How to Get Consistent Background Scenes in Runway: AI Filmmaking Tips

Creating a cohesive and immersive film using AI tools like Runway has become increasingly attainable for creatives around the world. However, one common challenge that filmmakers face is ensuring visual consistency — especially when it comes to background scenes. Whether you’re building a futuristic cityscape or a tranquil countryside, having your backgrounds change drastically between frames can break the viewer’s immersion. This article dives deep into practical tips and strategies for achieving consistent background scenes using Runway’s AI tools, helping you deliver a more polished and cinematic experience.

TL;DR

Consistency in background scenes when using Runway for AI-powered filmmaking is crucial for maintaining a professional and immersive look. Start by controlling your prompts tightly and using reference images. Utilize seed numbers, maintain lighting consistency, and consider fine-tuning or leveraging frame interpolation tools. By planning ahead and following these best practices, you significantly improve the continuity and visual quality of your AI-generated scenes.

1. Understand How Runway’s AI Engine Treats Prompts

One of the first and most important things to understand is that Runway’s AI model interprets each input individually, even if two prompts are almost identical. Small changes in wording or structure can lead to vastly different visual outputs. This is vital when crafting a scene where you want the background elements — buildings, trees, skies — to stay visually consistent.

TIP: Use consistent and specific prompts. For example, instead of saying “a forest in autumn,” try “a dense maple forest with orange leaves and scattered light fog under a gray sky.” This level of specificity helps the AI model generate repeatable elements from one frame or scene to the next.

2. Use Seed Numbers to Lock Visual Elements

When using Runway 2’s text-to-image or Gen-2 for video generation, you can apply a seed value. This ensures that even with repeated renderings, the output retains consistent visual elements as long as the prompt stays the same.

• Set the same seed when needing multiple iterations of similar backgrounds.
• If working with frames for a clip, apply the same seed across those frames to maintain environmental stability.
• Combine seed locking with fine-tuned prompts for greater control.

TIP: Experiment with seed values early to discover settings that lend themselves to your desired tone and visual continuity.

3. Leverage Image-to-Image Generation for Continuity

Runway lets you use an image as a base to generate new visuals. This is powerful when you want to maintain a uniform background but introduce small changes across scenes (like a shift in lighting or weather).

Here’s how to do it:

1. Generate your first background using text-to-image with a carefully crafted prompt and seed.
2. Use that image with image-to-image mode to create variations while retaining structure.
3. Adjust the prompt slightly for stylistic changes, but not too drastically.

This method anchors Runway’s AI into a specific visual structure, making it far more reliable when building longer sequences or scenes.

4. Build a Visual Reference Library

Just like traditional storyboard artists use reference sketches, Runway creators can use actual reference images to guide the AI. Uploading a curated set of visuals helps the AI maintain a mental “anchor” — keeping trees, buildings, or certain color palettes consistent throughout the footage.

Make sure your visual references:

• Match your intended visual style (realistic, stylized, noir, etc.)
• Contain recurring elements or landmarks
• Capture the specific camera angles or compositions you want to repeat

Using consistent references is a highly effective strategy when you’re producing longer films, series, or multiple episodes.

5. Lock in Lighting and Time of Day

Lighting consistency is often overlooked but makes a huge difference in maintaining immersion. AI can interpret “morning” and “sunrise” very differently, leading to shifts in shadows, color temperature, and perspective.

Best practices:

• Decide on one specific time of day and stick to it in every prompt: e.g., “early morning light with golden sunbeams filtering through trees.”
• Mention lighting every time in your prompt, even if it feels repetitive.
• Use words like “ambient light,” “harsh shadows,” or “diffused sky glow” to maintain tonal consistency.

6. Break Scenes Into Segments with Matching Transitions

Sometimes absolute consistency across an entire film is not feasible. In such cases, break the film into logical visual segments — acts or chapters — and focus on achieving consistency within each segment.

To soften transitions between different background styles:

• Use fade-ins, cross-dissolves, or AI-generated morphs.
• Between sequences, generate specific “transition” frames that share characteristics of both the old and new scenes.
• Consider using Runway’s inpainting tools to blend backgrounds together.

7. Animate With Depth Maps and Camera Movement in Mind

If you’re generating background movement using depth maps or applying camera motions with Runway’s tools like “Camera Motion,” ensure that your depth and background elements align properly over multiple frames.

Steps to preserve spatial stability:

• Generate depth-aware backgrounds by enabling or uploading depth maps.
• Keep the focal length and camera trajectory consistent in animations.
• Use Runway’s interpolation features to create smoother transitions between frames.

TIP: Avoid erratic zooms or angular changes between static AI-generated backgrounds. These can cause the background elements to fragment or reset.

8. Consider Fine-Tuning a Model for Your Project

If you’re working on a large-scale production — a music video, a short film, or a web series — consider fine-tuning a model using your own dataset of images. This way, you train Runway’s AI to consistently emulate one aesthetic, reducing visual drift.

Fine-tuning is especially useful for:

• Brand-specific aesthetics (e.g., sci-fi, noir, anime-style)
• Environmental consistency in recurring locations
• Keeping human or creature character proportions uniform

This may require additional time and technical setup, but the payoff in image stability and predictability is well worth it.

Final Thoughts

Ensuring consistent background scenes in Runway can be challenging, but with a thoughtful approach and the right tools, your AI-generated film can achieve truly cinematic polish. Remember that consistency often comes from intentional constraints — whether it’s the vocabulary in your prompts or the mood in your lighting descriptions. The more you set guardrails for the AI engine, the more predictable your results will be.

Incorporate these suggestions into your next AI filmmaking project and bring a new level of professionalism and immersion to your scenes. With practice, tweaking, and a bit of creative foresight, Runway becomes not just a tool for exploration but a canvas for stunning visual storytelling.