Updated Oct 5, 2026
The short answer
To make an AI tribute video, add a photo of the loved one who has passed and a photo of yourself, keep Memorial Hug selected and tap Make the effect: in a few minutes you get a short clip of the two of you sharing a long, gentle hug in soft, warm light, set to a quiet piano. With only their photo, choose Bring to Life and the portrait blinks, smiles and looks at the camera. No prompt, app or editing is needed, and a faded print can be restored for free first. A 5-second clip costs 5 credits, a render that fails is never charged, and several clips can be joined in a phone editor for a memorial slideshow. It is an imagined scene, not a recording.
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How to make an AI tribute video, from the photos you already have
An AI tribute video is a short, quiet clip made from photos of someone who has passed away: a mother, a father, a grandparent, a partner, a friend. Here it takes three things: a photo of them, a photo of you, and a few minutes. The Memorial Hug effect brings the two of you together in a peaceful place full of soft, warm light, where you walk slowly closer, hold each other in a long hug, then lean back, smile and turn to the camera, set to a gentle piano.
If you only have their photo, the Bring to Life effect animates the portrait itself: a blink, a soft smile, a tilt of the head, a look into the camera.
Do you need a prompt?
Many people search for how to make an AI tribute video prompt, because most AI video tools start from a blank text box. Here you don’t need one. The scene, the light, the movement and the music are already written into the effect, carefully, so the result is calm and kind rather than strange. You just add the photos. If you want a different moment, pick a different effect instead of rewriting a prompt.
Step by step
- Add their photo. A clear photo of the loved one who passed, face and shoulders if you can. A phone picture of an old print works.
- Add yours. A recent photo of you. A single photo of the two of you together works too: choose One photo of both.
- Keep Memorial Hug selected and tap Make the effect. In a few minutes the clip is ready to download, keep or send to family.
- Want just them? Choose the Bring to Life tile, add only their photo, and the portrait comes to life on its own.
Choosing the right photo
- Pick the photo where they look most like themselves. A face the family recognises at once matters more than a perfect picture.
- Clear faces work best. Avoid sunglasses, hats pulled low and tiny faces in group photos; a portrait or a head-and-shoulders shot is ideal.
- Match the framing. For the hug, two upper-body photos of about the same size blend most naturally.
- Try more than one. If the first clip does not feel right, try another photo of them. A render that fails is never charged.
Scanning old prints with your phone
Most photos of the people we have lost are prints in an album or a frame. Take the print out of its frame if you can, lay it flat on a table near a window, and photograph it straight from above in daylight, with no flash and no glare. Crop away the background so the face fills more of the picture.
If the print is faded, scratched, torn or black-and-white, restore the old photo for free first: it cleans and sharpens it and adds natural color in about 20 seconds. Under the restored photo, Hug them brings it here for the Memorial Hug, and Make it move opens Bring to Life.
Making a tribute video for the funeral or memorial service
Each clip is short, so a longer memorial video is best built from a few of them:
- Make several short clips. A portrait that smiles, then a hug with each child or grandchild, each from their own photo.
- Join them in a phone editor. Put the clips in order in the video editor on your phone (iMovie or CapCut, for example) with some of your favourite still photos between them.
- Add the music there. Each clip comes with its own soft piano; for the service, lower it and lay one song under the whole slideshow, ideally a song they loved.
- Choose the right shape. Widescreen for a TV or projector at the service, vertical 9:16 for phones and sharing with family afterwards, square for a feed.
- Keep it brief and calm. A few minutes is plenty; a moving clip among still photos is often more touching than a long run of them.
The clips are MP4 files that play on any phone, laptop or TV, and nothing has to be installed: it all runs in the browser.
A gentle word before you share it
An AI tribute video is an imagined moment, not a recording. The faces follow your photos; the hug and the smile are made up. Many families find that comforting, as a memory of what they wish they could have had once more, but some relatives may find it hard, especially soon after a loss. Showing it privately first, and asking before you post it or play it at a service, is the kind way.
Please make it only for your own family and friends, or with the family’s blessing, and never with photos of public figures.
Other ways to remember them
The AI hug with a deceased loved one page goes deeper into the hug itself, and animate old photos into a single portrait that comes alive. Choose Slow Dance in the studio for a dance together, like the father-daughter dance at a wedding they could not see. See all AI video effects.