Runway: Aleph 2.0

Aleph 2.0 is Runway’s in-context video editing model. It transforms existing traditional or generated footage using a written instruction and optional keyframe guidance. Its intended workflow changes the requested part of a scene while preserving its surrounding composition, lighting and details, making it useful for a product replacement, wardrobe change, background transformation, relighting or visual restyling without recreating the whole scene from a text brief.

Start with a direct action and the transformation you want: add, remove, replace, change, relight or restyle. For a product substitution, identify the visible object and describe its replacement, then state which hand movement, camera motion and surrounding setting should remain. For a seasonal scene, describe the weather or light that should change. A concise, targeted instruction gives a clearer editing goal than a general request to improve the entire clip.

Keyframe guidance establishes how the edited result should look at a particular moment. Choose a frame that clearly shows the target: a wide view for a background change, or a closer view for a small feature or accessory. In Runway’s Edit Studio workflow, a still-frame edit can be previewed and refined before that selected version guides the video transformation. Compare the edited frame with the source for the subject details, edges and objects you intend to preserve, then use it as the visual direction for the clip.

The producer API supports source videos from 2 to 30 seconds and up to five optional keyframe images placed at specified timestamps. Keep each guiding image associated with its intended point in the source, and use a small number of clear changes rather than a collection of conflicting visual targets. Aleph 2.0 is distinct from the older Gen-4 Aleph model; the producer identifies its API model separately. A keyframe-guided edit is also different from asking a text-to-video model to create an unrelated shot.

Edit Studio’s documented preparation rules use conventional aspect ratios, source resolution between 480p and 1080p, and 24–30 frames per second, with no more than ten cuts or shot changes. It recommends 720p or 1080p source material; over-30-fps footage is downsampled and over-30-second uploads are trimmed in that interface. These are the preparation rules of the producer editing workflow. Choose a source segment that shows the complete event you want to edit and whose subject remains visible where the change must carry through.

The model can propagate a changed background, clothing, object, light or style across the footage. An extra-motion instruction is useful when the edit needs a new action that is absent from the source and would not follow from the keyframe alone, such as a visual effect developing over time. Many edits need no extra-motion brief because the model animates the keyframe adjustment within the existing scene. Describe a new motion specifically, and keep it separate from the visual change that the keyframe already establishes.

The producer editing workflow applies an edit to the complete video by default and can limit it to a selected timeline range. Retain the original clip so the selected result can be compared with the source and used for a focused follow-up. A practical review looks beyond the chosen frame: check the beginning, middle, end, any cut and the period when the target is briefly obscured. The useful artifact is a revised clip whose requested transformation remains consistent through time while the important unchanged elements retain their role.

MP4 is the default playback and sharing artifact. Runway’s eligible full-video Edit Studio workflow also offers ProRes as a MOV file with PCM audio, or a ZIP of individual PNG frames for compositing. ProRes profiles range from 422 Proxy through 4444 XQ. Edits limited to a timeline range return MP4, and the output format is chosen when generation starts rather than changed after the finished result. Select the producer export form for the subsequent editing task while keeping it separate from the model’s core visual-editing capability.

For a useful finished edit, compare the intended substitution, lighting or style with the keyframe and inspect surrounding details that were not meant to change. Preserve the successful version and revise the specific instruction or guiding frame responsible for a mismatch. Aleph 2.0’s role is transforming source footage through a clear visual target; producing a new soundtrack, changing an application’s behavior or finishing a separate broadcast delivery pipeline are additional tasks around the edited video.