A 15-second video may look simple, but making one can take hours.
There is a script to write, footage to find, music to add, subtitles to fix and editing to finish. For solo creators and small businesses, even a short clip can become a full afternoon’s work.
MiniMax is trying to shorten that process with H3, a new general-purpose video generation model released on July 31.
According to the company, H3 can create videos up to 15 seconds long at resolutions as high as 2K. Users can start with a written prompt or provide images, video clips and audio as references. The model can also generate stereo sound together with the visuals, which means creators may not need to add voice, music or sound effects in a separate step.
A clothing shop, for example, could upload a product photo and a reference clip of someone walking, then ask H3 to create a short fashion video. A food creator could begin with a photo of a finished dish and add music to shape the pace of the final clip.
H3 also allows users to set the first and last frames of a video. The model then fills in the movement between them. MiniMax says clips can be generated in lengths ranging from four to 15 seconds.
The main appeal is that several parts of the production process can be handled at once. Tasks that once required separate tools for animation, sound and editing can now be combined into a single workflow.
That does not mean every video will be ready to publish. Faces and body movements may still look unnatural, text can appear incorrectly and product details may change during generation. Small lettering and complicated scenes can also be difficult to reproduce consistently.
H3 is unlikely to replace filmmakers or editors. Its more immediate value is giving people a faster way to test an idea. A scene that once existed only in someone’s head can now become a rough video in minutes, ready to be reviewed, adjusted and improved.
