# What moves and what stays

Motion / Subject motion and speed / Image to video. Checked 2026-10-13.

An animated photo that moves only where it should and does not look AI.

- Use when: Animating a real photograph or an approved still.
- Phrase: real footage from a camera on a tripod, the frame identical at the start and the end; the water flows and the branches sway; the facade, the windows and the sign stay still
- Page: https://directorchair.ai/motion/what-moves-what-stays
- JSON: https://directorchair.ai/api/motion/what-moves-what-stays.json

## Watch out

- Motivate the locked frame instead of banning movement, name what moves small and physical, then list what stays still element by element, and name the sky colour or it washes out. (measured; Director Chair field notes on video prompting)
- An element that keeps failing: take it out of the image and give an end frame instead of tuning the prompt again. (measured; Director Chair field notes on video prompting)

## Prompts

### Seedance 2.5

```
Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].
Shot 1 (0:00 to 0:05): real footage from a camera on a tripod, the frame identical at the start and the end; the water flows and the branches sway; the facade, the windows and the sign stay still
```

### Seedance 2.0

```
Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].
Shot 1: real footage from a camera on a tripod, the frame identical at the start and the end; the water flows and the branches sway; the facade, the windows and the sign stay still
```

### Kling 3.0

```
[your subject]. Real footage from a camera on a tripod, the frame identical at the start and the end; the water flows and the branches sway; the facade, the windows and the sign stay still. The scene is [your setting].
```

### Veo 3.1

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. Real footage from a camera on a tripod, the frame identical at the start and the end; the water flows and the branches sway; the facade, the windows and the sign stay still. Framing and subject stay as in the start image.
```

## Goes well with

- Static shot: https://directorchair.ai/move/static-shot
- Environment as events: https://directorchair.ai/setting/environment-event-track

## Source

Our measured recipe in Director Chair field notes on video prompting

Text CC BY 4.0, Director Chair (directorchair.ai). Reference clips and their card texts belong to their makers.