Turning Pictures into Videos: The Magic of TikTok’s New AI Tool
Table of Contents
Introduction to Creating Video With AI
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has launched a new AI tool called Boximator, and it’s quite impressive. This tool lets you turn your still photos into animated videos. Imagine making your pictures move—almost like magic! Boximator uses boxes that you define to animate objects in your videos, giving you the power to decide how they move. Whether you’re into making precise movements or prefer something more fluid, Boximator has got you covered. It’s an exciting time for anyone interested in video creation, as Boximator joins the ranks of innovative AI video generators, promising to make the video-making process more accessible and fun for everyone.
About Boximator
Boximator is a cool new tool made by ByteDance, the same company that brought us TikTok. It’s designed to bring pictures to life by turning them into animated videos. Imagine taking a photo and then seeing it move like a scene from a movie—that’s what Boximator does.
How it Works?

source: https://boximator.github.io/
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Starting Off: It begins with a picture. Boximator looks at this picture and uses AI to describe what’s in it. For example, it might notice a “young man” wearing a “white shirt.”.
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Picking Out Pieces: After understanding what’s in the picture, it identifies key parts, like the young man or the white shirt mentioned before.
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Bringing It to Life: Using this information, Boximator starts the magic. It animates these key parts, making them move in the video.
Boximator has some neat tricks up its sleeve for controlling how things move in the video. It uses what are called “hard” and “soft” boxes. Hard boxes are for making sure things move exactly how and where you want them to. Soft boxes are for smoother, more natural movements. Together, they help make the animation look just right.
So, Boximator is essentially a way to make your photos move, thanks to the smart folks at ByteDance. It’s pretty new, and they’re still working on making it available for everyone to try out.
The Technology Behind Boximator
Imagine Boximator’s brain as a super-smart robot that pays really close attention to details. It uses something called “spatial attention blocks” and “attention layers” to focus on different parts of a picture, just like how you might pay more attention to your friend in a group photo.
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Spatial Attention Blocks: These are like the robot’s eyes, zooming in on specific areas of the picture to understand and animate them better.
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Attention Layers: These layers work together to decide how each part of the picture should move. One layer looks at the overall picture (kind of taking it all in), and the other focuses on specific details (like how a person might be waving).
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Example Videos
![]() “The female warrior lefts up her sword.”
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![]() “The female warrior switches her sword from left hand to right hand.”
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![]() “A girl in red is covering her face with a skull.”
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![]() “Skull in the watercolor style. Butterflies are flying around.”
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![]() “A bird is jumping left and right on the branch.”
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![]() “A bird with grey, red and yellow feathers flys away.”
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Comparison with Other AI Video Generators
When comparing Boximator with other AI video generators like Pika 1.0 and Gen-2, there’s something special about Boximator that stands out. It’s all about control. Boximator lets users direct how objects move in their videos more precisely. Think of it like having an extra set of hands that help guide everything to move just right.
Other AI video tools are great too, but they might not give you as much say in the tiny details. With Boximator, you can decide exactly how you want things to move, thanks to its use of “hard” and “soft” boxes. This means the videos it makes can look more lively and dynamic. It’s like comparing a puppet that can only raise its arm to one that can wave, point, and give a thumbs up.
In short, Boximator’s knack for giving users more control leads to videos that really stand out because they’re more detailed and full of life.
Prompt 1:
Two raccoons in blue shirts are playing a ball, the left one is jumping up.
![]() Boximator
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![]() Pika 1.0 |
![]() Gen-2
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Prompt 2:
Very close view of a beautiful girl closing up her eyes.
![]() Boximator |
![]() Pika 1.0
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![]() Gen-2
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Prompt 3:
A handsome man is taking out a rose from his pocket with his right hand and looking at the rose.
![]() Boximator
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![]() Pika 1.0
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![]() Gen-2
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How to Try Boximator
If you’re interested in trying out Boximator, the cool new tool from ByteDance that turns photos into animated videos, here’s some good news: even though the official demo website isn’t ready yet, there’s a way for you to get a sneak peek right now.
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Email the creators: For now, you can experience Boximator by sending an email to wangjiawei.424@bytedance.com. They’re offering an early experience channel for anyone curious to see their photos come to life.
What to Include in Your Email ?
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An Image: This will be the starting point for your animation, so choose a clear, original image. It’s best if the photo has a 1:1 aspect ratio (which means it’s as wide as it is tall).
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A Text Prompt: Describe the movement or action you want to see in your animation. Feel free to be detailed and specific—the more information, the better. Don’t worry if your description is long.
Some Additional Tips:
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Quality of the Image: Make sure your image is clear and original. This helps in creating a better animation.
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Describing Your Needs: Be as detailed as possible when explaining the motion you envision. Detailed descriptions help the creators understand and fulfill your request more accurately.
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Privacy Note: By default, the images and videos you provide might be showcased in Boximator’s gallery. If you’re not comfortable with this, make sure to mention your privacy preferences in your email.
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Content Guidelines: Please avoid sending any content that’s inappropriate, political, or violent.
The team behind Boximator will get back to you with the animated video based on your submission as soon as they can. This unique opportunity lets you be among the first to try out this innovative technology before it becomes widely available to the public.
Final Thoughts
Boximator and tools like it are really exciting. They show us a glimpse of what’s possible when we mix creativity with powerful AI technology. Imagine being able to turn any photo into a lively video or bring your drawings to life. This could change how artists work, help advertisers tell better stories, and even make our personal memories more vivid.
However, with great power comes great responsibility. It’s important to think about how we use these tools. They can do amazing things, but if used carelessly, they could cause problems. For example, creating fake videos (deepfakes) that look real could mislead people or spread false information.
So, while we should definitely explore and enjoy the possibilities Boximator and similar technologies offer, we also need to be mindful. It’s up to us to use these tools in a way that’s helpful and positive, without hurting or misleading anyone. Let’s be creative, but let’s also be careful and thoughtful about how we use the power of AI.
Conclusion
The future of AI in video generation, like what we see with Boximator, is full of potential. It’s opening up new creative possibilities for both professionals and individuals. As this technology advances, we’ll see even more amazing features that could change how we create and view videos.
However, with this great power comes the need for responsibility. It’s important to use AI tools wisely and be aware of the ethical implications. By staying informed and using these technologies responsibly, we can ensure they are used to positively enhance creativity and storytelling without causing harm.
In short, as we step into the exciting future of AI-driven video generation, let’s be mindful and ethical users of this powerful technology.
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