How to edit a video with AI prompts: restyle, relight and swap objects
A practical guide to prompt-based video editing: what you can change, which models accept real footage, and how to write edit prompts that keep motion intact.
What AI editing changes
Traditional editing changes when things happen. AI video editing changes what's in the frame: the time of day, the weather, the style, a jacket colour, a prop. The motion and timing of the original clip stay.
Pick a model that accepts your footage
Only some models take a video to edit, and some refuse footage of real people. In ClickPop's tests FLUX Video Edit accepted clips with people and kept the original length. Runway Aleph 2 and the Seedance models handle stylised edits. The Edit tab only lists models that accept a video.
Write the change, not the scene
Describe what should be different and leave the rest: 'make it night with wet streets', 'turn the jacket deep red', 'watercolour painting style'. Re-describing the whole scene invites the model to change things you wanted to keep.
Use references for specifics
If the jacket has to be a particular jacket, or the product a particular product, add a reference image. Words are vague; a reference isn't.
Finish on the timeline
After the edit, trim, add captions, a voiceover or a logo card in the Clip Editor.