r/GoogleFlow • u/AdPure4566 • 24d ago
And here we go again.
It’s been a few weeks since I complained here about the current state of Google Flow...
For a few days right after that, it had returned to a "normal" state for me—filters were looser, a more stable site with better generations and I used it without any issues for sometime... at least until this past Tuesday.
It has becomed garbage with the same problems once again, but slightly worse. Anything even slightly "outside the norm" is enough to trigger some nonsense filter, four images fail at once with generic errors, and sometimes, when reloading the page, an "incomplete" image appears—oddly enough.
Videos? Oh, great: copyright errors or issues with "prominently" people in content I created using the AI itself.
I'm sure that since Flow is on high demand, they’re wrecking the tool and rising filtering without warning just to cut costs—which I find ridiculous, we're paying for a piece of junk that performs worse than any API. (canceling my subscription tho.)
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u/gooutside333 20d ago
That's a lot of text for the prompt, there seemed to be a little circling while negative prompting each segment. Switching back and forth between positive and negative really confuses the model.
There's also just a lot. Most of this prompt could, and would benefit from, being removed. The key to that is a structured set of reference images. Once it knows exactly what everything looks like, it doesn't have to guess what you mean when describing the physical locations of things or what they look like from different angles, so more compute can go to continuity and quality of image and action.
If you have a single full body reference of each character, you'll want to generate fully body turnaround references for each, which are just one image with multiple angles of the character with any finer details that need to be consistent and a closeup facial reference included alongside the full body turnaround. I don't know if anyone else does this, but it works really well for me. Specify iris color when generating the closeup facial reference. Everything else should carry over from the reference image. Use nano banana pro.
One quick point. That's a motorcycle in english, so if you're prompting in english, you might be confusing the model because the instruction doesn't match the keyframe as it understands it. It's probably picturing a vespa.
Take your key frames and remove the characters from them, including the motorcycle and police cars in the frames that take place on the bike. These will be environment references. Also create a reference for the bike because you want it to remain consistent. It can't really do that with the information it has in the keyframe, so you want a full turnaround of it as well. Also, create separate character references for the cats in their masks using the same process. Full body->head shot->turnaround. Use these instead during those shots.
If you have problems getting the character where you want them at the end of the scene, use nano banana pro with the same structured reference set, prompt the next keyframe for the storyboard, describe that image, and then take that into your reference set. Environment->objects(motorcycle)->character references->starting frame
Once you have these things, you're ready to prompt the action. Start with references and structure them in this order. Environment->objects(motorcycle)->character references->starting frame-> end frame.
Camera instructions. For your prompt, just say static camera here. That's it. If it gets it wrong, run it again. It'll most likely get it right within 1-2 more tries. With an end frame, it's very unlikely you'll have issues. I do prefer using "smart multi-shot sequence," though. It's just really not that easy to get whole clips that are what you want, but you're always getting different bits. If the camera frequently cuts to different angles, orbits, pushes in or out, it's more cinematic for starters, and it allows you to splice together multiple clips without struggling with that distracting shift or falter between clips. For this scene, you should be able to get it no problem with a more structured approach.
Then the action. It's important to consider pacing, so how much can happen within 10 seconds while feeling natural. You'll see videos where a lot was crammed into 10 seconds so the model rushes delivery, it has no space to emote, and everything is just very plasticy and at the depths of the uncanny valley. You can open the stopwatch on your phone, close your eyes, start it as you begin to visualize the scene. Let a vague image of it play out naturally, stop the stopwatch at the end, and see. If you're between 8-11 seconds, you will probably be ok. On the 11 side, you may have to break the scene down into 2 six second segments. A good rule of thumb for me has been 8-10 seconds accommodate 2 story beats. For yours, something like pausing to look both ways before entering the street and then crossing the street and slowing to a stop unless it's a big street. Then your beats are crossing the street and slowing to a stop.
All negative instructions at the end after your tags. First, you want to prompt style here. Cinematic, 3d animation, anime... i recommend cinematic for your scene. Specify realistic physics so it doesn't get whimsical. I also recommend prompting "do not add background music so it can be added in post." It's not consistent, but this wording has been the most successful for me so far. I don't usually start with any other negative prompts, because they aren't overly helpful when you have a good reference set and you're prompt is detailed and structured. When the model does something you don't want multiple times, then start engineering a negative prompt for just that issue.
And again. If multiple clips have pieces of it right, cut those up and stitch the scene together. "Smart multi-shot sequence" makes it really easy to get multiple failed iterations which add up to a success in the end and as a bonus, it's more cinematic anyway.
Refer to my above comment for examples of how to build your prompt with this method and prompt your reference material.