Ideation
How to pick an idea that AI video can actually make, with a one sentence test, a brainstorm prompt and three worked examples.
The best AI video ideas fit inside short, single action shots with one main character. Pick an idea that plays to what the models do well, and you will need 5 to 10 attempts per clip. Pick one that fights them, and a single shot can take 50 attempts or never work at all.
What AI video does well and badly in 2026
Clip length is the first limit. Veo 3.1 stops at 8 s, Gemini Omni at 10 s per step, Kling 3.0 and Seedance 2.0 at 15 s, and Seedance 2.5 at 30 s. Identity, lighting and motion tend to drift after about 8 to 10 s, so treat every idea as a chain of short shots.
| Does well | Does badly |
|---|---|
| One main character doing one clear action | Two or more characters interacting (the Big Yowie creator reports "upwards of 50 prompts" for these) |
| Short shots of 3 to 8 s, cut together | One long continuous action |
| Stylized, absurd or atmospheric looks where small drift is forgiven | Exact likeness of a real person (Seedance blocks real faces in references) |
| A product hero shot animated from one still image | Readable text, labels and logos inside the frame |
| Mood, weather, light and ambience | Hands handling small objects, fast complex physics |
| Little or no dialogue | Long dialogue (lip sync drifts and costs more) |
Two more things decide whether people watch. First, give a recurring character a visual anchor (a named cap, a signature prop, a clear silhouette) so viewers recognize it and the model holds it. Second, look for the angle the model does not default to. AI fight scenes from different creators look the same because every model falls back on the same generic version.
Formats that work
| Format | Typical length | Why it suits AI | Watch out for | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vertical shorts | 7 to 15 s, loopable | Fits clip caps; a 7 s clip that loops twice can beat a polished 30 s one | Needs a hook in the first second | Medium (creator guides) |
| Ads | 8 to 15 s | Product hero, UGC style or one absurd visual metaphor; cuts hide drift | Hook in the first 2 to 3 s; lead with the viewer's problem, not the product | Vendor claims |
| Comedic spec ads | Many short gags | Self contained gags, and the cuts hide drift | Volume: one reported ad took about 2,000 USD, 3 days and 300 to 400 generations for 15 usable clips | Single case |
| Micro short dramas | Series of episodes | Huge volume in China (about 95% of about 130k micro dramas in Q1 2026 were AI) | Lives or dies on character consistency and reused assets | Industry stats |
| Music videos | Song length, short cuts | Stylized, abstract cuts forgive drift; Seedance can take audio as a reference | No performance data yet, only workflow advice | Weak |
| Explainers and product demos | Varies | Image to video from one product still; text and logos added in the edit | On screen text must be added in post | Medium |
For explainers, launch videos and UI demos, also consider video from code. No video credits are spent and text stays sharp.
The one sentence idea test
Write your idea as one sentence in this shape:
[One character] [does one visible thing] in [one place], and [a twist or payoff].Then check it against six questions. Every "no" is a risk you either remove or budget extra credits for.
- Is there one main character, two at most?
- Does it happen in one or two locations?
- Can every action be shown in a shot of 8 s or less?
- Does it work with no readable text in the frame?
- Is the dialogue short, or absent?
- Does it avoid any real person's face?
If you cannot fill the sentence, the idea is not ready. A vague sentence ("a video about coffee") turns into vague prompts and wasted generations.
Brainstorm with an LLM
Paste this into Claude or ChatGPT. It asks for ideas already shaped to the limits above.
You are a short form video producer who makes videos with AI video models.
Give me 10 video ideas for <niche or product>, for <platform>, <length> seconds, <aspect ratio>.
Constraints for every idea:
* one main character with one fixed visual anchor (a prop, a piece of clothing or a silhouette)
* one or two locations
* every action fits in a shot of 8 seconds or less
* no readable text, labels or logos in the frame (we add text in the edit)
* little or no dialogue
* no real people
For each idea return: a one sentence logline, the hook in the first 2 seconds,
the payoff, and why it is not the generic version other creators would make.When you have a favourite, run it through a risk filter before you write any shots:
I have this video idea: <idea>. Score it 1 to 5 on each AI video risk:
(a) number of characters on screen at once, (b) hand and object interaction complexity,
(c) on screen text or logos needed, (d) longest continuous action in seconds,
(e) dialogue length, (f) need for an exact real person likeness.
Then rewrite the idea so every score is 2 or lower while keeping the hook.
Return: revised logline, hook in the first 2 seconds, total runtime, shot count.Test many ideas cheaply
The creator behind the Big Yowie (Bigfoot style) vlogs reports that the first dozen experiments flopped before one format worked. Make a few rough 10 s tests at low resolution before you commit a full budget to one idea.
Three ideas: weak and good
A short story
- Weak: "Two friends argue at a dinner party and it escalates into a food fight."
- Good: "A tiny clay robot barista makes its first espresso alone in an empty café at dawn, fails twice, and gets a perfect cup on the third try."
- Why: the weak idea needs several people interacting, flying food and hands everywhere, which is the hardest thing to generate. The good one has one character, one location, one repeated action and a clear payoff. The clay style forgives small drift.
A product ad
- Weak: "Show our whole skincare range with the brand name, prices and the slogan on screen."
- Good: "Dry, cracked hands grip a cold tram pole in winter, cut to the cream on wet black slate, cut to the same hands relaxed and warm around a cup."
- Why: the weak idea depends on readable packaging and on screen text, which models garble. The good one opens with the viewer's problem, shows the product from a reference image, and leaves the brand name and price for the edit.
A channel format
- Weak: "A cinematic video about the history of the city."
- Good: "A street food vendor in a red bucket hat vlogs one dish per episode from her cart, and every episode ends with the same lid slam."
- Why: the weak idea has no character, no action and no end. The good one is a repeatable format with a visual anchor (the red hat), one location type and a loopable ending, so each new episode reuses the same references.
Sources
- Clip limits and drift: invideo FAQ, tech-insider
- Character count, attempts per clip, visual anchors: Kapwing, Big Yowie creator, MindStudio
- Generic defaults: Liromfilms, 36Kr
- Formats: cholyai, Luma, Business Insider via AOL, Variety, elser.ai, ourcodeworld
- Seedance real face rule: BytePlus ModelArk docs