Image to Video (Beta)

The Image to Video Add-on uses AI to generate videos from your images. You provide one or more source images, optionally with a text prompt describing the motion or scene you want. Cloudinary generates a video and saves it to your Media Library, in the 'image-to-video' folder by default or in a session folder you choose. You drive video generation from the Image to Video app, which you open from Video > Image to Video in the Console.

Getting access

The Image to Video feature is enabled via an add-on subscription. You can subscribe on a self-service basis from the Add-on Marketplace. If you need help, contact support.

Once your subscription is active, the add-on appears on the Installed Add-ons tab of the Add-ons page in the Console. Depending on your account or product environment setup, you may need to access add-ons from Settings > Add-ons instead.

Opening the Image to Video app

Open the Image to Video app from the left navigation of the Image or Video section of the Console, or click Try Image to Video on the Image Home or Video Home page.

To animate an image that's already in your Media Library, open the app from that image instead, and the app adds it as the start frame:

• Right-click the image and select Image to Video.
• On the image's Manage page, click Edit and select Image to Video, or open the Image to Video tab and click Try Image to Video.

Plans and quota

Each plan provides a monthly quota of credits, and every video you generate consumes credits from that quota. Enabling Audio consumes twice as many credits as the same generation without audio.

When you run out of credits for the current billing cycle, you can't generate more videos until more credits are available. The Image to Video app displays your remaining credits so you can monitor usage before generating more videos.

For details about prorated billing, mid-cycle upgrades, and downgrade behavior, see Add-on units and billing.

Free credits

You receive a one-time allocation of free credits so you can try the Image to Video Add-on before subscribing to an add-on plan. Free credits don't expire. The size of the allocation depends on your Cloudinary plan:

Earning more free credits

You can add to your free credits by completing tasks in the app. Generating videos at least 24 hours apart and sharing your feedback earn up to 20 credits. Click Earn Free Credits in the top bar to see the tasks you haven't completed yet and your progress.

An active Image to Video add-on subscription also earns a one-time bonus of 32 free credits. The Earn Free Credits panel shows this offer as Get $10 Free Credits, and if you don't have a subscription yet, you can click Purchase Credits there to subscribe.

The app adds the credits you've earned to your free credits when you next open the app or the Earn Free Credits panel. Once you've claimed every reward, including the subscription bonus, the Earn Free Credits button no longer appears the next time you open the app.

Free credits belong to your account, so all product environments in the same region share them. If your account has product environments in more than one region, each region has its own free credits and its own progress on the tasks.

Providing source images

You can provide source images using two modes, selectable via the tabs at the top of the left panel:

• Start & End Frames (default): Add a start frame and optionally an end frame. The generated video transitions from the start frame to the end frame based on your prompt.
• Reference Images: Add a main image and up to two additional reference images to help guide the style of the generated video. Reference Images and End Frame are mutually exclusive, so you'll need to remove an end frame before adding reference images, or vice versa.

To add images, click Add Start Frame, Add End Frame, or Add photo depending on the selected mode.

Cropping a source image

Crop a source image in the Image to Video app in the Console to focus the video on the part of the image that matters. Cropping also avoids the black bars that the generated video can include around an image that isn't 16:9 or 9:16. You can crop a start frame, an end frame, a main image, or a reference image. You crop each image separately, and the app uses any image you don't crop as is. Cropping isn't available for images with a private or authenticated delivery type.

To crop an image:

1. In the left panel of the Image to Video app, hover over the start frame, end frame, main image, or reference image you want to crop, and click the Crop icon to open Crop image.
2. Select 16:9 (the default) or 9:16.
3. Drag the crop rectangle to frame the part of the image you want, and drag a corner to resize it. The rectangle keeps the selected aspect ratio and stays inside the image.
4. Click Save.

You can also use the arrow keys to move the rectangle or a selected corner. To close Crop image without cropping, click Cancel or the X in the top-right corner.

Cloudinary saves the cropped image to your Media Library as a new asset, and the app uses it in place of the original. The original asset doesn't change. The new asset's public ID is the original's with a cropped_ prefix and a unique suffix. For example, cropping products/shoe creates products/cropped_shoe_<unique_id>.

Cloudinary saves the new asset in the root folder of your Media Library, even if the original is in another folder. If your Media Library upload preset sets an asset folder, Cloudinary saves it there instead.

Writing a prompt

Under What do you want to create?, enter a text description of the scene or motion you want to generate. For example, "Turn around" or "add rain".

If you're not sure what to write, open Presets and choose one of the Suggested presets:

• Freestyle Animate
• Zoom In
• Zoom Out
• Pan Left
• Pan Right
• Rotate
• Fade In
• Fade Out
• Slow Motion
• Time Lapse
• Cinematic Movement
• Dramatic Reveal

Selecting a preset populates the prompt field with a description optimized for that type of motion. You can also save and reuse your own prompts under Your Presets via Manage presets.

You can also leave the prompt empty, as long as you've added a start frame (or a main image, in Reference Images mode). The app then creates a subtle, natural animation that keeps your image's subject, composition, and style intact. A prompt is still required when generating videos via the API.

Configuring advanced settings

Expand Advanced Settings to configure the following options:

Choosing a session folder

By default, the app saves every video you generate to the 'image-to-video' folder. To keep the videos for a project or campaign together, choose a session folder instead. The session folder bar above the preview area shows the current session folder, along with the All generations and Runs options described in Viewing and sharing creations.

To choose a session folder:

1. In the session folder bar, click the current folder to open Select session folder.
2. To look inside a folder, click the arrow (>) next to it. To go back up, click Home or the ellipsis (…) in the path at the top of the dialog.
3. Click the folder you want, then click Select. To choose a folder you've opened, don't click a folder in its list. The button then names the open folder, for example Select marketing.

To use a new folder instead, click New folder, enter a name, and click Save.

Every video you generate saves to the current session folder. The session folder changes only when:

• You choose or create a folder in Select session folder.
• You open or retry a run in the Runs this session panel. The session folder switches to the folder that run used, so your next video saves there too.
• You refresh the page. The session folder goes back to 'image-to-video'. If a video is open when you refresh, it switches to that video's folder instead.

Opening a video from All generations or from the preview area doesn't change the session folder.

Before you add an image, the preview area shows the newest videos in your session folder. Click one to continue editing it.

To return to your session folder's videos after you add an image or open a video, click the Clear and return to folder icon (X) in the top-right corner of the preview area. This removes your source images and closes the video. Your prompt, advanced settings, session folder, and runs don't change, and a video that's still generating continues in Runs.

Generating the video

After configuring your image, prompt, and settings, click Generate Video to start. The right panel displays a loading state while Cloudinary generates the video.

Once the video is ready, the app displays a full preview with playback controls. The app saves the video to your session folder in the Media Library.

For example, the following run uses a start frame, an end frame, and the Dramatic Reveal preset:

Start frame End frame

The preset fills in a prompt describing a slow, controlled zoom that builds tension. Clicking Generate Video produces a video that transitions from the start frame to the end frame:

Viewing and sharing creations

The app provides the following options:

• All generations: Opens a picker of all your previously generated videos, from every folder. Select one to reopen it and continue editing, as described in Iterating on a generation.
• Runs: Opens the Runs this session panel, which lists your recent generations with their status: In progress, Ready, or Generation failed.
• Share: Shares the open video. The Share icon appears next to the Clear and return to folder icon (X) when a video is open.
• Share Feedback: Provides feedback on the Image to Video app.
• Earn Free Credits: Shows the tasks you can complete to earn more free credits, and your progress.

The count on Runs shows the number of runs in the list, with a spinner while a video is still generating. In the Runs this session panel, click a ready run to reopen its video, or click Try again to retry a failed one. Clear all empties the list.

Iterating on a generation

Each video you generate saves the settings used to create it, so you can refine a result instead of starting over. Open a previous generation from All generations, and the app restores that video's source images, prompt, and advanced settings. Adjust any of them and click Generate Video to create a new version.

Generating videos via the API

In addition to the Image to Video app, you can generate videos programmatically using the Image to Video API. You submit an image and a prompt to create a generation job, poll the job until it completes, and receive the generated video's asset details and delivery URL. To save the video somewhere other than the 'image-to-video' folder, set the optional folder parameter, the API equivalent of a session folder. You can also save and reuse prompts.

The API uses Basic Authentication with your Cloudinary API Key and API Secret, and its base URL is https://api.cloudinary.com/v2/video/{cloudName}.

For the full list of endpoints, request and response payloads, and interactive examples, see the Image to Video API reference.