How to animate a photo into a moving shot
Animate a photo turns one still into a short moving shot. The form is four fields long and only the first is required: a photo goes in, an optional sentence says what should happen, a slider sets the length, and the price in credits updates as you move it. This walkthrough follows the fields exactly as the form presents them.
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Four fields, and three of them are optional
- 1
Open Studio and pick Animate a photo
The card describes the job rather than the model: one still becomes a moving shot. Opening it shows the form and names the model powering it underneath the title.
studio/animate-photo
- 2
Upload the still under Photo
The first field is labelled Photo and its hint is "A clear, front-facing photo works best". That is not decoration — a face at an angle, in shadow or behind glass is the single most common reason an animated still comes back looking wrong.
studio/animate-photo#photo
- 3
Optionally add audio, and say what should happen
If the model accepts audio, a second field appears — "Audio (optional)", hinted "Add a voice track and the lips will follow it". Below it, "What should happen? (optional)" takes up to 500 characters; its placeholder is "She smiles and turns towards the camera", which is the right register: one concrete action, not a paragraph of adjectives.
studio/animate-photo#prompt
- 4
Set the length and press Generate
The duration slider is bounded by the model's own minimum and maximum rather than by a house rule, so a model that will not go past its ceiling simply does not offer it. The form prints the exact credit cost of the run next to the Generate button, and re-prints it whenever you change the length. Nothing is charged before you press it.
studio/animate-photo#duration
- 5
Collect the clip from your Library
The vertical MP4 lands in your Library. Runs are processed in the background, so you can close the tab — the finished file turns up in your Library. We do not quote a fixed wall-clock time: it moves with the length of the run and with how busy the queue is.
library
Which image-to-video model to use
HappyHorse 1.1 Image to Video
Product defaultThe default, and the one the tool runs on. It is also the catalogue's recommended pick for this job, which is why it is what you get without choosing anything.
The trade-off: Being the default is not being the best at everything — for a purely cinematic camera move with no person in frame, the alternatives below are worth a run.
Specs and credit price →Kling 3.0 Pro Image to Video
From the model specYou want a more deliberate camera move out of the still — a push in, a slow orbit — rather than the subject simply coming to life.
The trade-off: A different price and a different length ceiling; both are printed on its catalogue page, and neither is a small difference.
Specs and credit price →LTX 2.3 Pro Image to Video
From the model specYou are running many variations of the same still and the per-run price matters more than any single result.
The trade-off: Cheaper models are cheaper for reasons that show up on hard frames — hands, fast motion, small faces.
Specs and credit price →Luma Ray 3.2 Image to Video
From the model specThe still is a landscape, an object or a scene rather than a portrait, and you want the motion to read as cinematography.
The trade-off: Scene-first models are not identity-first models: for a photo of a person you care about recognising, start with the default.
Specs and credit price →These picks come from our own side-by-side runs and from what the tools actually default to. The specs and credit prices live on each model's own page and are generated from the catalogue, so they cannot drift out of date here. We do not quote anyone else's review, benchmark or price.
Your first video from $0.99
A one-time purchase — 35 credits land in your balance immediately. No subscription, nothing renews, and if a generation fails on our side the credits come back automatically.
What this does not do
- It does not invent a second person, a new location or a plot. One still is one shot.
- It does not rescue a bad source. Blur, heavy compression and cropped-off chins survive into the video.
- It does not give you a talking head on its own — that needs a voice track, which is the next guide.
- It does not post anywhere. We never ask for your Instagram, TikTok or YouTube password, never read your DMs and never publish anything for you. You download the file and post it yourself.
Common questions
What kind of photo works best?
Do I have to write a prompt?
How long can the clip be?
What does it cost to try?
Keep reading
Animate your first photo
Signing up costs nothing and needs no card. The form quotes the run in credits before you press Generate.
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