The Ledger / Vol 26, No 15 / the-exhibit
PROMPT TEST LTX 2.3 VEO3.1 SEEDANCE2.0 WAN2.2 SORA2 KLING2.1PRO FLUID DYNAMICS SMOKE SIMULATION CHARACTER MATCHING

Care for a Smoke ?

Fitness Test

Prompt Tested

Create a photorealistic 5-second video from the input image. The camera remains completely locked off with no camera movement, zoom, reframing, or cuts. The woman maintains direct eye contact with the camera throughout the entire shot. Action sequence: The woman naturally raises the cigarette already in her hand to her lips. She places the cigarette against her mouth and takes a realistic inhale. The cigarette ember briefly glows brighter during the inhale. After a brief pause, she lowers the cigarette away from her mouth while continuing to maintain eye contact with the camera. She then slowly exhales a visible plume of smoke from her mouth toward the camera. The smoke moves naturally and realistically through the air. The shot ends with the woman still looking directly into the camera. Requirements: Preserve the exact identity of the woman from the source image. Preserve facial features, skin texture, makeup, hair, clothing, jewelry, and background. Maintain realistic human motion and anatomy. Maintain direct eye contact with the camera for the entire duration. Preserve the original framing and composition. Realistic cigarette handling and finger placement. Realistic inhalation and exhalation behavior. Realistic smoke density, turbulence, and dissipation. Consistent lighting and color throughout. No facial warping. No identity drift. No hand or finger deformation. No blinking artifacts. No background changes. No additional objects appearing. No scene transitions. No camera movement. High-end cinematic realism.

Can AI Make Good Smoke

Realistic smoke and fluid simulations are notoriously difficult to create and render - entire VFX companies have been built upon an ability to do so. We wanted to put this front and center in this test.

LTX 2.3

  • Smoke doesn't look TERRIBLE. Though density upon exhale is unrealistic
  • Adds shadowing to character, but not background
  • Character does not actually place cigarette to lips..
Production Readiness:

Veo3.1

  • Immediate fail as it ignores our camera direction, entire cigarette catches fire
  • Smoke stops as cigarette stabilizes from firestick → cigarette
  • Density and motion is perhaps the most realistic of all but too blue
Production Readiness:

Seedance2.0

  • Smoke from cigarette is too heavy and dense
  • Cigarette too glowy
  • Character does not seem to exhale - just a cloud of smoke comes towards camera
  • Pretty good density of exhaled smoke and character remains consistent behind
  • Shadowing on BG is present
Production Readiness:

Wan2.2

  • Giving Will Smith eating Spaghetti vibes - disturbing!
  • Double cigarette and overall just… scary
Production Readiness:

Sora2

  • Character shifting behind smoke, overall soft
  • Smoke is unrealistic with clearly problematic motion
Production Readiness:

Kling2.1pro

  • Density of smoke is varied throughout frame, which is better than others
  • Not realistic motion
  • Character inconsistency behind smoke
  • Inhale/ Exhale of character not correct, eyes a bit freaky
  • Of all models, this is the most successful
Production Readiness:
The Verdict

It seems we've stumped the machines here - none is an excellent result. Kling and Veo may have faired the best for smoke: realistic motion and density but they really are not passable for professional use. This seems like something to either shoot for real, or use traditional VFX, 3d/2d elements to simulate.

This originally appeared in Vol. 26, No. 15, Anthropic ID Verification, Ideogram Updates Language but Neglects Revision Date, Can AI Smoke?

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