Make a video or photo look like a painting with brush strokes
Attach a clip or photo and ask the Tella Agent for a painted look. Tella Motion repaints it as brush strokes, or as flat poster colors and drawn lines.
Try it in Tella
Paste a prompt into the Tella Agent in the editor, or into Claude or ChatGPT connected to Tella, then ask for changes.
Place the clip I attached in this Tella Motion clip and make it look like an oil painting: short, thick brush strokes at a slight angle. Keep faces easy to make out.
Use the attached Fernhollow Bakery storefront photo. Start it as a painting with long, loose brush strokes, then blend into the real photo over the last 3 seconds.
Give the attached Quillhaven product clip a drawn look: dark lines along its edges and its colors flattened to a few steps.
How do I make a video look like an oil painting?
In Tella, add a Tella Motion clip, attach your video or photo in the Tella Agent chat and ask for a painted look. Tella Motion repaints it as brush strokes, and you can change their size, length, direction and how loose they are. It can also flatten colors to a few steps or draw dark lines along edges, and blend any of these back into the original over time.
How to do it
- Open your video in the Tella editor and choose Add clip → New Tella Motion clip.
- In the Tella Agent chat, click + → Attach… and add your video or photo.
- Describe the painting: stroke size and length, which way the strokes run, and how much of the original shows through.
- Play the preview and ask for changes, like "smaller strokes" or "fade to the real video at the end."
Good to know
- Available to everyone: through the Tella Agent on a paid plan or the 7-day trial, or through Claude or ChatGPT on any plan.
- A Tella Motion clip has no transcript, layouts or cuts, so use the painted look for an intro, cutaway or ending and keep talking parts as a recorded clip.
- The strokes can sit on the original picture, on white, on black or on transparency, which changes how much of the source shows between them.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Every number in a Tella Motion effect can be keyframed, including how much of the original is mixed back in. Ask the agent to go from painting to real footage, or the other way, over the seconds you choose.
Yes. Find edges draws dark lines where brightness changes, or light lines on dark, and posterize rounds the colors to a few steps. Ask for one or both, and say how much of the original to keep.
Yes. Connected to Tella's MCP server, Claude or ChatGPT can use the same Tella Motion effects as the Tella Agent, including brush strokes, posterize and find edges.