How it works
Animate takes a still photo and brings it to life as a short video clip. You can start from any image in your My Creations or directly from an effect output.
Behind the scenes, the request goes into a background queue and is processed by an AI video model. You'll see the job's progress in real time and the finished clip is saved to My Creations like any other generation.
Choices that affect cost
Two settings determine how many tokens an animation spends:
- Resolution — 2 tokens per second at 720p, 3 tokens per second at 1080p.
- Duration — the default clip is 5 seconds. Longer clips are linearly more expensive.
- A typical 5-second 1080p clip costs 15 tokens; the same clip at 720p costs 10 tokens.
Tips for better animations
Photos with a clear subject and some empty space around them animate more naturally than tightly cropped portraits.
Strong existing motion (running people, action shots) can confuse the model — calm subjects work best.
If a result isn't what you wanted, retrying produces a different motion path. Each retry spends tokens again.
What the progress bar means
Once your video starts generating, you'll usually see a thin progress bar. It's an estimate based on how long the same effect with the same duration and resolution has taken on previous runs — your specific clip may be a bit faster or slower.
If the bar reaches the end before the video is ready, it stays there with an "Almost done..." note until the clip actually arrives. For uncommon combinations of duration and resolution we haven't seen many times yet, you'll just see the spinner with no bar.