YouTube has deployed new creation tools in Shorts, aimed at making short form content easier and interactive. The update includes a photo to video converter, generation effects with VEO 2, and an AI playground that brings together a variety of AI-driven creative tools.
New Short Pants Creation Tool (July 2025)
Photo to video tool
Following availability in Google Photos, the Photo-to-Video feature allows users to convert static images into video clips. Creators can select photos from their camera rolls, apply creative suggestions, and generate short videos. This allows you to animate landscape photos, add movement to group shots, and create everyday images with motion.
Generation effect with VEO 2
The shorts now support the generative effects built using VEO 2. These effects can convert simple doodles into stylized visuals, or modify selfies with AI-generated elements.
Examples include filters like underwater effects and sibling appearances. These effects can be used by tapping the ✨ Effects icon and tapping the AI section of the Shorts Camera.
AI playground for short pants creation
The AI Playground serves as a central space for exploring and using YouTube's generation AI tools. Includes examples of content, ready-to-use prompts, tools for generating videos, images and music. It can be accessed via the Create button, followed by a sparkle icon in the top right corner.
Sarah Ali, Vice President of Product Management for YouTube Shorts and Creation Experience, emphasized that all these tools use SynthID watermarks and clear labels to indicate that content was generated.
availability
- Photo-to-Video: It will now be available in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand next week, expanding to other regions later this year.
- Generation Effect: It will expand to many creators worldwide in the coming weeks. Currently, these effects are driven by VEO 2, and VEO 3 is expected to be released this summer.
- AI Playground: Currently available in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
