The Complete Guide to Veo 3 Prompts

Unlock the full potential of Google's Veo 3, the most powerful AI video model as of June 2025, capable of generating high-quality videos with integrated audio including dialogue, voiceovers, sound effects, and music. Despite its cost, this comprehensive guide provides essential prompt engineering techniques to efficiently create stunning, audio-rich videos. These proven tips are also invaluable for other leading video models like Ji Meng, Keling, and Runway.

I. Understanding Prompt Structure

Direct and precise prompts yield better results with Veo 3. A well-structured prompt typically includes:

  • Subject: Main focus (person, animal, object, landscape), including detailed characteristics.
  • Scene: Location (indoor, city street, forest, beach).
  • Action: What the subject is doing (walking, jumping, talking on phone).
  • Style: Visual aesthetic (realistic cinematic, anime, stop-motion).
  • Camera Movement: How the camera moves (following, rotating, panning, dolly zoom).
  • Composition: Shot type and framing (close-up, wide shot).
  • Atmosphere: Mood and lighting (warm tones, cool lighting, night scene).

Detailed prompts significantly enhance video quality compared to simple ones.

Example Prompt Comparison:

Simple: `A man answers a rotary phone`

Detailed: `A shaky dolly zoom goes from a far away blur to a close-up cinematic shot of a desperate man in a weathered green trench coat as he picks up a rotary phone mounted on a gritty brick wall, bathed in the eerie glow of a green neon sign. The zoom reveals the tension and the desperation etched on his face as he struggles to talk on the phone. The shallow depth of field focuses on his furrowed brow and the black rotary phone, blurring the background into a sea of neon colors and indistinct shadows, creating a sense of urgency and isolation.`

II. Controlling Video Style

Veo 3 defaults to a professional, polished video style. To generate different artistic styles, explicitly specify them in your prompt.

Example Prompt with Style:

`In the style of [style name, e.g., LEGO, Claymation, South Park, Pixar animation, 8-bit retro, Graphic novel, Origami, Simpsons, Blueprint, Anime, Marble]: A bearded man in a flannel shirt and weathered jeans sits cross-legged beside a flickering campfire, its amber light casting soft, dancing shadows across the pine-needle-strewn ground of a quiet forest clearing. Across from him, just beyond the edge of the firelight, stands a massive grizzly bear, calm and still, its fur catching the warm glow, eyes reflecting the flames with eerie intelligence. The two shake hands, like they’re old friends.`

III. Directing Camera Movement

Most video models allow explicit camera movement control. Common techniques include:

  • Eye Level: Subject's eye height perspective.
  • High Angle: Camera looking down.
  • Worm's Eye: Camera looking up from a low point.
  • Dolly Shot: Camera moves on a track, maintaining distance.
  • Zoom Shot: Lens changes focal length (in or out).
  • Pan Shot: Camera rotates horizontally from fixed position.
  • Tracking Shot: Camera follows a subject.

IV. Generating Authentic Selfie Videos

Veo 3 excels at realistic selfie videos using three core prompt elements:

  • `A selfie video of…`: Specifies video format.
  • `holds the camera at arm’s length. His arm is clearly visible in the frame.`: Simulates handheld perspective.
  • `occasionally looking into the camera`: Adds dynamism and engagement.

Example Selfie Prompt:

`A selfie video of a travel blogger exploring a bustling Tokyo street market. She’s wearing a vintage denim jacket and has excitement in her eyes. The afternoon sun creates beautiful shadows between the vendor stalls. She’s sampling different street foods while talking, occasionally looking into the camera before turning to point at interesting stalls. The image is slightly grainy, looks very film-like. She speaks in a British accent and says: “Okay, you have to try this place when you visit Tokyo. The takoyaki here is absolutely incredible, and the vendor just told me it’s been in his family for three generations.” She ends with a thumbs up.`

V. Achieving Video Variation

Unlike image models, Veo 3 often produces similar videos with simple, identical prompts. For greater variation, elaborate on your prompts following the detailed structure in Section I.

Example Prompt for Variation:

Simple: `a woman laughs`

Detailed: `a woman laughs long and loudly, she’s in an office meeting and she’s embarrassed afterwards`

Detailed: `a woman laughs quietly, she’s at home watching a tv show`

VI. Ensuring Character Consistency

Image-to-video generation with reference images is the most reliable method for character consistency. If not using images, describe the character with as much detail as possible in your prompt to leverage Veo 3's tendency for similar results with identical prompts.

Example Text-Based Consistency Prompt:

`John, a man in his 40s with short brown hair, wearing a blue jacket and glasses, looking thoughtful, he says: Hello, I am also John, and I look kind of the same as that guy over there (no subtitles!). He is in a bright light room.`

VII. Advanced Features in Flow

1. Specify Start and End Frames:

Upload start and end frames to guide Veo 3 in generating a smooth visual transition.

2. Extend and Jump To:

Methods for extending video duration or altering context:

  • Extend: Uses current/final frame as the starting point for continuation.
  • Jump To: Extracts a character and generates a new video of them in a different scene.

3. Ingredients to Video:

Upload multiple reference images (characters, objects, scenes) for concurrent video generation. (Ultra users only, $250/month)

VIII. Mastering Audio Prompting

Veo 3 offers robust integrated audio generation. Effective prompting for audio elements:

1. Generating Character Dialogue:

Explicitly write dialogue. Manage 8-second video duration: too long causes fast speech, too short can lead to silence or unintelligible words.

Example:

Too long: `John, a man in his 40s with short brown hair, wearing a blue jacket and glasses, looking thoughtful, he says: You have given me a really long prompt, and I have to speak very quickly and unnaturally to try and fit all these words into just 8 seconds, I’m going to be out of breath at the end of this, phew.`

Too short: `John, a man in his 40s with short brown hair, wearing a blue jacket and glasses, looking thoughtful, he says: Hello, I’m John.`

2. AI-Determined Dialogue:

Provide a general objective for the AI to generate dialogue, often resulting in more natural speech.

Scenarios well-suited for AI-determined dialogue:

  • `a standup comic tells a joke`
  • `two people discuss a movie`
  • `a man is having an argument over the phone`
  • `a woman tells us her life story`

3. Generating Chinese Dialogue:

In Flow, only English prompts are accepted. For Chinese, use Pinyin with a Mandarin instruction; lip-syncing may be accurate but fluency limited. Gemini supports multi-language prompts, but Veo 3 Fast's Chinese audio quality is currently not ideal. For high-quality Chinese speech, consider Ji Meng.

4. How to Prevent Subtitles:

Veo 3 can generate unwanted subtitles. To prevent them (often effective):

  • Place dialogue after an English colon (`:`), not in quotation marks (`""`).
  • Include `no subtitles` in your prompt.

5. Generating Music:

Provide detailed music requirements or a general direction for Veo 3's creative discretion.