Most AI video tool articles list ten options and rank none of them. This one is a decision guide: three tools, the exact job each one is wrong for, and the two-line test I use to pick.
The test I actually run
Two questions, in order:
- Do I already have a reference? If yes, stop — you want re-shooting, not generation.
- Is this one shot or a sequence? One shot goes to a generator; a sequence needs an editor and a dubbing step.
That splits the work cleanly. All three tools below are browser-based, none needs an install, and none of them is a general-purpose NLE.
One shot, camera move is the point: Wan 3.0
Wan 3.0 does text-to-video and image-to-video with motion presets. The presets are the product: a slow push-in versus a handheld drift changes the read of a clip more than any prompt tweak.
Wrong for: anything longer than a few shots. There is no timeline to speak of, and that is fine.
- Site: wan-3.io
A sequence that needs editing and dubbing: Pavo AI
Pavo AI is the one I keep open for real work, because generation, timeline editing, captions and multilingual dubbing live in the same tab. The feature that decided it for me was character consistency: lock the reference frame once, and shot three still looks like shot one.
The loop:
- Storyboard six shots as text.
- Generate each with a locked character reference.
- Cut the sequence.
- Dub last, never before the cut is locked.
- Export 9:16 and 16:9 from the same timeline.
Wrong for: a single 5s clip. You will spend more time in the timeline than generating.
- Site: pavoai.app - prompts: pavoai.app/prompts
An existing clip needs a variant: Rea Video
Rea Video is reference-driven. Give it a clip you like, describe the new subject, and it re-creates the shot with your subject in it.
Wrong for: original creative. It is a re-shooter, not a brainstorm.
- Site: reavideo.pro
The table
| Situation | Tool | Why |
|---|---|---|
| One shot, specific camera move | Wan 3.0 | motion presets, no timeline overhead |
| Sequence, needs edit + dub | Pavo AI | generation, editing and dubbing in one tab |
| Have a reference clip | Rea Video | re-shoots instead of generating from scratch |
The thing that matters more than the tool
Write the shot list first. Every one of these produces better output from a concrete shot description than from a mood word. The tool choice matters less than whether the input is a shot description.
Links: wan-3.io - pavoai.app - reavideo.pro
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