OpenAI took the world by storm when it launched ChatGPT in 2022, impressing everyone with the chatbot's capabilities when it came to searching for information and answering questions while retaining the context of the conversation. The company then repeated that feat by unveiling Sora, which can create high-quality videos just using text-based prompts.

However, this time, the competition has become intense, with rival companies announcing similar products. And the latest among them is Dream Machine from Luma AI. Known for its platform that lets users create 3D models text, image, or video inputs, the company's new Dream Machine aims to make AI video generation simpler and accessible to everyone.

What is Dream Machine?

Dream Machine is a universal text-to-video generator designed by Luma AI and relies on advanced algorithms that allow it to generate high-quality videos using simple prompts provided by users. It is a highly useful tool for content creators, businesses, marketers, and others and can be used to create videos up to five seconds long and in different styles.

Unlike many other video generators, videos generated using Dream Machine are quite close to the descriptions provided in the prompts. Because of this, it is possible to create videos with incredibly detailed scenes, complicated animations, and realistic character movements. Dream Machine is based on a transformer model and has been directly trained on videos.

Shot Of Stormtroopers From A Video Created By Dream Machine. Source: Luma AI

Features of Dream Machine

Luma AI's Dream Machine comes with certain features that allow it to challenge big players like Sora in the AI video generation landscape.

High-resolution video generation

Dream Machine can produce cinema-grade videos in 1080p resolution, which makes them not only stunning to look at, but also make them suitable for professional use.

Accurate Simulation and Realistic Motion

According to Luma AI, Dream Machine can understand how people, animals, and objects interact in the real world, which allows it to create videos with accurate physics. It uses a spatiotemporal joint attention mechanism to depict real-world physical interactions and complex actions accurately, resulting in natural-looking videos.

Multiple Aspect Ratio Support

Dream Machine can generate videos in different aspect ratios, making it suitable for a diverse range of purposes. You can use it to create videos for marketing and promotional purposes, educational needs, social media platforms, and more.

User-Friendly Interface

User-accessibility is a key feature of Dream Machine, and the platform comes with an intuitive interface for easy video generation. Because of this, users with different skill levels and expertise can use it without any problems, making it accessible to a wide range of audiences.

Open-Source Framework

Unlike OpenAI's Sora, Dream Machine has an open-source framework, which allows it to be accessed by almost anyone with coding knowledge and expertise. In contrast, Sora is only available to a select audience, and its top features are expected to remain exclusive to paid subscribers.

Prompt Enhancement

Dream Machine also has an 'Enhance' feature, which automatically adds more details to your prompt, helping the AI generate more complex videos. When you turn it on, you can use simple prompts instead of detailed ones, and the AI will enhance it using Luma's language model for more detailed videos. You can turn this feature off if you want to add more details to your prompt manually.

Luma AI Dream Machine video
Video Generated By Dream Machine. Source: Luma AI

How can you use Dream Machine?

Using Luma AI's Dream Machine requires extremely detailed prompts, more detailed than what you use with other AI tools like ChatGPT. Here is how you can try out the video-generation platform for free right now.

  1. To try out the platform, visit the official page and click on the 'Try Now' button on the top right.
  1. Next, you will have to sign in to your Google account. To do so, click on the 'Sign In With Google' button on the page that appears.
  1. You need to provide permission to the platform to access your Google account. Click on the 'Continue' button to proceed.
  1. Finally, you can enter your prompt in the provided box. Type in a detailed prompt, like a close-up shot of an eagle soaring through the sky, looking down on the ground for prey. By default, the 'Enhance Prompt' option will be enabled, but you can disable it if you want by clicking inside the checkbox. Click on the upward pointing arrow to generate your video.
  1. Wait for a few minutes until Dream Machine generates the video. When the process is completed, you will see the generated video under My Creations. Clicking on it will start playing the video.
  1. If you want to extend the video, click on the 'Extend' button below the video.
  1. This will bring up the prompt box where you can add more details for extending the video. Enter your prompt, like the eagle lands on a rock next to a river, looking at fishes jumping out of the water and back inside and then click on the arrow button.
  1. Dream Machine will extend your video by five seconds using the new prompt you provided.
  1. You can also download generated videos by clicking on the 'Download' button.
Note: Currently, the 'Extend' functionality of Dream Machine may not provide the expected results and requires improvement. In this case, instead of showing the eagle sitting on a rock, it shows the bird emerging from the water and the fishes mentioned in the prompt are nowhere to be seen.

Usage limitations and pricing

While you can use Dream Machine for free, you will have to register an account on the platform to do so. The free plan allows users to generate 30 videos per month, but there is a paid plan costing $499 that allows generating up to 2,000 videos per month. Additionally, due to high demand, the platform is restricting free generations to 5/day. However, there are no daily limits for paid users.

Limitations of the Platform

While Dream Machine can generate high-quality videos, the platform has certain limitations you should be aware of. These include the famous Janus problem, in which the platform shows multiple views of an object in different directions instead of providing a consistent 3D output. Additionally, there are issues with morphing, text, and movement.

However, these are problems that are quite common in text-to-video generating products, so they are not specific to Dream Machine only.

Dream Machine is similar to many other video-generating tools that are becoming available on the market. What makes it different, however, is the high quality of the videos generated and its open-source framework. Unfortunately, its limitations in its current state mean that Luma AI still has a long way to go before the platform becomes suitable for regular use.

If you want to try it out, you can do so as we have explained above, though we suggest keeping your day free of other activities, since the high demand can mean you may to have wait until your turn in the queue.