How to Create Engaging Animated Stories with Midjourney Video

Creating animated stories can seem like a big task, but with tools like Midjourney's video generator, it's becoming easier and more effective than ever. This guide will walk you through the steps to build your own animated stories, from initial character creation to adding sound and giving your videos a polished finish. Midjourney's ability to keep styles consistent throughout a video is impressive, making it a great choice for your animation projects.

Getting Started with Midjourney Video

When Midjourney first launched its video feature, many wondered how good it would be. It turns out, it is very good, especially with how it keeps a consistent look. You can find many example videos on the Midjourney video page for ideas. This helps you see how well it holds a style across an entire video.

Motion Settings and Video Length

When you create a video from an image, Midjourney offers different motion settings:

[LI]

Auto Motion: Midjourney decides the best way to animate your image.

[/LI]

[LI]

Manual Motion: You type in what you want to happen. You can choose between "low motion" for subtle movement or "high motion" for more active scenes.

[/LI]

[/UL]

A key feature is extending your videos. You can extend a video up to four times, creating a seamless 20-second clip. This means you can start with one scene and then add new actions by changing the prompt for each extension. For example, a character could start by making a fireball, then extinguish it, and finally spin around and point at the camera—all within the same extended video. This gives you many ways to tell your story and create longer, connected animations.

Making Your Characters and Story

Character Design

Designing your main character in Midjourney is straightforward. You can look at what other people have made by searching for "character" in Midjourney's search bar. If you find a style you like, you can copy its description to use in your own prompts. You can also simply type a description of your character directly into the prompt box. For more detailed character ideas, tools like ChatGPT can write descriptive prompts for you to use.

Keeping Character Consistency Across Scenes

One challenge in animation is making sure your character looks the same in different scenes and situations. Midjourney offers tools to help:

[LI]

Omni Reference Tool: You can upload your character image to this tool. It then creates new images where your character's look stays the same, even in different settings. You can adjust the "Omni strength" to see how it affects the new images, finding the right balance for your story.

[/LI]

[LI]

Flux Context (External Tools): Websites like Replicate or Foul AI use Flux Context, which is very good for keeping consistency. You upload a base image (like your character in armor for a knight scene, or on a dragon for a flying scene). Then, you type what changes you want, such as new poses or expressions. Using a base image for each type of scene helps ensure your character and other main elements (like armor or a dragon) look the same across all your shots. This method helps the AI understand what the character and scene elements should look like, keeping them consistent.

[/LI]

[/UL]

To make your animation projects run more smoothly, consider using a tool like the Midjourney Automation Suite from TitanXT. It can help manage your creative process, allowing you to focus more on your story and less on repeated manual tasks.

Turning Your Images into Video Clips

Once you have all your images, you can turn them into video clips in Midjourney. Upload your image and add a prompt describing the action you want to see. For example, if you have an image of a character in a tavern, you might prompt "drinks" and use "manual low motion" for a subtle effect like sipping a beer. For fast-paced scenes, like a character flying, you could use a prompt like "close-up tracking shot flying extremely fast through the clouds" with "manual high motion." The results can be very dynamic. Remember, you can extend these videos for longer shots.

Adding Sound and Polish to Your Animations

After creating your video clips, you'll want to add sound and put them together. Free video editors like CapCut are useful for this.

Music and Voiceovers

[LI]

Background Music: Websites like Refusion and Sunno offer options for background music.

[/LI]

[LI]

Voiceovers: Eleven Labs, especially with their V3 model, produces realistic voices. You can input text, and the tool often adds vocal tags for emotion, like "panicked" or "shouting." You can also change these tags to get the sound you want. Additionally, you can record your own voice and then use voice changer tools to give it a unique sound for your characters.

[/LI]

[/UL]

Sound Effects

Sound effects bring your animation to life. Eleven Labs can generate effects from a text description (e.g., "dragon flying fast through the sky"). Another great tool is Adobe Firefly's sound effects generator. This tool lets you upload your own audio and then describe how you want it to sound. For example, you can record yourself making a clanging noise and then tell Adobe to change it into the sound of "hammer hitting metal." This lets you match sound effects perfectly with actions in your video.

Streamline your workflow even further with the Midjourney Automation Suite from TitanXT. It’s designed to help you manage your projects and generate content efficiently.

Upgrading Your Videos with Creative Upscaling

Midjourney videos look good, but for larger screens, they can sometimes appear a bit soft. Upscaling tools can add detail and make them look sharper. Topaz’s Astra is a popular creative upscaler that gives impressive results. It can change low-resolution videos into much more detailed versions while keeping the original style.

Astra's Upscaling Modes

Astra offers different modes to fit your needs:

[LI]

Precise Mode: This mode adds more detail but keeps the video very close to the original look. You can choose "speed" for faster, lower-cost output or "quality" for better results that might take more time and cost more credits.

[/LI]

[LI]

Creative Mode: This mode also adds detail but takes some liberties to add more decorative texture. "Creative Subtle" adds minor details, while "Creative Bold" adds more significant updates. These modes can make your videos look more like professional animations.

[/LI]

[/UL]

You can choose output resolutions like 1080p or 4K. Astra also lets you change frame rates up to 120 frames per second for smoother motion or slow down your videos up to eight times. For example, a 5-second Midjourney video can become a 10-second slow-motion cinematic scene.

Cost Considerations for Tools

While tools like Astra are powerful, they often come with a subscription. Astra, for instance, has different credit plans. For basic upscaling, you might get around 55 videos from a 400-credit plan, or fewer for bold creative upscaling. It might be a good idea to finish all your Midjourney videos for a project and then use Astra for a final polish.

For Midjourney itself, the Standard plan (around $30 a month) gives you 15 hours of fast generations, which can be enough for over 100 videos. The Pro plan (30 hours of fast generations) also includes unlimited "relaxed" image and video generations. Relaxed generations take longer but allow you to create as many videos as you like without extra cost, making it a good value if you have many projects.

Start Crafting Your Animated Stories Today

Midjourney's video generator is a powerful tool for creating animated stories. By combining its consistency features with character creation methods, external consistency tools, sound design, and upscaling, you can make impressive videos. As this technology improves, the possibilities for creators will only grow. For a more efficient creative process, explore tools like the Midjourney Automation Suite from TitanXT.