Text to video
Text to Video AI: Generate a Video From Words
Text to video AI, sometimes called an AI text to video generator, turns a written description into a short clip. You generate video from text by describing one shot, not by narrating a film.
The model has never seen your sentence before. It uses patterns from video it was trained on to propose frames that fit the words. A specific place and a single action give it less room to wander than a list of moods.
This is the path to use when you do not have a picture yet. If you already like a frame — a product, a portrait, a layout — start from that image instead. The two routes are compared in text-to-video versus image-to-video.
What text handles well
Weather, time of day, a simple camera move, and a clear subject. Wide places. A single gesture. What it handles poorly is a sequence of events, readable words inside the frame, and precise choreography between several people.
Anatomy of one prompt
Build the line in this order. Stop when the shot is visible in your head.
- Subject
- A glass elevator in an empty hotel
- Action
- The doors close once and stay closed
- Place
- Night, one practical light in the lobby
- Camera
- Locked, slight low angle
- Light
- Warm bulb, cool marble, shallow focus
- Leave out
- No titles, no logos, no extra people
Three shots to try
Glass elevator
A glass elevator in an empty hotel lobby. The doors close once and stay closed. Locked camera, slight low angle, one warm bulb, cool marble, no people, no text.
Market lamp
A single paper lamp sways above an empty night market stall. Steam rises from a closed pot. Slow lateral move, sodium light, no readable signs.
Paper boat
A paper boat crosses a stone basin and bumps the far edge. Overcast daylight, locked top-down camera, natural water, no hands, no text.
Questions
Do I need to mention a camera?
If the move matters, yes. “Cinematic” does not tell a model whether the frame is locked or traveling. Name one move. If you want the frame still, say locked-off.
Why does the clip ignore part of the prompt?
Long prompts compete with themselves. Models often follow the subject and drop a later clause. Shorten the sentence and generate again, changing one idea at a time.
How long should a text-to-video prompt be?
Long enough for one shot. A subject, one action, a place, a camera, and the light is usually plenty. A paragraph of story is a different document.
One sentence. One action.
If the picture already exists, image-to-video will fight you less than a fresh description.