30 AI Video Prompt Examples That Actually Produce Stunning Results

Prompts You Can Use Right Now

I've been collecting effective AI video prompts for months — testing, refining, and noting which ones consistently produce great output across different models. Instead of hoarding them, here's my full library organized by category.

Every prompt below has been tested on at least two platforms. I've included notes on why each one works so you can adapt the techniques to your own ideas.

Cinematic & Film-Style

1. The Moody Urban Shot

A slow tracking shot through a rain-soaked Tokyo alley at night. Neon signs reflect in puddles. A solitary figure in a dark coat walks away from camera. Anamorphic lens flare, 35mm film grain. Blade Runner color palette.

Why it works: Specific location, weather, lighting source (neon), defined camera movement, film reference for style.

2. Golden Hour Portrait

Close-up portrait of an elderly fisherman mending nets at a wooden dock. Golden hour sunlight catches weathered skin and silver hair. Shallow depth of field, background harbor blurred. Shot on 85mm prime lens.

Why it works: The "85mm prime" pushes models toward flattering portrait compression. Specific details (mending nets, weathered skin) prevent generic output.

3. Epic Landscape Reveal

Slow drone shot rising from behind a cliff edge to reveal a vast fjord valley below. Morning mist fills the valley floor. Snow-capped peaks catch first sunlight. IMAX 70mm format, 2.39:1 aspect ratio.

Why it works: The "rising from behind" creates a reveal — temporal progression that gives the AI a clear narrative arc for the clip.

4. Film Noir Interior

A detective sits alone at a bar, cigarette smoke curling under a single overhead lamp. Deep shadows, venetian blind light stripes across the wall. Black and white, high contrast, 1940s film noir style. 50mm lens, static shot.

Why it works: The noir genre gives AI models extremely clear visual guidelines. The venetian blind stripes are a classic detail that models render well.

5. One-Take Following Shot

Steadicam shot following a woman through a crowded Moroccan souk. She weaves between vendors, fabrics, and spice stalls. Camera maintains medium shot distance. Warm, diffused afternoon light. Natural sound ambiance.

Why it works: "Steadicam" and "following" together produce smooth, purposeful camera movement. The detailed environment description fills the scene with visual interest.

Nature & Environment

6. Underwater World

A sea turtle glides through crystal-clear turquoise water above a coral reef. Sunlight beams pierce the surface, creating dancing caustic patterns. Schools of tropical fish scatter as the turtle passes. Shot from below, looking up. Slow motion.

Why it works: "Caustic patterns" is a specific lighting term that AI models understand. The "shot from below" gives a distinctive perspective.

7. Storm Timelapse

Timelapse of massive cumulonimbus clouds building over a wheat field on the Great Plains. Late afternoon light turns clouds from white to purple to deep grey. Lightning flashes in the distance. Wide angle, low camera position, 8K resolution.

Why it works: Timelapse gives the model clear temporal direction. The color progression (white to purple to grey) provides a narrative arc.

8. Macro Nature

Extreme macro shot of morning dew drops on a spider web. Each droplet acts as a tiny lens, refracting the garden behind it. Shallow depth of field, one drop in sharp focus. Soft morning light. Shot on Canon macro lens.

Why it works: The "tiny lens refracting" detail shows the model what you want the droplets to do physically. Very specific = very good output.

9. Seasons Changing

A single oak tree in an open meadow. Timelapse from summer to autumn — leaves transition from deep green to golden yellow to burnt orange. Wind picks up as autumn arrives. Afternoon light, wide shot, cinematic color grading.

Why it works: Clear temporal arc with specific color progression. The wind picking up adds dynamic change.

10. Northern Lights

The aurora borealis dances across a star-filled Arctic sky above a frozen lake. Green and purple curtains of light reflect off the ice surface. A small wooden cabin with warm lamplight sits on the shore. Real-time, not timelapse. Wide angle, low ISO look.

Why it works: Specifying "real-time, not timelapse" prevents the model from speeding up the aurora. The warm cabin light against cool aurora creates color contrast.

Product & Commercial

11. Luxury Watch

A Swiss mechanical watch rotates slowly on a black reflective surface. Macro-level detail shows gears moving through the sapphire caseback. Studio lighting with a single soft key light from the upper left. Reflections clean and controlled. 4K, slow motion.

Why it works: Commercial-style prompts need precision. The single light source direction and "reflections clean and controlled" prevent messy rendering.

12. Food Commercial

Slow motion pour of honey drizzling over a stack of golden pancakes. Individual droplets catch warm morning light. Steam rises from the stack. Close-up, shallow depth of field. Warm color temperature, food photography style.

Why it works: Food prompts benefit from mentioning "food photography style" — models have seen enough food content to know what that means.

13. Sneaker Launch

A pristine white sneaker floats and rotates against a gradient studio backdrop that shifts from deep blue to warm orange. Dynamic studio lighting with moving rim lights. Slight motion blur on rotation. Product commercial style, clean and modern.

Why it works: "Floats and rotates" gives clear product showcase motion. The gradient backdrop adds visual interest without distracting from the product.

Abstract & Artistic

14. Ink in Water

Drops of deep indigo ink falling into crystal-clear water in extreme slow motion. The ink unfurls in organic, fractal patterns. Shot against pure white background. Macro lens, shallow depth of field. Top-down perspective.

Why it works: AI models excel at fluid dynamics prompts. The "fractal patterns" and "unfurls" guide the specific type of ink diffusion.

15. Geometric Transformation

An impossible geometric shape — a Penrose triangle — slowly transforms into a sphere, then into a tesseract. Floating in dark space with subtle volumetric fog. Clean, minimalist. Soft blue and white lighting.

Why it works: Abstract prompts with clear transformation sequences give models temporal direction without requiring physical realism.

Action & Dynamic

16. Parkour Sequence

A parkour athlete runs along a rooftop edge and performs a precision jump to the next building. Camera follows with a smooth tracking shot from a parallel rooftop. Sunset, urban skyline in background. GoPro-style wide angle with slight barrel distortion.

Why it works: The parallel camera position and GoPro reference give very specific visual expectations.

17. Motorcycle Chase

A motorcycle speeds through rain-wet city streets at night. Camera mounted low on the bike, showing the road rushing past. Neon street lights streak by. Water spray from tires catches headlight beams. Cinematic, 24fps film cadence.

Why it works: The "camera mounted low" POV and specific details (water spray, light streaks) create immersion.

18. Splash Impact

A single red strawberry drops into a pool of cream in ultra slow motion. The impact creates a perfect crown splash. Droplets hang suspended in air. Clean white studio background. High-speed camera, 1000fps look.

Why it works: Crown splash is a well-understood visual concept. Specifying the camera speed gives the model the exact temporal resolution you want.

Atmospheric & Mood

19. Abandoned Interior

Slow pan across an abandoned theater. Dust motes float through a single shaft of sunlight from a broken skylight. Faded red velvet seats, peeling gold leaf, a grand piano center stage. Melancholic atmosphere. Shot on vintage anamorphic lens.

Why it works: The rich environmental detail plus "melancholic" mood direction creates a cohesive emotional tone.

20. Foggy Morning

A lone rowing boat drifts across a perfectly still lake shrouded in dense morning fog. The boat emerges slowly from the fog. No people visible. Only the gentle ripples from the boat disturb the glassy water surface. Muted color palette, almost monochromatic.

Why it works: Fog is one of the best atmospheric elements for AI video — it naturally simplifies the scene while adding depth.

How to Adapt These Prompts

Don't just copy-paste — use these as templates:

1. Swap the subject while keeping the camera, lighting, and style
2. Change the location to fit your content niche
3. Mix elements from different prompts (take the lighting from #4 and the camera movement from #5)
4. Add your own details — the more specific, the better

To build your own prompt library, analyze AI videos you admire using VideoToPrompt — it extracts the prompt structure and cinematography terms so you can learn the visual language that produces the best results.

Check your prompt length with the Text Counter to make sure you're staying within model limits. The sweet spot is 80-150 words for most platforms.

Keep Experimenting

These 20 prompts are a starting point. The real skill is developing your own eye for what makes a prompt effective — specific camera direction, precise lighting, clear temporal arc, and a defined visual style.

The more you experiment, the better your intuition gets. Every prompt that fails teaches you something about how these models think.