AI Photo Animate
Upload a photo and a reference video
Drag & drop, or press Ctrl/⌘+VChoose a photo or use your camera
Drag & drop or choose a fileChoose a video file
BeforeUpload a photo and a short video. The photo takes on the movement and the camera of the clip.
Copying motion instead of inventing it
Asking a model to invent movement gives you movement that is plausible but not specific. If you had something particular in mind, a walk, a dance, a turn of the head, describing it in words is a poor way to ask for it.
Supplying the movement solves that. The reference clip carries the timing and the camera; your photo supplies who is in it. If you have no reference and want the model to decide, the image to video generator is the right tool.
How to animate a photo from a video
Upload your photo
Front-facing, subject fully in frame, face sharp.
Upload a reference video
A short clip whose movement you want the photo to copy.
Say what should carry over
Usually the motion and the camera. Naming it keeps the rest steady.
Generate and download
Every frame is produced, so this takes longer than a still image.
Matching the photo to the clip
The closer the starting pose is to the first frame of the reference, the less the model has to invent, and inventing is where results go wrong. A standing photo with a standing reference is the easy case; a seated photo with a full body dance is the hard one.
Framing matters as much as pose. If the reference moves arms and legs, give the model a photo that contains arms and legs. A tight head crop cannot grow a body just because the reference has one.
Keep the clip short. Every extra second is more frames to produce and more opportunity for the result to drift away from the person in your photo.
Using this responsibly
Use your own photo and your own footage, or material you have permission to use. That covers nearly every good use of this.
What it does not cover is making a real, identifiable person appear to do something they did not. Our AI restricted policy sets out what is not allowed here.
Frequently asked questions
Image to video invents the movement. Photo animate copies movement that already exists in a video you upload, so the result follows the timing, the pose changes and the camera of that reference clip instead of guessing at them.