I Fully Automated Google Flow Using Claude Code (Full Walkthrough) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00I made both of these clips for free
2. 0:02without sitting inside Google Flow
3. 0:03writing prompt after prompt. I just told
4. 0:05Claude what I wanted in plain English,
5. 0:07checked its work along the way, and let
6. 0:09it handle everything else. Characters,
7. 0:12images, clips, narration, even the final
8. 0:15cut. There are tools out there asking
9. 0:17for $30 a month to do this as a Chrome
10. 0:19extension. I'm going to show you exactly
11. 0:20how to do this for free. This one on
12. 0:22your screen is 30 seconds long and cost
13. 0:2445 credits. Google gives you 50 free
14. 0:27credits a day, so you could make one of
15. 0:28these every day. I wanted to automate
16. 0:30the whole process through Claude code
17. 0:32and also have a control panel without
18. 0:34clicking around in Google Flow trying to
19. 0:36figure out how everything works
20. 0:37together. So, I built what I call Flow
21. 0:39Studio, a tool that handles the
22. 0:41repetitive work inside Google Flow, all
23. 0:43controlled through Claude. The
24. 0:44characters, the images, the video clips,
25. 0:47the narration, all the way to the final
26. 0:49cut. And today, I'm not keeping the tool
27. 0:51to myself. I'm sharing it with you for
28. 0:53free. It's basically a Google Flow MCP
29. 0:56that lets Claude control Flow. You tell
30. 0:58Claude what you want, and Claude goes
31. 1:00and does it inside Flow for you. It
32. 1:01types the prompts, picks the settings,
33. 1:04waits for the generation, and brings the
34. 1:06files back to your computer. So, you
35. 1:08don't have to worry about exactly how to
36. 1:09phrase your prompts. You just talk to
37. 1:11it, and that's it. It runs on the Flow
38. 1:13account you already have, so there is no
39. 1:15new subscription. And if you don't have
40. 1:16a Flow account yet, just sign in with
41. 1:18your Gmail. To work with it, all you
42. 1:20have to say is things like create these
43. 1:21three scenes, continue from where that
44. 1:23clip ended, or add the narration and cut
45. 1:26the film together. That's really all
46. 1:28there is to it. Set up takes about 10
47. 1:29minutes, and I'll walk you through it at
48. 1:31the end. But now, let's actually make
49. 1:33something. The first film I'll show you
50. 1:34is called The Lamp Lighter. A tiny
51. 1:36character shows up in a dark town. He
52. 1:38lights the lamps while a narrator tells
53. 1:40the story. The goal in this clip was to
54. 1:42show as many of the tools' features as I
55. 1:44could working together in 30 seconds.
56. 1:46Things like making one character and
57. 1:48keeping him consistent across several
58. 1:49video clips, and then adding a free
59. 1:51narration on top that tells the story
60. 1:54using a free premium Google AI voice.
61. 1:56Before it made anything, Claude asked me
62. 1:58four questions. What kind of story, what
63. 2:00the shape was, how much I wanted to
64. 2:02spend, and which voice I wanted to use.
65. 2:04For this demo, I picked a brand new
66. 2:05character, white screen, about 45
67. 2:08credits, and a voice called Sharon. Step
68. 2:10one is the character. Claude designed
69. 2:12him and named him Pip. You can also
70. 2:14click through the control panel I built,
71. 2:15but honestly, just telling Claude what
72. 2:17you want is easier. You can say
73. 2:19something like create a small cartoon
74. 2:20lamp lighter and give him a name. Round
75. 2:22body, a navy coat with a brass buttons,
76. 2:24a mustache, flat cap, and a long brass
77. 2:26lantern pole. Patient, quite stubborn,
78. 2:29never hurries. Show me his portrait
79. 2:31before we go on. Claude sends that into
80. 2:33Flow, and Flow creates Pip as a saved
81. 2:35character you can drop into any scene.
82. 2:37And if you want to change something
83. 2:38about him, you just tell Claude to edit
84. 2:40it. Make his coat red, keep everything
85. 2:42else the same. Flow redraws him in
86. 2:44place, for free, and he keeps his name,
87. 2:46his personality, and his voice. You
88. 2:48don't have to build him all over again.
89. 2:50Any scene you make after that just uses
90. 2:52the new version. I did exactly that with
91. 2:53my stick figure Sticky. I gave him
92. 2:56gloves without rebuilding him. That's
93. 2:58step one. Step two is where most people
94. 3:00start burning credits. The rule I follow
95. 3:02is simple. Don't generate any video
96. 3:04until the pictures are right. Video
97. 3:06costs credits, but Flow's default image
98. 3:08model is free. I made about 200 images,
99. 3:11even in bulk at times, and they never
100. 3:12cost me a single credit. So, this is the
101. 3:14place to fix problems. Ask Claude for
102. 3:17the plan first, not the pictures. Give
103. 3:19me three key images. Pip on a rooftop,
104. 3:21looking out over a dark town. Pip
105. 3:23lighting the first lamp. The whole town
106. 3:25glowing with Pip tiny at the bottom.
107. 3:28Same character, same art style. Describe
108. 3:31each one before you make it. Once the
109. 3:32plan looks right, tell Claude to go
110. 3:34ahead and make them. Then, look over the
111. 3:36images. If they all look good, you can
112. 3:39move on. If one of them looks off, tell
113. 3:41Claude what's wrong with it and ask it
114. 3:42to fix it. So, I got these three images
115. 3:44that I'm happy with, and the purpose of
116. 3:46these three pictures is to decide where
117. 3:48each of the shots will end up for the
118. 3:50clips that we're going to generate. I'll
119. 3:52show you how in a second. Step three is
120. 3:53turning those frames into a video. This
121. 3:56is where we use Google's video model
122. 3:57Omni Flash. It makes the video at 720p,
123. 4:00and if you're on a paid Google AI plan,
124. 4:02you can scale it to 1080p when you
125. 4:04download it at no extra cost. Every
126. 4:0510-second clip costs 15 credits, so the
127. 4:08free credits cover three clips a day. By
128. 4:10the way, I didn't write the shot
129. 4:11prompts.
130. 4:13Claude wrote them from the three
131. 4:14pictures, and here's how those pictures
132. 4:16get used. Shot one starts on the first
133. 4:19picture and has to finish on the second.
134. 4:21Shot two picks up on the last frame of
135. 4:24shot one and has to finish on the third.
136. 4:26Before shot three ran, I double-checked.
137. 4:29Does it start from where shot two ended?
138. 4:31It already did. That last shot just
139. 4:33drifts up over the glowing town. Before
140. 4:35the tool generates anything, it reads
141. 4:36flow's price for the shot. I mean, it
142. 4:38should be pretty standard. 15 credits
143. 4:40for 10-second 720p shot, but it's nice
144. 4:42to have that check in case any of the
145. 4:43settings change for some reason. So, the
146. 4:45purpose here is that it tells you why if
147. 4:47it's over the limit, and it doesn't
148. 4:49generate the shot. The tool Flow Studio
149. 4:51I created also has 39 presets built in.
150. 4:5330 of them are camera moves, like an
151. 4:55orbit, a crash zoom, or a drone move.
152. 4:57The rest are things like a match cut or
153. 4:59a seamless loop. You can pick one from
154. 5:01the list or just describe the move,
155. 5:03which is what Claude did for Pip. That
156. 5:05same trick of starting from the real
157. 5:07last frame is how this drone shot over
158. 5:09New York keeps going. This was literally
159. 5:10my first test with the tool. So, the
160. 5:12jump from one clip to the next isn't
161. 5:14perfect, but it's still decent given I
162. 5:15did not provide any details. One
163. 5:17important note here, there's a choice
164. 5:19you need to make whether to use the
165. 5:21character or the last frame for the next
166. 5:23clip in the sequence. So, you either go
167. 5:25with an exact join, which uses that last
168. 5:27frame, or you lock the character
169. 5:29reference. For a straight continuation
170. 5:31like this, I go with the exact join
171. 5:33because when I tested locking off the
172. 5:34character for a similar scene, Flow
173. 5:36changed some of the surroundings, even
174. 5:38when I described the scene exactly. The
175. 5:40character stayed consistent, but the
176. 5:42surroundings didn't. So, in this case,
177. 5:44using the last frame worked fine. The
178. 5:45rule of thumb is only lock the character
179. 5:48when the next shot jumps to a new place.
180. 5:50Because if you have the character
181. 5:51features fully present, it will stay
182. 5:54consistent off the last frame. One other
183. 5:55important thing to watch is that if you
184. 5:57are using more detailed characters with
185. 5:59an exact join, the next clip only knows
186. 6:02what your character looks like from that
187. 6:03last frame. So, if you're using a
188. 6:05complex character, make sure their face
189. 6:07is clearly in it. If they're turned away
190. 6:09or tiny, the next clip has to guess and
191. 6:11they can come out looking different.
192. 6:13Anyways, that's the video. Now, let's
193. 6:15get to the voice. Flow can make the
194. 6:17voice, but it charges you credits for
195. 6:19it. But, don't worry. My tool Flow
196. 6:21Studio is designed to create exact same
197. 6:23voice for free. So, there are two ways
198. 6:25to do this voice over. You can use
199. 6:27Google's text-to-speech or a voice
200. 6:29that's already on your machine, if
201. 6:31you're lazy. For Pip, I asked Claude to
202. 6:33write the narration to match the story.
203. 6:35It actually recorded it before any of
204. 6:37the clips existed. So, from the start, I
205. 6:39knew the footage needed to run at least
206. 6:4027 seconds. Claude also wrote one line
207. 6:42of direction for how to read it, "Warmly
208. 6:44and unhurried, like a storyteller
209. 6:46reading a bedtime fable with gentle
210. 6:48pauses between the short sentences." On
211. 6:50another film, I gave it a longer note
212. 6:52about how to perform the line and it
213. 6:54read for 11 minutes. But, anyways,
214. 6:56here's how you do it for free. Go to
215. 6:58Google AI Studio and create a free API
216. 7:00key. You have to log in with your Gmail
217. 7:02and then hit the key icon at the bottom
218. 7:03left and it opens up a menu. Then, you
219. 7:06click create a key. Before you create a
220. 7:07key, you will need to create a project
221. 7:09if you don't already have one. Once you
222. 7:10create the project, then you type the
223. 7:12name of the key and create the key. Copy
224. 7:14the generated key somewhere and then
225. 7:16come back to Flow Studio. Go to
226. 7:17narration, you'll see a place to paste
227. 7:19it. Once you do that, you're good to go.
228. 7:21You can now generate Google AI Studio
229. 7:23quality voices in Flow Studio. Claude
230. 7:25will use it to make the voice over, so
231. 7:27the narration doesn't cost you any Flow
232. 7:29credits. At this point, you're ready to
233. 7:32put it all together. The cut tool in
234. 7:33Flow Studio joins everything on your
235. 7:35computer using FFmpeg. So, this part
236. 7:38doesn't cost any Flow credits, either.
237. 7:39If you don't have FFmpeg yet, Claude
238. 7:41will help you install it. So, just
239. 7:42follow the instructions when it asks.
240. 7:44Then, tell Claude something like this,
241. 7:47"Put the three clips in order. Add the
242. 7:49narration. Make sure that footage lasts
243. 7:51as long as the narration, so the last
244. 7:53frame doesn't freeze." In Flow Studio,
245. 7:54there's an option to add music, too, but
246. 7:56I left it out on this one. And here's
247. 7:58how it came out.
248. 7:59>> Every evening, the lamplighter looked
249. 8:02out at the town and saw a thousand dark
250. 8:05windows.
251. 8:07Far too many.
252. 8:08So, he stopped counting
253. 8:10and lit the one in front of him.
254. 8:13Then the next.
255. 8:15He never did light them all.
256. 8:17But by morning, everyone who needed
257. 8:20light had found it.
258. 8:22And the town, without ever noticing,
259. 8:25had learned to glow.
260. 8:29>> All of this cost 45 credits, and that
261. 8:31was just for the video. The voice didn't
262. 8:33cost me any Flow credits, and neither
263. 8:35did the cut. I just told Claude what I
264. 8:37wanted, and it put the pieces together.
265. 8:38All I had to do was answer its questions
266. 8:40up front, set the budget, and check its
267. 8:42work along the way. If you want this,
268. 8:44the link is in the description. And
269. 8:46while you're at it, this has been
270. 8:47useful, give it a like and a subscribe.
271. 8:49And if you want to know how to add
272. 8:50captions because you want to create a
273. 8:5130-second reel for social media, post a
274. 8:54comment for me so I can help you. Before
275. 8:56I show you how to install Flow Studio,
276. 8:58here's a quick look at the few other
277. 8:59things the MCP can do. It can restyle a
278. 9:01clip you've already made, so you can
279. 9:03change the lightning, the weather, the
280. 9:04background. Just know that Google
281. 9:06charges 40 credits per edit for that
282. 9:08one. That's more than it cost to make a
283. 9:10brand new clip, so keep that in mind. It
284. 9:12also can browse your Flow library and
285. 9:14download something again without
286. 9:15generating it a second time. If you need
287. 9:17a lot of images, there is bulk mode. You
288. 9:19can hand it a whole scene list up to 50
289. 9:21at a time. 20 of them came back for me
290. 9:23in about 30 seconds. The second film,
291. 9:25the photoreal one from the start, was
292. 9:27made the same way. One character, two
293. 9:29shots, and the cut in the middle is
294. 9:31invisible. This one used opening and
295. 9:32closing frames, and this one starts out
296. 9:35in space and comes all the way down to
297. 9:37the Statue of Liberty. These are all
298. 9:39real outputs from the tool. And if you'd
299. 9:40rather click than talk to Cloud, there
300. 9:42is a control panel I built as well. It
301. 9:44has seven tabs in it. Cast, frames,
302. 9:47shots, voice, restyle, cut, and library.
303. 9:51It uses the same tools underneath the
304. 9:53MCP and you don't need Cloud for it at
305. 9:55all. I switch between the two depending
306. 9:56on what I'm doing. All right, now the
307. 9:58install. Like I promised, open Cloud
308. 10:01code and paste in the GitHub link from
309. 10:02the description that you just got. Then
310. 10:04tell it install and set this up. All the
311. 10:06instructions are in the GitHub repo.
312. 10:07Cloud checks for Chrome, Node, and
313. 10:09FFmpeg and walks you through anything
314. 10:11that's missing. Once everything is set
315. 10:13up, you'll need to do a one-time login
316. 10:14to Google yourself in the browser. Tool
317. 10:16never touches your password. Then open
318. 10:18the flow project you want to work in and
319. 10:20ask Cloud check flow and tell me my
320. 10:21credit balance. Once Cloud reads that
321. 10:23number back to you, you're live. By the
322. 10:25way, if the setup breaks in a way for
323. 10:27you, just tell me in the comments so I
324. 10:28can fix it. But there's more to this. In
325. 10:30this video on your screen, I show you
326. 10:32how to make characters and bulk generate
327. 10:34multiple character consistent images
328. 10:36right inside Flow for free. It's on your
329. 10:38screen right now. Watch that one next.