What you can revise

Optic was built for revising, not for one kind of change. It never ties your hands to "you can change a character" or "you can change a place": if it is in your video, you can revise it — this subject, that lamp, the room in one scene, the picture frame on the wall, the car and the inside of the car, the colour of a character's skin or what it is made of, the texture of a coat, the left side of a jacket. Whatever you did not comment on comes from your original video.

This page shows the breadth, grouped, with a real prompt to start from for each kind of change. Copy one, change the words to your clip, and press Revise — the price is on the button before you press, and it comes back if no film is delivered.

#Subjects

Any subject, one or many: a person, an animal, an animated character, a creature, an object, a product, a vehicle. A subject can talk at some moments and be silent at others — the performance stays your video's, and the new subject plays the old one's part, frame for frame.

• "Replace the woman walking on the left with the woman in @Image 1, exactly as the picture shows her."
• "Turn the ginger cat on the windowsill into a red fox of the same size, sitting in the same pose."
• "Replace the silver car parked on the right with a dark green vintage two-door sports car, parked in the same place and facing the same way."
• "Turn the talking parrot into a talking toucan with the same colours on its chest."

When two subjects look alike — two men, three cars — mark the one you mean with Focus and type # to name it in your words.

Bringing in a real person? No real person's face, body or voice without their consent — see the Content Policy.

#What belongs to a subject

Everything a subject wears, carries or is made of can change on its own, while the subject stays who it is: clothes, garment by garment; the fabric, the texture and the colour of a garment; hair and make-up; the colour or the material of skin; a mark or a tattoo; what it holds; a companion beside it; its state — wet, muddy, glowing.

• "Make the fabric of her dress a heavy dark green velvet. Its cut and its length stay as they are."
• "From 0:08 to the end, the left side of his jacket is torn at the shoulder. The right side stays whole."
• "Make the robot's skin brushed copper instead of white plastic."
• "Give the man in the blue shirt a short grey beard and round glasses."
• "Put an open red umbrella in her right hand for the whole stretch, held above her head."
• "A golden retriever walks at the man's side for the whole stretch, on a red lead."

#The place, and the things in it

The place can change as a whole or one thing at a time: a lamp, a picture frame, a sofa, the inside of a car, the view through a window, a whole room or street, the background behind a speaker.

• "Change the lamp on the side table into a tall brass floor lamp with a white shade."
• "Change the picture in the frame above the sofa to the painting in @Image 1, in the same frame."
• "Inside the car, make the seats tan leather and the dashboard dark walnut. The outside of the car stays as it is."
• "Make the parked car a matte black pickup of the same size, in the same place."
• "Change the background behind the speaker to a brick wall with one tall window on the left."
• "Make it a rainy street: wet stones, reflections of the shop lights, a grey sky. The people and the camera stay as they are."

#Text and logos

Captions, signs, lettering and logos can be changed or removed. Write the new words exactly as they should read, letter for letter.

• "Change the words on the white sign on the wall from WELCOM to WELCOME, in the same lettering, colour and size."
• "Remove the yellow subtitles at the bottom of the frame for the whole stretch."
• "Replace the logo on the front of the white cup with the logo in @Image 1, at the same size and place on the cup."
• "Change the lettering on the red awning to FRESH FRUIT DAILY, in the same style and colour."

#The look

Light, colour, style and the time of day — of the whole stretch, with everyone and everything in it staying where they are.

• "Make it look like early evening: warm, low sunlight from the left, long soft shadows and a slightly orange sky. The people, the street and the camera stay exactly as they are."
• "Make it night: a dark blue sky, the street lamps on and casting warm pools of light, the shop windows glowing."
• "Make it look like an old film: warm faded colours, soft contrast and a light film grain. Everything in the frame stays as it is."

#Several changes at once

Write each change as its own sentence. Optic makes them all in the same film.

"Change the man's grey hoodie to a tan leather jacket. Change the text on the poster behind him to OPEN LATE. Make the light warmer, like a late afternoon."

#Only some seconds

A change can hold for the whole stretch or for part of it. Say when, in the clip's own times as the timeline shows them.

"From 0:12 to the end, her hair and her jacket are soaking wet, as if she has just come in from heavy rain. Before 0:12 she is dry."

#"Keep the camera, keep the motion"

Many people write "keep the camera still, keep the motion, keep everything else". You can — and you do not need to. Everything you do not mention already stays: the place and every object in it, the camera and every move it makes, the light and the shadows, every movement and every event, the timing, every cut, the clip's own sound, and the performance — eyes, gaze, lips and every expression, frame for frame. Say "keep" only for something right next to a change that might drift: "Change her coat to black. Keep her scarf as it is."

#The one boundary: the story

Optic revises how things look; it keeps what happens. If your words change the action — "make them start dancing", "have the car drive away" — Optic says "This changes what happens in the shot, so it is made anew rather than revised." and your credits come back. To change the story, use the chat, where those moments are made anew around what happens now: see Making video in the chat. A request about the camera alone or the sound alone is not something Optic makes either.

#Frequently asked questions

#Can I change more than one subject in one revision?

Yes. One sentence for each — "Replace the man on the left with the man in @Image 1. Turn the dog into a grey cat." — and Optic makes both in the same film. If two subjects look alike, mark each with Focus.

#I write prompts the way I did on other tools. Does that matter?

Optic reads tags, paragraphs and shot lists; for the surest film, turn them into plain sentences that name only what changes. The structure in Prompts for every level makes it surer still: what changes, into what, which one, when.

#What if there are two of the thing I name?

Optic does not pick one behind your back. Mark the one you mean with Focus — marking costs nothing — or say which one in words. If Optic still cannot tell, it makes nothing and your credits come back.

#Can I change what the subject does?

Not in Optic — that is a new story, and the chat makes it: see Making video in the chat. In Optic, the new subject does exactly what the old one did.

#Next

See these changes at work in What you can use Optic for, or go straight to Prompts for every level to write yours.