A 48-hour AI short film, step by step
Gabe Michael
Director and producer Gabe Michael made a short film in 48 hours for Runway's GEN:48 contest. He brainstormed with an LLM, planned the film like old-school animation with separate layers, generated the shots in Runway, and finished in Photoshop and a video editor. Out of 1,600 signups his film was one of eight winners, taking Best Art Direction.
Story written by: the tool's company
The problem
Gabe had 48 hours to make a 1 to 4 minute film where every video had to be generated in Runway. The film had to include one character, one setting and one object set by the contest. He was working alone against the clock.
How it was built
- 1Brainstorm the story with an LLMLLM
- 2Write an outline and a shot listPerson
- 3Pick a style and make a character sheetRunway
- 4Plan the layers like old-school animationPerson
- 5Generate backgrounds and b-roll in RunwayRunway
- 6Build a rough animatic in a video editorVideo editor
- 7Animate and upscale in RunwayRunway
- 8Build the hardest shot in steps, then exportPhotoshop
Tool step Person step
1. Brainstorm the story with an LLM
Gabe gave an LLM the contest rules and the three required elements, and used its story ideas as a starting point. He then rewrote the summary in his own way and kept the story loose, because AI video cannot yet be trusted to give the exact shot you want.
ToolLLM
Check: He rewrote the LLM's summary so the story was his own.
2. Write an outline and a shot list
He wrote an outline of the story structure, then a shot list: a list of every shot he thought he would need to tell the story. The list catches what is needed visually but not written in the script.
Check: He checked the list had every shot the story needed.
3. Pick a style and make a character sheet
He tested looks with Runway text to image, dropped a sketch style that would not land, and chose an impressionist painting style. He generated the character with text to image and tweaked it in Photoshop into a full-body character sheet with layers.
ToolRunway
Check: He switched styles when the first look failed, instead of forcing it.
4. Plan the layers like old-school animation
He planned the film the way old animation works: background layers made separately from the character layer, combined later. He ran a few test shots first to confirm the plan would work.
Check: He tested a few shots before committing to the layer plan.
5. Generate backgrounds and b-roll in Runway
He worked through the shot list making backgrounds and b-roll with Runway text to image. Where text to image missed, he trained a custom model in Runway on his chosen look to fill the gaps.
ToolRunway
Check: He tracked which shots were still missing and filled them with the trained model.
6. Build a rough animatic in a video editor
He placed the images in a video editor in story order, added the character as a PNG and adjusted size and placement. He made the film twice: a rough animatic to lock the final shots, then again with final animations, recreating key frames in Photoshop at higher resolution.
ToolVideo editor
Check: He locked the final shots from the rough cut before paying time on animation.
7. Animate and upscale in Runway
He animated b-roll with Runway image to video and character movement with the Multi Motion Brush tool. As batches finished, he upscaled the clips to 4K and added light sound effects to the edit along the way.
ToolRunway
Check: He jumped between Runway and Photoshop, recreating shots that prompting alone could not get right.
8. Build the hardest shot in steps, then export
For the closing time-lapse shot, he used generative fill in Photoshop to build the scene in layers, exported each layer stage as its own PNG, animated each in Runway with Multi Motion Brush and joined the clips with fades like a real time lapse. He then finished the sound design, exported and submitted with hours to spare.
ToolPhotoshop
Check: He stopped polishing when the film looked good, because perfect is the enemy of good.
Before and after
Before
6am on contest day: a blank page, 48 hours on the clock and three required elements to build a story around.
After
A finished film exported and submitted with under ten hours left, later named one of eight winners (self-reported). source
What made it work
- He used an LLM for fast story ideas, then made the summary his own.
- He kept the story loose and adjusted it as the shots came together.
- He borrowed old-school animation: backgrounds and the character as separate layers, combined later.
- He trained a custom Runway model to fill the gaps text to image could not make.
- He made the film twice: a rough animatic first, then the final animated shots.
Follow along
Practice steps suggested by Ai Siftly, based on the account above. We have not run them ourselves.
Example to copy: A small blue robot in a museum finds a lost map. Gentle mood, no dialogue, eight shots.
You should get: A two-sentence story.
Check: The story has a beginning, problem and resolution.
Example to copy: 1 | robot enters | wide view | 4 sec | shot01.png | footsteps
You should get: An eight-row shot list.
Check: Each shot advances the story and has a filename.
Example to copy: Small round blue robot, one yellow eye, soft painted illustration, no text or logos.
You should get: shot01.png through shot08.png.
Check: Frames have matching dimensions and a consistent character; look closely for visual glitches.
You should get: A playable thirty-second still-image sequence.
Check: The story reads without explanation before any paid animation.
Example to copy: The robot turns toward the map. Preserve character design and background. Camera stays still.
You should get: One test clip, or keep the still if unavailable.
Check: Character stays consistent and the clip fits its allotted seconds.
You should get: A local practice film and shot table.
Check: The export lasts 30 seconds, all eight pictures appear and the sound is clear.
Try it yourself
Find a matching workflow in the workflow finder. Search words: m a k e a s h o r t f i l m w i t h A I.
Sources and notes
- Generating a film in 48 hours with director/producer Gabe Michael (Runway, 2024-04-03)
- Gen-2 deprecation and Motion Brush retirement (Runway, )
- Current image references guidance (Runway, )
- Have ready: paper or a drawing app, eight pictures you own or have permission to use, and a video editor you already know.
- The contest result and the 48-hour account are self-reported in Gabe's own words on Runway's site, published 2024-04-03.
- This was extreme time pressure: he worked 17 hours straight at one point, so it is not a typical workload.
- Tools change: Runway retired Gen-2 and Motion Brush in 2025, and self-serve custom model training is not confirmed as available now. Check current Runway features and generation costs before following along.
- The follow-along practice is a suggested guide by Ai Siftly, not Gabe's exact process.
Written 'in Gabe's own words' on the vendor's site, so vendor-published. Heavy time pressure (17 hours straight at one point), so not a typical workload. Historical tool behaviour and commands are as documented at the source date; current versions may differ. Record dated 2026-10-27.