Hailuo AI Camera Movement Prompts: 15 Commands + Combos

Hailuo is one of the few AI video models where you can type a camera move as a command instead of hoping the model reads your description the way you meant it. Put [Pan left] in the prompt and the camera pans left. Put [Truck left, Pan right] and you get something that looks like an arc around the subject.

The catch is that the command syntax only applies to certain Hailuo models, and the newest one, MiniMax H3 (the model most people call Hailuo 3.0), takes camera direction differently. This guide covers the full command list, the rules for stacking and sequencing moves, the combos that fake shots Hailuo has no command for, and how to write camera direction for H3.

If you are new to Hailuo, start with our MiniMax Hailuo prompt guide for scene, subject and style structure. For camera vocabulary that works across every model, see the camera movement cheatsheet. This post is only about getting the camera right in Hailuo.

Which Hailuo Models Take Bracket Commands

MiniMax’s API documentation lists [command] camera syntax for these models:

• MiniMax-Hailuo-2.3
• MiniMax-Hailuo-2.3-Fast
• MiniMax-Hailuo-02
• I2V-01-Director (the older image-to-video “Director” model built for camera control)

The same docs say natural-language camera descriptions also work, but explicit commands give more accurate results. In practice, that is the whole reason to use them: “the camera slowly glides to the left while turning right” can be read several ways. [Truck left, Pan right] cannot.

MiniMax H3 is different. It launched on July 31, 2026, as an all-in-one model that takes text, images, video and audio together and returns up to 15 seconds of 2K video with sound. MiniMax’s own material shows camera direction written as plain film language, and H3 is not on the model list for the bracket syntax. More on that below.

The 15 Camera Commands

Here is the full list from MiniMax’s docs, with what each one does to the frame:

Command	What the camera does	Good for
[Truck left] / [Truck right]	Slides sideways, lens pointing the same way	Parallax, walking alongside a subject
[Pan left] / [Pan right]	Rotates horizontally in place	Scanning a room, following a crossing subject
[Push in] / [Pull out]	Physically moves toward or away from the subject	Emotional emphasis, reveals
[Pedestal up] / [Pedestal down]	Rises or lowers vertically, no tilt	Revealing what is behind a counter or wall
[Tilt up] / [Tilt down]	Rotates vertically in place	Showing height, looking up at a building
[Zoom in] / [Zoom out]	Changes focal length, camera stays put	Surveillance feel, sudden emphasis
[Shake]	Handheld wobble	Chaos, action, found footage
[Tracking shot]	Follows a moving subject	Runners, cars, animals
[Static shot]	Locked off, no movement	Dialogue, product, comedy timing

Two pairs trip people up:

• Push in vs Zoom in. A push-in moves the camera, so the background shifts and the depth changes. A zoom only magnifies, so the background flattens and stays in place. Push-ins feel cinematic. Zooms feel like a camcorder or a security camera.
• Truck vs Pan. Trucking moves the whole camera sideways. Panning turns it on the spot. A truck shows parallax (near objects slide faster than far ones), which reads as real depth.

Rule 1: Commands Inside One Bracket Happen at the Same Time

[Pan left, Pedestal up] means the camera pans left while rising. MiniMax recommends no more than three commands in one bracket. Past that, the moves start cancelling each other out and you get a vague drift.

Rule 2: Separate Brackets Happen in Order

To sequence moves, write them in the order they should happen, attached to the action they belong to:

A chef lays a steak on a hot grill [Static shot], then flips it as flames jump up [Push in].

Keep sequences to two steps in a 6-second clip. A 10-second clip can hold three if each step is simple. Hailuo 2.3 clips are 6 or 10 seconds depending on resolution, so plan your moves around that length.

Rule 3: Tie Speed and Subject Motion to the Command

Brackets set the direction. Words still set the speed. “Slowly” before the action, or “the camera drifts” in the description, softens the move. Also watch for fights between subject and camera: a character running left while you [Truck right] pulls the frame apart. Either keep the subject still during a big move or move the camera with the subject using [Tracking shot].

Combos for Shots Hailuo Has No Command For

There is no orbit, crane or dolly-zoom command. You can build all three from the ones that exist.

Arc / orbit: truck one way while panning the other, so the lens stays on the subject while the camera swings around it.

A vintage red motorcycle parked on wet cobblestones at night, neon signs reflecting in the puddles. [Truck left, Pan right] slowly circling the bike, low angle, shallow depth of field, cinematic.

Crane-style reveal: rise while tilting down to keep the subject in frame.

A small wooden boat drifting on a glassy mountain lake at sunrise, a lone fisherman casting a line. [Pedestal up, Tilt down] rising above him to reveal the whole lake and the pine forest around it, soft mist on the water.

Dolly zoom (the “Vertigo” effect): push in while zooming out. The subject stays the same size while the background stretches away. It is a strong move for a moment of shock.

A man in a gray suit standing in a long office corridor realizes he left his badge behind, his face tightening. [Push in, Zoom out] the corridor stretching behind him, fluorescent light, tense atmosphere.

This one is less predictable than the others. Keep the subject centered and still, and expect a few rerolls.

10 Copy-Ready Hailuo Camera Prompts

These are written for Hailuo 2.3 and 2.3 Fast. Swap the details, keep the camera commands.

1. Product reveal

A glass perfume bottle with an amber liquid sits on black velvet, a single soft spotlight from above. [Push in] slowly from a medium shot to a close-up of the bottle's cut-glass cap, tiny sparkles catching the light. Luxury commercial look, deep shadows.

2. Establishing shot of a city

A dense neon-lit street in Hong Kong at night, red taxis passing, steam from street food stalls. [Tilt up] from the busy street to the stacked apartment towers above, light rain falling through the neon. Cinematic, wet reflections.

3. Handheld chase

A teenage boy sprints through a narrow alley, knocking over a stack of cardboard boxes as he runs. [Tracking shot, Shake] following close behind him, fast and unstable, late afternoon light cutting between the buildings.

4. Surveillance zoom

A parking garage at night lit by flickering fluorescent tubes. A woman in a long coat walks to a silver car and stops, looking over her shoulder. [Static shot] then [Zoom in] slowly on her face. High angle from the ceiling corner, grainy security-camera look.

5. Counter reveal for a cooking clip

[Pedestal up] from below the edge of a wooden kitchen counter to reveal a chef's hands kneading dough, flour dusting the air in the morning light from a window. Warm tones, shallow depth of field.

6. Parallax walk-and-talk

Two friends walking along a seaside promenade at golden hour, laughing, palm trees in the foreground. [Truck right] alongside them at a steady walking pace, palm trunks sliding past in the foreground, warm backlight.

7. Emotional pull-back

A young woman sits alone on a bench in an empty train station at night, holding a phone to her ear, head lowered. [Pull out] slowly to a wide shot showing the whole empty platform around her. Cold blue light, quiet and lonely.

8. Two-step sequence for a sports clip

A basketball player dribbles at the top of the key in an empty gym [Static shot], then drives to the basket and dunks [Tracking shot, Tilt up] as he rises. Harsh overhead gym lights, sneakers squeaking.

9. Pet reaction

A golden retriever puppy sits on a living room rug staring at a toy squirrel. It tilts its head, then pounces [Push in, Pedestal down] to the puppy's eye level as it lands. Soft daylight, playful mood.

10. Drone-style landscape

A winding mountain road through autumn forest, orange and red trees, a single white car driving up the switchbacks. [Pedestal up, Pan right] rising over the treetops as the car rounds a bend, soft haze in the valley.

For more aerial framing ideas, see our drone and aerial prompt guide.

Camera Direction in Hailuo 3.0 (MiniMax H3)

H3 is a bigger model with a different design. It generates video and stereo sound together, handles multi-shot sequences natively, and takes reference images, video and audio in the same prompt. MiniMax’s launch post describes prompting it in natural language that explains your intent and the relationships between your inputs.

For the camera, that means three changes:

Write the move as a sentence with height, path and speed. “The camera tracks low beside the skateboard, matching its speed” gives H3 three constraints to follow. [Tracking shot] gives it one. The bracket tokens are carried over from older Hailuo models by habit. MiniMax does not document them for H3, so treat them as optional at best.

Separate subject motion, camera motion and cuts. Describe what the subject does, then what the camera does, as two sentences:

She walks toward the camera down a sunlit hallway at a relaxed pace. The camera dollies backward at the same speed, holding a waist-up medium shot. Soft footsteps on wood, distant birdsong through an open window.

Use a reference video for moves words cannot describe. MiniMax’s own H3 examples include a prompt that points the model at the camera movement in an uploaded video. Say exactly what to copy and what to ignore:

Use Video 1 only for its camera movement and timing. Do not copy its actor, setting or lighting. A detective in a trench coat stands at the end of a rain-soaked pier at night, harbor lights behind him. Foghorn in the distance, rain on wooden planks.

For multi-shot clips in H3, time-coded beats keep camera moves attached to the right moment: [0-3s] wide shot, slow push-in... [3-6s] close-up, static.... Keep one camera idea per beat.

Mistakes That Waste Hailuo Credits

• Stacking four or more commands in one bracket. The moves average out into a mushy drift.
• Contradicting brackets and text. [Pan left] plus “the camera swings right” gives the model two instructions and it will pick one at random.
• Zooming when you mean pushing. If the shot feels flat and cheap, you probably zoomed.
• Using brackets in H3 and blaming the model. Write the move out in full sentences first.
• Busy subject motion during big camera moves. Keep one of the two calm.

Get the Scene Right Before the Camera

A perfect [Truck left, Pan right] arc does not save a scene nobody wants to watch. The camera command is the last 10% of the prompt. The idea, the setting and the action beats are the rest.

LzyPrompt handles that part. You type a plain idea, pick a camera style from the dropdown or leave it on Auto-detect, and it writes 10 full prompt variations with camera, setting, lighting, action and sound cues, each with a ready-to-post caption. Paste one into Hailuo, add the bracket command you want, and generate. The Hailuo AI prompt generator page walks through the same workflow, and the CCTV security camera prompts page has scene ideas that pair well with [Static shot] and [Zoom in].

Try LzyPrompt free for 7 days and spend your Hailuo credits on scenes that are worth the camera move.