How to create effective prompts with Veo 3

What to think about while writing prompts

The more detail you add, the more control you’ll have over the final output. Use a mix of the elements below to create results that better reflect your imagination.

Explore how we break down the prompt:

You can use different sorts of prompts – long and short – to create worlds. Take a look at the examples below, and don’t forget to experiment.

Craft your characters

Use specific and detailed descriptions about each character’s appearance, voice, action, and dialogue. Bring them to life, and tell their story in a single shot.

**Prompt:** A medium shot frames an old sailor, his knitted blue sailor hat casting a shadow over his eyes, a thick grey beard obscuring his chin. He holds his pipe in one hand, gesturing with it towards the churning, grey sea beyond the ship's railing. "This ocean, it's a force, a wild, untamed might. And she commands your awe, with every breaking light"

Build a world

Use evocative, sensory language to paint a picture of your imaginary world. Is it familiar, fantastical – a mix of both? Think about light, texture, and atmosphere – and think about who lives here.

**Prompt:** A snow-covered plain of iridescent moon-dust under twilight skies. Thirty-foot crystalline flowers bloom, refracting light into slow-moving rainbows. A fur-cloaked figure walks between these colossal blossoms, leaving the only footprints in untouched dust.

Create complex action with extreme detail

For ultimate control over fast-paced scenes, leave nothing to chance. You can direct every element of the shot with highly-detailed prompts. Try mapping out exact play-by-plays to get the videos you want.

**Prompt:** The scene explodes with the raw, visceral, and unpredictable energy of a hardcore off-road rally, captured with a dynamic, almost found-footage or embedded sports documentary aesthetic. The camera is often shaky, seemingly mounted inside one of the vehicles or held by a daring spectator very close to the action, frequently splattered with mud or water, catching unintentional lens flares from the natural, often harsh, sunlight filtering through trees or reflecting off wet surfaces. We are immersed in a challenging, untamed natural environment – perhaps a dense, muddy forest trail, a treacherous rocky incline littered with loose scree, or a series_of shallow, fast-flowing river crossings. Several heavily modified, entirely unidentifiable, and unbranded off-road vehicles are engaged in a frenetic, no-holds-barred race. These are not showroom models; they are custom-built, rugged machines – open-wheeled buggies with exposed engines and prominent roll cages, heavily armored pickup trucks with oversized, knobby tires and snorkel exhausts, their original forms and manufacturers completely obscured by extreme modifications, layers of caked-on mud, and a general air of brutal functionality. The dominant sounds are the deafening, guttural roar of powerful, untamed engines, the whine of transmissions, the percussive impact of suspension bottoming out, and the constant spray of mud and water. Within an 8-second sequence, one of the lead vehicles, a low-slung, open-cockpit buggy so caked in thick, brown mud that its original color is a mystery, approaches a wide, shallow river crossing at incredible speed. Without the slightest hesitation, its unseen driver powers straight into the water. The impact sends an enormous, almost solid, opaque sheet of muddy water, mixed with stones and debris from the riverbed, spectacularly high into the air, completely engulfing the small buggy for a terrifying moment, obscuring it from view as if it has been swallowed by the river itself. Right on its tail, a pursuing, equally mud-encrusted, custom-built truck – a hulking, high-clearance beast with a heavily reinforced external roll cage and no discernible badging – arrives at the river crossing just as this massive wall of airborne water reaches its peak. Instead of slowing or attempting to find a clearer path, the truck's driver, with unwavering aggression, plunges directly into and through this opaque, turbulent curtain of muddy spray at full throttle. A split second later, the truck bursts out from the other side of the deluge, water cascading from its roof and chassis, its oversized windshield wipers struggling frantically to clear the torrent of muddy water obscuring the driver's vision. It lands heavily on the far bank, suspension groaning, but still in hot pursuit of the now-reappearing buggy. This thrilling, messy, and visually spectacular sequence of one vehicle creating a massive environmental obstacle and the next immediately conquering it through sheer force, forms the core, immersive, attention-grabbing event of the 8-second sequence. The race continues with undiminished ferocity, the natural terrain itself an active participant in the conflict.

Define a unique visual style and tone

Start your prompt by defining the sort of video you want to create. Is it realistic, animated, stop-motion, something else? Use character dialogue to set the tone: humorous, dramatic, or anything in between.

**Prompt:** Camping (Stop Motion): Camper: "I'm one with nature now!" Bear: "Nature would prefer some personal space."

Fuse visuals with sound design

Explicitly define the sounds you want to hear, to match the audio to your visuals. Try pairing different audio ideas to your visual prompts to create multi-sensory experiences. You can integrate audio cues into your prompt, or include them in a separate section.

**Prompt:** A keyboard whose keys are made of different types of candy. Typing makes sweet, crunchy sounds. Audio: Crunchy, sugary typing sounds, delighted giggles.

Build narratives around everyday events

You don’t need epic characters to produce a compelling story. Compose a full narrative with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Create a sense of adventure by giving the most simple objects a purpose.