Visual Prompting: The Future of AI Video Generation
Imagine a world where you can not only tell an AI what video scene you want but also show it through simple scribbles or drawings. Sounds almost too good to be true, right? Welcome to the reality of Veo 3, where visual prompting takes video generation to supreme new heights. This technique hands you unprecedented control over your AI video creation. Instead of mulling over the perfect text prompt—often akin to finding a needle in a haystack—you can quite literally draw out your vision. Say goodbye to the clunky limitations of text-only prompts, and hello to intuitive visual creativity that moves at the speed of your imagination.
A Two-Way Play: How and Where To Use It
Dipping your toes into Veo 3 today happens primarily through Google Flow, Google’s AI filmmaking tool designed around Veo and other media models. Flow brings Veo’s capabilities into a streamlined production environment that’s friendly to both first-timers and seasoned creators. You’ll find project-based organization, camera and scene controls, and a “frames-to-video” pipeline that makes visual prompting feel natural—like sketching storyboards that come to life. Google’s overview of Flow and Veo provides a helpful primer here: Introducing Flow: Google’s AI filmmaking tool designed for Veo.
Flow is continuously evolving. Google has added native speech options to clips in frames-to-video, expanded global availability, and refined creative controls. See Google’s latest updates: Flow adds speech to videos and expands to more countries.
Callout: Flow integrates multiple models (Veo for video, Imagen for images, and Gemini for assistive tasks) to accelerate your pipeline from idea to cinematic sequence. That means you can keep ideation, iteration, and finishing in one place.
Ready, Set, Veo!
Inside Flow, you’ll typically choose between Veo 3 for highest fidelity and Veo 3 Fast for rapid iteration. Veo 3 targets the best visuals and can produce native audio, while Veo 3 Fast helps you explore variations quickly. If you’re testing concepts or trying lots of setups, Fast is ideal; when you’re locking a final look, the standard Veo 3 model shines. For context on Google’s broader generative media tools and plans, see: Fuel your creativity with new generative media models and tools.
Next, pick your starting mode: text-to-video or frames-to-video. Visual prompting lives in frames-to-video, where you upload images (or simple annotated frames) to guide composition, character placement, actions, backgrounds—even camera motion.
Crafting the Visual Manuscript
So how does one scribble magic onto a digital canvas? Enter tools like Photoshop, Canva, or Adobe Express—any app that lets you annotate images works. Start with a base frame that represents your setting, then layer in clear markers: arrows for direction, circles for placement, and short action notes.
Picture this: in Photoshop, you have a city rooftop at dusk. You annotate “blue neon sign flickers here,” draw an arrow path for a drone-like camera push-in, and mark “character A adjusts cufflinks” stage-right. Keep the notes short, concrete, and visually anchored to the area they affect. Export as a clean image and drop it into Flow’s frames-to-video. Veo 3 will attempt to follow your visual instructions in sequence, translating your sketches into motion.
Pro tip: Avoid clutter. Use high-contrast strokes, minimal colors for annotations, and concise labels. The goal is clarity. The better your “visual map,” the more faithfully Veo tracks your intent.
Breaking It Down: Visual Prompting in Action
- Scene Building: Annotate set elements, motion, and timing. “Smoke drift left,” “sunlight rakes across floor,” “portal opens here.” Veo 3 often honors layout and timing notes well. Precision items like intricate vehicle paths can sometimes deviate, but broad beats usually land.
- Character Dynamics: Label roles and simple actions: “A scrolls phone,” “B adjusts cufflinks,” “C looks to camera.” Short, singular actions tend to translate better than complex sequences stacked on one frame.
- Camera Direction: Use arrows to signal pans, tilts, or push-ins. Flow’s design emphasizes camera as a first-class control, and Veo responds well to explicit, directional cues when they’re sketched cleanly. See Flow’s creative controls overview: Flow + Veo.
Redefining Expectations
Want the classic green-screen switcheroo? Visual prompting plus frames-to-video makes background replacement feel familiar. Mark a subject on a solid color or high-contrast backdrop, then annotate the desired environment—a misty forest, a neon arcade, or a cosmic portal. You’ll get impressive replacements a surprising amount of the time. Like any keying workflow, expect occasional color spill or edge artifacts; iterate with simpler edges or cleaner separation for best results.
Dialogue has historically been a sticking point for generative video. The good news: Flow added speech and ambient sound options within frames-to-video, so you can include environmental audio, SFX, and even character lines directly within a generation. Quality will vary by scene complexity, but it’s a real leap forward for end-to-end clips. Details here: Flow adds speech to videos.
Callout: If speech matters, budget extra iterations. Generate with speech on, review lip-sync and delivery, then regenerate just the moments that need polish. Iterative passes are your friend.
Plans, Credits, and Availability
Flow access is tied to Google’s AI subscriptions, with tiers built for different levels of creative throughput. Notably, Google AI Ultra subscribers now receive 25,000 monthly AI credits for Flow and related tools—double the previous allocation—making it far easier to iterate without constantly watching the meter. Read more: More AI credits in Flow and Whisk for Google AI Ultra subscribers.
On availability, Flow has expanded to 140+ countries, opening the doors to creators globally. Check the latest rollout notes and supported regions here: Flow expands to more countries.
Pro tip: If you’re new to Flow, start with shorter clips on Veo 3 Fast to explore look and motion. When you’re close, switch to Veo 3 for the final quality pass with audio.
From Indie Experiments to Pro Workflows
Flow and Veo are not just for tests and TikToks. Google has showcased collaborations that blend live-action and generative sequences to cinematic effect. For example, Darren Aronofsky and Eliza McNitt’s short “ANCESTRA” combines traditional filmmaking with generative AI to explore new visual language: Behind ANCESTRA. And in the “Imagine with Shakun Batra X Google Gemini” series, filmmakers explore AI as a creative partner across genres—another glimpse at how these tools can slot into narrative pipelines: Imagine with Shakun Batra X Google Gemini.
For solo creators and small teams, this means you can storyboard, block, and iterate action beats at a pace that was unthinkable a year ago. Visual prompting is particularly transformative for previsualization—quickly testing camera angles, action staging, and lighting motifs before you invest in a full shoot.
Practical Tips to Push Quality
- Be Specific, Not Wordy: Short labels like “portal opens here,” “smoke left,” “push-in 3s” beat long paragraphs. Combine a few well-placed arrows with clean markers.
- Use Contrast: If annotations blend into the background, the model may misread them. Bright, uniform annotation color (e.g., neon green or red) is easiest to parse.
- Iterate with Timing: If a moment happens too early or late, add a numeric note like “at 2s” or “after cufflinks” near the annotation.
- One Action at a Time: If the model skips steps, split a dense frame into multiple annotated frames so each action gets its spotlight.
Callout: When an action keeps getting ignored, try turning it into the first beat of the next clip and stitch clips in Flow’s project timeline. Smaller asks per generation often yield better control.
Unlock the Creative Pandora’s Box
Veo 3, powered by the intuitive precision of visual prompting, opens boundless creative potential. What once felt like guesswork with pure text prompts becomes a tactile, designerly process—draw, point, label, and watch your intent translate to motion. Combine that with Flow’s evolving toolset—camera-aware controls, frames-to-video with speech, and growing global access—and you’ve got a filmmaking playground that puts direction in your hands.
So, do try these techniques on your own footage to see how they map to your style of storytelling. Our verdict? Go wild, embrace a little chaos, and craft stories only your imagination can fathom. This is the cutting edge of creating—without barriers.
