Runway ML Complete Guide: How to Make AI Videos in 2026

Type a prompt, pick aspect ratio, get a 5-10 second clip. Quality is genuinely cinematic. Pro tip: prompt like a director — specify camera moves, lens, lighting, mood.

Upload a still image, describe how it should move. The model preserves your image's style and adds motion. This is the bread-and-butter feature most pros use.

Paint specific regions of an image and assign motion to just those parts. Make smoke rise from a chimney without moving the rest of the scene. Unique to Runway.

Pan, zoom, dolly, tilt — all selectable from a UI. Far more reliable than describing camera moves in prompts.

Record yourself acting, apply that performance to an AI-generated character. Excellent for narrative work.

Runway also has a strong image generator built in. Generate references in the same app you animate them.

Standard $15/mo (gets you started), Pro $35/mo (serious work), Unlimited $95/mo (production studio tier).

generate hero stills with Midjourney → bring to Runway for image-to-video → use Motion Brush for selective motion → export for editing in Premiere or DaVinci. This pipeline now ships actual broadcast-quality short content.