Prompt examples

Each pair shows the same wish written two ways. The weak prompt leaves Optic to guess; the strong one says what changes, into what, which one and — when it matters — when and what stays.

#Replacing a person with your own picture

• Weak: "Put me in the video."
• Strong: "Replace the woman walking on the left with the woman in @Image 1, exactly as the picture shows her — without the sunglasses."

Why it works: it says who is replaced and which picture to use — and the picture is the whole new look, so everything it shows of her comes in except what the words leave out. Her walk, her place in the frame, her expressions and the timing stay your video's without a word. (Pick a picture that shows her as you want her seen; one that shows only her face leaves her clothes as they are in your video.)

#Changing clothes

• Weak: "Different outfit."
• Strong: "Change her outfit to a long black wool coat over a cream turtleneck, with dark straight jeans. Keep her shoes, her bag and her hair as they are."

#Changing text on a sign

• Weak: "Change the sign."
• Strong: "Change the words on the shop sign above the door from BAKERY to CORNER COFFEE, in the same lettering style, colour and size."

#Removing a caption

• Weak: "Remove the text."
• Strong: "Remove the white caption at the bottom of the frame for the whole stretch."

#Changing the look

• Weak: "Make it cinematic."
• Strong: "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."

#Adding something a person holds

• Weak: "Give him something to hold."
• Strong: "Put an open red umbrella in the man's right hand for the whole stretch, held above his head."

#Turning one animal into another

• Weak: "Change the dog."
• Strong: "Turn the brown dog on the sofa into a grey long-haired cat of the same size, lying in the same pose."

#A change for only some seconds

• Weak: "Make her wet at the end."
• Strong: "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."

#One of two look-alike subjects

• Weak: "Change the man's shirt." (there are two men)
• Strong: "Change the shirt of #Focus 1 to a navy linen shirt with the sleeves rolled up. The other man stays as he is."

Mark the man you mean with Focus first.

#Putting your logo on a product

• Weak: "Use my logo."
• Strong: "Replace the logo on the front of the white cup with the logo in @Image 1. It keeps the same size and place on the cup; the hand and the table stay as they are."

#Replacing a car

• Weak: "Make the car nicer."
• Strong: "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."

#Hair and make-up

• Weak: "Change her hair."
• Strong: "Give the singer short platinum-blonde hair in a sleek bob, and deep red lipstick. Her face, her earrings and her dress stay as they are."

#Several changes at once

You can combine changes — write each as its own sentence:

"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."

Optic makes all three in the same film. One change to a sentence keeps each change apart from the others — so a request stays easy to read, and easy to adjust next time.