You have a still image. Instagram, TikTok, or a client brief wants a video file. Pasting the JPG into Slack or an email does not count.
Most “image to video converter” results assume you want a slideshow: Ken Burns zoom, 3 seconds per photo, optional music. That is a playlist of stills. If you need the photo itself to move—camera push, fabric shift, product turn—you need image-to-video, not a photo album export.
This walkthrough gets you from one JPG/PNG to a downloadable MP4 in a few minutes.
Why a desktop converter usually fails
FFmpeg or CloudConvert can wrap a still into an .mp4 container. The file plays. Nothing in the frame moves. Platforms accept it, viewers swipe past it.
Premiere / CapCut can add a pan-and-zoom. That is still a still, just cropped over time.
Use a converter only if you truly need a silent hold-frame. For a clip that looks shot, generate motion from the image.
Convert one image to MP4 in six steps
1. Pick a usable still
Use PNG, JPG, or WEBP. Subject fully in frame, light even, no heavy text baked into the photo. Tiny icons and 20MB dumps both fail in different ways—resize oversized files before you upload.
2. Open an image to video converter in the browser
You do not need a desktop encoder. Open an image to video converter, switch to Image to Video, and drop the file into the first-frame slot.
Supported formats on picmovi are PNG / JPG / JPEG / WEBP, max 10MB, at least 300×300px.
3. Write one sentence of motion
Do not describe the photo again. The model can see it. Name three things:
- Camera: slow push-in, gentle parallax, static
- Subject: hair moves, product rotates, steam rises
- Constraint: no new objects, no morphing logo, no text
Example: Slow push-in, steam drifts from the cup, logo stays sharp, no extra objects.
4. Set duration and aspect ratio
One image → one short clip. Start at 5 seconds.
- 9:16 for Reels / TikTok / Shorts
- 16:9 for YouTube or a site hero
- 1:1 for feed posts
Resolution: 720p is enough to judge motion. Bump it after you like the take.
5. Generate once, watch once
Hit Generate. Sign-in is what unlocks free credits on picmovi. Watch the clip through without scrubbing:
- Did the subject stay the same person / product?
- Did the camera do the one move you asked for?
- Did any label or edge melt?
If one of those is wrong, change one line in the prompt and run again. Do not rewrite the whole thing.
6. Download the MP4
Preview, then Download. Free outputs may carry a watermark and a short retention window—save the file locally. Paid exports are typically clean.
Wrapping up
Converting a JPG or PNG to MP4 is really two different jobs. If the frame must stay frozen, any file converter will do. If you want the still to read as footage, you need motion generated from the image—one clean photo, one sentence of camera and action, one 5-second export.
Next time you are staring at a single product shot or portrait with a video-only upload field, skip the encoder hunt and run it through a photo to video ai workspace in the browser. Free credits cover the first few takes, which is usually all it takes to learn what your photo can and cannot do.
