Updated Oct 10, 2026
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The short answer
To make an AI tribute video, add a photo of the person who has died and a photo of yourself, leave Memorial Hug selected and tap Make the effect. A few minutes later you have a short clip of the two of you meeting in soft, warm light and holding each other, over a quiet piano with light strings. If you only have their picture, choose Bring to Life and their portrait breathes, blinks and smiles on its own. There is no prompt to write, a phone photo of an old print is enough, and a faded print can be restored for free first. 5 seconds at 720p costs 5 credits and a failed render is never charged. For a service, a few clips can be joined into a longer memorial video. It is an imagined moment, not a recording.
How to make an AI tribute video from the photos you already have
A tribute video does not need hours of footage. Most families have a handful of pictures of the person they lost, often printed, sometimes faded, rarely in motion. This memorial video maker works from exactly that: one photo of them, and if you like, one of you.
With both photos, the Memorial Hug effect places the two of you somewhere calm and full of warm light. You notice each other, walk closer and hold on, then turn toward the camera with a quiet smile. With only their photo, Bring to Life leaves the picture as it was and lets them move inside it: a breath, a blink, a small smile, a glance toward you. Both come with soft piano and no voices.
Do you need a prompt?
No. Many people look for a “tribute video prompt” because most AI video tools start with an empty text box, and it is hard to describe a goodbye in camera directions. Here the scene, the light, the pace and the music are already written into each effect and have been tested to stay calm and kind. You only choose the photos. If a clip does not feel right, try a different photo of them before anything else.
Step by step
- Add their photo. A clear picture of the person who has died, ideally face and shoulders. A phone photo of a print is fine.
- Add yours. A recent picture of you. If you have a photo of the two of you together, you can use that single photo instead.
- Keep Memorial Hug selected and tap Make the effect. In a few minutes you can watch it, download it or send it to family.
- Only their photo? Choose Bring to Life, add just their picture, and their portrait comes to life on its own.
Choosing the photo
- Choose the one where they look most like themselves. A face the family recognises straight away matters more than a perfect picture.
- Look for a clear, open face. Sunglasses, low hats and tiny faces in group photos make the likeness harder to keep.
- Match the framing for a hug. Two upper-body pictures of a similar size sit together most naturally.
- Try more than one. If the first clip does not feel like them, another photo often will. A render that fails costs nothing.
Scanning old prints with your phone
Most pictures of the people we have lost live in albums and frames. You do not need a scanner:
- Take the print out of its frame if you can. Glass adds reflections that hide the face.
- Lay it flat near a window in daylight and photograph it from directly above, with the flash off.
- Hold the phone parallel to the print so the face is not stretched, and crop away the table around it.
- Restore it if it is faded, scratched or black-and-white. The free old photo restoration cleans and sharpens it and adds natural color in about 30 seconds. Under the restored picture, Hug them takes it to Memorial Hug and Make it move takes it to Bring to Life.
Using it at a funeral or memorial service
Each clip is short, so a tribute for a service works best as a few clips placed among the still photos you would show anyway:
- Make several short clips. Their portrait coming to life, then a hug with each child or grandchild, each from their own photo.
- Join them in the video editor on your phone, with your favourite photos in between.
- Choose one piece of music for the whole thing, ideally a song they loved, and turn each clip’s own piano down.
- Pick the right shape. Widescreen for a TV or projector at the venue, vertical for phones and sharing with family afterwards.
- Play it once on the venue’s screen beforehand, and keep it short. A minute or two among the photos is often more moving than a long reel.
The clips download as MP4 files that play on any phone, laptop or TV.
A gentle word before you share it
An AI tribute video is imagined. The faces follow your photos, but the hug and the smile were made for this clip; they are not a memory. Many people find comfort in that, a moment they wish they had once more. Others, especially soon after a loss, find it too much. Watch it first on your own, then show it privately to the people closest to them, and ask before it is played at a service or posted online.
Please make it only for your own family and friends, or with the family’s blessing, and never with photos of public figures.
Other ways to remember them
The AI hug with a deceased loved one page goes deeper into the memorial hug itself, and animate old photos is for a single portrait that comes alive. You can restore old photos for a printed album or a frame by the guest book. For a father-daughter dance at a wedding they did not live to see, choose Slow Dance in the studio; for ideas with the family who are still here, see the AI family video page.