All language subtitles for How to Start Making AI Videos in 2026 - Full Course [English (auto-generated)] [DownloadYoutubeSubtitles.com] (1)

Thousands of people start learning how

to make AI videos every day. But over

90% of them give up in the first week.

And that's not because the creation

itself is hard. It's because they get

lost in what AI model to use, what

workflow to follow, or they simply get

overwhelmed by so many tutorials. That's

why in this video, I'm going to walk you

step by step through the essentials you

need. So, by the end of it, you can go

from a complete beginner to someone who

can actually create impressive videos in

less than 15 minutes. But first, before

we actually get into the practical

steps, you need to understand something

because this is what decides whether

your next generations will look

realistic or not. Most people spend 90%

of their time inside AI video generators

testing prompts and regenerating over

and over again. And while that might

seem like the right approach, it's

actually the biggest mistake you can

make. Whenever you create a video with

AI, you have two options: text to video

and image to video. Text to video is

pretty straightforward. You write a

prompt and the AI creates an image based

on your description. But there's a

problem with that. The AI has to figure

out the character, the lighting, the

environment, and every other aspect on

its own. And what happens almost every

time is that it misses details. So,

let's just test it with this prompt. And

this is the video that we get back.

As you can see, it looks pretty decent

and most of the details are there, but

it didn't really add everything I asked

for in the prompt. And this is not even

the biggest problem. Here's what I get

if I regenerate the same video with the

exact same prompt as before.

the character looks completely different

and it looks like a different rooftop.

And this happens because every time you

hit generate, the AI starts completely

from scratch. It doesn't remember

anything from your last iteration. So,

if you want to create a video with

multiple scenes that doesn't look like

random shots stitched together, it's

impossible to use the text to video

method. And that's exactly why the most

experienced AI creators avoid this

method all the time. They always go with

the second one, image to video. With

image to video, you're showing the AI

exactly what the first frame of your

video needs to look like before it even

starts generating. The model takes that

image as a visual reference and builds

on top of it. The AI doesn't have to

guess what your character looks like or

what the lighting should be because

you've already locked him in. So, if I

take this image and add a simple prompt,

I get this result.

It kept all the details in place, but on

top of that, here's the video if I

modified it prompt.

The character and all the other aspects

look exactly the same in every

generation. But not everyone who uses

this method gets realistic results. Most

people generate average images and then

expect to get a cinematic video from

them, which is simply impossible. If you

want to get realistic results, you need

to make highquality images. So the real

question is, how do you actually create

them? Well, the answer comes down to

five specific principles. And the reason

thousands of beginners generate

low-quality images isn't that they're

using the wrong tool. It's that they

don't actually know what makes an image

cinematic in the first place. Now, after

studying real filmmakers from Hollywood,

I found out that they all share the

exact same five principles when creating

a movie. And the good news is that once

you understand what these are, you can

start applying them directly inside your

AI videos and create better results than

most people. The first principle is

lighting. And this is what makes the

difference between an image that looks

like a normal photo and one that feels

alive. And that's because good lighting

that has direction and creates shadows

will make it seem like it's in 3D

instead of 2D. Just take a look at this

image with poor lighting. And now at

this one, the difference is massive even

though we only change the lighting.

Filmmakers know how important this is.

And that's the reason they hire multiple

teams and spend hundreds of thousands of

dollars on lighting equipment alone.

Now, the second principle is depth. And

this goes handinhand with the lighting

principle for creating that 3D feeling.

If you want to avoid creating flat

images, you just need to add something

slightly out of focus in the foreground,

your subject sharp in the midground, and

then the environment in the background.

This will make viewers see it as a real

three-dimensional space. But this

doesn't have to be really complicated.

Even a small detail like a blurred

railing at the edge of the frame is

enough to create that effect. Now, the

third principle is composition. And this

is where you actually place your subject

inside the frame. Beginners who have no

real background in filmm think that the

subject should always be in the center.

But that's actually a mistake very few

people talk about. What professional

filmmakers do instead is apply the rule

of thirds. Imagine your frame divided

into nine equal sections by two

horizontal and two vertical lines and

then just place your subject on one of

those vertical lines slightly offc

center. It might seem really complicated

and it actually is for real movies. But

when it comes to AI videos, you can

adjust this in just a few clicks like

I'm going to show you now. For this

principle, you can also take advantage

of leading lines from roads, corridors,

or walls that naturally pull the viewers

attention toward this subject. Now, the

fourth principle is emotion. And this is

actually the secret behind any

blockbuster movie. All the cinematic

scenes and characters are important, but

what really makes them special are the

intense emotions behind them. So before

you even start generating your images,

you always need to think what should the

viewer feel. Cuz once you know the

emotion you're going for, everything

else falls into place. You'll know

exactly what lighting to use, the

composition, and all the scenes. But if

you skip it, you'll end up making all

those technical decisions randomly, and

the final result will feel low quality.

So if you want to take full advantage of

this principle, you need to also use the

fifth principle, which is color. Every

color you see has a feeling behind it

and that's why real filmmakers study

them so much. Warm tones like reds,

oranges, and golds naturally push toward

intensity, tension, and passion. Cool

tones like blues, teals, and grays push

toward calm, distance, and isolation. So

once you know the emotion you want to

create, you basically already know which

direction your colors should go. And now

that you are aware of this, you'll

easily avoid mixing warm and cool tones.

These five principles are what every

experienced creator applies in his AI

projects. But just knowing them is not

enough. you still need to know how to

practically use them. To show you how

that works, I'm going to go over to

Higsfield. If you've never heard of

Higsfield before, it's one of the most

popular all-in-one platforms that gives

you full access to all the image and

video AI models. So, instead of having

five different subscriptions and

switching between tabs, with Higsfield,

you get all that under one roof. But

what really differentiates it from other

similar platforms are its original AI

features. One of them is Cinema Studio

2.5, which is the only workflow I

recommend beginners use. It has

everything you need from creating images

and videos to even voices at the highest

quality out there. And the only reason

this is possible is because Cinema

Studio is only trained on cinematic

movies. So even if you give it a simple

prompt, the results are way better than

most AI models. And on top of that, the

overall interface is so easy to

understand that even a complete beginner

can use it. That's why I'm going to use

it for this video. And by the time

you're watching this, Higsfield will

have already dropped Cinema Studio 3.0.

It's their latest AI film tool focused

on more realistic optical physics,

better scene understanding from

references, built-in audio, and an

overall jump in cinematic video quality.

Everything I'm about to show you still

applies. It's just that Cinema Studio

3.0 will take these same techniques and

push the results even further. So, if

you want to follow along with the

tutorial, I'll leave a link to Higsfield

in the description where you can sign

up. Once you're inside the platform,

this is the homepage you'll see. Now

I'll go to Cinema Studio 2.5 and select

the image section because I want to

generate the location for my video. For

this I'll select the location option and

then create the prompt. For the scene

location, I'll choose a rooftop over a

war torn city. For the emotions inside,

I'll go with tension and urgency. To

emphasize that, I'll use warm tones like

orange and red in this sunset light that

creates dramatic shadows. Here's the

exact prompt I'll use for it. And here's

the result we get back. Even from a

fairly simple prompt, the result already

looks like it was made by a real

production team. And you can definitely

feel the intensity inside. So, I'll save

it as a new location. This allows me to

see exactly how the environment will

look before animating anything, which is

crucial for not wasting my credits. Now,

let's go and create the character. But,

you need to be really careful here

because if you're not doing this right,

your character might look different with

every generation, even though you're

using the image to video method. And

honestly, this is the biggest trap when

it comes to generating AI videos. I see

too many people falling into it. So, let

me show you the proven way to generate

consistent characters throughout

generations. Just a few months ago, this

required a lot of effort to set up, but

now you don't even need to write a

single prompt. And all of that is thanks

to Cinema Studio. So once you're inside,

go to the character section. Here you

can build your character through eight

specific categories. The same way a

casting director would think about

building a role for a film. Genre is

first and this matters more than it

looks. There are 14 options like action,

drama, and horror. And the reason this

category is so important is that the

same prompt generates completely

different results for thriller than for

comedy. I'll go with war. The budget is

set in millions of dollars and this sets

the overall visual polish. A higher

budget means a more refined, sleeker

aesthetic. So, I'll pick 250 million.

Then, we have the era. This is the time

period, which shapes the clothing, the

grooming, and the overall style. And

because I want something modern for my

video, I'll choose the 2020s. For the

archetype, I'll set my character to be

the hero. But these were just the first

options. Let's now get into the physical

appearance of the character. Inside the

identity section, you can choose the

gender, which will be female for my

example. Race, I'll pick Asian. And then

the age. My character is a female

soldier. So, for the physical appearance

build, it'll be athletic. Now, these are

most of the options you'll get with a

normal AI generator. But when it comes

to Cinema Studio, they actually took

that extra step and added all the human

details you can think of. You have

height, eye color, hairstyle, and

texture. And for her physical details,

I'll go with brown eyes, brown hair with

a fringe, and a wavy texture. There are

a few more options you can choose from,

like the outfit, or even adding tattoos.

So, I'll add that, too. Now, I'll click

generate. She looks exactly like I was

expecting. Look at the textures on her.

It's nowhere close to that regular AI

plastic texture you get with most

generators. Higsfield really nailed

every detail and that's because it was

trained on cinematic only data. And what

this means in practice is that you can

use this exact character across all your

different scenes and it'll always look

like the same person no matter what

location, lighting or mood you choose.

Now go back to the image section and

select scenes. This is where you combine

the character and the location we just

created into a single shot. And it's

also where all five principles come

together for the first time. So select

your character and your location and

then set the resolution to 4K to get the

best quality possible. Then for

composition, I'll place her on the left

third of the frame with the ruined city

creating leading lines behind her. For

depth, I'll add a piece of debris out of

focus in the foreground, her in the

midground, and let the skyline stay in

the background. Now, I'll hit generate.

And here's what we get back. Even as a

still image, you can already feel the

tension on her face. But I want to go

even further and make it more realistic.

For this, Cinema Studio gives you a full

set of editing tools to refine it. One

of the most important ones is color

grading. At the top of the panel, you'll

find presets like natural, split tone,

and cinematic. These are the fastest

ways to shift the overall mood of the

image in one click. So, pick the one

that matches your emotion. Once you have

a direction you like, you can go into

the color settings for more control.

This is where you adjust the

temperature, hue, saturation, and

contrast all in one place. Temperature

lets you push the entire image warmer or

cooler. So, if your scene is supposed to

feel cold and distant, but the

generation came out too warm, this is

where you fix it. Next is bloom, which

adds a soft glow around the bright areas

of the frame. Then, there's hellation,

which simulates the red glow that forms

around highlights on real film. You can

also layer in film grain for that

cinematic texture. And here's the

result. The difference between the

before and after is not huge, but these

small details are what make people watch

it or not. But if you don't want

something extremely detailed and

specific, the color presets cover

everything you might need. However,

there are a few simple settings that

make a massive difference. Everyone

should know what these are and how to

use them. One is for light. This lets

you change the lighting direction after

the image is already generated. So, if

the scene looks right, but the light is

hitting from the wrong angle. You don't

need to regenerate the whole image,

hoping you don't lose important details.

Knowing these features alone makes you

an intermediate AI user. But there's one

more step you need to take. How to turn

your image into a highquality video.

This is pretty straightforward, but you

still need to be really careful here

because if you get this wrong, you'll

burn through credits and still end up

with unusable results. One of the

biggest mistakes you can make here is to

write a huge prompt trying to explain

all the motions, emotions, and actions

you want to have inside. And that's

because the video model gets confused

and the output is not going to be the

one you expect. And honestly, this is

the part where I see people give up

because they think the tool isn't good

enough when the real problem is their

approach. In reality, it's way easier

than you think. The video section inside

Cinema Studio gives you dozens of

pre-built options that handle all of

that for you. Instead of spending time

trying to describe everything in one

prompt, you just write the action you

want in plain English and set the rest

from the controls. So, let's go to the

video section and select single shot.

First, upload your reference image as

the starting frame and add your

character as well as the location. Now,

before you write anything, you can

already set most of what you need from

the pre-built options. The first is the

emotion setting for your character. You

can choose from options like hope,

anger, and even fear. The model uses

this to adjust the character's

expression and body language throughout

the entire scene. For this shot, I want

her to feel tense but focused, so I'll

go with this. Then, there's genre, which

tells the model the overall energy and

pacing of the video. And just like with

the principles, this one decision shapes

how everything else moves and feels. For

a military rooftop scene at Golden Hour,

I'll go with action. Next is camera

movement. And here, Cinema Studio gives

you a full range of pre-built options

from slow pushes and dollies to even a

360 roll. For this shot, I want a slow

cinematic push toward the character as

she scans the horizon. Then for the

motion prompt, you just describe the

action in plain English. And the last

setting before generating is the speed

ramp, which controls how the movement

feels emotionally. You can leave it on

auto, but if you want full control, you

can put it on slow for more tension or

make it faster for urgency in action.

I'll keep it slow here because I want

the viewer to feel that tension for a

couple of seconds before the next scene

comes. And here's what we get back.

The motion is exactly what I wanted. You

can instantly feel the tense atmosphere,

and the character already looks under a

lot of tension. The overall scene's body

language already carries the emotion we

set before we even wrote a single word.

But with the single shot mode, you can

only generate one scene. It's good for

testing quick ideas. But if you want to

create a longer project, you need to

stitch all the scenes together in real

editing software, which can quickly get

complicated if you don't use it

properly. So that's why Cinema Studio

has the multi-shot manual mode. This has

all the same features as the previous

one, but here you can actually create a

video with multiple shots in one go. Now

you can build up to six shots in a

single generation, each with its own

prompt, motion, and duration. And even

though the workflow is now way more

powerful, Hicksfield keeps it very

simple to use. You can add, adjust, and

even move around these shots with only a

mouse click, which would have taken

multiple complex prompts just a few

months ago. So, I'll create three

different scenes for this example. For

the first one, I'll paste in this

prompt. And for the camera movement,

I'll go with a zoom in and then slow

down the speed ramp so it builds up more

tension inside the scene. For the

duration, I'll go with 4 seconds. Now,

in the next scene, she'll raise her

rifle. So, I'll paste in this prompt.

For this, I'll make everything more

alert by adding a zoom in as she tracks

the target and changing the speed ramp.

Now for scene three, I'll keep it at

just 3 seconds and paste in this prompt.

This is where the impact happens. So

I'll try to hero mode for this speed.

Now this is exactly the moment where

everything we built so far comes

together. So let's click generate and

see what happens.

The character stays consistent across

all three scenes. The pace follows the

exact emotional arc we planned and

everything looks cinematic. It's

actually insane what you can build in

just a few minutes as a complete

beginner. Now, at this point, you

already have a full cinematic video. But

if you want to take this even further,

there's one more thing you can do, and

this is where one of the newest AI

models comes in. I'm talking about

Cedance 2.0, which is finally available

inside Higsfield. Now, what makes this

different is the way it works with

references. Instead of starting from an

image, you can actually take an entire

video and use it as a reference to

create a new one. And what it does

behind the scenes is that it rebuilds

your video in a completely new way while

keeping the same structure and motion.

This means you can test different

styles, change the mood, or even push

the realism further without losing the

consistency you already have. So, here's

the new video I got from Cance just by

referencing a video and using this

prompt.

Take a look at how it compares side by

side with the original clip. The results

are absolutely insane. In my opinion,

this is the best AI feature I've seen

this month, and you can access it right

now inside Higsfield. So, if you want to

start building your own AI videos

without getting overwhelmed, go sign up

for Higsfield with the link in the

description below. Thanks for watching,

and I'll see you in the next one.