Luma Keyframes, Loops and Extend: Control Your Shots

Text prompts tell Ray2 what a shot should contain; keyframes tell it where the shot must begin and end. Combined with Loop, Extend and Reframe, they turn Dream Machine from a clip generator into something closer to a shot-planning tool. This guide explains each control, when to reach for it, and the preparation that makes it behave. Luma updates the interface often, so treat the labels here as descriptive and follow what you see on screen if it differs.

Start keyframes: fix the first frame

A start keyframe is an image Ray2 uses as the opening frame. It is the single most useful control in the tool, because it takes the look of the shot out of the model’s hands and leaves it only the motion to decide.

Preparation matters more than the prompt:

• Crop to the target aspect ratio before uploading, so nothing is cut off or padded.
• Leave room for the movement you intend. A character who will walk left needs space on the left; a push in needs depth behind the subject.
• Prefer clear, well-lit images with one main subject. Heavy grain and busy detail become flicker.
• Make the still in Photon if you can. Luma’s own image model produces frames that Ray2 reads cleanly, and they stay on the same board.

With a start keyframe in place, the prompt should describe only the motion and camera. "The camera pushes in slowly as steam rises from the cup" is the whole prompt. Repeating the scene description tends to pull the result away from your image. The broader prompting approach is covered in the Dream Machine guide.

End keyframes: fix the destination

An end keyframe sets the last frame, and Ray2 generates the motion that joins start to end. This is how you get a transformation, a reveal or a precise camera move that lands exactly where you want.

Good pairs of keyframes share a lot: the same camera position or a plausible move between them, the same light, the same subject in roughly the same place. The model invents whatever lies between the two images, and the less it must invent the better it looks. Some pairings that work well:

1. Same scene, changed state: a closed flower to an open one, a dark room to a lit one, an empty table to a laid one.
2. Same subject, small camera change: a medium shot to a close-up of the same face, lit the same way.
3. Material or style morph: a sketch of a building to a photograph of it, matched in composition.

Pairings that fight the model: different locations, different lighting, subjects swapped from one side of the frame to the other. If you need that, it is two clips and a cut, not one clip with two keyframes. You can also use an end keyframe alone, with no start image, when only the final frame matters, for example a product reveal that must finish on an approved shot.

Loop: clips with no seam

Loop asks Ray2 to make the final frame flow back into the first so the clip can repeat without a visible cut. It is ideal for ambient backgrounds, website headers and social posts that play on repeat.

Loops succeed when the motion has no obvious beginning or end: drifting smoke, water, swaying grass, clouds, a slow orbit around a static object, a flickering candle. They fail when something enters or leaves the frame, when a person completes an action, or when the camera travels in one direction without returning. If you want a looping camera move, use a gentle orbit or a slow drift that could plausibly oscillate. Setting a start keyframe for a loop helps, because the model knows exactly which frame it must return to.

Extend: make a shot longer

Extend continues a clip from its last frame for another few seconds. The extension prompt should describe what happens next, not what is already there: "the cyclist rounds the corner and the camera follows".

Each extension is a fresh generation that inherits a single frame, so small changes in colour, texture and faces accumulate. Two or three extensions keep most subjects intact; beyond that, a cut to a new shot generally looks better than a fifth extension. Keep the camera move consistent between the base clip and its extensions, and avoid introducing new subjects in an extension, which the model has to invent without a reference.

Settings at a glance

Reframe: one clip, every format

Reframe takes a finished video and produces a version in a different aspect ratio, generating new picture where the frame widens and cropping intelligently where it narrows. For a campaign that needs landscape, square and vertical versions, make the best 16:9 clip you can, approve it, then Reframe rather than regenerating each format from the prompt. Expect to check the edges of the widened versions for invented detail, and keep the subject near the centre of your master so that vertical crops have something to hold on to.

Try it

Start keyframe: a Photon still of a single white candle on a dark wooden table, flame upright, deep shadows, 16:9.
Prompt: The flame flickers gently and leans as if in a faint draught, wax glistens, shadows on the table shift slightly. Camera static. Calm, continuous, no other movement.
Loop: on.

Once the loop plays cleanly, switch Loop off, add an end keyframe of the same candle burnt lower with a pool of wax, and let Ray2 generate the time passing between them. Then Extend the result by one step with the prompt "the flame guts and goes out, a thin trail of smoke rises".