camera controlmotion brushreference-driven consistencyproduction workflows
Runway Gen-4.5 is the professional's pick — not because raw output beats Veo or Seedance, but because no other tool gives you the same control surface: explicit camera controls, motion brush for directing movement within the frame, and reference-driven character consistency that production teams can actually rely on.
How to use JSON prompts with Runway
Runway rewards short text prompts plus heavy use of its UI controls, so use our JSON differently here: the camera block is your settings checklist for Runway's camera controls, the subject block doubles as your reference-image tagging description, and the action block becomes the short text prompt. Think of the JSON as a shot sheet, not a paste-and-go prompt.
Where it wins
Anything requiring take-to-take consistency: brand work, multi-shot narratives with the same cast, and iterating a single shot until the motion is exactly right. No audio — plan sound in post, which production workflows do anyway.
Prompting rules for Runway Gen-4.5
Runway exposes camera controls in the UI — use the camera block here as your settings checklist rather than prompt text.
Gen-4.5 excels with reference images: the subject field doubles as your reference-tagging description.
No native audio — plan sound in post.
Keep the text prompt tight; Runway rewards short prompts plus heavy use of its control surfaces.
Example template, Runway Gen-4.5-shaped
The Runway Gen-4.5 tab shows this site's block order for the model. Browse all 422 templates.
Google · duration 8s · 720p, 1080p, or 4K · audio native · verified 2026-07-10 · click any value to edit
{
"scene": "Downtown street at golden hour, soft haze",
"subject": "Young woman with brown hair and denim jacket",
"action": "Walks toward camera through light traffic",
"camera": {
"lens_mm": 35,
"movement": "dolly_in",
"movement_speed": "slow"
},
"style": "Cinematic, natural light, gentle contrast",
"audio": "Soft indie guitar",
"technical": {
"aspect_ratio": "16:9",
"seed": 137421,
"lock_identity": true,
"lock_style": true,
"negative_prompt": "extra people, text overlays, hands",
"duration_seconds": 8,
"fps": 24,
"creativity": 0.4
}
}
Veo 3.1 follows structured prompts unusually well — lock camera, lighting and audio as separate JSON fields and it respects each one.
Native audio: describe dialogue, ambient sound and music directly in the audio field.
Kuaishou · duration provider-dependent, commonly up to 15s · 1080p HD; native 4K modes advertised by Kling · audio native sound generation · verified 2026-07-10 · click any value to edit
{
"subject": "Young woman with brown hair and denim jacket",
"action": "Walks toward camera through light traffic",
"scene": "Downtown street at golden hour, soft haze",
"camera": {
"lens_mm": 35,
"movement": "dolly_in",
"movement_speed": "slow"
},
"style": "Cinematic, natural light, gentle contrast",
"audio": "Soft indie guitar",
"technical": {
"aspect_ratio": "16:9",
"seed": 137421,
"lock_identity": true,
"lock_style": true,
"negative_prompt": "extra people, text overlays, hands",
"duration_seconds": 8,
"fps": 24,
"creativity": 0.4
}
}
Kling 3.0 reasons about the scene like a director — write the action field as a shot note, not a keyword list.
Multi-shot is the signature feature: split the action into "Shot 1: … Shot 2: …" inside the action field for cuts within one generation.
ByteDance · duration provider-dependent · 720p/1080p; some hosts expose 4K tiers · audio native synchronized audio on supported hosts · verified 2026-07-10 · click any value to edit
{
"camera": {
"lens_mm": 35,
"movement": "dolly_in",
"movement_speed": "slow"
},
"subject": "Young woman with brown hair and denim jacket",
"action": "Walks toward camera through light traffic",
"scene": "Downtown street at golden hour, soft haze",
"style": "Cinematic, natural light, gentle contrast",
"audio": "Soft indie guitar",
"technical": {
"aspect_ratio": "16:9",
"seed": 137421,
"lock_identity": true,
"lock_style": true,
"negative_prompt": "extra people, text overlays, hands",
"duration_seconds": 8,
"fps": 24,
"creativity": 0.4
}
}
Seedance responds best to a strict block order: CAMERA → SUBJECT → ACTION → ENVIRONMENT → LIGHTING → STYLE. The JSON below is ordered to match.
Keep the camera block to a shot type plus one movement — stacking movements degrades output.
Alibaba · duration workflow-dependent · 720p open-weights TI2V · audio none in base text/image-to-video pipeline · verified 2026-07-10 · click any value to edit
{
"subject": "Young woman with brown hair and denim jacket",
"action": "Walks toward camera through light traffic",
"scene": "Downtown street at golden hour, soft haze",
"camera": {
"lens_mm": 35,
"movement": "dolly_in",
"movement_speed": "slow"
},
"style": "Cinematic, natural light, gentle contrast",
"technical": {
"aspect_ratio": "16:9",
"seed": 137421,
"lock_identity": true,
"lock_style": true,
"negative_prompt": "extra people, text overlays, hands",
"duration_seconds": 8,
"fps": 24,
"creativity": 0.4
}
}
Wan 2.2 is the latest version with genuinely open, downloadable weights. "Wan 2.5/2.6/2.7" are hosted API-only versions on commercial platforms.
Open-weights Wan 2.2 has no audio track — drop the audio field or move sound design to post.
Runway · duration 2-10s · 720p; aspect-ratio-specific pixel sizes · audio none in video generation · verified 2026-07-10 · click any value to edit
{
"subject": "Young woman with brown hair and denim jacket",
"action": "Walks toward camera through light traffic",
"camera": {
"lens_mm": 35,
"movement": "dolly_in",
"movement_speed": "slow"
},
"scene": "Downtown street at golden hour, soft haze",
"style": "Cinematic, natural light, gentle contrast",
"technical": {
"aspect_ratio": "16:9",
"seed": 137421,
"lock_identity": true,
"lock_style": true,
"negative_prompt": "extra people, text overlays, hands",
"duration_seconds": 8,
"fps": 24,
"creativity": 0.4
}
}
Runway exposes camera controls in the UI — use the camera block here as your settings checklist rather than prompt text.
Gen-4.5 excels with reference images: the subject field doubles as your reference-tagging description.