Troubleshooting of runway

Troubleshooting of runway issues

Resolve the error 'Generation error'

Error condition

After waiting patiently for several minutes in the queue for a video generation task to be processed, I encountered a "Generation error" which prevented the video from being successfully produced. The complete error message is as follows:

Generation error

Your credits will be refunded. Please try again or adjust your prompt if you continue to encounter this error.

The official Runway FAQ addresses the "Generation error" issue in their article "Why am I getting an error when I'm trying to generate? – Runway" The explanation provided is that "The model is unable to produce a high-quality output based on your inputs, and to avoid wasting your credits, the generation process was terminated."

Solution

1. Refine your prompt: Modify how you describe the desired shot or scene.
2. Adjust your reference image: Either make changes to your current reference image or try using a different one altogether.

Fixing Time Sequence Errors in Generated Videos

Error condition

"Sometimes the generated video is good, but the time sequence is incorrect. For example, you might want to show a customer entering a café, but the generated video shows the customer leaving the café instead.

Solution

Use ffmpeg to reverse the playback order of the video.

1. Go to Download FFmpeg website to download & install ffmpeg software.
2. Open the terminal
3. To reverse audio and video. Key in the command ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf reverse -af areverse output.mp4

Explanation of options (from ffmpeg --help)

• -i <input file>
• -vf <filter_graph> alias for -filter:v (apply filters to video streams)
• -af <filter_graph> alias for -filter:a (apply filters to audio streams)

Fixing Artifacts in AI-Generated Videos

Error condition

Sometimes the beginning of generated videos may have strange shaking, dark shadows, or other unusual phenomena.

Solution

Change the duration of the video generated in Runway from 5 seconds to 10 seconds, then use ffmpeg to trim the video and remove the unsuitable parts.

1. Go to Download FFmpeg website to download & install ffmpeg software.
2. Open the terminal
3. To remove the first 3 seconds of the video. Key in the command ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ss 00:00:03 -c copy output.mp4

Explanation of options (from ffmpeg --help)

• -i <input file>
• -ss <time_off> start transcoding at specified time
• -c[:<stream_spec>] <codec> select encoder/decoder ('copy' to copy stream without reencoding)