If you haven’t yet, take a second to go watch @AnalogMirage’s mind-blowing flying video that’s racked up over 15.1 million views and counting.
I set out to recreate the video, but with my own twist: I wanted me in the shot, not a generic AI character.
Here’s how I pulled it off by blending real-world photography, photoshop magic, and some AI-powered video animation. Let’s break it down. If you rather watch this, check out our latest YouTube video.
Why I Ditched Midjourney
Most recreations of this video seem to start in Midjourney. But for me, that didn’t work. I wanted to be the one flying, not someone who looked kinda like me.
After trying endless prompts; describing my height, weight, bald head, you name it. I still couldn’t get a usable likeness. So, I went manual and shot the base footage myself.
Step 1: Making me the Character (IRL)
I rigged up a makeshift flying set in the studio — sprawled across a stool on a green screen and mounted my phone on a tall ladder. I used the rig to record myself in motion and pulled screenshots from that footage to create stills.
From there:
I imported the image into Photoshop
Cut my body out so I was isolated
Used generative fill to remove the girl from a screenshot of the analog mirage video (for the background)
Layered myself into the environment for that flying-through-the-sky look
Step 2: Touchups in Lightroom
After compositing, I brought the shot into Lightroom for color correction:
Removed green spill from the background
Tweaked highlights, shadows, and vibrance
Step 3: Animating in Pollo AI with Kling 2.1
Once I had the image, it was time for the magic: AI animation via Pollo AI. Pollo lets you choose between multiple video generation engines — my favorite is Kling 2.1 for something like this, bringing photos to life.
Prompt Tip: Your animation prompt is critical. Talk about movement, speed, and emotion. I’ll drop the exact prompt I used below so you can copy it.
A man flying quickly through the clouds as they rush past him with intense speed and motion blur over the ocean at golden hour, seen strictly from behind. He wears a dark shirt, straight fit pants, and sneakers. His shirt and pants flutter in the wind, and his silhouette remains forward-facing the entire time. His arms shift naturally with momentum, but his gaze stays locked ahead. The camera follows him like an FPV drone, darting up and down from behind never rotating or revealing his face. The sky glows with warm sunset light, soft clouds ripple with motion, and the ocean reflects golden hues below. The scene is cinematic and fast-paced, with realistic wind physics, immersive cloud movement, and an emphasis on dynamic forward momentum. The atmosphere is charged with energy, yet grounded in realism.
Step 4: Chaining Clips Together
To have your clips seamlessly connect you need to export your final frame of one generation and use that to become the starting point of the next. I exported still frames from Final Cut Pro using the “Save Current Frame” feature to daisy chain sequences.
Step 5: Creating the Zoom Effects with Higsfield
For the zoom-in and zoom-out effects at the start and end, I used https://higgsfield.ai/ - they have a built in animation for this effect that is super user-friendly. Just like with chaining clips, export a frame from Final Cut and import that into Higgsfield with a short description.
This gave the video that dreamlike opener and closer — setting the tone and capping it off perfectly.
Final Touches: Sound & Style
For audio:
Used the same song as Analog Mirage (because it’s just so good)
Added sound effects in Pollo.ai
Reused the sound effects from the Pollo.ai generations on the opener & closer
To bring it all together visually, I added an adjustment layer in Final Cut, combining filters like “Old World,” “50s TV,” and “Aged Film” to give the whole thing a slightly desaturated, vintage, cinematic aesthetic.
So, long story short, this video brought together a variety of tools to create something that blended real world accuracy with AI magic for a scroll stopping social video.
Here’s a list of the tools you’ll need to duplicate this workflow:
iPhone/Camera, Photoshop, Lightroom, Pollo.ai (for Kling 2.1), Higgsfield.ai, and Final Cut Pro
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