How to Use Text to Video in PowerDirector
Write a shot description and get a few seconds of footage back, with sound.
Updated Sep. 4, 2026 · 4 min read
In a hurry? Use the Text to Video quick guide instead.
Text to Video takes a written description and returns a few seconds of footage, with sound if you want it. Nothing goes in but the words, which makes the writing the whole job: the difference between a usable shot and a vague one is entirely in how the brief is put together.
- In PowerDirector, open the GenAI menu and choose Text to Video under Video.
- In Describe your story, write the scene, then add lines for style, lighting, camera movement and motion.
- Set Duration and Aspect Ratio, and decide about Generate sound with AI.
- Click Generate.
Steps to Use Text to Video
Prefer to watch? Here's a video covering this and its photo-based sibling, or read on for the written steps.
Step 1: Open Text to Video
Open the GenAI menu and choose Text to Video under Video, directly below Image to Video.
The window has a second tab, Text + Image, for when you also want to hand it a reference picture. This article covers the text-only route.
Step 2: Write the Brief
The placeholder asks for the subject, the actions and the scene, and a sentence will work. But the example that produced the clip above is not a sentence: it is a paragraph of what happens, followed by five labeled lines.
| Line | What it settles |
|---|---|
| The paragraph | Who is in shot, what they do, and how the camera moves through it |
| Style | The look. Illustration or photographic, and the palette |
| Lighting | Where the light comes from and what it does to the subject |
| Camera movement | The move itself, named. A slow dolly-in is not a zoom |
| Atmosphere | The feeling the shot should carry |
| Motion details | The small things that move. Hair, fabric, steam |
Splitting the brief this way stops the sentence from having to carry everything. It also makes it editable: a result that is right except for the light is one line to change, not a rewrite.
There is less room than you think. The box holds 5,000 characters, a quarter of what the photo-based tool allows, so the labeled lines are a way of being specific without being long. Name the thing rather than describing it twice.
Step 3: Set Length, Shape and Sound
Duration runs from 4 to 30 seconds, and the panel above states that range before you touch it. Aspect Ratio offers 16:9, 9:16 and 1:1, and it is worth matching to wherever the clip is going rather than fixing it later.
Generate sound with AI under Audio setting decides whether the clip arrives with audio. Turn it off if you are scoring the edit yourself.
Step 4: Generate
Generate stays inactive until the box has something in it. When the clip comes back, read it against the brief line by line: if the light is wrong, that is the Lighting line, and the rest of the brief can stay as it is.
Haven't got PowerDirector yet? Text to Video needs nothing but a sentence to start, and the clip lands in the same project as the rest of your footage.
Download PowerDirector Free →FAQ About Text to Video
4 to 30 seconds. The panel states the range above the slider, and the minimum is 4 rather than the 2 seconds the photo-based tool allows.
Usually a sign the brief is doing too much in prose. Move the neglected part onto its own labeled line, so style, lighting, camera movement and motion each get stated once rather than competing inside one sentence.
The same tool with a reference picture alongside the words, for when you want the result to resemble something you already have. The text-only route covered here works from the description alone.
Only if Generate sound with AI is ticked under Audio setting. It is on by default, so untick it if you are adding your own music or narration later.