Apr 2021 – mid 2022
Frame by frame
Warping one image forward, then re-dreaming it toward a prompt.
VQGAN+CLIP · PyTTI · Disco Diffusion
1 film
Workflows
How AI film workflows evolved
Coherence started by warping one image forward, then borrowed from live footage, then came from one anchor image, then from a cast of references. Since late summer 2026, a frontier model runs the whole production.
Act I · 2021 – 2023 · 2 workflows
One image forward
Coherence came from warping the last frame and redrawing it toward the prompt, hundreds of times over.
Act II · 2022 – 2023 · 2 workflows
Borrow the motion, or pray for it
Restyle footage you shot, or type a sentence and keep the least broken take.
Sep 2022 – 2023
Shoot it, then restyle it
Video-to-video: borrowing coherence from live footage.
Runway Gen-1 · ControlNet · WarpFusion
6 tutorials · 3 films
Mar 2023 – late 2023
Prompt and pray
Text-to-video: the first public medium, two to four seconds at a time.
ModelScope text2video · Runway Gen-2 · Zeroscope v2 XL
2 tutorials · 2 films
Act III · 2023 – 2024 · 2 workflows
Art-direct the frame
Make the still first, then hand it to a video model to bring to life.
Jul 2023 – 2024
Animate the still
Image-to-video: art-direct the frame, then add the motion.
Midjourney · Magnific · Runway Motion Brush
8 tutorials · 5 films
Feb 2024 – Dec 2024
A timeline of intentions
Sora's storyboard, remix and the collage-in-a-card reference hack.
Sora · Topaz Video AI
2 tutorials · 1 film
Act IV · 2024 – 2026 · 5 workflows
A cast of references
Faces, outfits, clips and sound go in together, and the prompt becomes a bundle.
Mar 2024 – Feb 2025
Character sheets
Identity comes from images, not luck: from Midjourney's character reference to Kling Elements.
Kling 1.6 Elements · Veo 2 · Midjourney
3 tutorials · 5 films
Feb – Apr 2025
Edit, don't regenerate
Swap, add, keyframe and perform become verbs.
Pika 2.2 (Pikadditions, Pikaswaps, Pikaframes) · OmniHuman-1 · Higgsfield
2 tutorials · 1 film
Apr 2025 – Sep 2026
The prompt becomes a bundle
Images, clips, sound and documents go in together, and a whole scene comes out.
Kling 2.0 (MVL, Multi-Elements) · Wan 2.1-VACE · ComfyUI
15 tutorials · 17 films
May – Jun 2025
Sound in the same pass
Veo 3, Flow and the recipe behind the Veo 3 ad.
Veo 3 · Flow · Seedance 1.0
2 tutorials
Jul – Sep 2025
Footage drives the shot
The reference becomes video: motion, camera and performance from a clip you shot or blocked.
Runway Act-Two · Runway Aleph · Wan 2.2
4 tutorials · 3 films
Act V · 2025 – now · 2 workflows
Direct the production
An agent holds the whole film and calls every model it needs, or a crew shoots the performance and the models build the world around it.
In use nowSince Jul 2025
Film it, then generate
Shoot the performance or block the shot in 3D, then let the models build the world around it.
Runway Aleph · Runway Aleph 2.0 + Edit Studio · Luma Modify Video
9 tutorials · 9 films
In use nowSince Oct 2025
The agent as producer
Brief an agent in the app or from a terminal: it plans the shots, picks the models, generates and assembles the cut.
Wasserman's Filmmaker Suite · Hailuo Media Agent · Runway Workflows
9 tutorials · 11 films
From script to finish · 8 crafts
The crafts
Every part of the job changed on its own clock. Follow one craft across the acts, from writing the film to finishing it.
01 · 2024 – now
Develop the film
Script, shot list and prompts, written with a language model.
LTX Studio · Claude · Runway Agent
2 tutorials
02 · 2024 – now
Previs and storyboards
Boards become first frames; a gray-box scene becomes the camera.
Sora · Nano Banana Pro · Blender
5 tutorials · 1 film
03 · 2022 – now
Characters and consistency
Keeping one face, one outfit and one voice from shot to shot.
DreamBooth · LoRA for diffusion · IP-Adapter
6 tutorials · 1 film
04 · 2023 – now
Camera
From pan and zoom sliders to named moves, keyframes and a clip as the camera.
Runway Motion Brush · Luma Keyframes · Kling 1.x
5 tutorials · 1 film
05 · 2023 – now
Performance and dialogue
Lip sync, voices, and a real actor's performance on a generated character.
HeyGen Video Translate · Runway Lip Sync · Hallo
4 tutorials · 1 film
06 · 2023 – now
Sound and music
Voice, sound effects and score, then sound in the same pass as the picture.
Suno v3 · Udio · ElevenLabs Sound Effects
3 tutorials
07 · 2023 – now
VFX and compositing
Mattes, clean plates, relighting and edits made inside the shot.
Runway Green Screen · Wonder Studio · Pika 2.2 (Pikadditions, Pikaswaps, Pikaframes)
3 tutorials
08 · 2022 – now
Finishing
Retime, paint out, upscale, grade and deliver.
Topaz Video AI · Magnific · Runway Ruby
5 tutorials
What people make · 5 forms
The forms
From the trailer that started it to worlds you can walk into: each form found its own way of working.
Since Mar 2022
The music video
Make the song first, map the beats, and cut picture to the music.
VQGAN+CLIP · Deforum · Suno v3
1 tutorial · 3 films
Since Jul 2023
The trailer and the spec ad
Music first, a three-act arc and hundreds of takes: the short form AI film learned on.
Midjourney · Runway Gen-2 · Veo 3
2 films
Since Dec 2024
Worlds you can walk into
Generate a place, then film inside it, or let it run live.
StreamDiffusion · Genie 3 · HunyuanWorld 1.0
1 film
Since May 2025
The series and the micro-drama line
Recurring casts, episodes on a schedule, and China's industrial short-drama pipeline.
Kling 1.6 Elements · Seedance 2.0 · Eleven v3
2 tutorials · 3 films
Since Apr 2026
Motion design, written as code
Claude Motion, HyperFrames, Remotion and Blender: the agent writes the animation, so every word, number and beat stays editable.
Claude Motion · HyperFrames · Remotion Agent Skills
10 tutorials · 6 films