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Guide · 9 Nov 2026 · Dave Mao

Put Yourself into Movie Clips

This scene keeps every gesture, glance and blink of two people talking at a table, and replaces everything else: the people become Di Renjie and Wang Wei, the room becomes a canyon pool at golden hour, the table holds a plate of peanuts, and a dragon sleeps behind them. Here is every step and every prompt I used, so you can do the same with any dialogue clip you film yourself.

  1. Create your film and scene
  2. Make your characters, prop and places
  3. Film your own dialogue clip
  4. Make the video
Step 1

Create your film and scene

Everything for one film lives in one place, so start with the film itself and one scene inside it.

How to set it up

  1. On the Films page, press + Create A New Film.
  2. Name it, then pick the shape. I used 16:9, widescreen.
  3. Leave Film Style on Photorealistic for a real-footage look, then press Create Film.
  4. Inside the film, press + Create scene and give it a name. Mine is "SC01".
  5. You don't need anyone under Cast. The two heroes and the dragon are made inside the scene in step 2.
Step 2

Make your characters, prop and places

Every person, thing and place in the scene is made as a clean picture first, so the video model gets exact references instead of guessing. Two heroes and a dragon from Honor of Kings, rebuilt as real, a plate of peanuts, and the same canyon pool seen from three directions.

Let the Prompt Writer build each sheet

  1. In your scene, add a new character and give it a name. Write a few words in the bible (age, height, build, face, hair, outfit) and add reference pictures. Game screenshots work well.
  2. Press Build this character. The Prompt Writer opens with your words and pictures already in it. Send it.
  3. It writes the full prompt for you: what to take from each picture, and what not to. Press Build This under its answer to fill the box, pick the model and press Generate. Press Use This Picture on the one you like.
  4. If a sheet is close but not right, press Make Another Look on its card and ask for the change. My final Wang Wei and dragon are second looks.
  5. Props work the same way: add a prop, describe it, and press Build this prop.
  6. For a scene with cuts between angles, make the place once for each angle: one behind each person, and one for the wide shot. Ask for an empty place, with no people in it.

Characters

Three characters, each made from game screenshots and a written bible, rebuilt as a real person or a real creature.

Di Renjie

Di Renjie

Three game screenshots: front, side and back. The prompt takes the face, hair and outfit design, and asks for a real person in real cloth, not a game render.

My reference pictures
Prompt · Seedream 5.0 Pro
@Image1 is the character standing in a moonlit courtyard, facing the camera: take only his face, hair, build and the front of his outfit - the high-collared orange-brown jacket with gold trim and its wide sleeves - not his pose, not the glowing object in his hands, not the courtyard, tree or moon behind him.
@Image2 is the same character in side profile: take only the true shape of his profile - forehead, nose, lips, chin, ear - and the silhouette of his hair from the side, plus the blue sash at his waist and the long white and gold panel hanging at the front of his legs; not the pose, the floor disc, or the courtyard.
@Image3 is the same character from directly behind: take only the back of his outfit - the raised collar, the glowing blue vertical emblem down the back of the jacket, the long white and gold tail panel over the maroon trousers, the blue ankle wraps and the dark gold-trimmed boots - and the back of his hair; not the pose, the floor disc, or the courtyard.

A wide photo strip: four separate studio photographs of the same person, placed side by side in one row, left to right. Each photograph is a tall vertical rectangle, all four the same width, divided by thin white lines.

BACKGROUND IN ALL FOUR: a pure, bright, plain white seamless studio background that fills the whole photo, evenly lit edge to edge. The white wall and floor blend into one with no visible floor, no horizon line, no corner, no texture and no grey gradient. The person looks as if standing in endless white space. Under his boots there is only a faint, soft contact shadow, nothing else.

LIGHT IN ALL FOUR: soft, even, bright studio light from the front and slightly from the left, with gentle natural shadows on the face and body. The same light in all four photos.

PHOTO 1 (far left): head-and-shoulders portrait from the front, from the top of the hair to the collarbones, facing the camera straight on and looking into the lens, relaxed neutral expression, mouth closed.
PHOTO 2: the same head-and-shoulders size, but the whole head and body turned 90 degrees to face the left edge of the photo: a true side profile where only one eye is visible and the nose, lips and chin form the outline of the face, with the ear in the middle of the head.
PHOTO 3: the body from the neck down to the boots, facing the camera, standing straight, weight on both feet, arms relaxed at the sides, hands empty. The top edge of the photo cuts across the neck just below the chin, so no head, face or hair is in this photo, with a little white space below the boots.
PHOTO 4 (far right): the body from the neck down to the boots, seen from directly behind, the same size and position as photo 3, showing the back of the jacket and the glowing blue emblem, the tail panel and the boots. The top edge cuts across the neck in the same place, so no head or hair is in this photo.

The face and hair appear only in photos 1 and 2.

THE PERSON: a young man about 22 years old, 181 cm tall, lean and long-limbed with narrow shoulders and a narrow waist, light on his feet. His face, eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth are exactly as in @Image1 and @Image2, kept true to that design and never beautified: a young oval face with a defined jaw and high cheekbones, a straight narrow nose, a wide calm mouth. Fair skin with visible pores, fine lines, peach fuzz and a few small natural blemishes, real iris detail and real eye shape. His hair is thick light brown, swept up into soft sculpted spikes rising from the forehead, short and close at the sides and nape, with a few loose strands falling over the brow - the same hair as in @Image1, @Image2 and @Image3.

CLOTHING, the same in all four photos, exactly as in the reference pictures: an orange-brown high-collared jacket in matte cloth with wide sleeves, the collar, cuffs, front opening and hem edged in metallic gold trim, the wide sleeves falling to just past the wrist. A wide cloth sash in deep blue tied at the waist. A long rectangular panel of white cloth with gold edging hangs from the waist down the front of the legs, and a second long white and gold panel hangs down the back. The back of the jacket carries a narrow vertical glowing blue emblem running down between the shoulder blades. Loose maroon cloth trousers, baggy through the leg and gathered at the ankle. Deep blue cloth wraps bound around both ankles. Dark brown boots with gold trim along the top edge. No other jewellery, no watch, no logos.

Copy the likeness exactly, never beautify. Real skin texture with visible pores, fine lines, peach fuzz and small natural blemishes, individual hair strands, real eye detail with the true iris colour. Unretouched studio photo, full-frame camera, 85mm lens, sharp focus. Not an illustration, not CGI, not a 3D render, no beauty filter, no text, no labels, no watermark.
Wang Wei

Wang Wei

A second look, made with Make Another Look: the first sheet tied his hair up, so this one lets the silver hair fall loose and lift in the air.

My reference pictures
Prompt · GPT Image 2.5
@Image1 is the figure under the moon: take only his face, the silver-white hair lifting away from his head, and the layered teal, deep-blue and white robes with cloud-patterned sashes. Do not take the painted brushwork, the teal moonlight, the still water, the tree or the cranes.
@Image2 is the same figure in profile: take only how his hair streams out sideways and how the dark navy outer robe hangs. Do not take the thin sword at his waist, the mist or the mountain peaks.
@Image3 is the same figure seen from behind: take the white cloud patterns worked into the back of the robe, the sheer flowing sleeves and the small red pendant at the sash. Not the high tied-up hair, not the background, not the painting finish.

A wide photo strip: four separate studio photographs of the same person, placed side by side in one row, left to right. Each photograph is a tall vertical rectangle, all four the same width, divided by thin white lines.

BACKGROUND IN ALL FOUR: a pure, bright, plain white seamless studio background that fills the whole photo, evenly lit edge to edge. The white wall and floor blend into one with no visible floor, no horizon line, no corner, no texture and no grey gradient. The person looks as if standing in endless white space. Under the bare feet there is only a faint, soft contact shadow, nothing else.

LIGHT IN ALL FOUR: soft, even, bright studio light from the front and slightly from the left, with gentle natural shadows on the face and body. The same light in all four photos.

PHOTO 1 (far left): head-and-shoulders portrait from the front, from the top of the hair to the collarbones, facing the camera straight on and looking into the lens, relaxed neutral expression, mouth closed. The silver-white hair is caught mid-drift over his left shoulder, the loose ends lifting clear of him. The long pale jade hairpin lies across the back of his lower head behind the hair, its two ends sticking far out past the hair on both sides of his head, clearly visible against the white background.

PHOTO 2: the same head-and-shoulders size, but the whole head and body turned 90 degrees to face the left edge of the photo: a true side profile where only one eye is visible and the nose, lips and chin form the outline of the face, with the ear in the middle of the head. The mass of his silver-white hair floats out behind his head, lifted away from the neck. The long pale jade hairpin is clearly visible behind his neck, its shaft and rounded head coming clear of the hair and standing out against the white background.

PHOTO 3: the body from the neck down to the bare feet, facing the camera, standing straight, weight on both feet, arms relaxed at the sides, hands empty. The top edge of the photo cuts across the neck just below the chin, so no head, face or hair is in this photo, with a little white space below the feet.

PHOTO 4 (far right): the body from the neck down to the bare feet, seen from directly behind, the same size and position as photo 3, showing the back of the clothes. The top edge cuts across the neck in the same place, so no head or hair is in this photo.

The face and hair appear only in photos 1 and 2, and the hairpin appears only in photos 1 and 2. The nape of the neck is out of frame in photos 3 and 4.

THE PERSON: a man of 22, 182 cm tall, 68 kg, slender and long-limbed, narrow shoulders, a long neck, a straight upright posture. Face: narrow oval, high smooth cheekbones, a fine straight nose, a small closed mouth, clean-shaven with a faint shadow line on the jaw, a slight natural asymmetry - the right eyebrow sitting a few millimetres higher. Skin: pale, cool-toned, real texture with visible pores on the nose and cheekbones, fine lines at the eye corners, faint peach fuzz along the jaw, a small mole below the left eye. Eyes: light grey-blue, almond-shaped and slightly upturned at the outer corners, dark lashes, calm steady gaze. Eyebrows: thin, straight, silver-grey, a little darker than the hair.

HAIR - this must match exactly: silver-white, fine, glossy and long, reaching the middle of his back. It is never tied, never knotted, no topknot, no bun, no braid. It is swept back off his forehead and then swings out to his left in one long loose mass, held out sideways and slightly upward from his head as if he were standing in a slow current of air - the whole weight of it floating clear of his left ear and shoulder, the ends drifting apart into separate lifted strands, the underside of the mass catching the light. A few fine strands cross his forehead and lift at the right temple. Individual hairs are visible, each one separate and shining.

THE HAIRPIN: one pale jade pin, smooth and slightly clouded, with a small rounded head at one end. It is about 60 cm long - four times the width of his head, so it is much longer than his head is wide. It lies across the back of his lower head, low near the nape, resting over the outer layer of his hair, with only a few loose strands falling across its middle. It is not buried: about 22 cm of it projects out into the air on each side of his head, so both ends are always clear of the hair and clearly visible - in the front photo the two ends stick out past the hair to the left and right of his head like a long pale bar, and in the side profile the rounded head and a long stretch of the shaft stand out behind his neck. It is a single straight rod, never bent and never shortened, and it never lies across the top of his head and never pierces a topknot.

CLOTHING: a long dark navy outer robe reaching the ankles, hanging open down the front, with wide hanging sleeves, its hem and sleeve edges worked with swirling white and pale-blue cloud patterns. Beneath it, layered pale white-and-blue inner robes of thin translucent silk with long narrow sleeves, overlapping in soft folds and faintly sheer at the forearms. A deep teal sash bound at the waist, its wide ends hanging to the knee, edged in the same swirling cloud pattern. A small red knotted pendant hanging at the back of the sash. Barefoot. The same clothes in all four photos.

Copy the likeness exactly, never beautify. Real skin texture with visible pores, fine lines, peach fuzz and small natural blemishes, individual hair strands, real eye detail with the true iris colour. Unretouched studio photo, full-frame camera, 85mm lens, sharp focus. Not an illustration, not CGI, not a 3D render, no beauty filter, no text, no labels, no watermark.
The dragon

The dragon

Made from one game screenshot, then a second look to get a heavier, real creature with fine scales instead of game shading.

My reference pictures
Prompt · Seedream 5.0 Pro
@Image1 is the creature seen from the front: take only its design and its colours - the golden-yellow armour-like plates grown over the skull and shoulders, the big symmetrical wings, the large golden horns. Take none of its surfaces: no game-render shading, no flat painted texture, no hard polygonal edges, and none of its glowing pool, stone ledge, roots, plants or dark blue background.

@Image2 is the same creature from another angle: take its exact colours and the shape of its body and limbs from it - the stiff feather-like plates in cyan, teal and deep navy, the glossy dark-blue hide on the limbs, the small horned head sitting low between the shoulders, the long clawed hands, the short legs under a very large body. Take none of the yellow energy ribbons, the mossy stone ground, the overhead angle or the game render surfaces.

A wide photo strip: two separate studio photographs of the same creature, placed side by side in one row, left to right. Each photograph is a tall vertical rectangle, both the same width, divided by a thin white line.

BACKGROUND IN BOTH: a pure, bright, plain white seamless studio background that fills the whole photo, evenly lit edge to edge. The white wall and floor blend into one with no visible floor, no horizon line, no corner, no texture and no grey gradient. The creature sits in endless white space. Under it there is only a faint, soft contact shadow and nothing else.

LIGHT IN BOTH: soft, even, bright studio light from the front and slightly from the left, with gentle natural shadows across the scales and the plates. The same light in both photos.

PHOTO 1 (left): the whole creature, sitting on all four feet, photographed from a camera on a low tripod standing on the studio floor, the lens only 40 cm above the ground on the far side, tilted up toward it. A true low angle looking up: both front legs straight and planted wide, the black front claws large and close in the bottom of the frame, the back legs folded and bent behind them with the rump down on the floor, the enormous body rising above the camera, both wings thrown wide and perfectly symmetrical to their full span, wider than the creature is long, the head raised, the jaw open in a roar, the glowing eyes looking down into the lens. The wingtips reach the upper corners and both wings are fully in frame.

PHOTO 2 (right): the whole creature, sitting on all four feet, seen from directly at its left side, the camera level and about 140 cm above the studio floor: a true side profile facing the left edge of the photo, one front leg and one back leg visible, both wings folded back and held high and tight against the shoulders. It sits the way a big dog sits: the front leg straight as a post, braced and taking the weight, the back leg folded and bent under the hip with the rump on the floor. From the tips of the horns to the claws of the feet, the whole body in frame. The true profile makes the proportions plain: a very large heavy body carried on short legs, the belly riding close to the floor.

THE CREATURE: a real, living dragon-like creature, adult, 260 cm tall sitting at the crown of its head, 340 cm from chest to rump, 560 cm across the fully spread wings - each wing is longer than the whole body is long. The body is very large and heavy, deep through the chest and belly, carried low on four short, thick legs: each leg is less than a third of the body's height, so the belly rides close to the floor. The front legs are straight posts; the back legs are short and thick and fold under the hips when it sits. The head is small for the body and sits low between the shoulders. Every colour is exactly as in @Image2: the layered plates over the skull, shoulders, back and chest are stiff and feather-like, each plate sculpted and separate like armour, in cyan, teal and deep navy; the hide on the limbs, belly and neck is glossy dark blue; the armour-like plates grown over the skull and shoulders are golden-yellow, thicker and more polished than the hide, chipped at the edges, finely scratched with dark dirt in the seams, giving off a faint warm glow from deep within. Large golden horns rise from the brow, one each side, symmetrical, thick at the base and curving back and outward, dull and weathered at the tips. Behind the skull and down the neck grows long spiky hair: stiff separate shafts sweeping back and out, each one sharp and pointed. The eyes glow pale electric storm-blue from inside, a bright restless light held inside the eye. The hands and feet end in thick black claws, blunt and worn at the tips. Every surface is real and physical: fine scale texture, pores and creases at the joints, moisture in the mouth, dust in the seams of the plates.

Copy the creature's design and its colours exactly, keep every proportion and every plate where it is. Real photographic texture, individual scales, unretouched. Shot on a full-frame camera, 35mm lens on the low angle of photo 1 and 50mm on the side view of photo 2, sharp focus. Not an illustration, not CGI, not a 3D render, not a game asset, no plastic sheen, no motion blur, no text, no labels, no watermark.

Props

One prop: the plate of peanuts on the table.

The peanuts

The peanuts

Words only, no reference picture: a small, worn bar plate, described down to the chip on the rim.

Prompt · Seedream 5.0 Pro
A small plate of peanuts.

One small round ceramic bar plate, 15 cm across and 2.5 cm tall, with a shallow well and a thin raised rim. Off-white glaze with a fine blue line painted around the rim edge, tiny crazing cracks across the glaze, one small chip on the rim showing the white clay beneath, and a faint greasy sheen on the inside from use. A short stack of two paper napkins sits under the plate's left edge, thin white paper with a visible embossed dimple pattern and one corner folded over.

In the plate: a loose heap of roasted peanuts about 9 cm wide and 5 cm high at its centre — roughly two thirds still in their pale tan shells, the shells 3 cm long, ridged, matte and slightly dusty, some cracked open; the rest shelled halves about 1.5 cm across, deep warm brown with patches of papery reddish skin still clinging to them, a few split. Fine white salt crystals scattered over the top and along the plate's inner rim, small crumbs of skin and salt dust in the bottom of the well. Three loose peanuts lie beside the plate on the surface, one in its shell, two shelled.

Every surface reads as real material: the hard glossy ceramic, the dry brittle shells, the oil-sheened nuts, the soft fibrous paper of the napkins. Sharp focus front to back, natural colour, fine surface detail.

Places

One canyon pool, made three times from three directions so every cut in the clip has its own background.

Behind Di Renjie

Behind Di Renjie

Made from a photo of a real canyon pool for the rock, water and light, and a rough 3D blocking for the layout.

Prompt · GPT Image 2.5
@Image1 is the place to match: take only its real materials, colour and light - the pale tan cracked cliff in warm golden sun with cool blue-green shade, the thick reddish-brown fibrous conifer trunk with gripping roots at the water's edge, the clear turquoise water rippling over a bed of small multicoloured pebbles - not its camera position or framing.
@Image2 is the blocking: take only the layout - one great trunk running out of the top of the frame at the left edge, another at the right edge, the still pool between them in the foreground, the tall tan cliff beyond on the right, a steep slope on the left - not its flat matte shading, simple shapes or dim grey light.

16:9 landscape photograph, low camera 100 cm above the water, 24mm lens, level, looking straight up the gorge between the two trunks.

THE PLACE. Bottom third: the shallow turquoise pool, 10 cm deep, glassy with slow ripples, running to the bottom edge; small multicoloured pebbles 1 to 5 cm across in grey, brown, rust and cream read straight through it, wet and glossy. Lower left: open wet rock and gravel, clear.

Left edge, out of the top of the frame: a great conifer trunk 1.4 m thick, bark reddish-brown and fibrous, splayed roots 3 m wide gripping stone and water. Right edge: a second trunk the same size, wet boulders at its base.

Left inner side of the pit, rising from the water to the ridge: bare rock throughout - pale tan sandstone, cracked and stained dark, its faces stepped into ledges and short vertical fins, wet and darker at the base. On top of those rocks, grass grows in thick mats along every ledge and over the ridge: moss-green and dry gold, shallow-rooted, with dark green conifers 4 to 8 m tall scattered along the crest and a few scrubby pines clinging lower down.

Right side: the tall tan cliff wall, vertical streaks, pines along its ledges and top. Blue sky with thin cloud above between the trunks.

THE LIGHT: low golden sun from behind the camera and to the right, 4700K, warm on the cliff face, cool blue-green in the shaded rock and the left slope; both trunks dark and rim-lit on their right sides; water holding a silver-teal sheen with the pebble bed readable; shadow detail held, no sun on the lens.

LOOK: real photograph, sharp, natural colour. Textured rock, bark, grass and wet pebbles; deep focus from the near pebbles to the ridge.

No people, no text, no watermark. Not a render, no low-poly shapes, no flat matte shading, not an illustration.
Behind both of them

Behind both of them

Made from a photo of a real canyon pool for the rock, water and light, and a rough 3D blocking for the layout.

Prompt · GPT Image 2.5
@Image1 is the place: take only its layout - the shallow pool filling the foreground, the tall tan cliff with jagged vertical fins behind it, the thin reddish-brown trunk with splayed roots at the water's edge right of the cliff, the boulders and cone pines on the ledges, the small grassy bank distant right, and the pale sky above - not its low-poly facets, flat matte surfaces or blocky shapes.

16:9 landscape photograph. 24mm lens, camera 130 cm above the water at the downstream edge, 2 m back from the pool, looking slightly up at the cliff, tilted up 3 degrees.

THE PLACE. Bottom half: a shallow sheet of water, ankle deep, 10 cm at most - one shoe height - running from the bottom edge back 8 m. Clear, so the bed reads straight through it: packed pebbles 1 to 6 cm across in grey, tan, rust and pale quartz, wet and glossy, thin patches of sand, a few drowned pine needles; the surface glassy, rippling faintly where it laps the stones, throwing soft pale streaks down onto the bed. Lower left corner: dry gravel and flat grey rock, open and clear, no obstructions.

Middle: wet dark boulders 0.5 to 2 m across line the waterline. Right of center, standing at the water's edge, a thin reddish-brown trunk 40 cm thick and 22 m tall, its splayed roots spread 3 m over stone and into the water, bark rough and shredded, a few bare branches low down.

Upper: the cliff fills the center and left - tan sandstone, 35 m high, split into jagged vertical fins with cracked faces, dark wet stains climbing its base, ledges carrying dark green cone pines 4 to 8 m tall and rounded grey boulders. Far right, a small grassy bank with low scrub and two pines.

THE LIGHT: low late-afternoon sun from behind the camera and to the left, 5000K, softened through thin haze. The cliff warm tan with cool blue shadow in its cracks; the shallow water holding a silver-teal sheen with the pebble bed still readable beneath it; shadows open with detail kept; no sun on the lens.

LOOK: real photograph, natural muted colour - teal water, warm tan rock, dark pine green. Wet stone, bark, pebbles and sand all textured; deep focus from the near pebbles to the cliff top.

No people. No text, no watermark, no overlay. Not a 3D render, no low-poly facets, no flat matte shading, no blocky shapes, no illustration, no cartoon, no plastic surfaces.
Behind Wang Wei

Behind Wang Wei

Made from a photo of a real canyon pool for the rock, water and light, and a rough 3D blocking for the layout.

Prompt · GPT Image 2.5
@Image1 is the place: take only its real materials, colour and light - pale golden-tan cracked sandstone, the shallow clear turquoise water over grey, tan and rust pebbles, thick fibrous reddish-brown bark, dark green conifers and warm low golden sun against blue sky - not its camera position or framing.
@Image2 is the blocking of what lies to the left: take only the layout - the rock wall and chunky boulders rising from the water on the left with green foliage on their ledges, a tapering trunk standing at the water's edge on the right, a dry olive-brown grass slope on the right, a narrow valley of distant pines behind - not its flat matte shading, smooth cone shape or dim grey light.

16:9 landscape photograph, 24mm lens, camera 130 cm above the water, level, looking left across the head of the pool toward the left wall of the pit.

THE PLACE. Bottom third: the shallow turquoise pool, 10 cm deep, glassy with slow ripples, continuing out of the right of frame; the bed reads through it, small wet pebbles 1 to 5 cm across in grey, tan and rust. Lower left: a dry ledge of wet flat rock and gravel, open and clear.

Left and center: the pit wall rises out of the water in stacked chunky boulders and short cracked sandstone faces 6 to 12 m high, pale tan and grey, wet and darker at the base with dark water stains climbing; grass grows in thick mats along every ledge and over the top - moss-green and dry gold, shallow-rooted - with low blocky dark green shrubs and scrubby pines clinging to the cracks.

Right of center: a conifer trunk tapers up and out of the frame, 90 cm thick at the waterline, bark bluish-grey with fibrous reddish-brown ridges and a few thin brown roots gripping the stone.

Far right: a slope of dry olive-brown grass strands leaning in wind. Between the rock shoulders behind, a narrow valley with small dark conifers receding into haze. Blue sky with thin cloud above.

THE LIGHT: low golden sun from behind the camera and to the right, 4700K, warm on the sunlit rock faces, cool blue-green in every crack and on the shaded left slope; the trunk dark and rim-lit on its right edge; the water holding a silver-teal sheen with the pebbles readable; shadow detail held, no sun on the lens.

LOOK: real photograph, sharp, natural colour. Textured rock, bark, grass and wet pebbles, deep focus from the near ledge to the ridge.

No people, no text, no watermark. Not a render, no low-poly shapes, no flat matte shading, not an illustration.
Step 3

Film your own dialogue clip

This is where the performance comes from. Motion transfer keeps every gesture, head turn, blink and expression, and the clip's own cuts and camera moves, exactly as filmed. Everything you see in it gets replaced, so film the acting, not the set.

Tips for recording

  1. Two people at a small table, talking. Any table and any room: it all gets replaced.
  2. Film widescreen (16:9) at 1080p with the phone on a tripod. Cut between angles if you like: one on each person and one wide shot. Note the second each cut happens.
  3. Act with your faces and hands: the model keeps expressions and gestures exactly, so make them clear.
  4. Hold something small where a prop will be. A peanut, a grape or a coin in your fingers lands where the new prop goes.
  5. Keep other people out of the frame, or they come along too.
  6. Up to about 25 seconds works in one shot. Use only footage you filmed yourself or have the rights to.
Step 4

Make the video

Now put it together: your clip goes in as the motion, and the characters, prop and places go in as pictures. The Prompt Writer writes the prompt for you.

How to make it

  1. Add your clip to the scene: press + in the box at the bottom and choose your video. It goes up as a shot of the scene, shown as Your video.
  2. Open that shot and press Edit Shot. Pick the model Genjutsu Motion Transfer at 480p.
  3. Add your pictures in the order above, and paste the prompt the Prompt Writer wrote for you. Check every picture is in the place the prompt says, then press Generate.
  4. When a take looks right, open the shot and press Upscale Shot. Pick Topaz Starlight and 1080p, press Generate, and the upscaled take shows in the shot list, ready to download.
  5. There is no step 5. You're done!

The order I attached them in

  • @Video1: your own dialogue clip
  • Picture 1: Di Renjie
  • Picture 2: the dragon
  • Picture 3: Wang Wei
  • Picture 4: the blocking
  • Picture 5: the peanuts
  • Picture 6: behind Di Renjie
  • Picture 7: behind both of them
  • Picture 8: behind Wang Wei

Tips for the Prompt Writer

  • Say that the clip gives only the motion, and that everything else in it is replaced: the people, their clothes, the place, the table and the light.
  • Say which person becomes which character, and describe each one fully again.
  • Give each camera angle its own background picture, and say when each one is used ("whenever only Wang Wei is in frame").
  • Turn props into props: say what replaces each thing on the table, and what to leave out.
  • A rough 3D blocking picture (simple shapes in the right places) shows where everyone sits better than words.
  • Make it at 480p first, then upscale only the take you keep.

The full prompt

Prompt · Genjutsu Motion Transfer, 480p, then upscaled to 1080p with Topaz Starlight
The video @Video1 is the whole shot: 16:9, its full length, and it keeps its own cutting, its own camera moves and its own timing exactly. Take from it only the motion - every gesture, every shift of weight, every head turn, every blink, every facial expression and the timing of each one - and keep all of it exactly as filmed, second for second, with the same body movement and the same face throughout. Everything else in the video is replaced by what is described below: the men, their clothes, the place, the table, everything on the table, and the light.

Nothing of the video's own world is left in it. The room becomes a canyon pool; the two people at the table become Wang Wei and Di Renjie; whatever is on the table becomes peanuts on a bamboo table. Nothing else moves in the shot: the movement of anyone who crosses behind them is not carried over, and the place behind the men stays still and empty apart from the dragon's slow breathing.

THE PICTURES, IN THE ORDER THEY ARE ATTACHED

The first picture is Di Renjie.
The second picture is the dragon.
The third picture is Wang Wei.
The fourth picture is the blocking: take only the arrangement from it - two figures seated facing each other across one small table, with the large mass of the dragon lying behind them. Not its blocky shapes, not its flat colours, not its platform or rock forms.
The fifth picture is the peanuts.
The sixth picture is the place behind Di Renjie whenever he is alone in frame.
The seventh picture is the place behind both men whenever both are in frame.
The eighth picture is the place behind Wang Wei whenever he is alone in frame.

THE PEOPLE

One man in the video becomes Wang Wei, from the third picture. A real, living man of 22, 182 cm and 68 kg, slender and long-limbed, narrow shoulders, a long neck, a straight upright posture. Narrow oval face, high smooth cheekbones, a fine straight nose, a small closed mouth, clean-shaven, the right eyebrow a few millimetres higher than the left, a small mole below the left eye. Pale cool-toned skin with visible pores, fine lines and a faint peach fuzz along the jaw. Light grey-blue eyes, almond-shaped. Silver-white hair, fine and glossy, swept back off a high forehead and falling loose and long to the middle of his back, never tied and never knotted, with one pale jade pin low at the nape, mostly hidden under the falling hair. He wears exactly what the third picture shows: a long dark navy outer robe to the ankles hanging open down the front, wide hanging sleeves, swirling white and pale-blue cloud patterns worked along the hems and sleeve edges, layered thin translucent white-and-blue inner robes beneath, a deep teal sash bound at the waist with patterned ends hanging to the knee, a small red knotted pendant at the back of the sash, barefoot. No sword. Make him real: real skin, individual silver hairs lifting on the air, thin translucent silk over opaque silk.

The other man in the video becomes Di Renjie, from the first picture. A real, living man of about 22, 181 cm, lean and long-limbed with narrow shoulders and a narrow waist. Young oval face with a defined jaw, high cheekbones, a straight narrow nose and a wide calm mouth; fair skin with real texture, visible pores, fine lines and a faint shadow of stubble on the jaw. Thick light brown hair, short at the sides and nape, swept up into soft sculpted spikes with a few loose strands over the brow. He wears exactly what the first picture shows: an orange-brown high-collared jacket with wide sleeves and metallic gold trim, a wide deep-blue sash at the waist, a long white-and-gold panel hanging down the front, loose maroon trousers gathered at the ankle, deep blue ankle wraps, dark brown boots with gold trim. Keep his face and his outfit design exactly as the picture shows them, and make him a real man in it: real skin, real hair, woven cloth with weight and creases, real leather; not a game render, not a sculpt, not painted.

THE DRAGON

From the second picture, a real living creature standing 240 cm at the crown of its head and 320 cm across its spread wings: heavy and low, a deep chest and belly carried on four short thick legs, the front legs straight as posts, the back legs folded, a small horned head set low between the shoulders, two large golden horns curving back from the brow, golden armour-like plates grown over the skull and shoulders, a hide of fine overlapping scales, long stiff spikes sweeping back off the skull and down the neck, thick black claws. Copy its design, its proportions and its colours exactly from the second picture, and make it physical: fine scales, creases at the joints, dust in the seams of the plates, moisture in the mouth, warm breath. Not a render, not a game asset, no plastic sheen.

Its place in the shot: it is behind the two men the whole time, it never touches them and never comes between them and the camera. Whenever only Wang Wei is in frame, the dragon's head and neck rise close behind Wang Wei's right shoulder, the head just above his shoulder line, low and heavy, eyes half closed, resting as if asleep, its breath slow and even. Whenever both men are in frame, the whole creature lies behind them both, belly on the ground, wings folded high and tight against its shoulders, head down on its forearms, asleep, breathing slowly; once in the shot it drags one foreleg a few centimetres forward and settles again.

THE TABLE

Where the video has its table there is a low bamboo table: pale split bamboo, natural grain, thin dark joints, slightly worn, no cloth on it. On it, exactly as the fifth picture shows: one shallow chipped white ceramic plate heaped with roasted peanuts, some in their tan ridged shells, most shelled with reddish-brown skins, a few grains of coarse salt on top. The table holds nothing else at any moment - wherever the video has a glass or a bowl, the bamboo is bare.

THE PLACES

All three are one place seen from three directions: a shallow turquoise pool in a canyon of pale golden-tan cracked sandstone, at low golden evening sun under a blue sky with thin cloud, cool blue-green in every crack of the rock, the water holding a silver-teal sheen over a bed of wet rounded pebbles.

The sixth picture, behind Di Renjie: the pool at near water level, ripples crossing its surface, a tall conifer with thick fibrous reddish-brown bark at the water's edge on the right, a rough pale-tan cliff with green shrubs on the left, dark evergreens and dry grassy slopes behind.

The seventh picture, behind both men: a low view over the water, two huge reddish-brown conifer trunks framing the frame, the left one's thick exposed roots gripping mossy rocks, a tall sunlit tan cliff wall at the back with dark evergreens on its ledges.

The eighth picture, behind Wang Wei: the turquoise pool in the foreground with wet pebbles in tan, grey and rust under the ripples, a big conifer with a thick reddish-brown trunk and exposed roots at the water's edge, a tall pale golden-orange cliff with dark vertical streaks behind it, green pines along the top and the right bank.

Keep each place's own rock, trunks, ledges and grass exactly as its picture shows them. Behind the men the place sits a little softer than they are; the men are sharp.

THE TIMING

0:00 to 0:01: the first frame is Di Renjie's own hand reaching in among the peanuts, his fingers over the chipped white rim of the plate, his own bare wrist and forearm in the wide gold-trimmed sleeve of his orange-brown jacket. Behind the plate, only the bamboo table, soft.

Whenever only Wang Wei is in frame: the eighth picture behind him, the dragon's head resting close behind his shoulder, and his gestures and expressions are the video's, unchanged.

Whenever only Di Renjie is in frame: the sixth picture behind him, and his gestures are the video's, unchanged. Where he lifts something small to his lips he lifts a single shelled peanut instead, held between his fingertips; where he holds something small at chest height he holds a single shelled peanut the same way.

Whenever both men are in frame: the seventh picture behind them both, the empty canyon around them, the dragon lying asleep behind them, and the two of them keep the video's own words, nods, leans, fists and glances exactly as filmed.

THE LIGHT AND THE FINISH

One light over the whole shot: low warm golden sun from behind and to the side of the camera, 4700K, warm on the two men's faces and on the sandstone, cool blue-green in the shadows and on the shaded sides of them, the water bright behind. Real photographic film: natural skin with pores and texture, individual hairs, real cloth, real feathers, scales and stone, soft shallow depth of field with the men sharp and the canyon behind them gently soft, a fine film grain over everything, unretouched.

The faces never change. Their expressions are exactly the video's, at the same moments, with the same eyes and the same mouths, and the same blink at the same instant, from the first frame to the last.

The film at the top is this one shot, upscaled. It plays without sound here.

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