Use a frame from your footage as an image reference

Words describe a look slowly. A picture shows it at once. The Image tab accepts references, including a single frame from one of your own clips, so you can ask for the same street at night or the same product on a new table.

Add references to the prompt

References appear as small thumbnails inside the prompt box, above your text. There are three ways to add them:

• Drag a clip from the timeline, a card from Media or the Library, or a tile from the stock images below the generator into the prompt box.
• Type @ in the prompt. A bare @ lists everything by source, under Clips, Media, Library and Stock, with an Upload file row at the top. Typing letters after the @ filters across all of them.
• Drop files from your computer onto the panel. Media files import into the project on the way.

The image model takes several references at once. Attach one for the subject and another for the look.

Pin the frame you mean

A video reference sends one frame of the clip. You choose which one.

1. Move the playhead to the frame you want, on that clip.
2. Open AI Gen, then Image, and type @ in the prompt.
3. Pick the clip from Clips. Because the playhead already sits on it, the thumbnail pins that moment on its own and shows the timestamp in a small badge.
4. To move the pin, hover the thumbnail. A card opens with a preview, a Pinned moment slider and a timestamp you can drag or click to type. Clicking the @ token in the prompt opens the same card.

A reference to a trimmed clip stays inside the part you kept, so the slider never offers footage you cut away.

Say what should change

Write the prompt as a change request. Keep the subject and the framing, and name what moves: time of day, weather, season, lens or art style. Mention each reference in your sentence so the words and the pictures agree. For example: "The street from @c2 after heavy rain, neon signs reflected on the pavement, cinematic."

Choose the Aspect ratio and Resolution pills as usual, then click Generate image.

One detail saves a retry. Clicking a stock tile loads its saved prompt into the box and clears any attached references. If you want a stock prompt as your starting point, click the tile first and add your references afterward.

Build on the result

The new image appears in the Generated grid with your own words as its name. Each tile wears an @ handle pill such as @i3. Click the pill to copy it, then paste it into the next prompt to carry that picture forward. This gives you a chain: footage frame, restyled still, then a video prompt that uses the still.

The tile's … button (More actions) has Use this prompt, which reloads the words for another try, and Add to Media or Add to Library, which keep the picture where you can find it later.

When it helps

• You want a title background that matches the colors of a clip.
• You need a cover frame for the start of the video that echoes a real shot.
• A shot is missing and a restyled frame can stand in until you film it.

Start from a real frame

Open DepCut, park the playhead on a frame you like and type @ in the Image prompt.