Using AI Software- Pika- To Generate Short Video Clips

Using AI Software- Pika- To Generate Short Video Clips

Written by Lauren Molloy on 3 January 2024

Today I discovered Pika, a free new AI program that can generate short video clips with just a prompt. I went into this experience blind, completely unsure of what to do and how to get started. It would have been great to have an instructions page or a tutorial to give you a bit of an idea how to best use the program when trying it for the first time. I think the addition of a feature like that to Pika's website would benefit other new visitors. Using Pika was very much a matter of trial and error- some prompts generated videos that worked cohesively with the prompt, others not so much, and some were a bizarre mash up of things. Overall, it was an intriguing experience and was fun to figure out how it worked and generate a variety of different content. 

The Trial, The Error

On my first attempt at generating a video, my prompt was too lengthy and had too many details. The program was only able to capture the absolute basic parts of my prompt, so by changing the prompt to the bare minimum, I was able to generate a decent clip that was what I was going for. Below each clip is the prompt I used.

        realistic style frozen ground on a cold spring day.         
        a tiny seedling slowly pushes through the ground.        

Then I started changing the prompt and adding other descriptors to it and the results varied on the spectrum of strangeness. 

          realistic style of a seedling growing and blooming        

Then things got a bit weirder. For some reason Pika was stuck on this seedling concept. In hindsight this was probably because of how I prompted it. I can’t fault the program on this, I think it was a user error. 

             

          baby turtle going to the ocean pixar style                                    futuristic mail delivery van                    

 

Getting the Hang of It

As Pika has a limit of 4 or 7 seconds to your clips, I found some really nice results after keeping the prompt quite simple with a focus on what the style or theme I wanted it to be. 

A good feature is that you can generate as many videos as you like. You can edit your prompt and regenerate the video if your results aren't quite what you wanted. Some variations of the same theme worked out nicely, like these:

              

             utopian style mountain society life                                   utopian dreamy style mountain society life           

               

           utopian futuristic style mountain society life                       futuristic mountain society in dream style             

          

            baby turtle going to the ocean pixar style                      turtle hatchling swimming at the beach dreamy style      

              

                      hazy underwater world                                          hazy underwater world in dream style realistic            

But Be Warned

I think I had some decent results because of the prompts I chose. I didn't initially ask Pika to generate human faces because I know one of the faults in ai programs like these are that ai has not developed enough yet to generate realistic human faces (which may be a good thing but that's a topic for another day). The results were bizarre at best, ranging to just creepy, and nightmare fuel. But the program is free so what do you have to lose? Give it a try. Just maybe not right before bed.....

           

                            human at the dentist                                                    girl brushing long hair at night                      

       
                creepy duck in nightmare style                                                            creepy nightmare fuel                        

try Pika for yourself here

Also, if you're interested in reading about another similar AI program, Runway, you can read more about it and try it by clicking here.