01In plain English
You upload a still picture, such as a photo, product shot or piece of artwork, and the tool adds motion to it. The camera might drift, a person might turn their head, or water and clouds might move. Many tools also let you add a text prompt to steer the movement.
02Why it matters when you are choosing
Starting from a real image keeps the look of your product, brand or character consistent, which is hard to get from a text prompt alone. It is a quick way to turn existing pictures into social clips and ads.
03What to check
Check how much control you get over the motion, whether faces and hands stay stable, and how long the clip can run. Ask whether you keep commercial rights to videos made from your own images.
04The tools
8 of the 10 tools we checked animate a still image into video. Each one is checked against the vendor's own pages. A tool missing from this list may not have been checked yet, which is not the same as a no.
Kling AI
Runway
Vidu AI
Hailuo AI
Pika
PixVerse
Luma AI
