How to use Google Flow.

Google Flow is Google's AI studio for videos and images. It brings Google's video models, Veo and Gemini Omni, together with the Nano Banana image models. Every video costs credits, and the price depends on the model and the length of the clip. There are no prompts in this step.

• Go to flow.google and sign in with your Google account.
• Click your profile picture in the top right to see how many credits you have left.
• Before you generate anything, the settings chip in the prompt box shows the price: "Generating will use N credits".

• Free: 50 credits a day, for everyone.
• Plus: 200 credits a month. Pro: 1,000 credits a month.
• If a generation fails, you get the credits back automatically.

Click New project, then click the title in the top left to rename it. Switch on the Agent in the prompt box. It's an AI assistant that plans the whole video with you. Agent instructions are rules it follows in every shot, so it's the place for your brand rules.

• With the Agent on, click the Agent instructions icon, then Add instruction. Give it a title like EMBER brand rules.
• In Agent settings, keep Confirm before generating on Always so nothing spends credits without your approval, and set the image model to Nano Banana Pro.
• Swap the details for your own brand, or use it as it is to follow along.

EMBER makes hand-poured soy candles in amber glass jars with a cream label that reads EMBER in black capital letters. Always show the label clearly and spelled correctly. Mood: calm, warm and cosy. Style: photo-realistic and cinematic, never cartoonish. English text only. No captions or subtitles in the video, and no voiceover unless I ask for one.

The instruction listed under Agent instructions with its switch on. Remember: these rules only apply while the Agent is on. In manual mode, Flow ignores them (you'll see this in Step 7).

"Make me a candle ad" isn't enough. Think of it like briefing a real film crew: they need the story, the shots and the sound. The more of that you give, the fewer questions the agent has to ask.

• Keep the Agent switched on.
• Keep the line about one spoken line. Flow adds dialogue to a clip when you ask for it.

Create a 20-second video ad for EMBER, a small brand of hand-poured soy candles.

Story: on a rainy evening, a woman in her thirties gets home from a long day. She lights an EMBER candle, the room fills with warm light, and she finally relaxes.

Shots:
1. A rainy city street at dusk. She walks home under an umbrella.
2. Close-up of her hand lighting the candle with a match. The EMBER label is clear on the jar.
3. She curls up on the sofa with a cup of tea in the warm glow and says softly: "Finally."
4. Product shot: the lit EMBER candle on a wooden table, rain on the window behind it.

Sound: rain, the match strike, a soft crackle from the wick. One spoken line only.

About a minute later, a text storyboard: a character called Sloane with her face and clothes described, the two locations, the candle, and the four shots with the action, camera angle and lighting for each. This is the best moment to make changes, because editing text costs nothing.

First the agent turns the four shots into pictures, so you can see the look before you make any video. Then it asks before it spends credits. Approve one batch at a time so you stay in control of what you're spending.

Yes, generate the storyboard grid.

• With two versions per image in Agent settings, you get two grids. Zoom in and check any writing before you choose. In the video, the second grid had a stray mark in front of the word EMBER.

I like the first grid. Please generate the video clips for all four frames.

• The agent shows an approval card: four clips for 60 credits, with Approve, Always approve and Reject.

Each clip may try to tell the whole story by itself, cutting between shots. The fix is to say exactly what you want.

Each clip came back with several cuts inside it. For example, the sofa clip starts on the street, then the match, then the sofa. Please regenerate all four clips so each one is a single continuous shot with no cuts, showing only its own frame. Make each clip 6 seconds.

Four single-shot clips for 40 credits. If a tile says Failed (in the video, Flow wrongly flagged the umbrella shot for showing a famous person), you get the credits back automatically. Click the retry button on the tile and try again.

When a clip is almost right, you don't need to make it again. Click on it, and type your change in the box under the timeline that says "Describe how to edit this video". Each edit costs 20 credits and lands in the history on the right, next to the original.

Remove the second flame floating behind the jar. Then slowly push the camera in toward the candle and keep the flame calm and steady.

• In the video, the push-in happened quickly at the very end, and the "second flame" stayed. Up close, it was the candle's reflection in the window, so Flow was right to keep it. Always watch an edit back before you use it.

• Click the plus in the prompt box, choose Upload media and pick your clip. The first time, Flow asks you to confirm you have the rights to use it.
• Open the uploaded clip and use the same edit box.

Turn the rain into gently falling snow, and cover the street and the cars in fresh white snow. Keep everything else the same.

About a minute later, the whole street is covered in fresh snow, while the woman, her coat and her umbrella stay exactly as they were.

Keeping the same person looking the same in every shot is one of the hardest things in AI video. Flow solves it with characters.

• Open one of your clips, pause where you can see the face, and click Save frame in the corner of the video.
• Go to Characters, click Add from project and choose the frame you saved.
• Give the character a name, paste the description below, and if you like, click Select a voice. In the video, Sloane got Achernar, "Female, soft, high pitch".

Sloane, mid-30s, long wavy brown hair, warm and tired eyes. Usually wears a cream turtleneck sweater. Calm, gentle, speaks softly.

• Switch the Agent off. Type @ in the prompt box, pick Sloane from the list, and she's added to your prompt as a chip.
• Paste the prompt below right after her chip. The prompt starts after her name, because the chip stands in for it.

reads a book at a sunny café table on a bright Sunday morning, smiling. A lit EMBER candle sits on her table. Single continuous shot, no cuts. She looks up and says softly: "This is my little ritual."

The same person, with the same face, hair and cream sweater, even though the light is the total opposite of the rainy night. She says her line right on cue. The 8-second clip costs 12 credits.

You give Flow two pictures, one for the start of the shot and one for the end, and it creates the movement in between. Images are free on Pro, so make and fix both frames before you spend anything on video.

An unlit EMBER candle in an amber glass jar on a wooden table, in a dark living room at night. Rain on the window behind it, soft blue moonlight, photo-realistic and cinematic.

• In the video, the label came back as "Ember Candle Company" with a scent name underneath. The brand rules from Step 2 only apply when the agent is on.

Change the label to a plain cream label that reads only EMBER in black capital letters. Keep everything else exactly the same.

Light the candle. The whole room now glows with warm amber candlelight. Keep the same camera angle, table, jar and label.

• Now there are two versions in the image's history. Hover over the dark one and click Save to projects, so it becomes its own image you can pick.

• Set the generator to Video, then choose Frames. Two boxes appear above the prompt. Pick the dark room as Start and the glowing room as End.
• Veo 3.1 Quality is Google's best video model. It costs 100 credits for eight seconds, so save it for your most important shots.

A match flares in the dark and lights the candle. The warm glow slowly spreads across the room. Single continuous shot, slow gentle push-in. Sound: rain, the match strike, a soft crackle.

A hand strikes a match and lights the candle. In the video, the room only turned warm in the last half second, almost like a light switch. When the two pictures are very different, the change can feel sudden, so this works best when your frames are close to each other.

Flow has a simple video editor called Scenes. There are no prompts in this step, and nothing here costs credits.

• Click Scenes on the left, right-click on the empty page and choose New scene.
• Click the plus on the timeline, pick a clip and click Add media. To add the next one, select the clip, click the plus after it and choose Add clip.
• In the video: the rainy walk, the match, the sofa, and the product shot.
• Trim: drag the left edge of a clip to the right to cut its first seconds. Reorder: drag a clip to a new spot.

• The whole scene: click the download button at the top. About 15 seconds later, you get one video file, at 720p.
• Clip by clip, sharper: open a clip, click download and choose 1080p, which was free on the Pro plan. 4K is for the Ultra plan. Then put the clips together in any video editor.

• The switch for a visible watermark is in your profile menu.
• Google always adds an invisible watermark called SynthID, so the video can be recognised as AI.

The whole story in about 22 seconds: the rainy walk home, the match, "Finally." on the sofa, and the camera finishing on the label.

Six things that make a real difference to what comes back.

• Say "single continuous shot, no cuts". Without it, a clip may try to tell the whole story by itself.
• Brand rules need the agent on. In manual mode, put the important details, like the label text, straight into the prompt.
• Check every bit of writing. Labels and signs are where AI images usually go wrong. Zoom in before you build on an image.
• Approve one batch at a time. "Always approve" is quicker, but you stop seeing what each step costs.
• Use the cheap model to test. Get the idea right on Omni 1.1 Flash, then use Veo 3.1 Quality for the shots that matter most.
• Keep start and end frames close. The more the two pictures differ, the more sudden the change.

The same steps work for any product or idea, because only the brief changes. Fill in these two templates, use them in Steps 2 and 3, then follow the rest of the steps.

[BRAND] makes [PRODUCT, with the details that must always look right, e.g. colour, packaging, label text]. Always show [THE LOGO / LABEL] clearly and spelled correctly. Mood: [3 words]. Style: [photo-realistic and cinematic / bright and playful / ...]. English text only. No captions or subtitles in the video, and no voiceover unless I ask for one.

Create a [LENGTH]-second video ad for [BRAND], [WHAT IT SELLS].

Story: [WHO], [WHERE], [WHAT HAPPENS], and how they feel at the end.

Shots:
1. [Setting the scene]
2. [Close-up of the product in use. The logo is clear.]
3. [The feeling or result, with one short spoken line in quotes]
4. Product shot: [the product, where it sits, what's behind it]

Sound: [3 sounds you'd hear in this world]. One spoken line only.