ViMax: How to Generate Complete Videos from Just One Prompt Using Agentic AI

The End of Manual Video Storyboarding

You’ve got a story idea. A funny scenario about two cats meeting a newcomer. You want to turn it into a cartoon short. But creating even a simple animated video requires writing scripts, designing storyboards, generating consistent characters, shooting scenes, editing cuts, and adding audio — a process that traditionally needs a full creative team.

What if you could describe your vision in one sentence and get a polished video back?

That’s exactly what ViMax does. Developed by researchers at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKU), ViMax is an open-source agentic AI framework that transforms a raw idea, a screenplay, or even a novel chapter into a finished video — automatically. No storyboard artists. No animation riggers. No manual scene planning. Just describe, configure, and let the AI agents handle everything.

What Is ViMax?

ViMax is not just another AI video generator that produces five-second clips. It’s a complete end-to-end video creation engine built on a multi-agent architecture that handles every stage of professional video production:

• Script Understanding — Extracts characters, environments, style intent, and scene boundaries from your input
• Storyboard Design — Creates shot-level storyboards using cinematic language appropriate for your target audience
• Reference Image Selection — Intelligently picks visual references ensuring character consistency across hundreds of shots
• Automated Image Generation — Generates frame-by-frame visuals with spatial positioning logic
• Consistency Verification — Uses MLLM/VLM models to validate character and environment consistency across frames
• Parallel Shot Rendering — Processes sequential shots simultaneously for high-throughput production
• Audio-Visual Binding — Synchronizes voice acting and sound effects with visual content

Think of it as having an entire film crew — director, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and sound designer — working autonomously based on your creative direction.

Four Creative Modes for Every Use Case

🌟 Idea2Video: From Spark to Screen

The most accessible entry point. Simply provide a concept like “If a cat and a dog are best friends, what would happen when they meet a new cat?” along with any creative constraints (“For children, do not exceed 3 scenes”). ViMax autonomously generates the complete script, designs the storyboard, creates character reference images, and renders the final video.

This mode eliminates the gap between imagination and execution — no writing skills or technical knowledge required.

🎨 Novel2Video: Smart Literary Adaptation

Turn entire novels into episodic video content. ViMax’s RAG-based script design engine analyzes lengthy source material, intelligently compresses the narrative, extracts key plot developments and dialogues, and segments them into a structured multi-scene video script.

Writers, educators, and content creators can transform literary works into engaging visual content without hiring adaptation specialists.

⚙️ Script2Video: Unlimited Screenplay Creation

Write your own screenplay and watch it come to life. Whether it’s a personal story, an epic adventure, or a dialogue-heavy drama, Script2Video gives you complete control over every aspect while the agents handle visualization, camera angles, and rendering.

Professional filmmakers can use this as a rapid prototyping tool — test visual concepts before committing to expensive live-action productions.

🤳 AutoCameo: Interactive Personal Video

Upload a photo of yourself (or your pet), and ViMax integrates you as a consistent character across limitless creative scripts, cinematic sequences, and interactive storylines. Imagine appearing as a guest star in dozens of AI-generated short films — all with consistent facial features and natural interactions.

Architecture Deep Dive

ViMax operates through a layered pipeline that mirrors traditional Hollywood production but runs entirely autonomously:

INPUT LAYER
├── Ideas & Scripts & Novels
├── Natural Language Prompts
├── Reference Images
├── Style Directives
└── Configuration Files

CENTRAL ORCHESTRATION
├── Agent Scheduling
├── Stage Transitions
├── Resource Management
└── Retry/Fallback Logic

PRODUCTION PIPELINE
├── Script Understanding (Character Extraction → Scene Boundaries)
├── Scene & Shot Planning (Storyboard Steps → Key Frames)
├── Visual Asset Planning (Reference Selection → Style Guidance)
├── Asset Indexing (Frame Catalog → Embeddings → Retrieval)
├── Consistency & Continuity (Character Tracking → Temporal Coherence)
└── Visual Synthesis (Image Gen → Best-Frame Selection → Video Assembly)

OUTPUT LAYER
├── Individual Frames
├── Clips & Final Videos
├── Production Logs
└── Working Directory Artifacts

The Central Orchestration layer is the brain of the system. It schedules which agent runs next, manages resource allocation, handles stage transitions between creative phases, and implements retry/fallback logic when a particular agent’s output doesn’t meet quality thresholds. This mirrors how human directors review each creative phase before greenlighting the next stage of production.

The Consistency & Continuity module is particularly innovative. Most AI video tools fail at maintaining character appearance across different scenes — a character might look completely different in scene 2 than in scene 1. ViMax solves this through intelligent reference image selection and temporal coherence tracking, maintaining character accuracy across potentially hundreds of generated shots.

Installation and Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Linux or Windows operating system
• Git installed
• uv package manager (Python dependency installer)

Step-by-Step Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/HKUDS/ViMax.git
cd ViMax

# Install dependencies using uv
uv sync

Configuration

Create your configuration file in configs/idea2video.yaml. You need to configure three components:

chat_model:
  init_args:
    model: google/gemini-2.5-flash-lite-preview-09-2025
    model_provider: openai
    api_key: <YOUR_OPENROUTER_API_KEY>
    base_url: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1

image_generator:
  class_path: tools.ImageGeneratorNanobananaGoogleAPI
  init_args:
    api_key: <YOUR_GOOGLE_IMAGE_API_KEY>

video_generator:
  class_path: tools.VideoGeneratorVeoGoogleAPI
  init_args:
    api_key: <YOUR_GOOGLE_VIDEO_API_KEY>

working_dir: .working_dir/idea2video

ViMax supports multiple chat model providers out of the box:

For MiniMax specifically, simply set model_provider: minimax in your config — the base URL resolves automatically:

chat_model:
  init_args:
    model: MiniMax-M2.7
    model_provider: minimax
    api_key: <YOUR_MINIMAX_API_KEY>

Or use environment variables:

export MINIMAX_API_KEY=<YOUR_KEY>

Running Your First Video

Edit main_idea2video.py with your creative input:

idea = """
If a cat and a dog are best friends, what would happen when they meet a new cat?
"""
user_requirement = """
For children, do not exceed 3 scenes.
"""
style = "Cartoon"

Then run:

python main_idea2video.py

The pipeline will automatically execute through all stages — script generation, storyboard creation, character design, image generation, consistency checking, video assembly — and output a complete video file in your configured working directory.

For script-based workflows, use main_script2video.py instead, providing your screenplay directly:

script = """
EXT. SCHOOL GYM - DAY
A group of students are practicing basketball...
John: I'm going to score a basket!
Jane: Good job, John!
"""

Real-World Use Cases

Content Creators and Social Media

YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram Reels creators can produce daily video content without filming equipment or editing software. Generate trend-aware shorts from textual prompts, keeping up with platform algorithms effortlessly.

Education and Training

Educators transform textbook chapters and historical narratives into engaging animated lessons. Novel2Video mode is particularly powerful for literature classes — adapt classic novels into visual summaries that increase student comprehension and engagement.

Entertainment Industry Pre-production

Film studios use Script2Video as a pre-visualization tool. Before investing in physical sets and casting, directors can generate rough visual drafts of their screenplay to evaluate pacing, shot composition, and narrative flow. This dramatically reduces pre-production costs and accelerates decision-making.

Personalized Children’s Stories

Parents create custom bedtime stories featuring their children as the protagonist. AutoCameo mode integrates child photos into the storyline, creating unique personalized video experiences that boost reading interest and family bonding time.

Marketing and Advertising

Brands rapidly prototype video advertisements. Test multiple creative directions, character styles, and messaging variations without the cost of traditional ad production agencies. Iterate quickly based on viewer feedback.

How ViMax Compares to Other AI Video Tools

ViMax’s key differentiator is its autonomous multi-agent pipeline. While tools like Runway and Pika generate short isolated clips from individual prompts, ViMax orchestrates a complete creative process — from narrative understanding through character design, storyboarding, production, and post-processing — all with persistent character and scene consistency.

Comparison with Commercial AI Video Platforms

Runway ML remains the industry leader for manual video editing with AI assistance, but requires extensive user input at every creative decision point. Pika Labs excels at quick stylized animations but struggles with multi-scene continuity. Kaiber offers music-video focused generation but lacks the narrative depth that ViMax provides through its script analysis engine.

ViMax bridges the gap between these approaches by combining creative freedom (like manual tools) with automation (like single-prompt generators). The result is professional-quality output with minimal user effort.

Getting Started Checklist

To help you get started quickly, follow these steps:

1. Set up the environment — Install Git and uv, clone the ViMax repository, and run uv sync
2. Get API keys — Sign up for OpenRouter (free tier) for chat models, and Google API for image/video generation
3. Configure your first project — Create configs/idea2video.yaml with your preferred provider settings
4. Generate your first video — Write a simple idea in main_idea2video.py and run the pipeline
5. Explore advanced modes — Try Script2Video with your own screenplay, or Novel2Video with a short story
6. Fine-tune configurations — Adjust model providers, add custom reference images, and experiment with style parameters
7. Join the community — Connect via the Feishu or WeChat groups linked in the repository communication guide

Limitations to Be Aware Of

While ViMax represents a significant advancement in agentic video generation, there are currently some limitations:

• Output resolution depends on the underlying image/video generation models you configure
• Audio generation is primarily binding/alignment rather than original soundtrack composition
• GPU requirements may be substantial for high-resolution generation with local models
• Script length constraints — very long novels (>50 pages) may require chunked processing
• Platform stability — the project is actively developed (329 commits) but still maturing

Why ViMax Matters for the Future of Content Creation

We’re witnessing the collapse of the barrier between imagination and visual expression. Twenty years ago, making a short film required cameras, actors, lighting rigs, editing suites, and months of work. Today, ViMax makes it possible for anyone with a creative idea and an internet connection to produce multi-scene, character-consistent animated videos.

The implications extend far beyond entertainment. Education becomes visual and accessible. Storytelling democratizes — anyone can become a filmmaker. Pre-production pipelines accelerate from weeks to hours. And most importantly, creativity stops being limited by technical execution capabilities.

ViMax isn’t just a tool — it’s proof that agentic AI systems can now handle complex, multi-stage creative processes with results that rival professional production quality. As the ecosystem grows and more model providers integrate, expect even more sophisticated video generation capabilities in the months ahead.

Conclusion

ViMax from HKU stands at the cutting edge of agentic video generation. Its multi-agent architecture, comprehensive creative pipeline, and open-source nature make it accessible to everyone from content creators to Hollywood pre-production teams. Whether you want to transform a whimsical idea into a cartoon short, adapt a beloved novel into episodic video, or prototype your next screenplay, ViMax provides the infrastructure to make it happen.

The technology is mature enough for serious experimentation today. Set up your environment, connect your preferred AI model providers, and start turning ideas into videos. The future of content creation is automated, and ViMax is leading the charge.

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Last updated: May 9, 2026. ViMax is actively maintained by the HKU-Digital Society research team with regular feature updates and community contributions.