AI for beginners: where to start

A neural network is a program trained on huge amounts of data — text, photos and video. It finds patterns and, from your request, creates new content — text, an image or a video that never existed before.

A prompt is a text description of what the AI should create. You don't need words like "draw" — describe objects, colors, style and mood clearly. Instead of "cat" write "a ginger cat with green eyes against a jungle, realistic photo".

A negative prompt lists what you don't want in the frame: "extra fingers, face distortions, watermarks, low quality". A catch: the model sometimes latches onto a word and adds it, so it's safer to state the goal — not "no people" but "an empty street".

For a specific result, add more detail: age, clothing, lighting, angle. For ideas, do the opposite and give freedom: "suggest 20 options…" and let the model improvise. Fixing is part of the process — experiment with wording.

AI picks the likely next word, it doesn't verify truth. Double-check statistics, dates, legal and medical facts against sources. And don't send personal data — passports, cards, passwords: your chat may be used to train the model.

Three approaches: from scratch by text ("a cat sleeping on a windowsill, realistic photo"); from an existing photo you want to change ("replace the background with a night city"); and by reference — copy a pose, face or outfit from an attached shot.

Follow a structure: angle → main subject → details → background → mood and light → textures → style → quality. For example: "shoulder-up portrait, a woman of 25, leather jacket, evening city, warm light, realistic photo, 8K".

Aspect ratio sets the width-to-height proportions. 16:9 is a horizontal photo, 1:1 a square for avatars and logos, 9:16 a vertical for stories, Reels and Shorts. Pick the format before generating — cropping without losing the composition is hard.

A vague "city" gives a random result — specify the country and mood. Don't mix incompatibles: "realistic" and "cartoonish", or "angry" and "happy" at once, confuse the model. And avoid judgments without detail — "a beautiful person" says nothing.

Text-to-video creates a scene from scratch. Image-to-video brings a still frame to life. Video-to-video restyles or changes an existing clip — swap clothing, turn footage into a cartoon. The choice depends on what you have as input.

The formula: [Subject and location] + [Action] + [Camera move] + [Mood]. First describe the scene, then a concrete action (running, turning, a glance), then the camera move (push-in, orbit), and finally light and mood. That's how the model reads the motion.

AI produces short clips (usually 3–15 seconds), often in low resolution for speed. Upscale raises the image to 1080p or 4K and adds sharpness. Extend takes the last seconds of a good shot and continues it.

The key quality marker is a face, outfit and setting that stay unchanged across the clip. First build the character's base look: lock the appearance, clothing, pose and light. Use that "anchor" as the reference for every following frame and video.

Don't pack a chain like "enters, orders coffee, sits down, looks out the window" into one prompt — the model gets confused. Split it into separate one-action scenes and join them in editing. Changing shots also holds the viewer's attention better.