Watches: macro still, silent grade plate, captions for the spec
Ray/H3. Overlay the movement.
Ray/H3. Overlay the movement.
A watch ad that holds is a macro still of this dial, this bracelet, this rotor — then a quiet plate of that still in motion, then the spec as type you typed. It is not a talking presenter. It is not a model inventing the calibre name in the gold. The movement is a string: 2824, in-house automatic, 80-hour reserve, 100 m. Burn that string on a plate you would grade. Do not ask the sampler to typeset it.
Lock the still. Animate on Luma Ray 2 720p or MiniMax H3. Overlay the spec with add a text overlay to a video. That is the whole pipeline.
The still is the watch. The generate is only motion.
If the date window is wrong in the jpeg, it is wrong for the whole clip. If the crown sits on the wrong side, Fast-style "cinematic" motion will not fix it. Approve the macro: focus on the texture you sell — brushing, indices, the rotor through an exhibition caseback. Crop until the watch is the frame. Then pick a row that will survive a grade.
Ray 2 720p: 5s or 9s, 720p only, 50 credits, audio empty, text-to-video with an optional start image on the Replicate path. Use the start image when the still is already the product. Do not text-to-video a "luxury watch" and hope the SKU appears. 720p is the product on this row, not a preview of 1080p.
H3 is the 2K grade plate: 5–15 seconds, up to 2K, when the next step is a grade. Image-to-video uses the supplied still as the opening frame (first and last frame if you are controlling a transition). That is the honest path for a locked SKU: the watch you photographed is frame one. Texture under a paused frame is why you are here — frame pulls become campaign stills.
Hailuo 2.3 Fast is the wrong grade source for a macro product: 6s/10s I2V, no resolution chip, feed-tier motion. Fine texture under motion is already where Fast softens. A watch is fine texture. Do not grade a Fast take and call it a hero.
Silent plate, then the spec as type
Ray's audio field is empty. Do not write a voiceover into the motion prompt and expect a bed. H3's job on this brief is picture. The spec does not belong in the generate. Generated type on a dial or in the corner is a misspelled reference you cannot edit. The overlay tool burns one authored line — hook, headline, CTA, calibre — for the whole clip, at top, center, or bottom. It does not transcribe. Silence in the file does not change the string.
That is the point. "Cal. 3235" is not speech. It is a line you wrote. A text overlay burns one authored line; it does not listen. If you need the spec to change at 0s, 3s, and 6s — water resistance, then reserve, then price position — that is timed overlays, not one persistent headline, and not auto-captions.
Crop to 9:16 before you overlay. Top/center/bottom sit in a different safe zone after a reframe. Type over a rotor you will crop out is a wasted burn.
Grade the plate. Do not regenerate the SKU.
Chrome and brushed steel clip if you prompt a hard key. Expose for the grade: speculars should peak and fall, not sit as a white ceiling. Generated product chrome often arrives as a plateau. That is an exposure problem on the plate, not a reason to roll a new scene. Rec.709 scopes first. Look last. The overlay goes on the keeper, after picture lock, because the spec copy will change before the watch does.
FAQ
Should the watch speak the spec in native audio?
No. Ray 2 720p does not list native audio. The spec is a string you typeset. Overlay it. A talking watch is a different, worse object.
Is 720p Ray enough for a product hero?
If the delivery is a feed, maybe. If the delivery is a landing-page loop or a paused campaign still, use H3's 2K plate. Ray will not grow a 1080p switch because the brand is Luma.
Can I put the movement name in the prompt so it appears on the dial?
Do not. Prompted type is a miss you cannot edit. Keep the dial clean in the still. Burn the movement as overlay.
Fast I2V is cheaper. Why not animate the macro there?
Because the job is a silent grade plate of metal and glass. Fast is a 6s/10s feed pass that already softens fine texture. Animate on Ray or H3. Overlay after lock.