# Video-to-Video: Shoot fast, restyle later

Period: Jul – Sep 2025 · Era: 2025 · The Studio Era

The reference becomes video: motion, camera and performance.

The reference could now be a video, not just a picture. Film a rough version on your phone or block it out in 3D, then have the model restyle it, relight it, or transfer an actor's performance onto a character while keeping the motion.

## How it worked

1. Shoot phone footage or render a Blender gray-box, then restyle it with Runway Aleph (new angles, relighting, add or remove objects by prompt), Luma Modify Video or Wan 2.2-Animate.
2. Transfer a face performance with Act-Two: driving video plus character image.
3. Build character sheets in Nano Banana, which became the default the week it shipped.
4. Use Ray3's Draft Mode for cheap takes and HDR EXR output for the keeper.
5. Vidu Q2 pushed reference counts to seven images; Sora 2 added native audio and consent-based cameos.

## Why it mattered

The reference could now be video, not just stills, which made previz and blocking part of the generative pipeline.

## Tools of the era

- Runway Act-Two (2025): https://runway.com
- Runway Aleph (2025): https://runway.com/research/introducing-runway-aleph
- Wan 2.2 (2025): https://github.com/Wan-Video/Wan2.2
- Nano Banana (2025): https://gemini.google
- Luma Ray3 (2025): https://lumalabs.ai/ray
- Sora 2 (2025): https://openai.com/sora
- Vidu Q2 (2025): https://www.vidu.com
- Grok Imagine (2025): https://x.ai

## Example videos and posts

- Runway Gen-4 · Runway: https://x.com/runwayml/status/1906718935778545964
- Wan 2.2-Animate · Alibaba Wan: https://x.com/Alibaba_Wan/status/1968921551392432175
- Act-Two first look: a short film from a phone performance · Theoretically Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni_6i3LSBcQ
- Nine practical ways to use Runway Aleph · Curious Refuge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAWMu058Lj8
- Ultimate Nano Banana deep dive · Theoretically Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSAskQlrkr8
- Consistent characters step by step: Midjourney, Ideogram, Seedream, Seedance · Curious Refuge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsqhdm7c-Rc

## On the timeline

- [Wan 2.2](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/wan-2-2) (2025-07-15)
- [Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/nano-banana) (2025-08-26)
- [Luma Ray3](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/luma-ray3) (2025-09-18)
- [Sora 2](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/sora-2) (2025-09)
- [Gen:48 — Aleph Edition](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/gen48-aleph) (2025-08-23)
- [Grok Imagine](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/grok-imagine) (2025-08-02)
- [IM8 Ad: 233 Million Views in Three Days](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/im8-ad-233-million-views) (2025-08-27)

## Sources

- Runway Aleph review: https://techpoint.africa/guide/runway-ai-aleph-review/
- Luma Modify Video: https://lumalabs.ai/news/introducing-modify-video
- Nano Banana: https://developers.googleblog.com/en/introducing-gemini-2-5-flash-image/
- Luma Ray3: https://lumalabs.ai/news/ray3
- Sora 2 and the Sora app: https://venturebeat.com/ai/openai-debuts-sora-2-ai-video-generator-app-with-sound-and-self-insertion

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Source: https://aifilmhistory.org/workflows/video-as-reference