If you're anything like me, you’ve probably spent the past few years wondering what a real Star Wars: Battlefront III could’ve looked like. So I decided to stop wondering… and just make one myself. The twist? It’s powered almost entirely by AI. From stormtroopers to explosions to the voice of Darth Vader himself. Let’s break down how we pulled it off, and how you can too.

Step 1: Scene Planning (and Why Continuity Matters)

The trailer was originally designed as one long, continuous IMAX-style shot — starting with a TIE fighter crash and ending in the reveal of Starkiller. But due to lighting and transition inconsistencies, we restructured it into a series of shorter, cinematic scenes. This gave us better control over pacing, consistency, and visual storytelling.

Step 1.5: Locking the Look with Whisk

Before we ever opened Veo, we started each sequence in Whisk. Whisk was our go to for creating highly detailed, realistic first frames. Essentially cinematic storyboards. These frames served as visual anchors, helping Veo understand exactly what kind of tone, lighting, and composition we were going for. This technique massively improved scene consistency. 

Step 2: Generating the Shots with Veo 3

We used Google Veo 3 for all video generations. It’s scary good at cinematic, high-detail scenes when you feed it a strong prompt. Here’s an example of one we used paired with a whisk generation:

“Begin with a wide IMAX-style shot matching this frame: a squad of stormtroopers stands on a scorched Star Wars battlefield at dusk, backed by burning wreckage and the silhouette of a downed Star Destroyer. Sparks float through the air and faint smoke curls skyward. The troopers suddenly begin to march forward in perfect unison, their boots thudding rhythmically against the charred ground. Their armor is scratched and dirty from combat, and each carries a blaster held tight to their chest. The camera slowly tracks backward, maintaining the low wide angle as they advance toward frame, casting long shadows in the firelight. Embers drift past the lens, and the wind kicks up bits of ash from the battlefield. Lighting and tone should remain grounded and cinematic — film grain, subtle lens flares, warm orange sky fading into deep black smoke. Movements should feel weighty, deliberate, and military precise”

We built the entire trailer with these kinds of shots, sometimes chaining them together using still frames as reference points.

Step 3: Audio, Dialogue and Vader’s Voice

We wrote a custom Darth Vader monologue to narrate the entire trailer, teasing the reveal of his secret apprentice: Starkiller. For the voice, we used ElevenLabs and layered in Vader's iconic breathing, ambient sound design, and classic lightsaber hums using Final Cut.

“You were not born to follow orders. You were created to dominate. Show them the true power of the dark side.”

Step 4: Making Starkiller Look Real

To sell the reveal, we leaned into fanservice: twin sabers (one red, one blue), a slow heroic pan-up, and a final frame that holds just long enough for the viewer to screenshot it. Starkiller's look was generated using Whisk, with a prompt like:

“A cloaked warrior stands amid smoking debris, holding two glowing lightsabers . one red, one blue. His armor is scratched and worn. Snow falls slowly. The atmosphere is tense, cinematic, and grounded in realism.”

Step 5: Bringing It All Together

Final touches were added in Final Cut Pro:
- Color grading for continuity
- Subtle film grain
- Lens blur and shake to match different camera styles
- Custom music bed with rising tension
- Vader VO woven through each scene
- Used final frame screenshots as first-frame references to keep transitions smooth across scenes

Watch the Final Video

👉 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCssw8lYBFm--_8o0gPlXlAw

Tools We Used

- Whisk (first frame generation)
- Veo 3 (video generation with Frame-to-video sequencing)
- ElevenLabs (voiceover)
- Final Cut Pro (editing)

📄 Full Prompt Breakdown

Want to dive deeper? Here's the full Google Doc with all prompts, breakdowns, and step-by-step instructions we used to build the trailer.

👉 [Full Battlefront 3 trailer breakdown — includes full scene prompts, Veo + Whisk screenshots, lighting strategy, and sound design notes]

Creating a commercial like this for a videogame is great practice for your AI video skills, it challenges you to create a story, cohesive visuals, and sound effects. All of which are tools you need as you build your video talents.

Send us your latest AI creation too, we’d love to see what you all are cooking up.

Till next time 🤝