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How to Make AI Videos as a Beginner: A Complete Guide for 2026

2026-06-20 · blog how-to · Higgsfield · original

Topic: Video generation & shot direction (also: Cost, credits & plans, Prompting & AI assistants, Failure modes & fixes, Audio, voice & music) · mode: Tutorial · tags: flattened table

Higgsfield's June 2026 beginner guide says making an AI video comes down to picking a model, writing a prompt and generating, and that quality depends mostly on describing the shot clearly: subject, action, setting and camera. It matches five models to jobs: Kling 3.0 for talking people, Veo 3.1 for cinematic shots with audio, Runway Gen-4.5 for multi-shot stories, Wan 2.6 for frame control and Hailuo 2.3 for fast iteration, with per-clip prices. Its advice is to test at 720p and change one thing per attempt.

What is said

  • Start AI video generation on Higgsfield: questions and answers

What is said

★ — how much it matters to the source.

  • ★★★ Higgsfield's blog says making an AI video means picking a model, writing a prompt and generating, and that output quality depends almost entirely on how clearly the shot is described: subject, action, setting, camera angle.
  • ★★★ Higgsfield's blog says five models cover nearly every beginner use in 2026: Veo 3.1 for cinematic output with audio, Kling 3.0 for realistic and talking people, Runway Gen-4.5 for multi-shot narrative, Wan 2.6 for frame control, Hailuo 2.3 for fast iteration. · Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0, Gen-4.5, Wan 2.6, Hailuo 2.3, Runway
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says AI video has two workflows, text-to-video and image-to-video, and most beginners start with image-to-video because the photo gives the model a visual anchor and the output is more predictable. · text-to-video, image-to-video
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says a video model generates all frames of a clip in one pass, so a single 10-second clip stays coherent, but each new generation starts cold with no memory of the previous clip.
  • ★★★ Higgsfield's blog says a good video prompt has four parts (subject, action, setting, camera) and the more specific it is, the less the model guesses: "A woman walking" is weak, a red-coated woman on a rainy Tokyo street at night, close-up, slow motion, is stronger.
  • ★★ For image-to-video Higgsfield's blog advises a sharp, evenly lit source image of at least 1024x1024 with a front-facing subject and no heavy clutter; side angles, dark lighting and busy backgrounds lower quality on every model. · image-to-video
  • ★★★ Higgsfield's blog advises image-to-video for realistic people, product demos or any shot needing a specific face or object, and text-to-video for abstract scenes, landscapes, motion experiments or when there is no reference image. · image-to-video, text-to-video
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog advises writing a video prompt like a director: subject, action, setting, lighting and camera in one or two sentences, a mood or style if it matters, and no vague adjectives such as "beautiful" or "amazing".
  • ★★★ Higgsfield's blog matches models to shots: Kling 3.0 for a realistic person speaking, Veo 3.1 for a cinematic scene with audio, Hailuo 2.3 for product or food in motion, Runway Gen-4.5 for a controlled narrative sequence, Wan 2.6 for a first-to-last-frame transition. · Kling 3.0, Veo 3.1, Hailuo 2.3, Gen-4.5, Wan 2.6, Runway
  • ★★★ Higgsfield's blog advises starting the first few generations at 720p: it costs fewer credits, generates faster and shows whether the prompt works before a full-quality run. · credit
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog advises reviewing the whole generated clip, checking that motion and expressions still feel natural at the 5 to 8 second mark, because most quality problems appear mid-clip.
  • ★★★ When a generation is off, Higgsfield's blog advises changing one thing per iteration (the prompt, the source image or the model), since changing all three at once hides what fixed it.
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says text-to-video for a specific person produces the wrong face, and advises image-to-video whenever there is a reference. · text-to-video, image-to-video
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog suggests describing the idea in plain language to an assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT and asking it for a video prompt, which it says takes 30 seconds and usually beats writing from scratch. · Claude, ChatGPT
  • ★★ Veo 3.1, Google's video model, is available on Higgsfield and other platforms and generates video and audio in the same pass, so sound, ambient noise and speech are part of the generation. · Veo 3.1, Google, native audio
  • ★★ For beginners Higgsfield's blog says Veo 3.1's one-pass audio cuts out a step: a complete clip with sound and no separate audio workflow. · Veo 3.1, native audio
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog rates Veo 3.1's output among the best of 2026 (faces, lighting transitions, cinematic motion) and advises it when quality matters most and a clear, well-written prompt is ready. · Veo 3.1
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says Veo 3.1 costs more credits per clip than most alternatives and needs a well-structured prompt, so vague prompts waste credits. · Veo 3.1, credit
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says Kling 3.0 is built for human subjects, rendering faces, skin tones and body movement more consistently than most models, with native lip sync in 8+ languages. · Kling 3.0, lip sync
  • ★★★ Higgsfield's blog calls Kling 3.0 the most reliable starting point for talking-head content, product spokesperson videos or any clip where a real person must look natural. · Kling 3.0
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says Kling 3.0 keeps a character's identity across the cuts of a multi-shot sequence: a reference image uploaded once holds the face across clips. · Kling 3.0, multi-shot prompt
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says Kling 3.0 is less expressive than Veo 3.1 on non-human subjects and longer scripts must be broken into shorter clips. · Kling 3.0, Veo 3.1
  • ★★ For a story of 3 to 5 shots without building an identity model, Higgsfield's blog calls Runway Gen-4.5's Director Mode the most direct path: describe a script, set a character reference from one portrait, no training. · Gen-4.5, Runway, multi-shot prompt
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says Runway Gen-4.5 clips run 10 seconds natively, longer ones need Extend, which can reduce consistency; it has no native audio and no persistent character library. · Gen-4.5, native audio, Runway · also in: 7 Tools for Consistent AI Characters Across Every Scene in 2026
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says Wan 2.6 from Alibaba offers first-and-last-frame control: given the opening and closing images, it generates everything in between. · Wan 2.6, keyframe
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says Wan 2.6 edits existing footage from plain-language instructions and is open-source under Apache 2.0, so teams can run it locally or self-host it. · Wan 2.6
  • ★ Higgsfield's blog says Wan 2.6's raw visual quality is below Veo 3.1 and Kling 3.0 on single-clip benchmarks and its Thinking Mode slows rapid iteration. · Wan 2.6, Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says Minimax Hailuo 2.3 is the fastest of the five, most clips returning in 30 to 90 seconds, and renders the physics of food, liquid, fabric and products more accurately than competitors. · Hailuo 2.3, MiniMax
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says Hailuo 2.3 is not the top choice for cinematic work but gives more output per dollar for fast social clips, product demos and iteration-heavy workflows. · Hailuo 2.3
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says Hailuo 2.3 clips are capped at 6 to 10 seconds depending on plan and its cinematic quality is below Veo 3.1 and Kling 3.0. · Hailuo 2.3, Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0
  • ★ Higgsfield's blog gives Wan 2.6 clips of up to 15 seconds. · Wan 2.6
  • ★★★ Higgsfield's blog compares models by cost per 8-second 720p clip: about $2.00 for Runway Gen-4.5, $0.75 for Wan 2.6 and $0.70 for Minimax Hailuo 2.3. · Gen-4.5, Wan 2.6, Hailuo 2.3, credit, Runway
  • ★★★ Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0, Wan 2.6 and Hailuo 2.3 are all on Higgsfield under one subscription: Starter at $15 a month with 200 credits, Plus at $49 a month with 1,000 credits. · Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0, Wan 2.6, Hailuo 2.3, Starter plan, Plus plan
  • ★★ Runway runs on its own subscription: Standard at $12 a month with 625 credits, Pro at $28 a month with 2,250 credits. · Runway, Runway Standard plan, Runway Pro plan
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says most video models cap a generation at 6 to 10 seconds, so longer content means chaining clips and cutting between them in post.
  • ★★ Since each generation starts cold, Higgsfield's blog says the same face drifts between clips unless an identity tool such as Soul ID or a reference approach such as Runway's portrait anchor is used. · Soul ID, Gen-4.5, Runway
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says complex movement described in text comes out differently each time; Wan 2.6's first-and-last-frame control is the most direct fix but needs both endpoints planned. · Wan 2.6, keyframe
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says two people interacting in one shot, especially in close-up, show visible inconsistencies on every model, and advises generating each person separately and compositing in post.
  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says Runway and Hailuo 2.3 generate no native audio; lip sync or ambient sound needs Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0 or Wan 2.6, or a separate audio workflow. · Runway, Hailuo 2.3, Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0, Wan 2.6, lip sync, native audio
  • ★★★ Higgsfield's blog says most weak AI video outputs trace back to a decision before generating: a vague prompt, a blurry source image, the wrong model, or full resolution before the prompt is confirmed.

  • ★★★ Higgsfield's blog sums up: write the prompt like a shot description, pick the model for what the shot needs, test at 720p, watch the full clip, change one thing per iteration; better inputs beat switching models.

    “Better inputs beat switching models every time.”

  • ★★ Higgsfield's blog says the five video models in its beginner guide all have web interfaces needing no technical skills; Wan 2.6 can also be run locally, but its cloud version needs no setup. · Wan 2.6

  • ★★★ Higgsfield's blog says a video prompt should be long enough to cover subject, action, setting and camera angle, usually 1 to 3 sentences; a focused 2-sentence prompt beats a vague paragraph.
  • ★ Higgsfield's blog says most platforms allow videos from uploaded photos of real people, though some models' content policies restrict certain uses.

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Gen-4.5 · Hailuo 2.3 · image-to-video · Kling 3.0 · Veo 3.1 · Wan 2.6

Also: Organizations: Alibaba · Google · MiniMax · Runway

Concepts: credit · keyframe · lip sync · multi-shot prompt · native audio · text-to-video

Products: ChatGPT · Claude · Plus plan · Runway Pro plan · Runway Standard plan · Soul ID · Starter plan

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