This is a pre-production workflow. The goal is timing and flow, not final footage.

How do you prepare storyboard frames for animation?

The model needs a clean image per shot. Two rules improve output noticeably.

• One clear subject per frame, plus a readable background
• Consistent aspect ratio across every frame, ideally 16:9

Sketchy line art animates poorly because the model cannot infer depth from it. If your frames are rough pencil sketches, run them through an image generator first to get a rendered version, then animate that.

How do you animate one frame?

Upload the frame in Image to Video mode. Describe only the motion, since the image already fixes the content.

Useful motion prompts for storyboards: “slow push in”, “camera pans left revealing the street”, “character turns their head toward camera”. Avoid describing new objects entering the frame, because it tends to morph the existing composition instead.

Standard clips take under a minute. Generate three takes per shot, since motion interpretation varies a lot between runs.

How do you assemble the shots?

Export each clip, then edit them in any editor. The honest problem is continuity: lighting and colour shift between separately generated shots. Two fixes.

• Use the last frame of shot one as the input image for shot two
• Apply a short crossfade, six to twelve frames, at every join

The first trick, chaining last-frame to first-frame, does most of the work. The crossfade hides what remains.

What does this cost compared to a real animatic?

A traditional animatic with a small studio runs into the thousands. Luma’s paid plans start around $10 per month and scale with volume, so a five-shot animatic of fifteen seconds might cost a few dollars of credit. The trade-off is control: you cannot tell the model exactly how a character should move, only roughly where the camera goes.

When is this not worth doing?

If your storyboard is about precise action, like a fight sequence or a product demo where timing matters frame by frame, generated motion will not match your intent and you will spend longer fighting it than cutting a manual animatic from stills with pans and zooms. Also skip it if the final output needs to be live-action, since the generated style will not survive the transition.

Key Takeaways

• Luma AI animates storyboard frames one shot at a time in Image to Video mode.
• Rendered frames animate better than rough sketches; clean up sketches first.
• Chain the last frame of one shot into the next for continuity.
• Add a 6 to 12 frame crossfade at joints to hide remaining lighting shifts.
• Skip it for action-precise storyboards or live-action finals.

Deciding which one you need first saves a lot of wasted credit.

What is the difference between the video and the 3D side?

Dream Machine outputs a flat MP4 clip. The capture tool outputs a 3D scene you can orbit and export as a mesh or Gaussian splat. If your end goal is something you watch, you want video. If it is something you rotate, place in Unity, or use as a background, you want capture.

How do you generate a clip in Dream Machine?

Open the web interface, choose Text to Video or Image to Video, type a prompt, and pick a duration and aspect ratio. Standard generations take under a minute; higher quality modes take longer.

• Keep prompts to a subject, an action, and a camera move
• Loop-friendly prompts work better than narrative ones at this length
• Use image-to-video when you need a specific product or person preserved

How do you capture a 3D scene?

Install the Luma app on an iPhone or recent Android phone, then walk slowly around the subject while recording. Sixty to ninety seconds of footage is enough for a single object. Upload it and reconstruction finishes in about five to fifteen minutes.

Finished scenes export as OBJ, FBX, or as an interactive web link. The web link is the fastest way to show someone without an account.

How does Luma capture compare to photogrammetry?

Is Luma AI free?

There is a free tier with a monthly generation allowance that is enough for testing, but not for a project. Paid plans start around $10 per month and rise with generation volume. Capture runs are also metered. Note that free generations and any outputs may be used to improve models unless you are on a paid plan, which matters for client work.

Where does it fall short?

Reflective, transparent, and very thin objects reconstruct badly in 3D, and the app will not warn you until the scene comes out holey. On the video side, clips are short and text within the frame is unreliable. Neither product is a replacement for a dedicated 3D scanner if you need accurate measurements.

It is a good fit for indie game developers needing background assets and for marketers shooting quick video loops. It is a poor fit for engineering-grade scanning or long-form video.

Key Takeaways

• Luma AI offers both text-to-video and phone-based 3D capture on one account.
• 3D scenes from a 60 to 90 second walkthrough finish in 5 to 15 minutes.
• Exports include OBJ, FBX, and an interactive web link.
• Free tier is testing-only; paid plans start around $10 per month.
• Reflective and transparent objects reconstruct poorly in 3D.