Introduction

Vary Image generates new variations of an existing image by letting you specify exactly what you want to change. Select one or more elements to vary — like lighting, background, subject pose, or art style — and optionally add a written description to guide the output further. It's useful for designers, photographers, and creative teams who want to explore compositional alternatives, test different visual treatments, or quickly produce a set of related image variations from a single source. Each generation produces up to 4 variations.

Prerequisites

Before using Vary Image, you'll need:

An input image — any photo or illustration you want to create variations of

This app requires credits to run and does not support infinite generations in Explore Mode.

Step 1 — Accessing Vary Image

Vary Image lives in the Apps section of Runway. You can get there two ways:

Navigate to Apps in the left sidebar, then browse to find Vary Image
Use the search bar at the top of the Apps panel and type Vary Image

Select the app to open it.

Step 2 — Adding the inputs

Vary Image has one required input and flexible controls for directing what changes.

Input Image Upload the image you want to vary using the Select button, drag and drop it into the upload area, or select Brand to pull from your Brand assets.

Select What to Change Choose one or more elements you want Vary Image to modify. Options include: Lighting, Background, Color palette, Camera angle, Subject pose, Subject attire, Art style, and Surprise me. You can select multiple options at once — Vary Image will apply all selected changes across the generated variations.

Add Directions (Optional) Use the directions field to describe any additional guidance for how you'd like your image varied. This field is optional — selecting variation toggles alone is enough to get strong results, since Vary Image is built for this use case.

Step 3 — Generating with Vary Image

Before generating, confirm:

Your input image has been uploaded
At least one variation type has been selected, or directions have been added

Once everything looks good, select Generate. Vary Image runs on Nano Banana Pro and produces up to 4 image variations per generation.

Example outputs

Next steps

You've used Vary Image to generate a set of targeted variations from a single image. From here, you might explore:

Multi-Shot Video — Bring your image into multi-shot to generate multiple animated scenes, adding motion, variation, and cinematic continuity from a single visual.
Create Ad — Bring your image into Create Ad to generate a polished image ad with a tailored tagline, turning a single visual into campaign-ready creative.

Input Image	Changes Selected	Directions	Output
	Background, Lighting	Beach background with camera blur. Moody lighting.
	Color palette, Camera angle	Close up. Dark brown background with warm accent lighting.
	Art style, Lighting	Realistic Unreal Engine styled animation.