Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET
A growing number of AI sites and services are able to generate short videos based on your descriptions or still images. Now, you can add Midjourney to the mix.
On Wednesday, the popular AI image creator announced that users can now animate their images into five-second videos. The new feature is available to all Midjourney subscribers, including those on the $10-per-month Basic plan, and offers a variety of ways to cook up cool videos.
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Adopting an image-to-video approach, you can create a video from an image already generated through Midjourney or one you upload from your computer. From there, just select the Animate button, and the transformation begins. But there’s more to it based on how you want to direct the video.
An automatic setting creates the motion prompt for you and then devises the video on its own. Otherwise, a manual setting allows you to revise the prompt to describe the video as you want to see it.
You can also choose between low motion and high motion. Low motion is better for ambient scenes in which the camera remains mostly stationary and the subject moves slowly. High motion is ideal for scenes in which you want both the camera and subject to move.
After the initial video has been generated, you can extend it around four seconds at a time and for as many as four times. That means your five-second video can turn into a relatively full-length production at just over 20 seconds.
For now, the video generation is available only on the Midjourney website, not through any other avenues. And there’s a cost in terms of credits and minutes.
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Each video you create will cost around eight times more than what is required for an image. The number of credits and fast minutes you receive each month depends on your plan. But you can also purchase additional credits if you run out. For the future, though, Midjourney said it that it will offer a relax mode for Pro and Mega plan subscribers, which presumably would chew up fewer credits and minutes by generating the videos more slowly.
“We’re releasing Version 1 of our Video Model to the entire community,” Midjourney said. “From a technical standpoint, this model is a stepping stone, but for now, we had to figure out what to actually concretely give to you. Our goal is to give you something fun, easy, beautiful, and affordable so that everyone can explore. We think we’ve struck a solid balance. Though many of you will feel a need to upgrade at least one tier for more fast-minutes.”
How to try it
Sound interesting? If you are a Midjourney subscriber, here’s how to tap into the new video generation.
Sign in to the Midjourney website with your account. If you want to animate an existing image and haven’t yet used the AI to create any, check out my article on “How to use Midjourney’s website to generate amazing images with AI.”
Click the Create tab on the left sidebar and open an image you want to turn into a video. The lower right corner of the page displays the options for Animate. Choose Auto if you want Midjourney to animate the video, or Manual if you want to supply the prompt. Here you can also choose low motion or high motion depending on how animated you want the video to be. Midjourney will tell you that your job has been submitted.
Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET
Head to the Organize page. When Midjourney is done, you’ll see four videos based on your image. Open one of the videos to play it. If you wish, you can then extend the video by choosing Auto or Manual and low or high motion at the bottom right. If you opt for high motion, the current prompt appears at the top, which you can modify. You’re able to extend the video this way up to four times.
Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET
To try this out, I used an existing image of a woman with long red hair wearing a white evening gown dancing with a tall man in a top hat and black tuxedo. The resulting video was beautifully rendered, smooth, and fluid, and just what I wanted.
I did run into a couple of hiccups. In one case, Midjourney told me that it couldn’t generate a video based on an existing image as that might violate its guidelines. That’s odd since Midjourney created the image in the first place. I also had trouble trying to extend the image by using the manual option to revise the prompt myself. But hopefully these glitches will work themselves out. For now, the new video creation is a cool way to bring life to your still images.
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