we run a small LUT, push cyan/magenta split toning, and add the signature Kirkify stroke. This keeps the visual language consistent so viewers recognize the format across TikTok and X.

Step 5 · Watermark + satire label

Two overlays ship with every render: a Kirkify watermark and an “AI satire” label. Paid users can remove the watermark, but the satire label remains baked in by default to align with platform rules. Fonts and contrast are WCAG AA.

Step 6 · Aspect ratio presets

Export options chosen to prevent accidental cropping:

9:16 TikTok/Shorts with safe zones for captions and labels.
1:1 for feed posts and profile replies.
16:9 for YouTube and desktop embeds.

Step 7 · Delivery & retention

We mirror the final render to R2 for 24 hours so you can download it again without re-running credits. After that window we purge it unless you explicitly save the preset to your account.

Quality controls we watch

Daily checks before we push a new preset:

Edge fringing on hairlines and ears across five lighting scenarios.
Caption legibility at 720p and 1080p outputs.
Watermark visibility on both bright and dark backgrounds.
NSFW and political-figure filter performance on a rotating test set.

Roadmap for Q1 2026

We are experimenting with a style-only mode (no face swap) for creators who just want the neon frame and captions, plus a proof-of-human uploader that lets you attach a short statement about the parody intent. Both will stay watermark-on by default.

“Consistency beats novelty for memes. If every export looks familiar and clearly labeled, you’ll avoid most moderation headaches.” — Kirkify product notes