Simple Animation In Flow

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Republished From The Duke University Digital Media Community Blog

On of my colleagues reached out to me today looking to create some animation for their training decks. I’m thinking about some ideas to add animation so I did a quick test for Google Veo 3 in Google Flow. I took the above stock image and fed it into Gemini (Nano Banana) and asked it to create the same image and reposition the female lab person to face the microscope. Worked beautifully.

Then fed that into Google Flow using a the start and end frame and a very simple prompt: “Have the lab technician move to her microscope”

In a couple of minutes, I got an amazing animation, and sound effects (volume up)!

Besides the sound effects, I was also surprised that they animated the other male technician behind them. I didn’t ask for it, but it would have looked strange if they just stood there.

Now the big question, is this legal? The person that built the original presentation most likely licensed it from a commercial company. I’m going to do a follow up to see that company and general information on if this is legal as a transformative work or if it is expressly prohibited. It’s definitely cause of concern for me.

When you move from simply using an image to modifying it or generating new content (like a video) based on it, you enter the nuanced world of Derivative Works and Licensing Agreements.

---

1. The License is King

Most stock photo platforms (like Getty, Shutterstock, or Adobe Stock) operate under specific licenses. Whether what you’re doing is “legal” depends entirely on the fine print of the license you (or your organization) purchased.

• Standard License: Usually allows for basic edits (cropping, color correction, adding text overlays).

• Restricted/Sensitive Use: Most licenses strictly forbid modifying an image in a way that depicts the person in a “potentially sensitive” or “defamatory” light.

• Derivative Works: Generating a video using an AI tool like Veo essentially creates a “Derivative Work.” Some licenses explicitly prohibit using their content to train or generate new AI media unless you have an “Extended” or “Enterprise” license.

2. Moral Rights and Model Releases

Even if you have a license to the image, the person in the photo (the model) signed a Model Release.

• That release covers their likeness for the photo.

• It does not necessarily cover their likeness being used to animate them or change their actions via AI.

• Using AI to make a model do something they didn’t actually do (like changing their gaze or movement) can sometimes infringe on their Right of Publicity.

3. The “AI-Generated” Grey Area

The law is currently sprinting to catch up with tools like Veo.

• Copyrightability: In many jurisdictions (including the US), works created entirely by AI without significant human “creative control” cannot be copyrighted. This means your new video might not even belong to you legally.

• Terms of Service: Check the Terms of Service of the AI tool itself. Some tools grant you full commercial rights to the output, while others retain certain rights or limit usage to non-commercial projects.

More conversations ahead