Prompt Kling for video editing

Last updated: October 12, 2026

Kling O3 changes one thing in a clip you already have, a colour, a background, a whole look, and plays the rest of the shot back as it was: the same motion, timing and camera. Pick it when the performance is approved and you need a variant of it.

Let the agent write it

You don't have to write any of this yourself. The Layer agent knows how to prompt each model it runs, from the same guidance this page is built on. Attach the clip in chat, name the model and say what should change, for example: Edit this clip with Kling O3 Standard: make the mage's cloak deep blue and his fire icy frost, keep everything else. The agent writes the instruction, shows you its plan, and runs it when you approve. Use the rest of this guide when you want to write or adjust the instruction yourself, and see Write a brief for the agent for how to brief it.

When to use it

Use Kling O3 to make variants of an approved clip without animating it again: an elemental or team-colour version of an ability, the same performance in another setting, a recoloured prop, a green-screen plate for compositing. The edit follows the source frame for frame, so the variant lines up with the original in a trailer or a game.

It is not a pixel-art converter: asking for pixel art gives a clean cartoon look instead (see below). To animate a still rather than edit a clip, see Create a video and the image-to-video guides; to change a still image, see Edit an image with a prompt.

Versions on Layer

Kling O3 Pro

The higher tier of the same edit model, with steadier frames. Use it for the version you deliver.

Kling O3 Standard

The version this guide's examples were made with. It takes the same instructions and source clips as Kling O3 Pro: use it to find the instruction that works, then render the keeper on Kling O3 Pro.

How to write the prompt

The change, in Kling's own wording, then what must stay:

Change the mage's red cloak and hood to deep blue, and his fire to icy blue frost. Keep his face, pose, motion, the staff, the castle, the sky and the camera unchanged.

Kling's guide gives one template per kind of change, all of them starting "Change ...": the subject, the background, a colour, the style, the weather. Write each change you want as its own clause in that form. That prompt is the one in the clip above: the cast is the same, beat for beat, in frost.

What works

One change per clause

Use the template that fits the change:

  • A subject: "Change the knight's sword to a war hammer."
  • A colour: "Change the cloak to deep blue."
  • The background: "Change the background to a frozen mountain pass at night."
  • The whole look: "Change the video to watercolour style."
  • The weather: "Change the video to a rainy day."
  • Something to remove: "Remove the banner from the castle wall."

Short instructions suit a style change; when you change several things at once, give each its own clause.

The motion stays

Every edit we ran on the fire mage's cast, a recolour, a new background and a new style, played the source frame for frame: the same staff raise, thrust and cloak flare, with the camera where it was. You do not need to describe the motion again; spend the words on what changes.

A new setting, same performance

"Change the background to a frozen mountain pass at night, with snow falling and a pale full moon" replaced the castle and sunset with moonlit peaks and left the mage and his fireball untouched. It skipped the falling snow and kept the mossy ledge under his feet, so name every part of the setting you want changed, the ground included, and check the result for details it left out.

A green screen

For a plate to composite in another tool, ask for it directly: "Change the background to a green screen, and keep the mage and his fireball."

Saying what stays

Kling keeps what the instruction does not name. We ran the frost edit with and without "Keep his face, pose, motion, the staff, the castle, the sky and the camera unchanged" on the same source and seed, and the two clips came out near identical. A keep clause does no harm and documents your intent, but it will not stop a change's side effects: in both clips the frost's glow tinted the castle and the ground while the blast was on screen. When a new effect lights the scene, expect the light to fall where the old one did.

What to avoid

Pixel art as a style

"Change the video to 16-bit pixel art style, with a limited palette and crisp square pixels" kept the motion exactly but repainted the mage as clean cartoon line art: smooth outlines, no pixel grid, only the clouds and stonework gone blocky.

Sources with cuts

Edit one continuous shot at a time. A source with several cuts is harder for the model to hold, and it can drop a shot from the result. Trim the clip to one shot first.

Clips of the wrong length

The source clip must run 3 to 15 seconds. The result is as long as the source, so trim it to the part you need before you edit.

Settings that matter

There is little to set: the result takes the source clip's length and shape, and keeps its sound. The instruction and the model are the recipe, so change one clause at a time between runs.

Prompts to start from

Elemental variant

Change the mage's red cloak and hood to deep blue, and his fire to icy blue frost. Keep his face, pose, motion, the staff, the castle, the sky and the camera unchanged.

New setting, same performance

Change the background to a frozen mountain pass at night, with snow falling and a pale full moon. Keep the mage, his red cloak, his motion, the fireball and the camera unchanged.

Use it in Layer

  1. Add the approved clip to a session's board.

  2. Click View on the clip to open it full-size.

  3. In the prompt bar under the clip, click the model name and choose Kling O3 Standard, then write the change and what stays.

  4. Run the edit. The cost shows on the button before you click.

  5. The result opens in the same viewer, beside the source in its edit group. Play the two and compare; then change one clause at a time and run it again.

Learn more

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