Hailuo

Hailuo is the video generation platform from MiniMax, one of China’s major large-model companies, which builds its own text, speech and video models. Hailuo is its consumer-facing entry point for video creation.

Its video model renders human motion, facial expression and camera moves naturally, and it follows prompts well — the actions and camera work you describe usually show up, rather than a clip that looks nice but ignores the brief. Overall it sits among the leading Chinese video generators.

Like its peers, it is good at producing individual shots rather than finished pieces: clips are short, so multi-shot stories require editing, and free users face long queues at peak times, which hurts when you are in a hurry.

Key features

• Text-to-video: Generate short clips from a written description, with good fidelity on expressions and emotional cues.
• Image-to-video: Upload an image as the first frame and animate it — useful for bringing existing designs or photos to life.
• Subject reference: Supply a reference image of a person so the generated character stays close to that appearance, which helps with consistency across clips.
• Camera instructions: Describe pushes, pulls, pans and tracking shots in the prompt; the model responds to these fairly reliably.
• Prompt enhancement: Let the system expand a short description automatically, lowering the bar for writing prompts.

How to use

1. Open the Hailuo website and sign up (for example with a phone number); new accounts receive free credits.
2. Choose text-to-video or image-to-video, upload an image or write a description, and be specific about subject, action, expression and camera movement.
3. Submit and wait in the queue — this can take a while at peak times, so it helps to submit several jobs at once.
4. Download the clips you like and assemble them into a complete piece in your editor.

Best for

• Close-ups and emotional shots: expressions and subtle movement are its strong suit.
• Short-form and social content: eye-catching motion visuals, quickly.
• Character-driven content: subject reference keeps one character looking similar across shots.
• Testing ideas: checking how a shot might look before committing to a live shoot or animation.

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

• Natural motion, expression and camera work — among the best Chinese video models.
• Strong prompt adherence; what you write is largely what you get.
• Free credits, usable directly in China, with good Chinese prompt understanding.

Limitations

• Short clips; multi-shot storytelling depends on editing.
• Long queues at peak times, especially for free users.
• Subject reference helps but does not fully solve consistency across shots.