Generative video
How to use
Dream Machine.
Developing images and short video shots, controlling transitions with keyframes, and transforming existing footage while preserving motion.
Dream Machine is a generative image and video platform from Luma AI. Developing images and short video shots, controlling transitions with keyframes, and transforming existing footage while preserving motion. This guide covers the whole path in one place: official access, a first session that produces something reviewable, the checks that make output trustworthy, and the permissions worth limiting before you connect real work.
AI should make the work easier to inspect. If the workflow removes the source, the owner, or the review step, redesign the workflow.
Access & setup
Find, install, and sign in to Dream Machine
Get into the official Dream Machine experience with the right account and a setup you understand.
- 01
Start at https://lumalabs.ai/dream-machine and confirm the domain before entering account or payment information.
- 02
Availability: Official web and iOS experiences with Boards, image generation, video generation, keyframes, references, and Modify workflows.
- 03
A Luma account, supported browser or iOS device, and sufficient credits for the model, resolution, duration, and modification workflow selected.
- 04
Sign in with the account you intend to keep using, then review plan, data, notification, and permission settings.
- 05
Run one low-risk test task before connecting sensitive files, repositories, or workspace data.
- Use official download pages.
- Review permissions during setup.
- Keep installers and applications updated.
First session
Your first useful Dream Machine session
Learn the interaction loop using a small task with a clear outcome.
- 01
Create a Board for one visual direction and prepare authorized source material.
- 02
Generate or select a strong frame, then define subject motion, camera behavior, and duration.
- 03
Use references or keyframes only when they provide a specific form of control.
- 04
Compare variations frame by frame and extend only the take that fits the sequence.
- State the outcome before the background.
- Provide the real source material.
- Review the result before expanding the task.
Quality control
Check the quality of Dream Machine output
Turn a promising generation into an asset you can legally and safely ship.
- 01
Restate the brief, the deliverable format, and where the asset will appear before judging any output.
- 02
Inspect at full resolution: generated media hides its errors at thumbnail size.
- 03
Check the details these systems reliably get wrong — hands, text, logos, reflections, symmetry, and edge artefacts.
- 04
Confirm the licence and commercial-use terms for your plan, and check the output does not reproduce a recognisable style, mark, or likeness you have no right to use.
- 05
Review for accessibility and delivery: alt text, contrast, colour profile, file size, and the exact export format.
- Inspect at full resolution before approving anything.
- Confirm commercial-use rights before an asset reaches a client.
- Keep the prompt and settings with the asset so it can be reproduced.
Privacy & permissions
Use Dream Machine safely
Use the platform without surrendering rights, likenesses, or client material you do not control.
- 01
Confirm you hold the rights to every reference image, voice, or clip before uploading it.
- 02
Check whether your plan trains on submitted content, and opt out before uploading client work.
- 03
Never upload a real person's likeness or voice without their explicit, documented consent.
- 04
Review the output for marks, styles, or likenesses you have no licence to reproduce.
- 05
Label synthetic media where your client, platform, or jurisdiction requires disclosure.
- Generative and modified video can distort identity, anatomy, physics, and continuity while using significant credits. Confirm source rights and inspect every frame and retained audio.
- Follow your organisation's approved-use policy.
- Never treat fluent output as authorization to act.
Core workflows
Step-by-step ways to use Dream Machine for the work it does best.
Each workflow is a separate guide with its own steps and review checkpoints.
Develop a strong source frame into a short shot with controlled motion, camera, and destination framing.
↗ 02 WorkflowTransform footage with Dream Machine ModifyRestyle or alter a source clip while deliberately controlling what motion and identity must remain.
↗Official references
Check the current product documentation.
Features, plan limits, availability, and data controls change. These official pages are the starting points used for this guide.