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Start Frame Prompting Guide

Overview

In this guide, you will learn:

  • What Start Frame prompting is
  • When to use Start Frame
  • How to structure a Start Frame prompt
  • How to keep prompts person-centric
  • How to describe person movement
  • How to add camera movement
  • How to define mood and atmosphere
  • Prompt examples
  • Common mistakes

What is Start Frame prompting?

Start Frame prompting means you define the beginning of the video.

The AI uses the starting image and continues the scene from there.

This gives the model more creative freedom and allows more dynamic results.


When should I use Start Frame?

Use Start Frame when you want a creative video that does not need a fixed final frame.

Best for:

  • Cinematic movements
  • Natural person animations
  • Creative scenes
  • Open-ended videos
  • General video filter use cases

For most video filters, Start Frame is the recommended option.


How to structure your prompt

A good Start Frame prompt should describe:

  1. What the person does
  2. How the person moves
  3. How the camera moves
  4. What mood or atmosphere the video should have

Keep the prompt person-centric

Your prompt should focus on the person in the image.

Good prompts describe:

  • Body movement
  • Facial expression
  • Pose changes
  • Walking
  • Turning
  • Smiling
  • Dancing
  • Waving
  • Camera movement around the person

Avoid prompts that only describe the environment without mentioning the person.


Describe the action

Clearly describe what should happen in the video.

Examples:

  • The person turns toward the camera and smiles.
  • The person walks slowly forward.
  • The person raises one hand and waves.
  • The person looks around while the camera moves closer.
  • The person turns around with a natural movement.

Add camera movement

Camera movement helps create a more cinematic result.

Useful camera instructions:

  • The camera slowly pushes in.
  • The camera moves around the person.
  • The camera pans slightly to the side.
  • The camera follows the person smoothly.
  • The camera creates a soft cinematic zoom.

Add mood and atmosphere

You can also describe the feeling of the video.

Examples:

  • cinematic lighting
  • soft natural movement
  • dramatic atmosphere
  • smooth camera motion
  • realistic motion
  • elegant fashion-film style
  • energetic event mood

Prompt examples

Simple portrait movement

The person turns 180 degrees around and holds a relaxed pose. Then he jumps into space as  The camera slowly pushes in with smooth cinematic movement.


Fashion-style video

The person walks slowly forward with confident posture. The camera follows smoothly from the front, creating an elegant fashion-film look with soft cinematic lighting.


Sport-style video

The person smiles, raises one hand while running, and waves at the camera as he crosses the finish line. The camera moves slightly closer with a smooth and friendly motion.

Sci-Fi-style video

cinematic zoom in of him twirling his sword mortal combat style and taking a fighting stance


Common mistakes

Avoid prompts that are too vague.

Bad:

Make a cool video.

Better:

The person smiles and turns toward the camera while the camera slowly pushes in with smooth cinematic movement.

Avoid prompts that are not person-centric.

Bad:

The city lights move in the background with dramatic effects.

Better:

The person walks slowly through the city lights while the camera follows from the front with smooth cinematic motion.

Avoid overloading the prompt.

Bad:

The person dances, jumps, changes clothes, flies into the sky, the background explodes, the camera spins, and everything changes into a fantasy world.

Better:

The person performs a smooth dance movement while the camera circles gently around them in a cinematic style.

Best practice

Start with a simple person action and one camera movement.

Then test and improve the prompt step by step.