I wanted to explore how far you can take a single static image, so I paired Midjourney and Runway for a fast, cinematic animation experiment. I started with a prompt I extracted from another image using ChatGPT and dropped it into Midjourney.
Image Prompt:
a futuristic high-fashion woman standing beside a glowing bioluminescent jellyfish, intricate embroidered gown with floral patterns, cinematic lighting, ethereal atmosphere, soft purple and pink glow, ultra-detailed, 4k, studio photography, surreal elegance, trending on ArtStation
After a few quick variations, I picked my favorite and jumped to Runway. But first, I asked ChatGPT to help me translate the vibe of the image into a dynamic video prompt. Here's what it suggested:
Video prompt:
A figure in an embroidered dress gazes up as a glowing bioluminescent jellyfish floats around them in slow motion, its tendrils drifting in fluid motion — smooth circular dolly shot, moody ultraviolet lighting with soft inner glows, dreamlike and otherworldly ambiance.
I dropped everything into Runway (Gen-2), and let the AI do its thing. The result? A dreamy, slow-motion sequence that feels lifted straight from a sci-fi short film.
After the first experiment with Midjourney + Runway in a more editorial, cinematic style, I wanted to try something completely different — a 3D illustration with a cartoonish vibe. Something that could easily live inside an app or website UI.
I started with a visual reference to define the look, and this time I recreated the scene using ChatGPT.
Image prompt
“A soft 3D digital illustration of a serene forest with pine trees, bushes, and a small waterfall flowing into a circular pond. Calm nature vibe, cartoon style, isometric top-down view, smooth gradients, soft lighting, clean white background.”
Once I had the image, I knew I wanted the animation to feel simple and natural — just the waterfall flowing in a soft loop. I asked ChatGPT for a matching video prompt and used Runway’s Gen-4 Turbo with this:
A soft animated waterfall flowing gently into a round pond, water moving in a loop, calm nature scene, cartoon style, soft lighting, top-down isometric view
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The result turned out calm, smooth, and totally usable in a real product context. Definitely a great test for motion design workflows using AI tools end to end.
This kind of AI-to-AI handoff is not just fun—it’s fast. You can go from concept to cinematic snippet in under 10 minutes. Perfect for storyboarding, concept art, or rapid prototyping visual ideas that would normally take hours (or a whole team).