Google Veo 3.1 Guide
Veo Camera Movement Prompts: A Veo 3.1 Cinematography Guide
Google treats cinematography as a first-class part of Veo 3.1 prompting. Its official guide explicitly names camera movement, composition, and lens/focus controls, and lists dolly, tracking, crane, aerial, slow pan, and POV shots as camera-movement examples.
Last verified: 2026-10-05
Official Veo 3.1 camera vocabulary
Six camera-movement examples Google explicitly documents
These six terms come directly from Google's Veo 3.1 prompting guide. They are not the only possible cinematography terms, but they give us an unusually strong official starting set for Veo-specific prompting.
Dolly shot
Dolly shot moving slowly toward the subject, ending in a medium close-up.
Tracking shot
Tracking shot following the subject from the side at a steady matching pace.
Crane shot
Crane shot starting low on the subject and ascending to reveal the wider environment.
Aerial view
Aerial view pulling backward from the subject to reveal the full landscape.
Slow pan
Slow pan left across the room, settling on the subject by the window.
POV shot
POV shot moving steadily forward through the corridor with continuous natural motion.
Compare movement types
Use the 24-move visual guide when you need a camera term beyond Google's six examples.
Open Visual GuidePrompt motion from an image
Learn the motion-first workflow that matches Google's current I2V best practices.
Image-to-Video GuideBuild a camera clause
Combine movement, direction, pace, subject action and ending frame.
Open Prompt BuilderVeo prompt anatomy
Separate camera movement, composition, and lens/focus
Google's Veo 3.1 guide treats these as separate cinematography dimensions. That is useful because a camera move does not need to carry every other shot decision inside the same phrase.
Camera movement
Dolly, tracking, crane, aerial, slow pan, POV. Describe the physical path or viewpoint change.
Composition
Wide shot, close-up, extreme close-up, low angle, or two-shot can specify how the subject is framed.
Lens & focus
Google's examples include shallow depth of field, wide-angle, soft focus, macro, and deep focus.
Veo image-to-video: prompt for motion
Google's current best practice says the source image already provides the subject, scene, and style. For image-to-video, focus the prompt on camera movement, subject animation, and environmental changes rather than repeating the image description.
First + last frame for controlled camera transitions
Veo 3.1 supports generation from a first and last frame. Google's official prompting guide presents this as a way to create a controlled camera move or transformation between two distinct viewpoints.
When the ending composition matters more than open-ended camera behavior, define both endpoints and use the text to describe how the camera should move between them.
Veo camera movement FAQ
What camera movements does Google officially list for Veo 3.1 prompts?
Google's Veo 3.1 prompting guide explicitly lists dolly shot, tracking shot, crane shot, aerial view, slow pan, and POV shot as camera-movement examples.
How should I prompt Veo image-to-video?
Google's current best practice is to treat the source image as the visual starting point and prompt mainly for motion: camera movement, subject animation, and environmental changes.
Can Veo 3.1 use a first and last frame?
Yes. Google's Veo 3.1 documentation supports generation from first and last frames, and Google's prompting guide specifically recommends this workflow for controlled transitions and camera movement between two viewpoints.
How long can Veo 3.1 clips be?
Current Google Cloud documentation lists 4, 6, or 8 second clip lengths for Veo 3.1.
Does Veo 3.1 support reference images?
Yes. Current Google documentation lists reference-image support for Veo 3.1, while availability differs across Veo variants such as Lite.
Build a Veo-ready camera prompt
Start with Google's documented camera vocabulary when it fits the shot, then add composition, lens/focus, subject action, and timing only when those controls are actually needed.
Compare model guidance
Runway publishes a broader camera-terms library and emphasizes motion-only Image-to-Video prompting, while Google's Veo guide separates camera movement, composition, and lens/focus explicitly.
Compare with the Runway Camera Movement GuideSources & verification
Camera vocabulary and model capabilities on this page come from current Google Cloud documentation and Google's Veo 3.1 prompting guide. Where we provide rewritten example prompts, those are our examples based on the documented cinematography concepts.