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Nicolas Neubert’s Genesis looks like a glimpse of a much larger science-fiction film: humans face humanoid machines in a militarized, dystopian world. But it is a 45-second concept trailer, not a finished movie—and its creation was human-directed, AI-assisted work. In 2023, Neubert combined images made in Midjourney, short animations from Runway Gen-2, music sourced through Pixabay and edits assembled in CapCut. He said the final production took about seven hours, building on an existing collection of sci-fi images.
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Who is Nicolas Neubert?
When VentureBeat interviewed him in August 2023, Neubert was a senior product designer at Elli, Volkswagen Group’s electric-mobility subsidiary, and was based in Cologne, Germany. He had already been experimenting with Midjourney and posting science-fiction imagery. His design background is relevant to Genesis: the trailer grew from visual references, iteration and selection rather than a conventional film shoot. But “product designer” should not be mistaken for a formal filmmaking or visual-effects credit.
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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallNeubert’s current portfolio presents him as working across AI creative direction, product design and creative projects, and lists Genesis as a major milestone. Those career and recognition details are claims on his own portfolio, not an independently audited record. Neubert’s portfolio
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What is Genesis?
Genesis is a short sci-fi concept trailer about conflict between humans and humanoid machines. Its imagery evokes familiar dystopian themes—resistance, machine power and a threatened future—but the project was not an announced studio production, a feature film or a fully autonomous AI movie. Neubert said the premise and plot came from him; AI tools helped create and animate the visuals.
The distinction matters. A sequence of evocative shots can imply a world and suggest a story without demonstrating that a coherent feature-length screenplay, stable cast of characters or complete film can be made by the same process.
It began as an image world, not a screenplay
In the week before making the trailer, Neubert had posted three related sci-fi image series. He already had a pool of roughly 40 images depicting a shared world of people, robots and conflict. Runway Gen-2’s newly available image-to-video capability gave him a reason to turn some of that still imagery into moving shots. Rather than start every frame from scratch, he adapted existing prompts and selected images that seemed suited to animation.
After the trailer was published, the larger Genesis image world reportedly grew to about 500 images. That progression—from repeated image-making toward a short moving sequence—is a useful way to understand the project’s origin. It was visual-world building first, then an experiment in giving that world motion. Neubert named growing up with Star Wars and science fiction, having physicist parents, and later interests such as Silo, Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077 among his influences. Those are inspirations he cited, not evidence that Genesis adapts those works.
How Neubert made the trailer
- Develop the look in Midjourney. Neubert generated sci-fi stills, refining prompts from the foundation he had already built. Recurring environments, figures, machines and military imagery helped establish a recognisable visual world.
- Choose stills for motion. Not every image is a good candidate for animation. He selected frames that could plausibly support camera movement or action while still reading as part of the same sequence.
- Animate them in Runway Gen-2. The 2023 workflow used image-to-video generation to turn stills into short clips. VentureBeat described the early system as producing animations of roughly four seconds, with movement such as camera motion and apparent depth. That describes the historical tool used for Genesis, not Runway’s current product or interface.
- Source music through Pixabay. Neubert said he used music from Pixabay; Forbes identified the track as one by Stringer_Bell. The source describes the original project. Anyone making a new video should check the current licence for the specific track and intended use rather than assume that “free” means unrestricted.
- Assemble the sequence in CapCut. Neubert edited the clips, timing, transitions, graphics and music in CapCut. He said he chose it because it was free and Adobe Premiere was not installed on the computer he was using. The editor connected the generated fragments into a trailer; it did not remove the need for human pacing and selection.
- Publish and explain the process. Neubert first shared the trailer on X, then shared it on Instagram and LinkedIn. He also discussed prompts and how he made it. The public work and the process explanation travelled together, giving viewers both a short spectacle and a way to understand how it had been assembled.
Neubert said the trailer took about seven hours: approximately five hours in one night, with remaining scenes and final edits completed the next day around his regular job. That is his estimate for the production burst, not a measure of all the prior experimentation, visual-world development or tool familiarity behind the work—and not a reliable promise that another creator can make a comparable result in seven hours.
What the AI did—and what Neubert did
The tools generated still imagery and animated selected images. Neubert supplied the premise, built and refined prompts, chose which images to keep, decided what to animate, rejected or worked around unsuitable results, arranged the shots, set their timing, selected music and published the finished piece. Calling Genesis “made entirely by AI” erases those decisions. “Human-directed, AI-assisted” is more accurate.
The trailer’s significance was less that a machine independently made a film than that one person could turn an imagined visual world into a cinematic-looking proof of concept without a traditional shoot, cast or large crew. The workflow lowered the barrier to visual prototyping; it did not make creative judgment, editing or production knowledge unnecessary.
Why it attracted attention
Genesis paired a familiar, immediately legible sci-fi conflict with short-form cinematic pacing at a moment when image-to-video tools were new to many viewers. Its apparent production scale contrasted with Neubert’s account of a home-computer workflow. Sharing the prompts and process made the result more legible as an experiment rather than a mysterious, fully automated production.
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VentureBeat reported about 1.5 million views by the time of its August 2023 interview and said the project drew coverage from CNN, Forbes and other outlets. Neubert also said his X following grew by roughly 4,000 to 5,000 over the week after publication. These are figures reported at that time, not current view or follower totals.
The limits behind the spectacle
Image-to-video generation offered less control than building and animating a scene in 3D. A creator could request movement, but not necessarily choreograph it precisely or keep every character, costume, prop and environment consistent from shot to shot. Common problems in this kind of workflow include identity drift, awkward movement, inconsistent objects, flicker, unconvincing physics and camera motion that changes the intended composition.
Even individually striking clips can be difficult to cut into a narratively clear sequence. A trailer can suggest a much bigger story without explaining its world or showing that the same characters and visual rules can be sustained across a longer film. Neubert described the work as a technology demonstration and said the quality was not yet sufficient for ordinary commercial projects at the time. The project showed what was becoming possible, not a production-ready replacement for conventional filmmaking.
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He contrasted the rapid experiment with approaches using tools such as Blender or Cinema 4D, or game engines: those can offer more control and potentially higher quality, but generally demand more technical skill and time, and may involve software costs. This was a practical comparison, not a measured cost study. A hybrid approach is another option: use AI images for ideation or previs, then use more controllable tools and human production for shots that need continuity and precision.
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AI, creative work and the Hollywood debate
The interview took place during the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes, when AI’s impact on creative jobs was a particularly contentious issue. Neubert acknowledged the debate and argued that AI could help people express ideas even if they could not draw, animate or operate a large production pipeline. He saw it as a way to empower individual creators, while emphasising the continuing role of human storytelling and emotional connection.
That is Neubert’s view, not a settled finding about employment or the economics of film. An individual concept trailer does not establish that professional creative work can be replaced, or that a production made with generative tools has resolved concerns about consent, compensation, attribution or working conditions. The tools may expand access to visual experimentation while also raising consequential questions for the people whose work and livelihoods shape the creative industries.
Could you recreate the workflow now?
The general sequence remains understandable: make or select stills, animate chosen images, then edit the clips into a story. But the exact 2023 setup is historical. Runway’s products, model names, limits and interface have changed; Midjourney, CapCut and music libraries can also change features, terms and prices. The current Runway product page is not evidence of the Gen-2 interface Neubert used.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsAnyone attempting a similar project should budget for failed generations and manual selection, not just final assembly. Check each service’s current commercial-use terms, privacy rules for uploaded material and plan-specific conditions. Separately review music rights, source images, reference material, recognizable people, logos and intellectual property. No general description of a free music library or AI tool substitutes for checking the licence attached to the assets and services actually used.
What happened after Genesis?
Neubert said he wanted to expand the world and create more stories, while noting that a full independent feature with the tools available in 2023 was unlikely; he left open the possibility of a collaboration. His portfolio continues to present Genesis as a major project and lists later AI creative-direction work and recognition. The available sources do not establish that Genesis became a completed feature film.
That is the clearest way to place the trailer: not as proof that AI had solved filmmaking, but as an early, visible demonstration that a solo creator could turn a collection of generated stills into a compelling moving pitch. Its achievement was access to a new kind of visual prototyping; its limits were the control, continuity and narrative depth still needed to make a film.
Quick Recap
Sources
- VentureBeat interview with Nicolas Neubert (August 4, 2023), the source for his role at the time, workflow, timeline, reported reach and views on AI.
- Forbes coverage of the Genesis trailer, including the music credit.
- Nicolas Neubert’s portfolio, for how he presents his later work and Genesis.
- Runway’s current product page, for present-day product context only.
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