How to Create an AI Cinematic Brand Video: Full Workflow | Runway Gen-3 | Midjourney | Adobe

welcome to hidden space I'm Serge green and in this video you'll see the complete workflow for creating a cinematic video advertisement using Runway mid journey and Adobe soft if you haven't seen this ad yet go check it out now or stick around the final version will be at the [Music] end to create a high quality and most importantly functional ad we need to clearly understand our goals answer key questions and build a clear plan of action let's start with the narrative structure I used a classic threea structure for the script Exposition introducing the world and

characters escalation the problem comes up resolution Victory problem solved we also shouldn't forget that we're creating an ad so we need to expand our structure with marketing principles in mind the Aida model works perfectly here a attention I interest D desire a action now our internal story structure will also include an outro with a clear call to action and an intro considering the importance of capturing attention in the first few seconds we'll also apply this model within each of the three acts this means that during the exposition we prepare the viewers attention for the upcoming

problem and lead them toward the solution which is the service or product in the end we need to leave a clear simple message encouraging actions like subscribing to the channel or visiting the website this is part of the external sales funnel that leads to the first point of contact our ad runs at the dynamic 30 seconds it sounds like a challenge but it's not all let's take a closer look at what function our video should complete in my case it's to increase brand awareness but it could also be direct product sales or an explainer video

which is a common market request the next question is where will the video be placed it could be Twitter a website part of a marketing campaign targeted ads or YouTube this will decide how we adjust the visuals and story to fit the platform what about optimization and proportions what format do we need in our case it's a horizontal 16 to9 video it could also be vertical 916 even better when creating we should plan the composition so we can split the horizontal format into three parts cut the necessary section and turn it into a YouTube shorts

video for example this will save the client money on production and make the video more flexible for sharing across different social platforms we've done a lot of work in understanding the task but we still don't know how the video should look or what emotion it should deliver we could jump into the creative process but that would be a mistake it's time for a bit of brand research meat path it's the brand we need to get to know the best way to do that is by looking through the brand book besides the basics like colors fonts

and how to use the logo and other brand marks we'll also learn how to present the visuals and the right context this this will help us understand the Brand's Mission connect with the Founder's vision and get a feel for the tone and Vibe of the product that way we can build on the idea the company wants to share we also need to explore the website to see how the brand presents itself not just on paper but in the real social space this will help us make notes for the future mood board and storyboard even at

this stage we can start coming up with initial visual concepts The Next Step was reviewing Instagram it's full of visual storytelling which allowed me to understand how the mood design and style have changed over time I could also check out what content already exists and how it looks this gave me insight into how designers marketers and social media managers use the brand book and other materials it's also important to read through the comments to better understand the target audience a their lifestyle what they like and what they respond to I'll also analyze the existing content

to figure out the strategy whether to bring a fresh perspective within the brand style or continue the current Trend now let's complete the picture with a variety of product photos and we're ready to create a mood board based on everything we've seen and learned this is our unique take on the brand what really attracted our attention and reson ated with us a mood board is a valuable tool and it's great to have it helps us keep a consistent style when creating images videos sound design adding Motion Graphics and even when picking music and voice for

the narrative the next step is building the concept I love to use a simple and effective technique creating a small tag Cloud an associative list after research write down everything that comes to mind related to the brand the video and your ideas for the project this is a text based version of a mood board which helps you quickly come up with the concept shots scenes acts and a variety of visuals for the future video look at the solid foundation we've built now let's add the final touch and briefly outline the main idea for the upcoming

video as well as the technical process based on everything I've learned and considering the tight 5day timeline I decided the ad will focus on a simple idea changing a habit and being part of a cleaner future by giving up plastic bottles I personally live this way I use a reusable water bottle and bags it's a small effort but I try to make my input to a cleaner future for the next Generations I hope you understand what I mean this personal Journey will be presented with a central composition since we have a short run time and

I want to stick to Simple Solution to avoid creating unnecessary cognitive load on the viewers attention one problem we face is automatic habits things we do without thinking in everyday life in each scene the road or its equivalent will symbolize human life leading the viewer to a stylish simple and elegant solution to the problem refillable and recyclable bottled water packaged in a sleek and sturdy aluminum container also based on everything I've learned about the brand and its audience I understand who I'll be speaking to these are people leading active Lifestyles young part of the new

generation individuals who are ready to make a simple choice and change their daily habits to reduce the harmful impact of human activity on nature and climate change let me lock in the style once again as this will be useful for creating prompts and guiding the next steps in the process we've already gone through some of them together next we'll focus on creating the story board by generating images in mid Journey then turn those into a video using Runway after that we'll do the editing and Graphics in After Effects sound design in Premiere Pro add the

final touches and we're all set now we can focus on creating the visual assets for the upcoming video I encourage everyone to do the ground workor first rather than jumping straight into generating images or video this way we can free up all our attention and energy for the creative process it also ensures a balanced approach between your personal vision and the Brand's Universe while building trust and understanding between the content creator and the client time for the first shot Exposition for the intro I've decided the setting will be New York so I'll use mid journey

to generate the first compositional image and gradually refine the style and concept I need a wide shot of the city early morning just before Dawn capturing the atmosphere of the big city waking up speaking of the technical aspects I used images from the mood board as style references in mid Journey this is a common practice to ensure consistency and keep everything within the same narrative style once I have the right image I head to photoshop to fix various imperfections that came out out raw from mid Journey blurred edges and inaccuracies can significantly affect the final

result when generating video based on an image also when working on an ad it's important to integrate brand elements into the environment this is about working with human attention according to the psychology of human behavior we need at least three interactions with a brand or product before we take any action in our 30 second format it's all about placing accents for quick intuitive Thinking by the time we present the solution the audience will already recognize the product and the brand from a technical standpoint I've been using generative fill and expand a lot recently it's an

amazing tool powered by adobe's Firefly model that saves a ton of time by generating needed parts of an image on the fly right from the start I use the Brand's colors and adjust the image toch match them and from the first seconds I set the color scheme for the entire video I love to generate the first rough drafts of the video from the created image right away even if it's a bit against the usual workflow it gives a nice boost of motivation and energizes me to continue building the storyboard just take a look at these

amazing results especially how the sunrise creates realistic Contours on the path elements we've integrated from a technical standpoint one once the video is generated I upscale all the materials to 4K and 30 frames per second using topaz video AI even if I'm working in full HD I also often use frame interpolation and slow the video down by half to have more flexibility during editing additionally Runway gen 3 now allows extending output files up to 40 seconds which opens up amazing possibilities for creating seamless scenes without cuts take a look at the final processed version of

the first shot the result and potential are impressive next we'll continue working on generating the storyboard and all the images according to the workflow continuing the storyline for the second shot I decided to show a walk through a park in New York City just after Sunrise generative AI gives us the ability to create exactly what we need I considered the sun's position similar buildings from the first shot the same season and other small details it's a perfect day everything is going smoothly until a problem appears reality starts to break down a little I wanted to

add a subtle glitch effect everything seems fine but something is off so I settled on a shot of the park where beautiful flowers bloom in the flower beds but when you look closer they're actually tiny plastic bottles this carefully prepares the viewers attention for the triggering event wrapping up the scene to enhance the effect I used generative fill to place a few plastic bottles tossed near a trash bin right in the focus point it's a situation we've all seen before right adobe's Firefly model produces great realistic results with clean edges because it's trained on stock

materials I really like the direction this company is heading we all need tools that allow us to have control over our work the third shot is the Turning Point same city same streets and the same season a bus stop I chose it because I like the idea which path often uses in their Instagram it resonates with my concept here the composition should clearly be split into two halves symbolizing two different choices the familiar and the new leading to a cleaner future a bus stop or train station is always a place Between Worlds the past is

already gone and the future hasn't arrived yet I couldn't generate the exact text here due to the limitations of generative AI but as you've probably guessed Photoshop will be our tool we can create a small poster that introduces the brand without fully revealing it the next shot is an underwater world with white sand corals and a path I got it quickly mid Journey never disappoints and handles long complex prompts perfectly I also took a photo of a path bottle that I liked one quick swipe with generative expand and it was ready for the final part

of the video I also decided to generate a character the only individual featured in the entire ad to make it feel more alive and Rel relatable I want to try placing a girl in a wet suit directly inside the bottle this approach is often used by the brand and much like a classic suit it's always an effective proven solution I'm going to put together a visual storyboard from all the images and variations we've generated to get a clear view of the whole project before we dive into making the video it's important to do this first

since video creation takes a lot of time and effort you can already see how our video is starting to take form even though we haven't started yet layer by layer we're refining it and generating the video is just one step in the process the main point I want to make is this what matters most is the planning before you hit the generate button by working step by step we avoid Randomness in our process we know exactly what we want and are sure we'll get it and now let's get started started bringing everything we've created to

life and see how Runway handles it I decided to make the entire video as immersive as possible without any visible cuts to create the feeling of a firsters journey our Dynamic 30-second runtime works well for this technically I started the generation using the image to video mode then I applied an obvious but challenging technique using the first frame and last frame mode I began creating full scene where our image is positioned in the center of a 20se second video the first frame mode means the image will be the starting point and Runway will generate a

10-second video clip from there in last frame mode the image will be the final frame in the 10-second video this approach allowed me to create events in both directions over time it's incredible this scene is complete a peaceful walk was interrupted by a massive plastic bag blocking the path it acts as our trigger event leading to the bus stop the bus stop shot works as a transition showing a moment of tension and Chaos I couldn't fully pull off the portal effect like I wanted as I mentioned earlier we still don't have full control over it

but sticking to our concept there are plenty of ways to make it work the bus stop starts moving but the poster stays fixed while the right side of the scene does its own thing leaving it like this is a bit of a bold choice on one hand I wanted to show the conflict of choices in that moment but on the other hand the unrealistic movement can break the immersive feel compositionally we're held together by the path in the middle so I decided to take the risk I managed to create a bit of a paradox and

by keeping the poster still we avoided text Distortion since generative AI struggles with keeping text stable when there's a lot of motion next scene I used the same Parallax technique from the park to create a complete moment in the Underwater World from New York City we head straight North in an fpv drone Style flying past Ice Canyon into the Underwater World showing what we need to save this adds more depth to the story and brings out the meaning behind the poster at the bus stop I tried a few different versions and I've got to say

Runway does an amazing job with nature especially water this part of the video creates a space of calm and peace leading us to the solution and the conscious choice to stop using single-use plastic bottles the next shot features the path bottle We rise from the pure depths surrounded by corals to the bottle gently wrapped in waves with purified water inside since I chose sparkling water for the outro I'll play with the theme of bubbles like rising from from the deep with seafoam wrapping around the bottle I wanted to create a video where there's some interaction

with the bottle but nothing too intense to keep the large text untouched and stable considering AI limitations then I plan to apply slow motion which will create an amazing shot that contrasts perfectly with the dynamic scenes leading up to this moment enhancing the impact of its reveal to finish up the video generation St stage will create an upward motion for the girl in the wet suit framed by the graphic silhouette of the bottle in the brand style starting with the underwater scene and our rise from the depths I'm directing all the movement in the shot

upwards this will strengthen the resolution of the conflict and the feeling of uplift creating a strong association with our bottle let's see how it all comes together in the next stage after the basic edit we'll finally be able to see how all our materials work together I hope you're as curious as I am next most of the workflow will take place in Adobe soft I'll be fixing typical issues that come up during generation doing color correction creating the outro with a call to action and enhancing the video's immersion let's dive in the first and biggest

challenge I encountered was handling transitions within a single scene the thing with generative models is that they can't produce the exact same result twice I can use the same image but the movement color lighting and other parameters will be slightly different each time this breaks the effect of smooth motion and prevents us from achieving a high quality result well the film industry has always faced different limitations and like a professional magician found ways to overcome them I could use speed adjustments video effects and transparency tricks but since this is a challenge I decided not to

add anything that wasn't generated by AI the main way to solve this will be through precise color correction between shots and working with speed curves to create smooth speed ramp transitions this will also give the video a dynamic rhythm in line with the path brand working with the speed of the video clip also helps hide various AI imperfections like in our shot with the bus stop where the bus loses its form during the transition to the underwater [Music] world to maintain the seamless effect until the end of the video I had to figure out how

to transition to the final scene with the bottle place an accent on that moment and keep the rhythm of the first person Journey since I'm not using any video effects or graph graic I decided to go with a proven technique a match cut I used this to transition from the underwater world through the logo onto the bottle and from the realistic bottle to The Graphic silhouette of the bottle this way we create a complete and logical journey we'll travel from sunrise to sunset passing through ice canyons and the Underwater World rising to the surface and

straight into the path bottle completing a full day cycle where we made a conscious Choice seeing the almost finished video for the first time I decided to make some adjustments I didn't like the effect the text on the poster was having within the context of our ad it felt a bit too aggressive which I wanted to avoid to keep the viewers attention I wanted the focus to stay on the final message so I chose a more neutral text additionally the poster designed itself raised some questions it didn't quite match the design style of the path

brand this gave me the opportunity to make changes I quickly went through the whole video creation process again and using a mask easily integrated the updated version into our shot the next step was working on the graphic part of the video I needed to finalize the match cut and to make the outro more connected and smooth out the transition from the underwater world I decided to use a silhouette technique within the graphic logo this created a logical transition and introduced Graphics into our immersive journey I also added a simple upward motion animation to the logo

to stay consistent with the rules I had established for our world after that I created a composition with text surrounding the bottle silhouette and and added a basic fade in animation this text will also serve as subtitles for the voice over in the future reinforcing our [Music] message to add depth and variety as well as to connect the scenes I decided to generate Motion Graphics with water using Runway I used it in the negative black space to soften the contrast between Transitions and reinforce the concept of being inside the water bottle through this I also

created the transition to the final shot with the path [Music] logo the Final Touch in creating the video will be another round of color correction which will unify all the visuals and ensure consistency with the the Brand's color palette our big stage of work in After Effects is complete let's take a look at the final result [Music] the finish line is on the horizon we're moving into Premiere Pro and I'll be focusing on sound design creating the voice over and adding background music I encourage everyone to pay close attention to the sound design of your

videos don't forget that our eyes are just one of our senses and with video we can engage not only the visual aspect but also the auditory to to achieve Rich sound design and a realistic sound environment I'll be layering sound step by step to tell the story we see in reality no event has just one sound It's a combination of many layered sounds how does the sound appear how long does it last what are its variations you need to ask all these questions to properly select and fine-tune the sound effects for the opening shot of

my video it's the sound of wind at a high altitude and the sounds of a city waking up cars ambient noise Birds then we move into the park where we hear the same Birds distant traffic and footsteps while walking I like to begin audio design by setting clear transition points during this stage I'll stick to Natural classic sounds to keep the flow of our world consistent I'll go into more detail on the trigger event before the plastic bag blocks the path what will we hear how will the bag fly in what kind of plastic sound

do we need I decided to include several footstep sounds followed by the sound of a plastic bottle dropping subtly reminding us that we might be the person who mindlessly uses plastic bottles after that I created a set of sounds for the arrival of the plastic bag wind light rustling sounds and the thud of the bag hitting the road and the surrounding [Applause] environment I followed the same logic as I moved forward sound designing shot by shot tying it all into one continuous story to keep the believability effect I never use the same sound twice without

changes because in the real world every sound is unique on the technical side the plugin from epidemic sound which you can see here saves me a lot of time big thanks to curious ref refuge for the recommendation I'll be using them forever now their library has incredibly high quality sound effects that I can instantly bring into my project I'd like to go into more detail on the final scene where the path bottle appears this part offers endless possibilities for trying out different ideas especially using water sounds to enhance the key moment I wanted to clearly

separate the plastic World from metal which can be easily recycled so I chose the sound of an aluminum bat to make that point I also fully started bringing the sparkling but bubble theme to life for the Final Shots I added the sound of water movement within the space and continued building sound layers until I felt the scene was alive and balanced let's take a look at the result [Music] everything seems fine but personally I still don't quite believe it there should be some kind of sound when the text appears on the screen I think that's

the missing piece then I heard it the sounds of whales underwater I I looked at the textt again and thought why [Music] not we can definitely say the sound effects are done now we can check out the final result which looks great even without music or voice [Music] [Music] now I'm going to work on The Voice which is just as important as the sound effects The Voice will help bring the viewer into the videos concept I'll be using AI from 11 labs to create it they have a great variet of voices and you can even

design a custom one if needed I'm looking for a voice that matches path's audience and the idea of saving the future I think a young female voice would be perfect something that sounds strong and experienced but also gentle and caring I've seen things you people would later that same evening Once Upon a Time an 11 the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the from the and full of Empire the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched they must be felt with the heart every morning

is the start of a new story every morning is the start of a new story wow I was surprised at how quickly I found a character that in my personal opinion felt right for the voiceover after that I worked through the narrative shot by shot scene by scene adjusting the voice over several iterations to get the right emotions at the right moments every morning is the start of a new story small steps and simple actions we make choices without even thinking but every moment is a chance to change the future everything's ready we can add

the background music now I quickly found the right track and epidemic sound has a great option to download all the individual audio tracks and remix them however you need which is exactly what I did first I added the finished track as a test to see if it matches the spirit of the brand and our video my personal take is yes it has a clear Dynamic Rhythm that feels like being on a journey with ethnic sounds and shamanic chants that connect to Nature along with classic instruments symbolizing the purity of the path every morning is the

start of a new story small steps and simple actions we make choices without even thinking but every moment is a chance to change the future it's time to make a conscious Choice freedom in every step inspiration in every sip half purified water in a sturdy recyclable aluminum bottle you're making a choice it's your bottle refill it learn more at drink path.com the next step is to carefully integrate all parts of the track into our Rich sound design gradually building up the Dynamics toward the culmination the appearance of the path bottle [Music] once the work was

done I moved on to the final stage which is somewhat like color correction mixing when all the components are ready it's important to carefully balance the volume enhance certain sounds if needed adjust with an equalizer and we're ready to hear our final video before moving on to rendering every morning is the start of a new story small steps and simple actions we make choices without even thinking but every moment is a change to change the future it's time to make a conscious Choice freedom in every step inspiration in every sip path purified water in a

sturdy recyclable aluminum bottle you're making a choice it's your bottle refill it learn more at drink path.com the Cinematic AI video advertisement for the path brand is ready it's been an exciting journey and I want to thank everyone who watched the video till the end and found it valuable I can definitely say that I achieved my goal and created a high quality and most importantly functional ad the potential of AI in this field is truly impressive once again I'd like to give a special thanks to curious refuge for supporting this direction and giving me the

opportunity to practice now let's take a look at the final result every morning is the start of a new story small steps and simple actions we make choices without even thinking but every moment is a chance to change the future it's time to make a conscious Choice freedom in every step inspiration in every sip path purified water in a sturdy recyclable aluminum bottle you're making a choice it's your bottle refill it learn more at drink.com I think the video turned out quite informative let me know your opinion in the comments I'm doing this to help

integrate AI as a tool for creativity and work your feedback is important to me and keeps me going also check out my other workflows if you haven't seen them yet see you soon