DYNAMIC sTILLS:
WHAT ARE THEY?
Dynamic Stills: Entry Level Motion
One of the most interesting applications of AI in visualisation is the ability to create motion from a single still image. Dynamic stills allow us to breathe life into static scenes, moving the “camera” through a space that doesn’t technically exist beyond the pixels in the original image.
With the right software, we can push, pull, pan, tilt or glide through a scene. The AI fills in missing information as it goes, building plausible details where none existed before.
How it Works
A single still image is fed into AI software designed for this type of motion generation. There are a number of platforms but this week we have mostly been using Runway
We provide a prompt that gives broad direction such as the type of camera movement, and the system generates a short animated clip. These clips are usually only a few seconds long, and it tends to be the case that the initial few seconds are the most useful as what we are seeing is closer to the original “truth” of the still image.
The Pros
- Fast and cost-effective: Unlike traditional animation, which requires heavy rendering and post-production, dynamic stills can be produced in minutes or hours as opposed to days and weeks.
- Lightweight and flexible: They’re ideal for short-form content where a little movement goes a long way.
The Cons
- Limited control: Prompts allow only broad, macro-level direction. Fine adjustments like precise timing or detailed movement of specific objects aren’t really possible.
- Simplistic Camera paths: Because the AI makes up what it does not know, and it only knows what it can see in the original image, simplistic cameras that stay close to the original content work best. As soon as we turn the camera we are in full blow make it up territory. This means more creative or exploratory cameras are not possible.
- Unpredictable results: AI makes its own assumptions about the space, which can lead to inconsistent or unrealistic outputs.
- Short sequences only: These are not replacements for full, polished animations. They work best as short, punchy supporting content.
Lessons Learned
In practice, the quality of the result often comes down to the strength of the initial prompt and knowing when to restart rather than over-iterate. Editing several dynamic stills together — trimming, reversing, or speeding up clips — can create surprisingly polished narratives in very little time.
Dynamic stills won’t replace traditional animation, but they fill an important gap: they make it easier and faster to create engaging, movement-driven content without the production overhead.