How to Use Image to Video in PhotoDirector
Turn one still photo into a few seconds of movement, from a ready-made motion or a sentence you write.
Updated Aug. 21, 2026 · 6 min read
In a hurry? Use the Image to Video quick guide instead.
Image to Video takes a photo you already have and gives it a few seconds of movement. There are two ways to say what that movement should be: pick one from a gallery of ready-made motions, or write it out yourself. They sit side by side on the same screen and suit different situations.
- In PhotoDirector, open Guided & GenAI, click AI Creativity in the rail, then Image to Video under Generation Tools, then Start Now.
- On Template, choose a motion and add your photo. On Image + Text, add your photo and describe the movement instead.
- Set Mode, Duration and Audio Setting in the column on the right.
- Click Generate, then open My Creations to Download the clip.
Steps to Use Image to Video
Step 1: Open Image to Video
Open Guided & GenAI from the PhotoDirector launcher. There's also a tile for this tool on the launcher itself if you'd rather go straight there.
Click AI Creativity in the rail on the left; Image to Video is at the top of the panel under Generation Tools, rather than down among the portrait and style tools. Clicking it shows what the tool does in three stages, then Start Now opens the window.
Step 2: Decide How the Movement Gets Chosen
The window opens on a row of tabs. The first two are the two routes into this feature, and the difference between them is who decides what the movement is.
Pick a motion template
A gallery of named movements, each one previewed on someone else first. Choose one, add your photo, done.
Describe the movement
Your photo plus a sentence. Slower to write, but it can ask for things no template covers.
Option A: Pick a Motion Template
The Template tab is a gallery of movements rather than looks, each one shown running on a model so you can judge it before committing your own photo. Names like Spin Sway and Hair Tease describe the action, not the styling. Above the gallery are a gender filter and a row of categories, which is how you get from browsing to a shortlist without scrolling the whole thing.
Your photo goes in underneath, in Add photos.
Template first, photo second. The panel says Select a template above to start and Generate stays grayed out until it has both, so dropping a photo in before picking a motion just leaves you looking at a dead button.
Option B: Describe the Movement Yourself
The Image + Text tab swaps the gallery for a writing box. The placeholder text is a decent brief in itself: describe the subject of the photo and the movement you want, the way you would explain it to someone who cannot see the picture. There's room for far more than you'll need, and an Inspiration button that drops a worked example into the box if you would rather edit than start blank.
This is where the tab earns its place. Ours read "The girl danced energetically, attracting a large crowd to watch and admire her", and the clip came back with a crowd that was not in the photo. A template can move the person in your picture; a sentence can change what is happening around them.
Step 3: Set the Length, the Mode and the Sound
The column on the right holds everything about the finished file, and it doesn't offer quite the same choices on both tabs:
| Setting | Choices | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Mode | Standard or Professional | Template offers both. Image + Text is fixed to Professional and shows it as a single button rather than a choice |
| Duration | 5 or 10 seconds on Template, with 15 added on Image + Text | Decide before you generate. The clip arrives at the length you asked for, and stretching it afterwards means running the job again |
| Audio Setting | Generate background sound | A tick box on Template, so it is yours to turn on or off. On Image + Text it comes ticked and grayed out, meaning sound arrives with the clip whether you wanted it or not |
Read the number on Generate, not the last one you saw. The cost sits on the button and is not the same on both tabs, so check it after you have switched rather than assuming the two routes are priced alike.
Step 4: Generate and Collect the Clip
Generating doesn't tie up your machine. A message confirms the task has gone off to be made and that you'll be told in PhotoDirector and by e-mail when it's ready.
My Creations is shared across PhotoDirector's generative tools rather than belonging to this one, so it opens on a wall of tiles, one per feature, each with a count of what's inside. Open the Image to Video tile.
Inside, your clips are listed newest first with their dates and lengths. Tick one and Download becomes available. The line along the bottom is worth reading before you start treating this as a filing system: clips live on the cloud server for a year.
View plays a clip next to the photo and the brief that produced it, which is how you tell four similar attempts apart a week later. Re-Generate runs the same inputs again for a different take.
Haven't got PhotoDirector yet? A photo you already have plus either a ready-made motion or one sentence, and you have a few seconds of video.
Download PhotoDirector Free →FAQ About Image to Video
Because something is still missing. On the Template tab you need both a motion and a photo, and the order matters: the panel says Select a template above to start, so choose the motion first and drop the photo into Add photos second. On Image + Text there is no gallery, so the button waits on your photo and your description instead.
Five or ten seconds from a template, with fifteen added as an option on Image + Text. It's set before generating and can't be extended afterwards, so pick the length that suits wherever the clip is going.
On the Template tab that's your call: Audio Setting is a tick box you can leave off. On Image + Text it's already ticked and can't be changed, so expect generated background sound with the clip and plan to mute or replace it if you are dropping the video into an edit that has its own audio.
