Epoxy floors are a gloss plate; Ray is silent HDR if you will grade
Luma Ray if audio is post. Veo if the pour has to speak.
Luma Ray if audio is post. Veo if the pour has to speak.
An epoxy floor is a gloss plate. The value is the wet shoulder, the roller track, the highlight that still has texture after you downmap. That is a lighting brief. It is not a talking-installer brief unless someone wrote a line. Mixing the two is how a floor ad becomes a closed mouth on a slab, or a talking take with crushed chrome.
Gloss is a lighting job, not a talking job
A poured floor lives or dies on speculars. You need headroom in the highlight, not a salesperson standing on it. Most of the catalog still emits an SDR-looking clip. You can tag HDR metadata onto that clip. You should not. Stretching Rec.709 onto a PQ curve does not invent the wet look.
Luma Ray 3: HDR when audio is someone else's job is the finishing doctrine: 16-bit HDR at 1080p, cheap entry, no native audio. The file is a grade-friendly plate. You score the pour later. Grade HDR once, keep the SDR downmap is the QC — Rec.2020 PQ or HLG, two stills of the same frame. Do not tag an SDR pour as HDR because the client's TV can display it.
If nobody asked for HDR by name, you may still want a silent plate. The pour does not owe you a voice. Prompting "add a voiceover feel" does not produce speech. It produces a silent clip whose motion you then fight with a dub.
Ray 2 720p is the silent catalog row, not the HDR master
Versely does not list a /models/luma-ray-3 head slug. The routing rule does not depend on that URL. When you need the HDR silent plate, pick Ray 3 by job.
The row that is in the catalog is Luma Ray 2 720p: 720p quality, text-to-video, 5s or 9s, audio field empty, 50 credits. Max output is 720p. There is no 1080p switch on this SKU.
Use it for a silent 5- or 9-second 720p pour you will score later when you are not delivering an HDR master. Demos are not this SKU. 50 credits is not a sketch-pad price. One prompt. One length. Then decide if the idea deserves a gradeable row.
No still is required on this row. Text-to-video will invent the floor. If the crew already photographed the pour, that still is the contract — leave this T2V row and animate the photo. Inventing a cousin of a real garage is how the client notices.
Veo only when the pour has to speak
Veo 3.1 is native audio, 4K tier, 4 / 6 / 8 second clips. Use it when a line has to be said on camera, or when the pour itself is the soundtrack you cannot rebuild later — always-on dialogue, cinematic physics, a mouth. It is the wrong reason to pick a colour-volume plate.
A talking generate is a poor HDR original. Split the jobs: Ray for the gradeable or silent wide, Veo for the line. Cut them. Do not force the wide to speak. Do not force the talker to carry the gloss.
The AI video generator is the door when you have not named the row yet. Name it after the brief names audio. "Show the floor" is Ray. "The floor has to speak" is Veo. Honesty about the soundtrack is the whole decision.
FAQ
Can I grade an HDR master off Ray 2 720p?
No. Ray 2 720p's max output is 720p, qualities listed 720p, audio empty. The 16-bit HDR 1080p plate is Ray 3. Tagging a 720p SDR-looking file as PQ is a metadata lie. If the brief is HDR10 plus an SDR downmap, pick the HDR row.
The installer has a line. Do I still use Ray?
Use Veo 3.1 for the line. Keep Ray for the wides of the pour. TTS on a silent floor plate is fine if we never see a mouth. TTS on a generated face is a lipsync problem Ray did not sign up for.
Why not Veo 3.1 at 4K for everything, including gloss?
Veo is the dialogue and 4K row. Its job is the mouth and the master when speech cannot be optional. Gloss without a line is wasted on that row, and a talking take is a poor HDR original. Split them.
Does a photo of the real floor belong on Ray 2 720p?
Not as text-to-video. This row does not require an image; it will invent one. A locked site photo is an image-to-video job. Attach the still. Do not prompt a cousin of a garage you already poured.