Promly

Guide · Animate Kit

How to Turn a Photo Into a Video With AI

A still you already have can become a short film. Promly's Animate Kit takes one image and returns a 5, 10 or 20-second clip with sound — either gentle, natural motion, or a deliberate camera move like an orbit or a push-in. You don't write a prompt: you pick the move, or say what should happen in your own words.

Updated August 2026 · ~5 min read

Start free · 15 Pixels See FLUX 3 Video

What the Animate Kit does

You give it one picture. It gives you back a video of that picture — the subject holds still and true while the world around it moves, or while the camera moves around it. Clips come with sound, and you choose the length: 5, 10 or 20 seconds.

There is no prompt to write. You either pick a camera move from a short list, or describe what should happen in ordinary words and Promly writes the prompt for you.

Before you start: video is for paid accounts — any Promly plan, or a one-off Pixel pack. The free 15 Pixels cover images, not clips.

The two tiers, and when to use each

  • Quick — FLUX 3 Video (Black Forest Labs), 8 Pixels per 5-second clip. Gentle, natural motion: drifting cloud, moving water, hair and fabric, subtle life in a portrait. The right choice when you want the picture to breathe.
  • HQ — Seedance 2.5 (ByteDance), 20 Pixels per 5-second clip. Deliberate camera moves — Orbit, Push in and Reveal — for when the shot itself should do something. This is the cinematic tier.

Longer clips cost less per second than the 5-second price, so a 10 or 20-second clip is not simply double or quadruple.

How to turn a photo into a video, step by step

1

Open the Animate Kit and upload your still

Pick Video in the Promly Studio and drop in the image. Anything works — a photo, or something you made in another Kit earlier.

2

Choose gentle motion or a camera move

Quick gives the picture natural movement with nothing to decide. HQ asks you to pick the move: Orbit travels around the subject, Push in moves toward it, Reveal opens the shot out. One tap either way.

3

Or just describe what should happen

Rather than pick a preset, you can type what you want in plain English — "she trips over a pebble and tips forward with wide panicked eyes" — and Promly turns that into the model's prompt. This is the mode that surprises people most.

4

Pick a length and generate

Choose 5, 10 or 20 seconds and run it. Longer clips take longer to come back — a 20-second clip is a couple of minutes of waiting, not seconds — so start one and go do something else.

Tip: describe one action, not a sequence. "She turns and smiles" lands. "She turns, smiles, walks to the window, opens it and waves" gives the model five things to fit into five seconds, and it will do none of them well.

Dream mode — a clip with no photo at all

Animate also has a Dream mode that makes a clip from two chips instead of an image: pick a subject and a world and it invents the shot. It is the fastest way to see what the Kit can do when you don't have a still you want to use yet.

What to animate first

  • A portrait you already like — a small amount of life in the eyes and hair reads as remarkably real.
  • A landscape or a sky — cloud and water are what these models are best at.
  • A product shot — an orbit around an object is the single most useful move for a listing or an ad.
  • Something you made in Promly — a product photo or a portrait from another Kit animates as well as any camera original.

FAQ

Quick answers

Do I need to write a prompt to animate a photo?

No. You either pick a camera move — Orbit, Push in or Reveal — or describe what should happen in plain English and Promly writes the model's prompt for you.

How long can the video be?

5, 10 or 20 seconds. Longer clips cost less per second than the 5-second price, so a 20-second clip is not four times a 5-second one.

Do the clips have sound?

Yes — clips come back with sound.

Is video free?

No. Video is for paid accounts — any Promly plan, or a one-off Pixel pack. A 5-second clip is 8 Pixels on the Quick tier (FLUX 3 Video) or 20 Pixels on the HQ tier (Seedance 2.5).

Can I make a video without uploading an image?

Yes — Dream mode builds a clip from two chips instead of a still, so you can see what the Kit does before you have a picture in mind.

Make your first clip

One still in, a 5, 10 or 20-second video out — with sound, and without writing a prompt. Available on any paid plan or Pixel pack.

Start free · 15 Pixels