How to make a Tiny Desk AI video

This guide walks through making a Tiny Desk AI video from start to finish, plus the photo choices that make the biggest difference to the result.

1. Cast your band

Our desk concert has five seats: lead vocal, keys, sax and two backing singers. Decide who goes where. You can fill one seat or all five, and the price is the same either way; seats you leave empty keep our original performers.

2. Pick the right photos

The model can only keep what it can see. For each seat, in order of importance:

• One person per photo. Group shots make the model guess which face you mean. Crop a friend out of a group photo if you have to.
• Face the camera. Straight on or a slight angle. Profiles lose likeness fast.
• Even light. Daylight from a window beats overhead light or flash.
• Nothing covering the face. No sunglasses, caps, masks or hands.
• Close enough. Head and shoulders at least; a tiny face in a wide shot comes out vague.
• Sharp, not tiny. Anything from a modern phone camera is plenty; avoid screenshots of screenshots.

3. Fill the seats and confirm

Open the generator and tap a seat to add its photo. Choosing several photos at once fills that seat and then the empty ones, left to right. Then tick the consent box: it confirms that everyone in the photos is you or an adult who agreed to be in the video.

4. Generate

One video uses one credit, however many seats you fill. If you don't have a credit yet, the generator takes you to pricing. Packs are one-time purchases, with no subscription.

Once you hit generate, the render runs on our side. You can close the tab: the video shows up in My videos and you get an email when it's done, usually within a few minutes.

5. Download and post

Every video is a vertical 9:16 MP4 with the song, so it drops straight into TikTok, Reels or Shorts. You can also turn on a private share link from the video page. Label it as AI-generated when you post.

If the result isn't right

• The render failed: your credit is refunded automatically. Try sharper, front-facing photos.
• Someone's likeness drifted: usually that photo is too dark, too small or partly covered. A new photo for that seat fixes most cases.
• Something looks broken: email support within 7 days and we'll look at it.

A note on consent

Putting your friends in the band is fun when they're in on it. Only use photos of yourself or of adults who said yes, never minors, and don't pass the result off as real footage.