The Effects Tab: Turning One Photo Into a Video Without Writing Anything

This is the tab for when you want motion but don't want to think about motion.

You pick an effect from a catalogue, upload a photo, and get a video. No prompt, no camera language, no describing how something should move. If you've searched "animate a photo" or "make a photo move AI", this is the shortest path there is.

---

How it works

Three inputs and you're done:

1. Pick an effect from the catalogue on the right
2. Upload an image
3. Set resolution and duration, then generate

The catalogue is grouped, funny and viral, transformation, seasonal, advertising, and each tile shows you roughly what you'll get. That preview is the whole point: you're choosing a result rather than describing one.

---

The two controls that set the price

Resolution, 360p, 540p, 720p or 1080p.

Duration, 5, 8 or 10 seconds.

Both move the cost, and the number is shown on the generate button before you commit. As with everything else on the platform, the habit worth having is glancing at it.

Draft at 360p or 540p. You're checking whether the effect suits your photo, and that reads perfectly well at low resolution. Re-run the one that works at 1080p. Doing it the other way round is how people spend three times what they needed to.

---

What makes a good input photo

The effect is doing the work, but it can only work with what you hand it:

• A clear subject. Effects that transform a person or product need to find one. A busy scene with no obvious focal point produces mush.
• Sharp focus. Motion built on a blurry source stays blurry, just moving.
• Good separation from the background. The same rule as the background remover: the clearer the subject sits against what's behind it, the cleaner the result.
• Head and shoulders in frame for anything face-related. Cropped too tight and the effect has nowhere to go.

---

Effects vs writing a video prompt

Both make video. They're for different situations.

Use an effect when you want a known, repeatable result: the same transformation everyone recognises, applied to your photo. It's fast, it's predictable, and it needs no skill.

Use the video generator when you want something specific that no effect covers, your product on a particular set, a camera move you have in mind, a scene with a story.

The tell is whether you can name what you want. If you can picture the exact result and it's in the catalogue, use the effect. If you'd have to describe it, use a prompt.

---

Where effects genuinely shine

• Social content at volume. One photo, five effects, five posts.
• Testing whether a subject is filmable at all before you spend real credits on a proper render.
• Seasonal campaigns, where the seasonal category does the theming for you.
• When you have no idea what to prompt. Browsing the catalogue is often how you discover what you actually wanted.

---

Try it

Open the effects generator, pick something from the viral category, upload a photo of yourself, and run it at 540p for 5 seconds. It's the cheapest way to see what the tab does.

For the deliberate route, see choosing a video model. For costs across the platform, the full price list.