Animate a photo in a Short: why Timeline stills stay static

A photo in a Timeline 1.0 slot does not move. The docs say stills are static holds: the job accepts a motion field, ignores it, and reports motion_ignored. If you want a push-in or a subject that moves, make a short image-to-video clip with Gemini Omni Flash 1.1 first, then use the clip as a normal video slot.

Which tool does what

Timeline 1.0 is an editor, not a generator. It places, trims and joins media you already have. Moving pixels from a still is the job of POST /v1/videos.

Step 1: a 3-second clip

Send the photo as frame_images with frame_type: first_frame. Omni Flash 1.1 takes 3 to 10 seconds. Three seconds is enough for a hook shot.

{
  "model": "gemini-omni-flash-1.1",
  "prompt": "Slow push-in on the product, soft window light",
  "duration": 3,
  "resolution": "720p",
  "aspect_ratio": "9:16",
  "frame_images": [
    { "type": "image_url",
      "image_url": { "url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/photo.png" },
      "frame_type": "first_frame" }
  ]
}

Step 2: put the clip in the timeline

Poll the job until it is done, then use the resulting URL as video[].source_url in a Timeline 1.0 body alongside your other slots and your voiceover spine.

Per-second rates are from the Sume rate card for Gemini Omni Flash 1.1.

Save money

Test the prompt at 360p, since it costs less than a third of 1080p, then regenerate at the size you need. If a hold is enough, keep the still and skip the generation.