At Home with Tech

Have you ever encountered a visual moment that you immediately felt compelled to capture with a photo? It happens to me all the time. Taking a walk on the street… hiking in the forest… or commuting to work. I just see it and say to myself, “Wow, that would be a great picture.” 

I imagine you’ve experienced this too.

One Frame is All You Need

And whether you happen to be carrying your camera or can quickly pull out your smartphone, it’s often possible to capture the moment. But the visual opportunity usually lasts for just a few seconds, right? You might get off a couple shots, but then the opportunity has passed.

If you’re also attracted to the motion of the moment and you want to shoot a little video clip, that’s usually a much harder task, because there simply isn’t enough time.

That’s where GenAI video creation tools can really help. No, they can’t turn back or slow down time, allowing you the freedom to shoot that perfect video. 

But GenAI can take your photo and then magically generate a few seconds of realistic action from your freeze frame. 

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

This faux reality is clearly not the same as recording the real deal.

But if you consider the potential of this amazing and disruptive AI video creation process as an art form, you can sidestep (for the moment) the ethical debate surrounding fake video use.

Today, we’re simply talking about using your very real photos as the creative foundation to generate video art. Think of it as a realistic-looking digital painting in motion.

And instead of having to start from scratch with just words and a series of complex prompts, your photo can instantly provide a ton of art direction for your scene. From there, you can focus more on creating the action in it.

Here’s an example of how I do this…

Start with One of Your Photos

Upload your photo to the GenAI platform of your choice. For today’s demonstration, I’m using Google Veo. I snapped this photo of a man flying a kite on the beach on a cool spring afternoon. 

Animate your Photo

Then I asked Veo to bring it life.

Change the Person in your Photo

Next, I asked Nano Banana to change the man into a woman.

Create a Cinematic Video

Finally, I had Veo create a video from that new photo and add a tracking dolly move to the shot.

This cinematic motion added to the scene was especially impressive, because that would have otherwise required a video crew for the day with expensive gear to pull off.

I generated this video clip in about 30 seconds.

Impressive. Most impressive.

AI Video Creation Tip:
Use a Start and End Image

Often, it’s easier to get what you’re looking for if you first upload what the first and last frame of your new video should look like (using two of your photos). 

That will provide the guardrails for your Gen AI platform to appropriately fill in the middle. Otherwise, it might do anything it wants, creating entirely unwanted action. Even uploading the same photo as the first and last shot can help stabilize the output.

Perfect results are not guaranteed, but I’ve found it captivating to explore this process. Here are a few more examples based on my own photos.

Woman Sits on Church Steps in Barcelona

Man and his Dog Walk to Waterfall

This is Serious

So yes, this is really cool. But what’s my practical application for all this beyond showing off a parlor trick of sorts?

Well, clearly, this is all about the future of video creation. And GenAI video will only continue to become more realistic. Again, beyond the ethical questions surrounding this topic, there are massive implications that are already rewriting the rulebook for the entire video production industry.

And as video production sits at the center of my career, I’ve been paying close attention to this revolution.

It’s easy to play in this sandbox in the name of art or personal photography. But there’s a much larger arena that’s already being impacted.

Soon, playtime will be over.

It’s time to skill up.