Sora Prompt
Generator.
Free builder for OpenAI Sora. Scene, camera motion, lighting, duration — written as a director's shot list.
Outputs three formats: clean paragraph, section-tagged, and shot-list. Paste into Sora or any text-to-video tool.
Describe what you want
3 prompt variations
Click Copy to useStyle: Cinematic live action. Scene: [describe the scene] Camera: Slow dolly in. Lighting: Golden hour. Duration: 10 seconds.
# STYLE Cinematic live action. Shot on a full-frame cinema camera. Grounded, believable physics. Consistent lighting direction across the clip. # SCENE [describe the scene] # CAMERA Slow dolly in. Motion should be smooth and purposeful — no jitter, no jump cuts within the clip. # LIGHTING Golden hour. Maintain consistent color temperature throughout. # TECHNICAL Duration: 10 seconds. Photorealistic detail. No text, no on-screen graphics unless described.
# SHOT LIST (single 10 seconds clip) - Opening frame: [describe the scene] - Camera: Slow dolly in. - Lighting: Golden hour. - Visual style: Cinematic live action. # TONE Grounded, believable physics. No impossible object interactions. Subject remains consistent from frame 1 to final frame.
Under the hood
Why shot-list prompts beat paragraph prompts.
State the full moment as one sentence: subject, setting, time of day, weather, what they're doing. Sora's model treats the scene clause as its spatial anchor — if it's vague, everything else drifts.
Camera motion is Sora's most powerful lever. Dolly in, orbit, crane down, handheld — each triggers different training associations. Always state the motion explicitly; don't rely on implication.
Lighting controls color temperature and continuity across frames. Golden hour, blue hour, neon night, overcast — these are shorthand for color grading the model learned from film. Pair with a visual style for maximum consistency.
Related free tools
Specialized generators for specific tasks.
Runway Prompt Generator
Gen-3 Alpha conventions with motion vocabulary.
Veo 3 Prompt Generator
Google Veo 3 — handles native audio and dialogue.
AI Video Prompt Generator
Cross-model video prompts (Sora, Runway, Veo, Pika).
Midjourney Prompt Generator
Still-frame work before you bring a scene to video.
FAQ
Questions about Sora prompting.
What makes a good Sora prompt?+
Specificity. Sora rewards scene-first prompts that read like a director's shot description: subject + setting + action + camera motion + lighting + duration. Vague emotional language produces vague output.
Why does the generator include camera motion?+
Camera motion is Sora's strongest controllable variable. 'Slow dolly in' produces a dramatically different feel than 'handheld documentary,' even with the same scene description. Explicit motion language cuts down on the model drifting into default establishing shots.
How long should a Sora prompt clip be?+
Most Sora outputs hold up cleanly at 5-10 seconds. At 15-20 seconds you start to see temporal drift — subjects morphing, cameras losing anchor points. If you need longer, generate multiple clips and cut them together in editing.
What's the difference between the 3 variant formats?+
Clean paragraph is best for quick iteration — short, readable, one block. Section-tagged format is for complex scenes with specific technical requirements. Shot-list format is for when you're directing a narrative sequence and need the model to treat each line as a beat.
Does Sora handle dialogue or on-screen text?+
Sora can render text but it's unreliable — letters often morph or duplicate. If you need legible text (signs, logos, captions), add it in post. For dialogue, Sora generates lip movement but not synchronized audio; use a separate audio track.
Can I use these prompts with Runway, Veo, or Pika?+
Partially. The scene description transfers well. Camera motion vocabulary is similar across Sora, Runway Gen-3, and Veo 3. Strip the Sora-specific duration formatting and check each tool's native conventions — our dedicated Runway and Veo generators handle those.
Why does Sora sometimes ignore my camera motion?+
Long scene descriptions dilute camera instructions. Keep the scene clause tight and place the camera motion close to it. The section-tagged and shot-list formats are designed to separate camera motion from scene so the model can't blend them.
Does this generator call the Sora API?+
No. The generator is 100% client-side. It builds the prompt text, then you paste it into Sora (or Sora-compatible interfaces). Nothing is sent to OpenAI from this page.