How I Created An AI Music Video In One Night
A still frame from “We were born to live – 우리는 살아가기 위해 태어났어” – © 2025 Stephen Obermeier and Lea Burger
It all started late at night with a simple line in the Midjourney newsletter: “Video is now live for everyone.” That was all it took. Sleep was no longer an option.
I jumped into the interface, and after just a few clicks, it became obvious that Midjourney had released a game-changer. This new tool was faster, more intuitive, and produced more coherent motion from a single image than many of its competitors.
An Unplanned Creative Session
I didn't have a plan. I just started animating random images from my Midjourney archives, including visual scraps and unfinished ideas from my long-running AI project, Postcards from Pyongyang. If an image felt like it had the potential for movement, I clicked the “Animate” button.
In about an hour, I had a collection of around 100 animated clips. I showed them to my colleague, Lea Burger, whose reaction was instant and clear: “Let’s turn this into a music video.”
Finding the Perfect Soundtrack
As it turned out, the music was already waiting. Months prior, I had used MakeBestMusic to create a track based on Korean lyrics I'd written with help from ChatGPT 4-o. It was a glittery, 70s-style disco song that I had simply archived without a specific purpose.
Surprisingly, the surreal, dreamy motion generated by Midjourney was a perfect match for the retro disco sound. We opened Final Cut Pro and dropped everything onto the timeline. We didn't do any color grading or add any special effects—the edit was purely about rhythm, timing, and the raw AI-generated footage.
Watch the finished music video here
The total cost, excluding our time, was just $30. The entire project was completed in a single evening.
A Quick Review of Midjourney's V1 Video Feature
While this is a version one release, it's remarkably solid. The interface is incredibly simple, featuring a single “Animate” button. You get to choose between Low Motion and High Motion, and the tool generates 5-second clips. The process is fast, accessible, and requires no animation experience or complex workflow. You just need a good image and an instinct for what could move.
The resulting motion feels directed and intentional, not just like a simple frame interpolation. Clothes sway, lights flicker, and water moves with a sense of purpose that is emotionally suggestive, even if not perfectly realistic.
See some of the first-try animated clips here
Of course, there are some clear limitations in this initial release:
- No audio generation
- No timeline or timing controls
- Output resolution is currently limited to 480p
- Complex scenes can have glitches, especially on the High Motion setting
Why Speed and Simplicity Matter
The real power of this tool is its ability to provide usable video in seconds with zero setup. Midjourney isn't trying to replace a full animation suite; it's designed to be a fast, direct, and expressive creative space. It's built for momentum, not meticulous control.
And sometimes, momentum is all you need to start something new. That's how this music video came to be—from a few clicks on a single evening with a tool that simply gets out of your way.
About the author: Stephen Obermeier is a 3D artist, freelance photographer at his ad agency, and an AI experimenter. You can find more of his work on his website.
