TikTok Adds New Option to Animate Still Images with AI

TikTok’s launching a new AI-powered feature that’ll enable you to turn any static image into a video clip via your TikTok Story.

As you can see in this example sequence, TikTok’s new “AI Alive” option will digitally animate your static images, turning them into videos based on your image source.

As explained by TikTok:

“We all know a photo can say a thousand words, and TikTok aims to take this new form of visual storytelling even further. With ‘AI Alive,’ creators can now easily animate their photos and tell richer, more visually engaging stories for their communities.”

TikTok says that AI Alive, available within TikTok’s Story Camera, will use “intelligent editing tools” to transform static images into “captivating, short-form videos enhanced with movement, atmospheric and creative effects.”

Though, of course, results will vary. There’s already a range of filter options and tools that provide similar capacity, on TikTok, Instagram, and Snap, and sometimes these AI animations look great, and feel like an actual video clip. But things can also get real weird, real fast, as faces distort, and limbs replicate, and what was a simple, fun animation turns into a horror show of bizarre visual mutations.

But it’s another option to consider, and TikTok’s clearly confident that most of the results produced by the option will look good enough to use.

Interestingly, Instagram is also looking to add similar functionality to its CapCut clone “Edits,” which it previewed ahead of the launch of its video editing app.

Maybe TikTok’s trying to get in first, as a means to fight back against IG for replicating its video editing platform.

Either way, it’s another AI tool to consider, and another way to create interesting, maybe weird, creations on TikTok, that you can share in your Stories.

TikTok says that you can use the new AI Alive feature within the Stories camera, by tapping the blue “+” on the top of the Inbox or Profile page and choosing a single photo from your Story Album.

“After creating and posting your AI Alive Story, people can view the story from within the For You and Following feeds, as well as on your profile page, giving your followers a variety of ways to connect with your content.”