SkyReels-A2: The AI Director That Composes Custom Videos from Any Image, Object, or SceneJenrayFollow15 min readJust now--The world of AI video generation is moving at lightning speed. Weve seen models conjure fantastical scenes from text prompts (Text-to-Video, or T2V) and animate static images with surprising dynamism (Image-to-Video, or I2V). Yet, a crucial element of creative control has remained elusive: the ability to direct the AI, precisely specifying not just the action, but also the exact characters, objects, and settings involved, ensuring they remain consistent throughout the video.Imagine wanting to create a short clip featuring your specific friend (using their photo), holding that particular vintage guitar you photographed, standing in front of a specific beach scene from your vacation pictures, all while following a simple text description like playing a gentle melody as the sun sets. Current T2V models might generate a person playing a guitar on a beach, but struggle with recognizing and faithfully reproducing the specific identities from your reference images. I2V models might animate your friends photo but are often constrained by the initial image, lacking the flexibility to compose complex new scenes or interactions.This is where SkyReels-A2 enters the picture. Developed by the researchers at Skywork AI and Kunlun Inc., this new framework represents a significant leap towards truly controllable video generation. It tackles a challenging new task they term Elements-to-Video (E2V), aiming to synthesize videos by composing arbitrary visual elements characters, objects, backgrounds based on reference images and text prompts, all while maintaining strict visual consistency.Think of SkyReels-A2 not just as a generator, but as an aspiring AI Director. You provide the casting call (reference images for your actors and props) and the scene description (text prompt), and it attempts to shoot the scene, ensuring everyone and everything looks exactly as intended.This article dives deep into SkyReels-A2, exploring its innovations, the technology powering it, the challenges it overcomes, and its potential to reshape creative workflows.The Next Frontier in AI Video: Beyond Single PromptsTo appreciate SkyReels-A2, lets quickly revisit the limitations of its predecessors:Text-to-Video (T2V): Models like Sora, Make-A-Video, and others excel at