I’ve been testing out some of the many AI video generators on the market of late, and we were quite excited to give Pika AI a try. I’d heard all about this AI video generator’s fun special effects videos and neat user interface, and it has quite an interesting story behind it, too, which I’ll share with you later on.
I’ll also be taking a look at exactly how to use this tool today, with handy screenshots to guide you through, and look at its pros, cons, and key uses.
Introducing Pika AI Video Generator
We dug into the origins of the Pika AI video generator to learn about how and where it was made, and we were quite impressed to discover the full story: a pair of Stanford PhD students – Guo Wenjing and Chenlin Meng – made this tool, after trying to make videos themselves and struggling to make the most of existing editing software.
Pika has grown a lot since its inception, too. It now has a full team of AI researchers, programmers, designers, and filmmakers, as well as Stanford professor advisors, plus a host of investors supporting the project. Plus, Pika managed to raise an impressive $135 million in funding from its investors to power its development and expansion.
Real Experience and Test Examples with Pika AI
To see what Pika AI can offer for ourselves, we decided to use its Pika 2.2 model to generate a few videos based on the prompts we gave it.
To begin with, we generated a video by inputting a simple text prompt "A traveler strides on a desert at sunset. Classical Star War movie style".
The generation time of Pika AI is impressive. We didn't have to wait several minutes like we did on other AI video generators. had to wait about 5 minutes until the video was ready for us to review.
And here's what the final result looked like:
We weren't 100% happy with the output. The animation quality is fine, but the details like the stick going through the traveler's leg shows that this AI video generator needs some improvement to generate more realistic motions.
Then we ran a second test of this video generator. This time we decided to animate an image to a video. The following are the input image and prompt we chose, and the video output:
| Text prompt:
The bird looks around cautiously, then gracefully spreads its wings and takes flight. Input image:  |
Output: |
This video output looks worse than the first one. The bird flies through the branch with blurry wing flaps. And what's worse, during the final few seconds, the bird suddenly reappears on the branch after it has flown away.
With these results, we can only come to a conclusion that Pika AI seems more suited for quick, non-polished content than for high-quality video work.
Other Key Features of Pika AI
Next, we'll share more of the many features that the Pika AI video generator has to offer:
- Pikaffects: Upload an image of an item or person and then apply fun special effects to see your subjects grow, shrink, or change in other interesting ways.
- Pikascenes: This is a real time-saver. It gives you a bunch of templates to use for making various kinds of AI videos.
- Pikaframes: One of our favorite features, this lets you turn still images into incredible AI generated videos with super seamless transitions from one frame to the next.
- Pikadditions: It allows you to add specific items or entities to your AI videos, including everything from aliens to animals and inanimate objects.
- Selfies: Pika even allows me to animate selfies of myself in lots of fun ways, creating videos with me as the star.
- Pikatwists: With this feature, you could add unexpected twists and changes to my existing AI-generated videos by describing whatever I’d like to see.
Pros and Cons of the Pika AI Video Generator
When it comes to pros and cons, there’s a lot more we like about this tool than we dislike about it. Here are some of my big pros:
- Straightforward Interface: I’ve used a lot of AI video generators, and some are way more complicated than others. This is one of the easier ones to work with.
- Fast Video Generation Speed: It takes about 1-1.5 minutes to generate a video with Pika AI, faster than many other of its competitors.
- Varied Input: This AI video creation tool supports two forms of input: text and image. That lets me make videos my way.
- Special Effects: We also had lots of fun making special effects clips from still images with Pika, watching items inflate, explode, melt, and more.
However, no tool is perfect, and the Pika AI video generator also has some drawbacks. Here are a few of my pet peeves with this generator:
- Lack of Realism: We got good results when making animation-style videos with this tool, but it was less effective at making realistic, convincing motions.
- A Bit Too Basic: Since Pika AI was created with simplicity in mind, it feels a bit basic to more experienced users like myself.
- High Prices: There is a free plan of Pika AI that we tried, but it’s a bit limited, and the paid plans are quite pricey.
How to Get the Best from Pika AI Video Generator
If you’re eager to have the best experience with the Pika AI video generator and don’t want to end up with videos that don’t exactly meet your needs, I’ve prepared a few expert tips to help you:
- Use detailed, but not overly complicated prompts. I found that this video generator definitely works better with clearer instructions.
- For image-to-video, use very clear and high quality images that show the subject/object in good lighting, so it’s easy for the AI to understand.
- Experiment with the many features and functions of Pika AI, like Pikaframes and Pikaffects, to see all that it can do. I had a lot of fun with the Pikaffects and Selfies.
An Easier Option: Use Pollo AI for Smooth Pika AI Video Generator Access
If you need a smoother way to try Pika, or the Pika AI video generator interface isn’t working for you, doesn’t suit your needs, or if you’d just prefer an easier and smarter alternative, I strongly recommend Pollo AI.
Pollo AI is an all-in-one AI video generator that has all the best video models in one place. That includes Pika, but also other advanced models like Runway, Kling AI, Vidu, etc. What's more, Pollo AI offers a handful of powerful AI video generators such as text to video, image to video, consistent character video, video to video, and so much more.
To use Pika AI on Pollo AI:
Step 1. Visit the Pollo AI Pika AI Video Generator Page
Head to the image-to-video generation page on Pollo AI, and click “Start for Free” in the top-right corner to log in or create an account with Pollo AI.
Step 2. Choose the Pika Model
Using the drop-down menu provided, pick and choose from any of the many available Pika AI video generator models, like Pika 2.2 or Pika 2.1.
Step 3. Customize
Click the upload button to add any image you want to use for your video, as well as typing in a prompt and configuring the various settings to set your desired length, resolution, and so on.
Step 4. Create
Click the “Create” button and wait while the generator creates the clip.
Final Words
Overall, the Pika AI video generator is one of the best tools to use for people like content creators, marketing agencies, or brands going for a playful, animation-style vibe in their video marketing.
The perfect platform to use Pika AI is Pollo AI, as you can experiment with multiple models without having to juggle different tools.
So, test out Pika AI video generator today through Pollo AI, and experience the unique functions and features of this generative model for yourself.