Image to Video in services like Runway.ml is an absolute game changer if your client has very few corporate stock videos, but a ton of images.
I regularly work on ad hoc edits with very quick turnarounds. There are usually two or three stake holders, which means I have to be ready for amends. Basically, there’s no time for anything too fancy.
Historically, I’d only have time to apply a subtle zoom or pan to still images, to add a bit of dynamism to what would otherwise be a static image. Static images are a buzz kill in video.
I hope you can see where this is going. Drop your corporate image into an Image to Video service and you’ve instantly got a stock video and added heaps of value to the edit. Simple and cost effective.
I use Runway for my Image to Video. I’ve tried Vidu, but Runway is the more reliable in terms of quality, and there are fewer occurrences of weirdness.
There are some things to be aware of:
Weirdness
You WILL occasionally get weird and hilarious video generations. The way around this is to keep spamming the generate button until you get a generation that you’re happy with. However, sometimes the weirdness doesn’t go away, not even with prompting. In this case I’ve found myself using a portion of the generated video and retiming it to fit in the edit.
Low resolution
Right now (as of April 2025) Runway is limited to 720p. Sure, you can upscale to 4k, but I find the image over-sharpened and generally lacking texture.
24fps
This is no biggie. I interpret the footage as 25fps. That does knock off 1 frame for every second, meaning the generation is slightly shorter in the timeline (and even shorter if you’re working at a higher framerate), but you can always extend by retiming the clip.
