Troubleshooting
Why your Tiny Desk AI video looks wrong
Almost every bad result traces back to the input photo or the seat mapping. Here is how to tell which one it is, and what to change before you spend another credit.
The face is not the right person
Usually the photo: a side profile, sunglasses, a hand over the jaw, a heavy filter or a face that is small in the frame. Upload a sharper, front-facing photo with nothing covering the face.
The face changes between shots
This is a model limit, not a photo error, but a clearer photo reduces it. Photos with strong, consistent features (glasses, a beard, a distinctive hairstyle) hold identity better than a soft, filtered selfie.
Someone is missing
Check the seat mapping. Every photo is assigned to a seat in the order you filled them, and the prompt names each seat. If you filled four seats and one person never appears, the model dropped that seat; retry, or move that photo to the lead seat for a shorter clip that is easier to hold.
The mouth does not match the music
The audio is generated with the clip, so the mouth follows the performance the model invented. It will be close, not frame-perfect. If exact sync to a specific recording matters, this is the wrong tool; that is an editing job with a licensed file.
There are extra people
The scene needs a band, so the model fills empty seats. It should only ever fill them with invented musicians. If you see a recognisable person you did not upload, treat it as a failure and report it — that must not happen.
The clip looks cheap
Check that you are watching the downloaded file, not a preview. Vertical clips look soft on a desktop monitor and sharp on a phone, which is where nearly everyone will see it.
When to ask for your credits back
A render that fails refunds automatically. A render that arrives but is clearly broken — wrong face, missing person, no sound — is a support case: email us within 7 days with the job link.
Read next: the photo checklist · when a render counts as broken.
Tiny Desk AI video generator: $9.90 a video, 1–5 people · how it works.