---
name: camera-moves
description: Choose and write the camera direction for a generated video shot - which move, how big, when it changes, and how the subject leaves and re-enters the frame. Use whenever a video prompt needs camera direction, whenever a shot travels between two places (a flight, a chase, a journey), when a take came back with the subject pinned mid-frame while the world scrolls, when a short shot came back with a huge camera swing, or when someone asks for a named move such as FPV, snorricam, dolly, arc, crane or push-in.
---

# Camera moves for generated video

Video models do what the prompt says about the camera, often more literally than you meant. Most bad camera work in generated clips comes from asking for the wrong thing: a camera glued to the subject, or a big move in a shot too short to hold it. Apply these rules before writing the camera part of any video prompt.

From easyai.video: https://easyai.video/blog/camera-moves-short-ai-b-roll/

To install: save this file as `SKILL.md` in a folder named `camera-moves` inside your agent's skills folder.

## Rule 1: size the move to the shot

A generated clip of 3 to 6 seconds holds one camera move, the way a dolly or slider shot does on set.

| Shot length | What fits | How to write it |
|---|---|---|
| 3-4 s | One move at constant slow speed, with no reversal | "a slow push-in, about 8% closer by the end", "a slow lateral slide of half a metre", "a 10-degree arc to the right" |
| 5-6 s | One move, optionally with a slow ease-out at the end | The same, with the distance or angle named |
| 8 s and up | A change of move can work | Use the relay in Rule 3 only for a journey between two places |

- Name the size: a percentage closer, metres of travel, degrees of arc or tilt. Words such as "medium amplitude" or "large move" read as a big gesture on a short shot.
- Keep each move going one way. "Up, then back down" or "left, then back right" inside a short shot reads as a mistake.
- Keep the speed slow and constant, and let the subject do the moving.
- A number is a request. Compare the first and last frame of the take: models differ, and one may swing 90 degrees where another barely moves or drifts the other way. In our tests Google Flow moved 0-4% when asked for 5-15%, so ask for more when the move must be noticed.

## Rule 2: keep the camera off the subject during travel

"Same speed", "keeps it centred" or "same size in frame" for more than about a second pins the subject in the middle while the background scrolls. It looks like a treadmill, or like a snorricam used by accident.

Give the subject motion on screen instead: it enters, crosses, shrinks, leaves, returns. Give the camera a speed relative to the subject, slower, so the subject pulls away. Give the background a distance or a count of things that pass: "three rooftops and a chimney sweep under the lens".

## Rule 3: a journey between two places is a relay of camera beats

When the first frame and the last frame are in different places, write one continuous take in four beats. This needs room, so plan on 5 to 8 seconds.

1. **Observer.** The camera stays where the first frame is and the subject leaves. It speeds away, shrinks and exits through an edge you name. Hold a beat on the place it left.
2. **Travel.** The camera now moves on its own over what lies between the places: an FPV flight, a drone glide, a crane. The subject is out of frame or a small distant shape.
3. **Arrival.** The camera reaches the end location first and settles into the last frame's composition, with the subject still absent.
4. **Re-entry.** The subject comes into frame from an edge you name, slows down and lands on the last frame. Hold the last half second.

Faces only need detail in beats 1 and 4. Check the re-entry frame by frame: a fast drop into frame is the likeliest place for faces to smear.

## Rule 4: give the camera its own sentence

Write the camera in a sentence of its own, with the type of move, its size and its speed: "Camera: one slow, steady push-in for the whole shot, about 8% closer by the end, constant speed, same height and angle." Mixed into the subject's sentence, the model may split the motion between them.

Some models have no negative channel and may depict what you tell them to avoid. Describe what is in the frame instead.

## First and last frames

Pinned frames outrank the prompt, so check that the camera you ask for can connect them.

- **Same framing in both:** a camera move has nowhere to go. Leave the last frame out, or try cropping it slightly tighter to give a push-in somewhere to land (we have not proved the crop works).
- **Different camera position in the last frame:** the model must travel there, however small you ask the move to be. If you want a small move or a locked camera, leave the last frame out and describe the end state in words.
- **Different places:** use the relay in Rule 3.

## Choosing a move

| The beat's job | Moves that fit |
|---|---|
| Hold, let the subject act | Locked-off static shot, slider of a few centimetres, slow push-in |
| Reveal space or scale | Pan, tilt up, crane up, drone pull back, dolly out |
| Build intensity on one subject | Slow dolly in, small arc |
| Move with a walking or driving subject | Follow, side tracking, reverse tracking, kept brief (Rule 2) |
| Energy or chaos | Handheld, chase, whip pan, crash zoom |
| Enter a new space in one take | Push past a foreground edge, pass through an opening |
| Show a product or hero from several sides | Arc, orbit |

A zoom is a change of lens, and generated zooms often warp perspective. In a continuous take a physical dolly in or out usually looks better.

For a visual reference of 46 named moves with looping previews and a prompt for each, see https://aicameramovements.com/. Take the name and description from there, then add the size from Rule 1 and put the real subject in place of "the main subject".

## Stylised techniques

Use at most one per shot, and only for the job it does.

| Technique | What it looks like | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Step printing | Stuttering motion with smeared ghost trails, as in Wong Kar-wai's films | A dreamlike rush or a crowd, for one beat |
| FPV flight | The viewer is the camera, flying fast and low through a space in one take | The travel beat of a relay |
| Long exposure | Moving people smear into trails while one person stays sharp | Picking one person out of a busy place, during a hold |
| Reflection shot | The scene seen upside down in a puddle until something breaks the surface | An opening or a reveal |
| Snorricam | A body-mounted camera: the face stays locked while the world moves around it | Panic or disorientation, used on purpose |
| Through an obstacle | Fogged or wet glass and reflections partly hide the subject | Revealing a face, or an arrival seen from inside |

## Check before returning a prompt

1. Under 6 seconds: is there one move with a named size and no reversal?
2. Is the subject pinned at one size and position for more than about a second while the scene travels? Rewrite it.
3. Do the first and last frames show different places? Then write an exit, a travel beat and a re-entry.
4. Can the camera you described actually connect the pinned frames?
5. Does the camera have its own sentence?
6. Is everything phrased as what is in the frame, with nothing written as "no X"?