How to Easily Create Viral Timelapse Videos with AI | Google Veo 3 Tutorial

Have you ever scrolled through social media and found yourself stopping at one of those mesmerizing timelapse videos? You know the kind—the seed that sprouts into a beautiful plant, the clouds rolling dramatically across the sky, or even something unusual like an insect emerging from its cocoon. These videos have a magical way of holding our attention, and it’s no wonder they often rack up millions of views. They’re visually stunning, oddly satisfying, and perfect for the short-form video culture that dominates platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

The great news? You don’t need a professional camera setup, years of editing experience, or weeks of filming to make one. Thanks to AI, you can now create timelapse videos in just a few minutes—and the results look like something straight out of a professional studio. That’s what makes this tutorial so exciting. What once required expensive equipment and tons of patience can now be done from your laptop or even your phone with a little creativity and the right AI tools.

In this Mangidik guide, I’m going to walk you step-by-step through the process of creating your own timelapse video using AI. Don’t worry if you’re new to this—it’s beginner-friendly, and by the end, you’ll have a timelapse video that you can proudly share on social media. We’ll go through preparing your prompt, generating the video, and, of course, downloading it so you can share it with the world. Ready? Let’s dive in.

Step 1: Preparing Your Prompt

The secret to making AI timelapse videos is in the prompt. Think of the prompt as your script or blueprint—it tells the AI exactly what kind of video you want to create. Without a good prompt, the AI won’t know what to generate, but with the right one, you’ll be amazed at the results.

Here’s the good part: I’ve already created a special prompt that works like magic for timelapse videos. This prompt is designed to be flexible, so you can use it to make a timelapse of almost anything—plants, animal transformations, environmental changes, you name it.

This is the prompt:

You are a text-to-video prompt creator with a realistic, cinematic style and smooth transitions.

Your task is to generate an 8-second timelapse video description based on the main subject provided by the user. The subject can be a plant, animal, natural environment, or any other object that can show visible changes over time.

Main object: fill here

The output format must be:

“An 8-second timelapse shows [main subject] starting from [initial state]. Gradually, [first visible change] occurs, followed by [next stage of transformation]. Within a few seconds, [additional key developments]. Finally, [the final impressive or realistic result]. The background is [appropriate natural or contextual setting], with natural lighting, macro or wide focus depending on the subject, and smooth, realistic timelapse transitions.”

Note: The user only provides the main subject. You must automatically generate the initial state, stages of transformation, details, final result, and background according to the subject’s natural or realistic progression.

All you have to do is edit one part of the prompt: the main object. That’s where you decide what your timelapse will show. For example, if you want to see a strawberry growing, just type “strawberry.” If you want to see a butterfly emerging, put that in instead. It’s that simple. For this tutorial, let’s use “strawberry” as our example.

Once you’ve chosen your main object, here’s what you need to do next:

1. Copy the prompt you’ve edited with your chosen main object.
2. Open ChatGPT.
3. Paste the prompt into the chat.
4. Hit Send.
5. ChatGPT will instantly generate a ready-to-use text-to-video prompt specifically formatted for Veo 3, the AI video model we’ll be using.

And just like that, you’re ready for the next step. The heavy lifting is done for you—the AI creates the technical text prompt, so you don’t need to figure it out yourself. Pretty neat, right?

Step 2: Generating the Timelapse Video

Now that you’ve got your finished prompt from ChatGPT, it’s time to actually generate your timelapse video. For this, we’re going to use Google Flow, which is one of the easiest platforms for AI-powered video creation. Don’t worry if you’ve never used it before—it’s very user-friendly.

Here’s exactly what you need to do:

1. Copy the prompt that ChatGPT just gave you.
2. Head over to the Google Flow website.
3. Log in with your Google account—it’s quick and straightforward.
4. Once inside, tap on New Project.
5. Make sure you select the Text to Video feature, since that’s what we’ll be using.
6. Open the settings menu, then choose your aspect ratio. For vertical videos like TikTok or Instagram Reels, I recommend going with portrait. You’ll also want to select the Veo 3 – Fast model. This one gives you great results quickly.
7. Paste the prompt you copied earlier into the text box.
8. Hit Send and wait a few moments while the AI works its magic.
9. Once it’s done, your timelapse video is ready to go! Download it straight to your device, and it’s all yours.

The whole process usually takes just a few minutes, and the results are shockingly good. The AI knows how to create smooth transitions, realistic visuals, and the overall “feel” of a timelapse, without you having to record anything yourself.

At this point, you can share your video on any platform you like—TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, or even as a background for a presentation. Timelapse videos tend to perform well because they’re eye-catching and naturally engaging.

Video Tutorial

If you’re a visual learner and prefer to follow along step by step with a demonstration, I’ve got you covered. I’ve put together a full video tutorial that shows the entire process in action, from preparing the prompt to generating and downloading your timelapse video.

Sometimes seeing it done makes things even clearer, so I definitely recommend checking out the video if you want that extra layer of guidance.

Conclusion

And there you have it—you just learned how to create your own AI-generated timelapse video from scratch. What used to require tons of patience, equipment, and editing skills can now be done in minutes with the help of AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Flow. All it takes is a simple prompt, a few clicks, and you’re good to go.

The best part? You’re not limited to just plants or simple objects. With this method, you can experiment with animals, weather changes, cityscapes, or even abstract ideas. The possibilities are endless, and each video you create has the potential to grab attention and even go viral.

So don’t just stop at one—play around, test different objects, and see what kind of unique timelapse videos you can come up with. Whether you’re doing it for fun, for your social media audience, or even for creative projects, AI timelapse videos are a powerful tool to add to your content creation toolkit.

Now it’s your turn—give it a try, share your creations, and who knows? Your timelapse might just be the next one to hit a million views.