AI Video Prompts & Aspect Ratios Cheat Sheet

A Business › Marketing cheat sheet in English by everygen

Prompt structure, camera vocabulary, motion terms, aspect ratios and platform specs for text-to-video and image-to-video tools.

Video Prompts Youtube AI Shorts Text-to-video Aspect-ratio

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Prompt Structure (one scene)

Order	Element
1	Subject (who/what, 3–5 fixed traits)
2	Action (one verb per shot)
3	Setting (place + time of day)
4	Camera (shot size + movement)
5	Lighting / mood
6	Style (film stock, animation type)
7	Duration / aspect ratio

Example: "Woman in yellow raincoat, short black bob, closes a noodle stall; rainy night market; medium shot, slow push-in; neon reflections, warm key light; 35mm film look; 6s, 9:16."

Shot Size

Term	Use for
Extreme wide (EWS)	Establishing location
Wide (WS)	Full body + environment
Medium (MS)	Waist up, dialogue
Medium close-up (MCU)	Chest up, emotion
Close-up (CU)	Face, reaction
Extreme close-up (ECU)	Eyes, product detail
Over-the-shoulder (OTS)	Conversations
POV	Viewer as character

Camera Movement

Term	Effect
Static / locked-off	Calm, readable
Push-in / dolly in	Building tension
Pull-out / dolly out	Reveal, ending
Pan left/right	Follow, survey
Tilt up/down	Scale, reveal height
Orbit / arc	Hero product shot
Tracking	Follow moving subject
Crane / drone rise	Epic establishing
Handheld	Realism, urgency
Whip pan	Energetic transition

Lighting & Mood Keywords

Keyword	Result
Golden hour	Warm, soft, long shadows
Blue hour	Cool, moody dusk
Hard key light	Dramatic contrast
Softbox / diffused	Clean product look
Rim light	Subject separation
Neon / practicals	Night city
Overcast	Flat, even, natural
Volumetric fog	Depth, light beams

Platform Quick Specs

Platform	Ratio / length
YouTube Shorts	9:16, up to 3 min
Instagram Reels	9:16, cover safe in 4:5 crop
TikTok	9:16
YouTube long-form	16:9
Feed ads	1:1 or 4:5

Lengths change often; check each platform's help page before publishing.

9:16 Safe Zones

- Keep text in the middle third of the frame
- Bottom _{20%: username, caption, music bar

- Right}15%: like / comment / share buttons
- Top ~10%: status bar, search
- Put faces slightly above centre

Image-to-Video Tips

- Start image = first frame: compose it as a shot
- Describe motion only, not the image content again
- One camera move per clip
- Match prompt aspect ratio to source image
- Low motion strength for faces, higher for scenery

Negative Prompt / Things to Avoid

Avoid	Why
Multiple actions per shot	Model blends them
Text in the scene	Usually garbled
"Beautiful, amazing"	Adds nothing
Many characters	Identity drift
Fast complex hands	Artifacts
Brand logos	Distortion, legal risk

Aspect Ratios

Ratio	Pixels (typical)	Where
16:9	1920×1080	YouTube, web, TV
9:16	1080×1920	Shorts, Reels, TikTok
1:1	1080×1080	Feed posts, ads
4:5	1080×1350	Instagram/Facebook feed
4:3	1440×1080	Retro, presentations
21:9 / 2.39:1	2560×1080	Cinematic letterbox

Character Consistency

- Write a character sheet: face, hair, 1 signature item, 1 colour
- Paste the same wording in every scene
- Reuse a reference image where the tool allows
- Avoid changing outfit, age or lighting style mid-story
- Generate scene 1 & 2 first; check the cut

Timing Rules of Thumb

- Narration: ~2.5 words per second
- Hook: first 1–2 s
- Scene length: 3–8 s per generated shot
- Short: 15–45 s performs well for most niches
- Story video: 60–180 s = 10–25 scenes

Workflow Cheat

1. Idea → 6–12 story beats
2. Character sheet
3. One prompt per beat (structure above)
4. Generate 2 scenes, check consistency
5. Generate the rest
6. Voice-over → adjust durations
7. Music bed at −18 to −12 dB under voice
8. Captions, export, SRT

Multi-scene planners such as Everygen Studio's AI Director automate steps 1–7 for videos up to 180 s. To go the other way, from a long video to clips, see Long Video to Shorts.

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