Describe Motion, Not the Scene
The photo already tells the model what everything looks like. Restating it ('a woman in a red dress on a beach') wastes your budget. Say what should move: the subject, the camera, or the environment.
Five Patterns That Hold Up
- One camera move per clip: 'slow push-in' beats 'dynamic cinematic camera work'.
- Constrain the environment: 'background stays stable' prevents scene drift.
- Bound the subject motion: 'blinks and shifts weight slightly' — models overshoot open-ended verbs.
- Name the exclusions: 'no morphing, no extra limbs, no text'.
- Keep it under ~40 words: longer prompts dilute, not enrich.
Iterate One Variable at a Time
If a generation fails, change one thing — the verb, the camera move, or the exclusions — and retry. Changing everything at once teaches you nothing about what worked.
💡 Capabilities differ between models and change with every release — treat prompt guides (including this one) as starting points, not guarantees.