AI video

Evolution of Capabilities

Early

• November 2016: Sync-Draw
• April 2021: GODIVA
• October 2022: Meta Make-a-video
• October 2022: Google Imagen video

2023

• April 2023: Will Smith eating spaghetti
• April 2023: Harry Potter by Balenciaga
• April 2023: Runway Gen 2
• April 2023: Nvidia latents
• December 2023: Fei-Fei Li

2024

Early 2024

• January 2024: Google VideoPoet
• January 2024: Google Lumiere
• February 2024: OpenAI Sora
• April 2024: Vidu
• May 2024: Veo
• May 2024: Kling
• June 2024: Luma DreamMachine
• June 2024: RunwayML Gen-3 Alpha
• July 2024: Examples:
  • Toys-R-Us Commercial made using Sora
  • Motorola commercial made using genAI
• July 2024: haiper.ai

August 2024

• August 2024: Hotshot (examples, more examples)
• August 2024: Luma Dream Machine v1.5
• August 2024: Examples:
  • Runway Gen3 music video
  • Runway Gen3 for adding FX to live action (another example)
  • Midjourney + Runway Gen3: Hey It’s Snowing
  • Flux/LoRA image + Runway Gen3 woman presenter
  • McDonald’s AI commercial
  • Sora used by Izanami AI Art to create dreamlike video and by Alexia Adana to create sci-fi film concept

September 2024

• September 2024: Hailuo Minimax (examples)
• September 2024: Examples:
  • Space colonization
  • Consistent characters
  • Sea monsters
  • Music video
  • Animated characters
  • AI influencer
  • Ten short examples
  • Seven examples
  • Clip from horror film
  • "Gone" featuring astronaut and something ethereal
  • Two dancers (surprisingly good consistency despite movement)
  • Music video about flying
  • The Paperclip Maximizer
  • La Baie Aréa
  • "To Dear Me" by Gisele Tong (winner of AI shorts film festival)
  • Various scenes
  • Directing emotions
• September 2024: Kling 1.5 (examples, showing emotions)
• September 2024: Examples:
  • Runway video-to-video to restyle classic video games
  • Realistic presenter
  • Skateboarding (demonstrates getting closer to meaningfully simulating motion/physics)
  • Examples of short clips with cinematic feel
  • Short: 4 Minutes to Live
  • Short: Neon Nights (Arcade)
  • Random Access Memories: AI-generated, but then projected onto Kodak film stock. Gives the final output some of the dreamy analog quality we associate with nostalgic footage
  • Sora used to make a sort of weird dreamlike video

October 2024

• October 2024: Pika v1.5, including Pikaffects (explode, melt, inflate, and cake-ify; examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
• October 2024: Examples:
  • AI avatar with good lip-sync
  • Battalion: 5 minute short about war
  • Short film: To Wonderland (credits)
  • 9 to 5: Created with Luma Dream Machine keyframes and camera features; music by Suno
• October 2024: Meta Movie Gen
• October 2024: Examples:
  • AI Avatar (using HeyGen)
  • Generic Movies
  • Pyramid-flow (open source) model: examples
  • Building the Pyramids
  • People showing realistic emotion (using Hailuo AI)
  • Keyframes and Luma AI to make novel speed-ramp motion
• October 2024: Pollo AI platform offers selection among a diversity of video models
• October 2024: Genmo Mochi 1 (open source)
• October 2024: Examples:
  • Meta Movie Gen examples
  • Emotional range of Minimax
  • Car commercial: Bear
  • Diner conversation
  • Loved and Lost (a meditation on grief)

November 2024

• November 2024: Examples:
  • Pasta Doble
  • Bird protecting young
  • Camera moving around sushi
  • Various examples of Hailuo AI
  • Trains
  • Light of Imagination
  • Bringing historic images to life
  • Plants dancing
  • Insect on tree
  • Trailers for The Silmarillion and The Fall of Gondolin (by Abandoned Films)
  • Moody sci-fi
  • Migration (made by combining Runway ML Gen3-Alpha and traditional animation)
  • After the Winter (music made using Suno v4)
  • Horror: Ridge to Southwest
  • The Gardener (by Machine Mythos)
  • Coca-Cola holiday ad and parody thereof
  • A Dream Within A Dream (by PZF, selected for the Czech International AI Film Festival)
  • Making Friends (by Everett World; see also Childhood Dream and City Echoes)
  • Anime: test shots, Ultimate Ceremony, Echoes of Love
  • Echoes of Grace (KakuDrop using Sora)
  • Morphing hands, hands and faces (Vibeke Bertelsen)
  • Dragon Ball Z live action
  • Pitch Black (abstract and dark)
  • Animals Running (zoomed-in ultra-wide camera)
  • Dreams of Tomorrow (panning shots of high-tech car, Scottish manor)
  • Desert Planet Cinematics
• November 2024: Leaked Sora turbo model; examples, Dog chasing Cat in snow

December 2024

• December 2024: Examples:
  • Realistic (Minimax by Hailuo AI)
  • Trailer for Paradise Lost (to be released on Sandwatch AI)
  • Music video example with consistent characters
  • Human expressions (u/Kind_Distance9504 on Reddit, using Hailuo)
  • Vodafone ad: The Rhythm Of Life
  • 10 minute Batman film
• December 2024: Tencent Hunyuan Video open-source video model (example)
• December 2024: Sora release (examples)
• December 2024: MinT video improves consistency and control (preprint, examples)
• December 2024: Google Veo 2 (examples, more examples, natural movement examples, abstract, realistic physics, crowds, dancing, animals)
• December 2024: Pika 2.0 with Scene Ingredients
• December 2024: Examples:
  • Synthetic Youth: Takenoko Zoku · Made by Emi Kusano with Sora
  • Car race (Higgsfield AI storytelling)
  • Slicing meat; comparison of modern video generators
  • Challenging prompt: A cat roars while looking at its reflection in the mirror but instead sees itself as a lion roaring (Veo 2) (comparison to other models)
  • Anime trailer
  • Snorlax at Mount Fuji and Psyduck at Colosseum (Kling 1.6)
  • Horror visuals (with MMAudio sound)
  • The Heist (Veo 2)
  • Various Veo 2 examples
  • Live Action Titans
  • Cats Cooking
  • Aesthetic from alternate timelines: 1, 2, 3
  • Examples approaching cinematic quality
  • Cosmic Spider (winner at AI film festival)
  • Trailer for Newton's Cradle (full film on 2025-01-01)
  • Car vs. Jet drag race
  • California Monsters
  • Various examples (Hailuo AI)
  • Will Smith eating spaghetti (c.f. April 2023)
  • Sorceress and Arachnid Steed (Kling v1.6)
  • Music video (Hailuo AI)
  • Akụkọ (Story) (22 minute short) - A Lagos Boy's Thrilling Snack Run Nightmare
  • Son of the Dragon (8 minute short)
  • Endless Journey music video (music by Suno)
  • Once Again (retrospective)
  • Fade Out (Veo 2)
  • Roadkill (12 minute short)

2025

January 2025

• January 2025: Progress over the last 1.5 years, by comparing Runway Gen 2 and Veo 2.
• January 2025: Examples:
  • Delivery (unofficial Nike ad)
  • Gucci ad (Sora)
  • Conquest
  • Newton's Cradle (6 minute short)
  • Singer
  • Brain vomit (music video)
  • Vibe (Kling v1.6)
  • Will Smith eating spaghetti (c.f. April 2023, December 2024)
  • Zorgop Knows All (2 minute short)
  • The Breach (2 minute short; Veo2, Runway ActOne, MMaudio)
  • Aesthetics from an alternate timeline
  • Immortal Awakens
  • The Faded Line
  • Dear Dad
  • Mad Max chase
  • Patience is Key
  • The Almost Famous Show (talent show parody)
  • Proof-of-concept trailer for a medieval adult animated series
  • Variety (unofficial Cadbury ad)
  • Kitsune (5 minute animated short, Veo 2)
• January 2025: MiniMax Hailuo Subject Reference enables consistent characters (examples)
• January 2025: AI (de-aging deepfakes, Magnific) used in the film "Here".
• January 2025: Luma Ray2
• January 2025: Pika 2.1 (examples)
• January 2025: Examples:
  • Light projections onto people (challenging task, Ray2)
  • BMW ad
  • John Wick in Severance (Hunyuan vid2vid)
  • Biopic (7 minutes)
  • Give It To Me (music video)
  • Where do we go from here? (music video, Veo 2)
  • Party like there's no tomorrow (music video)
  • S.T.O.R.I. (Midjourney and Pika 2.1)

February 2025

• February 2025: Examples:
  • Long Steampunk scene
  • City destruction
  • Consistent character acting
  • Kaiju Katastrophe (by Mean Orange Cat)
  • The Greyhound
  • Fluid simulation video2video
  • High resolution macro shots
  • Chrysalids
  • Boring realistic images (HunyuanVideo w/ LoRA)
  • Anime intro (Hunyuan w/ custom LoRAs)
  • Automotive ad test (Kling w/ custom model)
  • Random cinematic clips (Midjourney and Kling)
  • Crossing Paths
  • Miniature food
  • Animals
  • Star Wars - The Ghost's Apprentice (Fan Film)
  • Ray2 image-to-video examples
  • New Horizons (miniatures going to Mars)
  • Black Sun (trailer)
  • AI avatars (Argil AI)
  • Adding elements to real video (other example)
  • Glitch
  • Anime: sci-fi (Ray2), sci-fi (Ray 2), 90s sci-fi (Luma) and moody (Midjourney and Ray2)
• February 2025: Meta VideoJAM
• February 2025: ByteDance OmniHuman-1
• February 2025: ByteDance Goku (paper, examples)
• February 2025: Step-Video-T2V open-source model (paper, code, demo, examples)
• February 2025: Pika Pikaswaps (examples of modifying regions, swapping items)
• February 2025: Alibaba Wan 2.1 open-source (examples)
• February 2025: Twin AI: compose videos with provided character, object, location (example)
• February 2025: Examples:
  • Infected (Pika swaps and additions)
  • Hostile Government Takeover (Veo2)
  • Dual Mechanism (Pikaframes 2.2)

March 2025

• March 2025: Examples:
  • Doors (music video)
  • Drum and Bass (music video; Kling, audio from Riffusion)
  • Woman's face (Sora)
  • Skating (Ray2)
  • Filming commercial on Mars
  • Original Source commercial (AI and real footage)
  • Time-lapses (Pika 2.2)
  • Hallucination
  • Macro video of bubbles
• March 2025: HunyuanVideo-I2V image-to-video
• March 2025: Google Whisk Animate (based on Veo2, examples)
• March 2025: Examples:
  • Recursion (horror) (Kling)
  • Will Smith Eating Spaghetti while Sitting Inside a Bag (c.f. April 2023, December 2024, January 2025)
  • Paper Jam (Kling with custom workflows to enable precise control)
  • Cinematic shots (Google Whisk and Luma)
  • Perfunctory Horizons
  • A Hard Winter
  • Consistent character example
  • Anthropomorphic Animals
  • Realistic (influencer-style)
  • I Feel Cultured (music video with surrealist vibes)
  • journey of utmost importance
  • Karen: Unleashed
  • Yarn Cat
  • Ned's Wet Deli (Runway)
  • BOOTS, a.k.a. "Our enemies are cartoon monsters" (music video based on poem by Rudyard Kipling; Veo2)
  • Flying in a dream: 1, 2
  • Commercial for Mercedes-Benz and FYI Radio
  • Selfie video (Luma)
  • Podcasts: Rottenly Roasted and Worst Date Ever (Imagen 3, Hedra, Elevenlabs, Topaz)
  • Ambience (Midjourney, Luma)
  • The Bridge (2 minute short; Veo2)
  • Pulp Fiction (Wan video editing)
  • Camera Controls (Luma Ray2)
• March 2025: Hedra Character 3
• March 2025: Open Sora v2 (code)
• March 2025: Amazon Prime debuts House of David, with special effects created by Wonder Project using a combination of traditional and AI methods (reportedly including Midjourney and Runway)
• March 2025: Examples:
  • What if Studio Ghibli directed Lord of the Rings? (OpenAI GPT-4o in-context image generation, Kling)
  • RŌHKI
  • Why
  • Commercial for Puma (research/test)
  • Commercial for KFC (concept ad)
• March 2025: Runway ML Gen-4
  • The Lonely Little Flame
  • The Herd
  • The Retrieval
  • NYC is a Zoo
  • Scimmia Vede (music video)
  • More examples: various, art direction, mannequins, taxi, small things, long shot (1m)

April 2025

• April 2025: Examples:
  • Age of Beyond
  • Commercial for Coca-Cola (Higgsfield)
  • Anime scene (3m) (Wan 2.1 with LoRa)
  • Taxes then Death (Pika multikeyframe)
• April 2025: Krea Video Re-Style
• April 2025: ByteDance DreamActor-M1 performance transfer
• April 2025: Examples:
  • Mercs (Midjourney v7, Ray2)
  • Cat at theme park
  • Timelapse history (Runway Gen4)
  • Examples for use in advertising
  • Sci-fi scapes
  • Avα
  • The Bureau
  • Beaver and Sock (3m)
  • Organic Waste (5m) (Runway)
  • Fly (Runway Gen4)
• April 2025: Alibaba FantasyTalking lipsync (paper, examples)
• April 2025: Tencent Hunyuan Sonic image animation/lipsync to audio (examples)
• April 2025: ByteDance Seaweed-7B (preprint, examples)
• April 2025: Kling 2.0 (video)
• April 2025: Skyworks SkyReels V2 (open-source, unlimited extension; examples)
• April 2025: Sand AI Magi-1 (open source, unlimited extension; examples, more examples)
• April 2025: Examples:
  • Mars 2035 (3m) (Kling 2.0)
  • Kingdom (dragon battle, 3m)
  • Reflection (3m) (Gen4)
  • Pizza Galaxy (1m) (MJ and Gen4)
  • Snoop Dogg music video: Last Dance with Mary Jane (blend of traditional and AI effects)
  • Realistic human motion
  • Inception loop (Gen4)
  • Tuesday (1m) (Gen4)
  • Deus in Machina Automata (4m) (Gen4)
  • Outsiders (3m music video)

May 2025

• May 2025: LTX-Video 13B (code, examples, more examples)
• May 2025: HeyGen Avatar IV (examples: sci-fi, Come Closer, singing, various)
• May 2025: Tencent HunyuanCustom
• May 2025: Examples:
  • Iris (1.5m) (Midjourney, Luma, Runway)
  • Mars and Siv: "No Vacancy" (episode 1, 6m) (Runway)
  • Go to the East Wing (dreamlike, Luma)
  • Yu Lanter showreel (Higgsfield)
  • Cyberpunk anime (Luma)
  • Alien animals (Runway)
  • America's Funniest AI Home Videos (3m)
  • Editing POV shots from AR glasses (Runway)
• May 2025: Gen:48 Fourth Edition winners:
  • Home (3m)
  • The King's Secret (2m)
• May 2025: Viggle Live enables real-time avatar control
• May 2025: Google Veo 3 (examples: conversation, cooking, singing, simple story, cinematic action sequence, car show interviews, We Can Talk, podcat, various, camera moves)
• May 2025: Examples:
  • Will Smith Eating Spaghetti (c.f. April 2023, December 2024, January 2025, March 2025)
  • Bob from Marketing (Veo 3)
  • He is King (16m)
  • Prompt Theory, part 2, Afterlife (3m) (Veo3)
  • My Robot and Me (3m) (Veo, Runway)
  • The Internet's Over (Veo3)
  • Before Colours Fade (2m) (Midjourney, Kling)

June 2025

• June 2025: Examples:
  • Bigfoot ASMR
  • Talking (HeyGen Avatar IV upgrade)
  • Where are all the aliens? (2m)
  • Natural talking
  • Elemental Showdown - Mortal Kombat (3m)
  • It Starts at the End (music video, 4m)
  • Sci-fi trailer (2m)
  • The Prompt Floor (2m)
  • NALVORA (2.7m) - Best Trailer, Metamorph AI Film Awards
  • Commercial for Kalshi (30s) - to air during NBA finals (Veo)
  • Your Brain is Broken on Purpose (2m)
  • Runway Gen-4 Reference examples
  • Paper airplane
  • Veo3 examples
  • Reset 3 (1m, surreal)
  • It Has No Soul (1m, Veo3)
• June 2025: Seedance 1.0 (preprint)
• June 2025: Hailuo AI (MiniMax) Hailuo 02 ("Kangaroo" during testing; examples: various, various, tsunami, fight scene, fox running, blogger, transitions, skateboarding)
• June 2025: Midjourney video (early examples, various, various, Ethan Mollick, highly rated, complex environments, manga)
• June 2025: Examples:
  • The Battle of Glenvael - Orcs vs Humans (Hailuo)
  • The Sentence (9m, Veo3)
  • Will Smith Eating Spaghetti (c.f. April 2023, December 2024, January 2025, March 2025, May 2025)
  • Gymnastics (Hailuo 02)
  • Fable about Transformative AI (Veo3)
  • Vorex (2m trailer)
  • Doğrucu (3m music video, Veo3)
• June 2025: Higgsfield Soul Video Effects (examples, realism)
• June 2025: Alibaba OmniAvatar (paper, code, model, examples)

July 2025

• July 2025: Examples:
  • Untold - The Immortal Blades Saga (2m trailer)
  • Unofficial commercial for Liquid Death (1m)
  • A parade of the chosen theocracy on Callisto
  • Popeyes commercial - diss track (1m)
    • (Unofficial) Wendy's response - diss track (2m)
    • (Unofficial) In-N-Out rap battle (3m)
  • Kalshi commercial
  • Jonah (25m TV show, making of, purchase here)
  • Unofficial commercial for Mercedes (17s)
  • Skateboarding music video (1m)
• July 2025: Runway ML Act-Two (video-to-video performance transfer)
• July 2025: Examples:
  • Neural Viz The Cop Files: Part VI (8m)
  • Perfect Dark - Concept Trailer (1.5m)
  • Exodus (2m trailer)
  • A Walk Together - Life and love in motion (1m, Midjourney Video)
• July 2025: Netflix sci-fi show The Eternaut used genAI for a particular scene (building collapse)
• July 2025: Google Veo emergent annotation direction (example, example, example, example)
• July 2025: Runway Aleph contextual editing
• July 2025: Wan 2.2 (open source, examples)

August 2025

• August 2025: Pika audio-driven performance (examples, examples)
• August 2025: Examples:
  • Eve and Adam (8m, multiple tools)
  • Redesign a space (Runway Aleph)
  • Detroit Pretend Work Park (1m)
  • The Weight of Light (3m music video, Midjourney & Suno)
  • Commercial for Pepsi
  • Emotion
  • TZIGANE
  • Anime chase sequence (Nano Banana and Seedance 1.0)
• August 2025: ByteDance Waver 1.0
• August 2025: Wan2.2-S2V 14B

September 2025

• September 2025: OpenAI Backs AI-Made Animated Feature Film: Film, called ‘Critterz,’ aims to debut at Cannes Film Festival and will leverage startup’s AI tools and resources.
• September 2025: Examples:
  • A loop to wake up to (30s)
  • time lapse