Veo 3.1's output is at its best when the prompt gives it something to do with light and atmosphere. The model was built with cinematographic quality as a design goal — which means prompts that specify lighting conditions, camera position, and atmospheric detail produce significantly better output than vague aesthetic prompts.

These 20 prompts are structured to leverage Veo 3.1's specific strengths.

What Veo 3.1 Prompts Need

Two elements matter most in Veo 3.1 prompts:

Lighting specificity: "Golden hour", "dawn", "candlelight", "overcast", "neon", "underwater blue" — Veo 3.1 renders these with film-like quality. Generic "bright" or "dark" gives the model less to work with.

Camera direction: "Slow track forward", "camera orbits", "static shot", "handheld", "low angle" — Veo 3.1 follows camera instructions more reliably than most models, and the camera movement often makes the difference between a generic clip and a cinematic one.

20 Veo 3.1 Prompts

Atmospheric Landscapes

A lake in the Scottish Highlands at dawn. The water is completely still, reflecting a pastel pink sky. A single rowing boat moves silently from left to right. Camera is static, wide.
A redwood forest at first light. Ground fog at waist height. Shafts of warm light cut through the canopy. Camera moves slowly forward on a low track.
An alpine valley after snowfall. No wind. A frozen stream catches the first morning sun. Camera tilts slowly from the frozen stream up to the mountain peaks.
A sea cave at low tide. The ocean outside is calm. Late afternoon light enters through the cave mouth and moves across the cave floor. Camera is static inside the cave.
A lavender field in Provence at dusk. Bees move through the flowers. Warm fading light. Camera moves forward at waist height through the rows.

Urban Atmosphere

A cobblestone alley in Lisbon at night. Rain reflects the streetlights in the wet stone. A lone café is open — warm amber light from inside. Camera tracks slowly toward it.
A Tokyo crosswalk from above at 3 AM. Minimal pedestrians. Rain. Each person has an umbrella. The traffic signals cycle in the empty intersection. Static bird's-eye view.
A New York subway platform. A train arrives in slow motion, its windows passing the camera. Inside each window: a different decade — the 1950s, 1970s, 1990s. Platform: present day.
A Parisian rooftop at golden hour. The Eiffel Tower visible in the distance. A cat walks along the rooftop edge. Camera holds static from behind.
An underground library. Bookshelves floor to ceiling. A reading lamp illuminates one desk. Dust particles float in the beam. Camera slowly pushes in.

Character and Movement

A ballet dancer rehearses alone on a stage. Only a single spotlight. The rest of the stage is dark. Camera orbits slowly at medium distance.
A child runs through a field of tall grass at sunset. Camera is low, tracking alongside at the same pace. The grass parts ahead and closes behind.
A street musician plays violin in an empty Paris metro station at night. Echo is implied by the environment. Camera slowly pushes in from across the platform.
An elderly woman feeds pigeons in a sunlit plaza. Slow motion. Golden afternoon light. Camera holds static at a respectful medium shot.
A chef in a traditional Japanese kitchen moves with precision. Slow motion. Morning light from a shoji screen. The steam from the pot catches the light.

Surreal and Cinematic

A grand piano sits in a wheat field. Storm clouds approach from behind it. Wind moves the wheat in waves. Camera holds at medium distance.
A lighthouse stands on a cliff at night. The beam sweeps slowly across a rough sea. Each sweep briefly illuminates white-capped waves. Camera is on the cliff, facing the lighthouse.
A library. All the books open simultaneously and their pages flutter. Then they all close at once. Everything returns to silence. Static wide shot.
An old train platform in winter. No one present. Snow falls. A train passes without stopping — there are lit silhouettes in the windows. Camera is static on the platform.
A giant moon, much closer than usual, rises behind a mountain range. Its reflected light illuminates a valley. Camera tilts up slowly as the moon rises.

Adapting These Prompts for Different Platforms

Instagram Reels: Prompts #1–5 and #16–20 earn saves — they have the aesthetic quality that sends Reels to the Explore page. Keep clips to 10–15 seconds for loop performance.

YouTube Shorts: Prompts #6–10 (urban atmosphere) perform well with the "cinematic discovery" format. Add a title card: "AI generated — Veo 3.1" to create curiosity.

TikTok: Prompts #8, #16, and #18 (the more surreal ones) are stronger for TikTok where unexpected scenarios drive re-watches. The atmospheric prompts may underperform without a strong hook text overlay.

Running These on aicut

aicut gives you access to both Veo 3.1 and Veo 3.1 Fast from the same interface. For these prompts:

Use Veo 3.1 Fast to test which direction looks most promising
Switch to Veo 3.1 for the final generation of your best-performing prompts
Compare against Sora 2 on prompts #8 and #16–18 — both models handle surreal scenarios well, and the winner varies by seed

Key Takeaways

Lighting specificity and camera direction are the two most important elements in Veo 3.1 prompts.
Atmospheric landscapes, urban environments, and cinematic character movement are Veo 3.1's strongest categories.
Use Fast variant for testing; Pro variant for final output.
For maximum platform performance, match prompt type to platform: atmospheric → Instagram (saves), urban discovery → Shorts (search), surreal → TikTok (re-watches).

Generate these prompts with Veo 3.1 at aicut — Fast and Pro variants available.