New version of video AI enables amazing special effects

Sora, Stable Video Diffusion, Dream Machine, Gen-2 and so on and so forth – the list of video AI models that can generate moving video clips using text prompts or from individual images is now long and the possible applications are Wide-ranging: From come-to-life memes to the short film Air Head, it felt like everything was there.

This makes it all the more difficult to make big waves with an update to an existing video AI, and yet Pika Labs has now achieved exactly that with a trailer for Pika version 1.5. The announcement of the update to the AI ​​model impresses with impressive special effects that seem to bend reality.

Pika: Update for one of the first video AIs

According to Venture Beat, Pika was one of the first AI startups to create entire videos by entering simple text instructions or using individual images – although the former pioneer has been quiet for a while now. Version 1.0 of Pika was launched in November 2023 after a $35 million Series A financing round, and since then it has been more about the AI ​​model – until now.

On October 1st, Pika Labs returned to X with the announcement that Pika 1.5 is now available for use. Also included: a trailer that impressively demonstrates the numerous new effects, which are appropriately called “Pikaffects”.

“Pika 1.5 is here. With more realistic movements, large images and breathtaking Pika effects that defy the laws of physics, there is more to love about Pika than ever before,” said the creators in their X-Post, in which they even praised themselves for the long time Making fun of time without updates: “Sorry, we forgot our password.”

The preview of Pika 1.5 is similarly cheeky and humorous: cities are trampled underfoot, animals are anthropomorphized in a lifelike manner, impressive camera pans are made, various falling objects are realistically merged, inflated, crushed and blown up. The laws of physics actually don’t seem to play a role here, and yet the altered objects in the clips behave exactly as they would in reality if they were melted, inflated, crushed or blown up.

This is no coincidence, because these effects represent the “Pikaffects” mentioned, which are now preset in the AI ​​video editor and can be selected using a new button. If you can’t get enough of the “Is it cake?” videos that went viral on Tiktok and Instagram a while ago, you’ll even find a “Cake-ify it” button, after selecting which the AI ​​will independently Identify suitable objects and apply the effect to them – like this:

General improvements: Pika 1.5 doesn’t just boast new effects

But apart from the “Pikaffects”, a lot has happened under the hood of the video AI, which can now create clips of up to five seconds long from text prompts or images. According to Venture Beat, anyone who wants to make their video creations appear particularly cinematic now has options for controlling the new camera movement. The movements shown should now appear even more lifelike than in version 1.0.

Since October 1st, both users of the free version and the three paid plans of Pika have had access to the innovations. However, many users can also access version 1.0, which currently has certain functions reserved, including those for sound effects and for expanding existing clips.

While the prices have apparently not increased with the launch of the new version – starting at eight US dollars for 700 so-called credits per month – it should still be mentioned that more credits are now required than before to generate a video clip. According to Venture Beat, the reason for this is that the new model requires more energy and resources to deliver the impressive results shown.

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