MiniMax H3 turns reference frames into short video shots

• Reference images can function as fixed shot endpoints or direction inputs: waterarttrkgl's storyboard post sends H3 a first frame, last frame, and reference image before the edit.
• Explicit time blocks can turn two art assets into a complete short: AllaAisling's race script divides a 15-second race into five camera and action beats.
• The wider workflow still runs through familiar production tools: zanatas's production notes combine generated frames, H3 renders, ElevenLabs voices, and a DaVinci Resolve edit.

MiniMax’s video-generation docs give a still three distinct jobs: first frame, last frame, or general reference. The company’s full-reference prompt guide treats a storyboard image as a shot-planning anchor, separately from an image used to carry a character, prop, location, or style.

AllaAisling’s HUD image brief specifies glass panels, holographic speed and position displays, and an energy meter, while their city image brief defines the anti-gravity vehicle, vertical cyberpunk city, rain, and twisting track.

The two assets meet in AllaAisling's 15-second prompt, which assigns the action in five blocks:

1. 0 to 3 seconds: A third-person camera follows the car accelerating through a city built on towers.
2. 3 to 6 seconds: A phase boost turns the car into transparent energy as it passes through a collapsing bridge.
3. 6 to 10 seconds: Roads fold, walls become ramps, signs rotate into routes, and rivals jump between floating sections.
4. 10 to 13 seconds: The car drifts around a skyscraper edge while nearly vertical.
5. 13 to 15 seconds: Three vehicles cross in a photo finish as the HUD triggers a victory animation.

MiniMax’s API documentation separates first/last-frame image-to-video from reference generation.

• First/last-frame mode: one or two images set a concrete opening, ending, or both, and H3 fills the transition.
• Reference mode: images, video, and audio can provide character appearance, movement, camera behavior, style, voice, or editing rhythm.
• Input ceiling: reference mode allows up to nine images, three video clips, and three audio clips, with 12 files total.
• Shot length: output runs from four to 15 seconds at 768P or 2K.

MiniMax’s launch post describes H3 as a unified text, image, video, and audio model with native stereo audio. To test the reference ceiling, DavizCF7777 said they fed H3 four references through Maestro for a 720p shot.

zanatas’s production stack used Comfy Desktop’s default Ref2VA workflow, Nano Banana 2 Lite frames with Photoshop cleanup, Gemini to rewrite prompts from an uploaded image plus shot specification, and H3 renders on a 3090 at 0.5 megapixels. Their shots stayed around six to eight seconds before assembly in DaVinci Resolve.

A workflow from waterarttrkgl compresses the same approach into four steps: draw the storyboard, generate stills, send first, last, and reference frames to H3, then edit. Filmmaker starks_arq separately reported getting five minutes of coherent material from two frames and organizing assets by character, script, tags, voice, and consistent expressions.

With a music track, a custom character reference, and a premise for a 1990s Turkey-set clip, ozansihay said MiniMax Design analyzed the request, set visual language and scene plans, selected models, and prepared visuals, shots, audio, and a final video in stages. The project canvas also keeps an early music-video-direction plan open for review before the next stage.

MiniMax Design’s product page describes the workspace as a system for planning, generating copy and visuals, building video and audio assets, and delivering a project from one creative brief.

DrSadek_’s 15-second museum prompt assigns three references with unusually strict roles:

• Image 1: the framed ocean-doorway artwork that starts as a static painting.
• Image 2: the empty museum corridor, including lighting, floor reflections, and perspective.
• Image 3: one realistic security guard, explicitly excluding character-sheet layouts and duplicates.

Its timeline moves from a quiet walk, to faint waves, to an approach toward the painting, then a restrained reaction as the work animates. The final seconds push the camera toward the frame, while the prompt calls for room tone, footsteps, and waves instead of music, and keeps the water mostly contained inside the artwork.