One T-shirt. A model who doesn’t exist. A harbour nobody flew to.
This is the whole method, start to finish, following one image the entire way: a woman in a branded tee on a boat, with a city skyline behind her. Every image and clip was made in Runway. Claude planned the shots, wrote every prompt, ran Runway and checked the results. You only ever paste into Claude.
Want it on paper? Download the full guide as a PDF: every step and prompt from this post on 14 A4 pages.
The seven steps
Each step below has a short walkthrough and the prompt to copy at the moment you need it.
0. Connect Runway to Claude: a one-time setup, a couple of minutes.
1. Build the reference library: product photos plus the poses, cameras and light you love.
2. Build the character library: one portrait and one turnaround per model.
3. Generate the still: a location photo, your model and one line of direction.
4. Make the end keyframe: the same shot, with the action finished.
5. Animate it: locked camera, both ends locked, one smooth action.
6. Watch it, then finish it: upscale to 4K, extend, or make a multi-scene shot.
7. Fix it in post: Claude fixes the detail in DaVinci Resolve or Photoshop.
How each tool is used
Claude is the producer. Runway is the camera. Connect Runway to Claude once, then you only ever paste into Claude.
Claude
Files your references, writes the prompts, runs Runway and checks every result.
Keep a project folder on your computer for each shoot: Claude saves and finds every file there, so nothing gets lost between chats.
Show it images, not descriptions: more accurate prompts with less back and forth.
Agree the wording before anything runs: no credits spent on a prompt you’d reject.
Ask it to list faults only when it checks: saves tokens and speeds up every review.
Runway
Stills with nano-banana-2, clips with Kling 3 Pro.
Draft cheap first, 1K stills and 5 second clips: saves credits while you’re still finding the shot.
Give every reference a tag and one job: stops references bleeding into each other.
Reuse models by task ID: same face every time and no re-uploads, since uploads expire in about 24 hours.
Lock the camera and both ends of every clip: the face and logo hold from the first frame to the last, and fixes in post are easy.
DaVinci Resolve and Photoshop
Claude runs DaVinci Resolve to fix clips and Photoshop to fix photos.
Fix one small detail in post instead of re-rolling: saves credits and keeps everything that already worked.
Use the clean product sheet as the source: the logo comes out exact, not redrawn.
Before you start: connect Runway to Claude
A one-time setup, so Claude can run Runway for you from then on.
1. Open Claude: on the web or in the desktop app, select Customize in the sidebar, then Connectors.
2. Select Add: it’s in the top right corner.
3. Enter Runway as the name: paste the link below and select Continue.
https://mcp.runwayml.com/mcp
4. Select Connect and sign in to Runway: Runway now shows under your Connectors.
Step 1: Build the reference library in Claude
Give Claude your product photos and the poses, camera styles and light you love, and have it file them in one folder.
1. Make a folder: on your computer, for the shoot, e.g. “Boat shoot”. Leave it empty.
2. Paste this prompt into a new Claude chat: with your folder name in the brackets. It also sets the rules for every Runway run ahead: ask before spending, draft cheap, and keep outputs tidy.
I'm building a reference library for an AI photoshoot in Runway. Find the folder called [folder name] on my computer. Study every image I attach and save each one into that folder, sorted into subfolders: product, scenes, people and outputs. Rename each file by what it shows. Crop the product's front, back and logo close-up into one product sheet and save it in product. Flag anything blurry, watermarked or showing a real person. From now on, before you run anything in Runway, tell me the model, resolution, length and credit cost and wait for me to say go. Always draft on the cheapest settings first (nano-banana-2 at 1K for stills, 5 second clips for video) and only go higher once I approve. Run new looks one at a time. Save every Runway output to the outputs folder, named by what it shows, and when I approve a new version, remove the one it replaces.
3. Drop in your images and send: product photos (front, back, logo close-up) and around 20 scene photos whose pose, camera and light you love. The more references you add, the more scenes, poses, framing and light Claude sees that you like, and the more realistically it can vary them.
The product sheet that went in for the boat image. The scene photos were other people’s travel shots, so they stay out of this post. Two of them shaped the look: a traveller side-on at a riverside railing at pink sunset, in soft warm light, and a traveller on a rooftop above a bay at blue hour, cool tones with warm city light on the shoulders.
Step 2: Build the character library with Claude and Runway
Create each AI model once, then reuse the same face and outfit in every image.
1. Describe the person with Claude first: age, background, hair, expression, outfit. Agree the words before spending credits.
2. Generate the portrait: paste this into Claude. It quotes the credits (about 7), you say go, and it runs it in Runway.
Generate in Runway with nano-banana-2 at 1K, ratio 3:4, using my product sheet as @shirt: Head and shoulders studio portrait of an original fictional [woman/man], not a recognisable person: [background], early 30s, [hair], [expression]. Plain warm light-grey studio backdrop, soft window light. Wears the [garment and colour] from @shirt with one small [logo] on the wearer's left chest at the breast-pocket position. Copy only the garment from @shirt, not the person or background. Photorealistic, natural skin texture. No text, no watermark.
3. Generate the turnaround: once you approve the portrait, paste this into Claude.
Generate in Runway with nano-banana-2 at 1K, ratio 16:9, using the approved portrait as @face and my product sheet as @shirt: Three full-body views (front, left side, back) of the exact same person as @face, on one continuous plain light-grey backdrop with no panel seams. Same camera height and soft even light in each view. Wearing the [garment] from @shirt with one small [logo] on the wearer's left chest and the large [back print] centred on the spine on the upper back, plus [trousers and shoes]. Photorealistic lookbook photo. No text, no watermark.
4. Ask Claude to save both to the people folder with their task IDs: it reuses the model by ID in step 3, so it stays the same person every time.
The model for the boat image: one portrait, one turnaround. Saying “centred on the spine” is what keeps the back print straight. Without it, a three-quarter back view pulls the print off to one side.
Step 3: Generate the still with Claude and Runway
Your libraries do the heavy lifting. Give Claude a location photo and one line of direction.
1. Drop the location photo into Claude: a real photo of the place that shows where the person can stand. Claude uploads it to Runway as @location.
2. Name your model from step 2: Claude adds them by task ID.
3. Say what you want in one line, with the pose: Claude takes the camera style and light from your reference library. The line for the boat image: “Put the Middle Eastern woman on the boat with the Hong Kong skyline behind her, leaning on the rail and lifting her hair.”
Want one exact look? Name photos from your reference library in the line, e.g. “framing like the riverside shot, light like the rooftop shot”.
4. Paste the prompt into Claude: with your one line in the brackets.
Make a still in Runway with nano-banana-2 at 2K: [your one line]. Use the location photo I attached and the [model] from my character library. Match the camera style and light of my reference library, keep every real building accurate, and keep the small logo on the wearer's left chest exactly as in their portrait. Add a soft rim of light on the shoulders so a dark garment reads against the background. No bokeh orbs, no lens flare circles, no text or readable signs.
5. Say go: Claude quotes the credits (about 11 at 2K), then generates one image.
6. Check it: zoom in on the logo. It sits on the left chest at the pocket spot, it’s small and it reads correctly. The face matches the portrait, she stands somewhere real and the light looks final.
7. Anything off? Regenerate from scratch: have Claude fix the prompt and make a fresh image. Never feed the faulty image back in as a reference. Runway tends to keep the mistake even when the prompt says to change it.
That image has a problem: [what's wrong]. Regenerate it from scratch in Runway with the same references and a fixed prompt. Don't use the faulty image as a reference or edit it. Tell me the credit cost first.
Step 4: Make the end keyframe with Claude and Runway
Before animating, make a second still: the same shot, with the action already finished. The clip then has a fixed start and a fixed end, so the face can’t drift on the way.
1. Decide where the clip ends: same spot, same framing, only the pose changes. Here: she turns from the skyline to face the camera with a soft smile.
2. Paste the prompt into Claude: with the end pose in the brackets.
Make an end keyframe in Runway with nano-banana-2 at 2K, using the approved still as @scene and the model's portrait as @portrait: Recreate @scene exactly, keeping the location, light, grade, camera angle and framing identical. Same person in the same spot at the same size, same outfit and chest logo. Only the pose changes: [the end pose]. Their face is exactly the person in @portrait, seen front-on. Generate it fresh from the original references, don't edit a faulty take. No bokeh orbs, no lens flare circles, no text.
3. Say go: Claude quotes about 11 credits, then generates the keyframe.
From a start frame alone, the face drifted every time she turned to camera, three takes in a row. With both ends locked, it held in one take.
Step 5: Animate it with Claude and Runway
Turn the two stills into a 5 second clip: the camera locked, the scene moving, and one smooth action from the first frame to the last.
1. Plan the motion: the camera stays locked, the scene moves, the person does one thing that joins the two poses. Here: she lowers her hand from her hair and turns from the skyline to the camera, while the water ripples and the city lights shimmer.
2. Paste the prompt into Claude: with your motion in the brackets.
Animate in Runway with Kling 3 Pro, 5 seconds, using the approved still as the first frame and the end keyframe as the last frame. Locked-off static camera, no camera movement. The [person] [the action that joins the two poses] in one smooth continuous motion, ending [the end pose]. Fluid, natural, unhurried movement with no pauses or holds. Same person and same face throughout. [What moves in the background]. Garment and chest logo unchanged. Realistic.
3. Say go: Claude quotes about 60 credits, then generates the clip.
“No pauses or holds” earns its place. Leave it out and the model tends to stall halfway through the move.
Step 6: Watch it, then finish it
Watch the clip. If it works, have Claude take it further in Runway: sharper, longer or more scenes.
1. Watch it a few times: the face stays the same, the logo stays on the left chest and the camera doesn’t drift.
2. Something’s off? If it’s one small detail like the logo or a sign, fix it in step 7. If it’s more, ask Claude to rewrite the prompt and regenerate the clip from the original stills, never building on the faulty one.
3. It works? Pick how to finish it: paste one of these into Claude. Each asks for the credit cost first.
Upscale the approved clip to 4K in Runway. Tell me the credit cost and wait for my go.
Make a 10 second version of the approved clip in Runway with the same prompt, start and end frames, locked camera and action. Tell me the credit cost and wait for my go.
Make a multi-scene shot in Runway starting from the approved still: [scene 1], [scene 2], [scene 3]. Same person, outfit and chest logo in every scene. Tell me the credit cost and wait for my go.
Step 7: Fix it in post with Claude
If one detail breaks in a shot that’s otherwise right, have Claude fix it in DaVinci Resolve for a clip, or Photoshop for a photo, instead of paying to re-roll.
1. Tell Claude what’s wrong and paste the prompt: pick DaVinci Resolve for a clip or Photoshop for a photo.
Fix [the clip / the photo] in [DaVinci Resolve / Photoshop]: [what's wrong, e.g. the chest logo is garbled]. Use the clean logo from the product sheet in [folder name], sized and angled to match the chest, and track it through the clip if it moves. Swap any scrambled sign for the real one from the location photo. Change nothing else. Export to outputs and remove the old version.
2. Claude does the fix: it takes the clean logo from the product sheet in your library and places it over the broken one.
3. Check the export: zero credits spent, and everything that already worked stays exactly as it was.
Get the still right, lock both ends, and the clip mostly takes care of itself.
