Introduction
Welcome to Runway! Runway is a research organization that builds generative AI tools for the next era of creativity. We aim to make the future of content creation easy, controllable, and accessible to everyone with bleeding-edge generative video products and tools.
This quick guide will walk you through generating your first creations with Runway. For a more comprehensive overview, please see our full library of Creating with Runway content.
Step 1 – Accessing Runway
For an optimized experience, access Runway by visiting https://app.runwayml.com/ in a Chrome browser.
Step 2 – Creating a Session
After logging in, you have two generation modes to choose from when working with Runway— Chat Mode or Tool Mode. Click to learn more about each generative method:
Chat Mode (Recommended)
Chat Mode acts as a creative collaborator on Runway. This collaborative approach makes it easier to explore new ideas and refine your vision through conversation.
Chat Mode is the default generation mode on new accounts. If you're in Tool Mode, you can open Chat Mode at any time:
Tool Mode
Tool Mode can be helpful in cases where you'd prefer a more manual approach, such as granular control over exact prompts when iterating.
You can switch to Tool Mode at any time by closing Chat Mode.
Using either method will automatically create a Session. Sessions are an organizational structure in Runway that help keep your outputs organized as you generate.
Step 3 – Prompting and Generating
Gen-4.5 is our most advanced model that currently supports Text to Video and Image to Video. Gen-4 and Gen-4 Turbo are older models that generate videos faster and cost less credits. For the highest quality results, we recommend using the latest Gen-4.5 model.
You can switch between the models using the model switcher in the bottom left corner while in Tool Mode.
Upload an image and draft your prompt in the text box. See our suite of Prompting Guides & Examples for a comprehensive overview of prompting.
Your text prompts should focus on describing the desired motion when using Image to Video. You do not need to describe the contents of the image.
When using Text to Video, your prompts should describe both visual and motion elements in most cases.
Click the purple Generate button to begin processing the video. Your generations will be scrollable in your session as you generate.
Step 4 – Iterating the Output
Click Use under a completed generation to view more options to continue working with the output in Runway. Alternatively, try making adjustments to your prompt to further iterate on the concept.