TutorialsGeneral Use Cases
Foundations9 min read

General Use Cases

The new AI Brain turns one sentence into a finished video it picks the mode, style, colors, motion, effects and voice for you. Learn how to prompt it (drop your website, ask about today), when to switch to full Custom settings, how to add your own logo, fonts and cloned voice from the + menu, and the starter prompts that get you moving fast.

🎬 What Sleepy Motion actually does

Sleepy Motion is the first tool to go from a text prompt directly to finished motion graphics not a slideshow, not a template with swapped text, but real kinetic typography with animated shapes, transitions, layered color systems, and human-quality voice narration. A complete production in under two minutes.

The big shift: you don't have to configure any of it. The new AI Brain reads your prompt and makes every creative decision for you the mode, the style, the colors, the motion, the effects, even the voice. You describe what you want; it handles the how.

First time? Type one sentence about what you want and hit Generate. That's the whole flow. Everything below is optional for when you want more control.

🧠 AI decides vs Custom settings

At the top of the form you'll see two pills: AI decides and Custom settings. This is the most important choice, and for most people the answer is simple.

✨ AI decides default

Just your prompt, plus any media you upload. The engine picks the mode, style, colors, motion, effects and sound. The more you let it drive, the better it gets.

🎛️ Custom settings

The full board motion mode, style, animations and text FX, brand colors, fonts, textures, layout, sound, and more. Set as much or as little as you like; anything you leave, the engine still decides.

Start with AI decides, see a result, then switch to Custom settings to fine-tune or the other way around. Nothing is locked in.

✏️ Writing prompts that work

The engine is a writer first. When you describe your business or type a custom prompt, it writes an actual script so what you say shapes the entire narrative, tone, and angle of the video.

Be specific about the niche:

❌ Too vague

“We do marketing for businesses.”

✅ Sharp and usable

“Luxury car detailing studio in Miami. We obsess over paint correction and ceramic coating for high-end vehicles. Clientele is BMW, Porsche, Lamborghini owners.”

The more context you give location, clientele, what makes you different, the emotion you want to create the more the engine has to work with. Include brand personality words: bold, minimal, playful, premium, raw, clinical, vibrant.

Two things the Brain does that people miss:

  • Just drop your website. “Make an ad for yoursite.com” the engine looks it up and builds the video around what you actually do. No need to write the pitch yourself.
  • It knows what's happening. Ask for “a news video on the biggest story in tech this week” or “what happened today in the NBA” and it searches, finds it, and makes the video. Live and current.

Prompts that perform well:

  • “A cinematic promo for a rooftop restaurant. Golden hour vibes, luxury dining, the city below.”
  • “Hype video for a gym launch. Aggressive energy, fast cuts, motivational language.”
  • “Soft product reveal for a new skincare line. Clean, minimal, aspirational.”

💡 Stuck? Use "Want an idea?"

Just above the prompt box there's a small Want an idea? link. Open it for a menu of starter prompts grouped by what you're making trending & live, business & promo, local business, creator & social, teach & explain, motivation, and announcements.

Pick one and it drops a ready-to-run prompt into the box. The bits in [brackets] are yours to swap replace [product] or [topic] with your specifics and hit Generate. It's the fastest way to see what the engine can do, and a solid template for writing your own.

Every starter opens with “Hi Sleepy!” you can just talk to it like a person. It's built to understand plain requests, not keyword soup.

➕ The + menu add your own stuff

Inside the prompt box, bottom-left, there's a + button. That's where you hand the engine your own material the part only you can provide. Everything else it chooses.

  • Clone your voice upload a sample or record one, and the video narrates in your voice.
  • Text textures custom image fills for your text.
  • Upload logo animated into the video, not slapped in a corner.
  • Upload fonts your own typefaces (TTF/OTF).
  • Split-screen video a clip to run under your content.
  • Upload images photos woven into the video.
The + is only for your files. No presets or style pickers in here on purpose if you want a specific look (say, striped text), just ask for it in the prompt.

Cloning your voice? Once it's yours, drop cues like [laughs], [sighs] or [whispers] into your prompt and your voice will actually do them.

🎨 Custom settings: Brand Colors

Everything from here down lives under Custom settings optional, for when you want to steer. Skip it all and the AI Brain picks for you.

Brand colors are the highest-impact thing you can set. They're injected throughout the animation engine as the primary design system for that video used to set:

  • Background color layers and gradient blends
  • Text colors and contrast ratios
  • Animated shape fills and strokes
  • Overlay tints and transitions between screens
  • Accent highlights on key words

When you don't set colors, the engine falls back to a neutral dark palette. That works but it will never feel yours. A video with your actual brand colors looks like something you paid for. One without looks like a demo.

Color tips

2 colors is the sweet spot. Primary + accent. The engine does the rest.

High contrast pairs work best. Dark background + bright accent (e.g. navy + gold, charcoal + cyan, black + red).

Avoid near-white + near-white. Low contrast pairs collapse on screen. Test your colors on sleepymotion.com before generating.

3–4 colors unlock richer palettes. Use your full brand guide primary, secondary, and an accent. The engine cycles through them intelligently.

Or set nothing and let the engine choose. If your prompt references a recognizable brand or a clear visual identity (“Apple-level minimalism”, “bold street brand”) it picks appropriate colors on its own.

🔤 Custom Fonts

Typography is half the visual identity of a motion graphics piece. Sleepy Motion ships with a curated font library but you can upload your own, and the engine will use it across all text layers in the generated video.

Uploading a font:

  1. Hit the + in the prompt box and choose Upload fonts (or open the Fonts section in Custom settings).
  2. Upload a .ttf or .otf file any font you own a license for. Up to two.
  3. Assign them as your Main Font and Accent Font.
  4. The engine uses them across the text layers of that video.

Where to get fonts:

  • Google Fonts free, massive selection, download the TTF directly.
  • DaFont huge variety including display and decorative typefaces.
  • Your brand kit if your business has a brand guide, it specifies the typeface. Download and upload that exact file.
Main Font vs Accent Font: The Main Font is used for body copy and larger text blocks. The Accent Font appears on headline words and key phrases that the engine emphasizes. Pairing a clean sans-serif main with a bold display accent is a proven combination.

🖼️ Logos animated, not static

When you upload a logo, the engine doesn't just slap it in a corner. It's treated as a motion element. Your logo enters with an animated transition a fade, a scale-in, or a directional entrance and is positioned intentionally within the composition.

The logo appears in multiple places across the video:

  • As an intro or opening card element
  • Anchored in a branded lower-third during narration screens
  • On the outro / call-to-action screen

Logo format guidelines:

  • PNG with transparent background this is the ideal format. Avoids white boxes over colored backgrounds.
  • Square or nearly-square logos work best for most layouts.
  • High resolution (at least 400×400px) the engine scales to fit but starts from the source.
  • Add it from the + menu (Upload logo) or the Custom settings logo section.
No logo? No problem. The engine generates clean branded title cards from the name in your prompt. But a logo always elevates the final output.

🎭 Styles and Vibes

Styles control the visual language of the motion graphics the typography hierarchy, animation timing, shape vocabulary, and overall aesthetic. Each style has a distinct personality. Some are built for high-energy content, others for luxury brands, others for clean minimalist B2B use.

Experiment by generating the same prompt with two different styles. The script stays the same the visual interpretation changes dramatically.

Vibe is a separate control that primarily affects TTS delivery and scriptwriting tone:

  • Energetic fast delivery, punchy sentences, high-conversion copy.
  • Calm measured pace, trust-building language, good for services and professional brands.
  • Playful casual, fun, slang-friendly. Works well for food, lifestyle, e-commerce.
  • Luxury deliberate pace, aspirational phrasing, minimal sentences.

The vibe is passed to both the scriptwriter and the TTS engine, so voice delivery and written tone are always matched.

⏱️ Duration: 10–15s vs 25–30s

The two duration modes are structurally different, not just longer/shorter versions of the same output.

10–15 seconds

  • • 3–5 screens
  • • Hook → core message → CTA
  • • Best for social ads, product drops, announcements
  • • Works on every platform
  • • Fast to iterate generate multiple angles quickly

25–30 seconds

  • • 6–10 screens
  • • Full narrative arc with story beats
  • • Best for explainers, service breakdowns, brand stories
  • • More room for benefits and social proof language
  • • Available on Starter plan and above

If you're unsure which to use: start at 10–15s. If the result feels rushed or cuts off before the message lands, switch to 25–30s.

⚡ Pro tips for clean results

  • Let AI decide first, then refine.

    Run one prompt on AI decides before touching a setting. See what the Brain gives you it's often already there. Then open Custom settings only for what you'd actually change.

  • Don't describe features describe the feeling.

    "Our app tracks calories" → generic. "The app people use when they finally decide to get serious" → a hook that actually works.

  • Use the Retry button with script edits.

    After your first generation, edit the script in the editor and hit Retry. You keep the creative direction and fix the specific lines that didn't land. Much faster than re-generating from scratch.

  • Match voice to vibe manually when needed.

    The Auto voice setting is tuned by vibe but if you know you want a specific voice for a specific brand, lock it in. Consistency across a campaign matters.

  • Short sentences in the description = short sentences in the script.

    The writer mirrors punctuation and sentence rhythm from your input. Punchy input → punchy script. Long run-on descriptions → meandering copy.

  • Brand colors are your highest-impact Custom setting.

    When you do go Custom, two brand colors turn a generic output into something that looks commissioned. Primary + accent is the sweet spot.

  • Split Screen (Brainrot mode) is not just for TikTok.

    It keeps viewers watching longer on any short-form platform by adding a second visual layer underneath. Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts benefit just as much.

🎞️ New now, and what's coming

Live now:

  • 2K rendering. Toggle the small 2K badge next to the duration and your video renders at 2K instead of 1080p sharper text, and it survives re-encoding when you upload it everywhere. Available from the Creator plan up (on Captions it just follows your source video).
  • Voice cloning with expression. Your own voice, and it can [laugh] and [whisper] on cue see the + menu.

Coming soon: Presets

Here's the fun part: every Sleepy Motion video carries its own style keya fingerprint of the exact settings that made it. Drop a video in and we can read that key back and rebuild its whole look colors, fonts, motion, mode as a starting point for your own. So any video you love becomes a preset. Rolling out shortly.

Ready to put this into practice?

Open the generator, set your brand colors first, and hit Generate.

Start generating →
General Use Cases Tutorial | Sleepy Motion