Vidu

Vidu is a video generation model from Shengshu Technology, developed together with Tsinghua University, and one of the earlier Chinese models to ship as a usable product. It is directly reachable from mainland China and handles Chinese prompts without trouble. On basic text-to-video and image-to-video it is broadly comparable to peers such as Kling and Hailuo; what gives it a distinct identity is reference-to-video.

One of the most frustrating problems in AI video is that the same character looks different from one clip to the next. Vidu lets you upload several reference images at once — a person, an object, a setting — and tries to place them all in the same clip while keeping their appearance intact. For a short series, a brand mascot or a product with fixed props, that matters more than raw image quality. Users also often mention its anime-style output, which gives it a useful option beyond photorealism.

Don’t expect consistency to be perfect, though. The more references and the more complex the action, the more likely things drift. It is still a footage generator with short clips, and finished videos still have to be assembled in an editor.

Key features

• Text-to-video: Describe the subject, action and camera in words and get a short clip — useful for testing ideas quickly.
• Image-to-video: Upload an image as the first frame and animate it. You control the composition, so results are more predictable.
• Reference-to-video: Upload several reference images so specific characters, objects and settings appear together in one clip and keep their look.
• First and last frame: Provide a start and an end frame and let the model fill in the change between them — good for transitions.
• Effect templates: Ready-made effects you apply to a photo, aimed at light, playful social media content.

How to use

1. Go to the Vidu website and sign in; new accounts receive some free credits.
2. Pick a mode based on what you have: text-to-video for an idea, image-to-video for a good still, reference-to-video when a character must stay fixed.
3. Describe the subject, action, camera movement and style, choose aspect ratio and duration, then generate.
4. Run the same prompt several times, download the best clips, and assemble them with music and captions in your editor.

Best for

• Short series and character content: reference-to-video helps the same character stay recognisable across shots.
• Anime-style shorts: its stylised output is relatively stable.
• E-commerce and brand videos: put products, logos and other fixed elements into different scenes in bulk.
• Playful social posts: effect templates take almost no skill to use.

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

• Multi-subject reference is a distinctive feature that addresses the common character-consistency problem.
• Directly usable from mainland China, with natural Chinese prompt understanding.
• Stable anime-style output, and free credits to try it first.

Limitations

• Photorealistic faces and complex motion still trail the top models, with occasional limb distortion.
• Consistency drops noticeably with many references or low-quality reference images.
• Clips are short and high-quality generations burn credits fast; heavy use means paying.
• If you use photos of real people as references, get their consent to avoid likeness-rights problems.