After Dark
Laser Room
Color Smoke
Silk Drop
Petal Storm
Slow Shutter
Candlelight
Behind the Hair
Call Me
Champagne Toast
Darkroom Red
Doorway Lean
Eyes on You
Headlight Sweep
Join Me
Late-Night Dance
Club StrobeRomance
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Tiny PlanetTransform
Molten GoldFashion
Mirror GlanceAtmosphere
Lace ShadowsMotion
GrooveFun
MeltdownProduct
Ingredients BurstFilm looks
Film BurnVideo templates
The Glance Back
Candles Come Alive
Silk Drift
Neon After Hours
Sway Under the Lamp
Mirror Moment
Morning Light
Passing Headlights
Whisper Session
Slow Push-In
Half Orbit
Drone RiseThis effect writes the prompt for you. Add one image.
We never filter your prompt.
Three passing cars sweep bright headlight beams across the person's face in the dark, each brighter than the last.
- Model
- MiniMax H3
- Length
- 5 s
- Resolution
- 768p
- Per run
- $0.185
- Type
- After Dark
- Also runs on
- Seedance 2.0 Fast, Seedance 2.0, Wan 3.0, Vidu Q3 Turbo, Wan 2.6 Flash, Seedance 2.0 Mini
What this effect sends
This is the full prompt, word for word. Copy it, or open it in the generator and change anything you like.
Within the first second the scene drops into darkness, then the bright white headlights of a passing car blaze in through a window just out of frame and sweep across the background and straight over the person's face from one side to the other, flaring hard and dragging the shadow of the window frame with them. Darkness returns, then a second car sweeps an even brighter beam across. The person follows the light with their eyes, then turns to the lens in the half-dark and holds a steady look as a third beam crosses their eyes in the final second. The camera holds still. The person stays exactly as they appear in the photo.Pictures that work best
- Choose a portrait with a window or wall visible behind the person.
- A moderately lit starting photo works better than a near-black one.
- Keep the person's face turned partly toward the light source.
- Close framing makes each sweep clearly visible on the face.
Models this effect runs on
The same prompt on different models. Pick by look and by price.
- MiniMax H3$0.185 per run
5 s · 768p
- Seedance 2.0 Fast$0.484 per run
5 s · 720p
- Seedance 2.0$0.76 per run
5 s · 720p
- Wan 3.0$0.45 per run
5 s · 720p
- Vidu Q3 Turbo$0.33 per run
5 s · 720p
- Wan 2.6 Flash$0.113 per run
5 s · 720p
- Seedance 2.0 Mini$0.265 per run
5 s · 720p
How it works
- 01
Add one photo
Choose the photo to match the example: include both people for a shared gesture, and keep the face and any hands involved clearly visible. Upload your own photo or start with a Headlight Sweep sample.
- 02
Check the price
Headlight Sweep defaults to a 5-second clip for $0.185. Swap the model or change the length and resolution before you run — the price on the button updates to match, and that's the whole cost of the clip.
- 03
Generate
Your Headlight Sweep clip renders in the background, lands in History and is never published.
Do the move yourself
Headlight Sweep keeps one version of this shot. To give Headlight Sweep your own motion or ending, write it yourself in Image to Video, starting from the prompt above.
What it does to your photo
Headlight Sweep is built from light. Within the first second the scene drops into darkness, then the bright white headlights of a passing car blaze in through a window just out of frame and sweep across the background and straight over the person's face, flaring hard and dragging the shadow of the window frame along. Darkness returns, then a second car sweeps an even brighter beam across. The person follows the light with their eyes, then turns to the lens in the half-dark and holds a steady look as a third beam crosses their eyes in the final second.
In our test runs on MiniMax H3, a woman in her forties with a black bob and a dark green satin blouse, sitting by tall factory-style windows at night, saw the room drop to black, then a white headlight beam blazed through the panes and swept across her face at second one and a half; after a beat of darkness a brighter second beam crossed at second three, and she ended facing the lens with window-frame light striping her face. In a second run, a bearded man in a dark shirt sitting on the edge of his bed by a city-view window late at night was silhouetted by a blaze of white headlights at second one, then a horizontal band of light swept across the wall and his face; after a beat of darkness a second beam crossed at second four and he ended turned toward the lens.
Close, chest-up portraits near a window or against a pale wall work best, so the beams have somewhere to land. Very dark photos give the contrast less to work with. Full-body or distant shots shrink the face too much for the sweeps to read. The effect leaves the person exactly as they are in your photo and only adds the motion, light and atmosphere.
It runs on MiniMax H3 for five seconds by default, and H3 itself goes up to 15 seconds and 2K if you want more. Studio also lets you move the same prompt to another model before you generate, such as Seedance 2.0 or Wan 3.0, and the price on the Generate button updates with every change. Our samples were all made on MiniMax H3, so other models will read the prompt in their own way.
Suited to moody portraits, night-drive mood clips and tense story beats.
The prompt says "a second car sweeps an even brighter beam across" and "a third beam crosses their eyes in the final second". Try changing it to only two cars, or make the final beam softer.
