Luma Labs’ Dream Machine: So Bad, It Made Us Laugh (and Cry)

Last Updated on July 9, 2024 by Sagar Sharma

Lumalabs next AI model – Dream Machine is now available on their official website. Dream Machine is an AI video generator that can create realistic videos from prompts. The Luma Labs new AI tool has been made available for everyone to try and use.

Dream Machine can create AI videos from both text and images. Luma Labs has trained their AI video generator on actual videos to ensure hyper-realistic AI videos. Their website claims it to be able to create “physically accurate, consistent and eventful shots”.

Not long after its launch, Dream Machine is already getting love from AI video enthusiasts and tech reviewers. Due to the lifelike quality of the generated videos, Dream Machine is also being compared with popular AI video generators like Open AI’s Sora. 

But, the question is, is it as good as it is advertised on the website? We tested it ourselves for that and we are severely disappointed to say the least. Before showing the test prompts and the results, let’s take a quick look at the features of Dream Machine:

Luma Labs Dream Machine Features

• High–Quality Videos From Text & Images
• Fast Video Generation – 120 Frames In 120s.
• 5s Shots
• Realistic Smooth Motion, Cinematography, and Drama
• Great Character Consistency And Accurate Physics
• Fluid, Cinematic And Naturalistic Camera Motions

Our Test

We tested the Lumalabs Dream machine ourselves to see how perfectly the app performs for different prompts. We tested both simple and complex prompts for an accurate judgement. Have a look at the prompts and the results below:

Prompt: “Closeup footage of a person standing under burj khalifa throwing rocks at people” 

Observations:

The tool can create perfect videos when given simple prompts only. If there is too much information, Dream Machine may get confused. Burj Khalifa does not quite look legit, the person is not throwing anything but is rather holding something flickery.

Through another prompt, I requested a clip featuring Batman and Superman, but the tool combined their characteristics, resulting in Batman wearing Superman’s outfit.

Observations:

Great cinematography but does not match the script: While the tool can generate great cinematic shots, it often misinterprets the provided script. Dream Machine is also not very detail-oriented and may miss out on the minor crucial details that you must have in the videos. 

Details such as sweating, smirking, eye-roll, flickering, neck movements, etc may get overlooked. For example, I gave it the following prompt:

Prompt: “A scary-looking woman approaches a Pregnant lady and the pregnant lady starts sweating” 

The tool gave me the following output:

Observations:

• First, the scary lady can not be seen properly. 
• I did not ask the tool to show the scary lady behind the pregnant woman. 
• The woman looks scared but is not sweating as I wanted.
• The lady does not seem pregnant to me.

Let’s take a look at another example, shall we?

Prompt: “Batman comes out of a Tesla car and shakes hands with Superman who is eating ice cream.”

This was the result:

Observations:

• The logo in front of the car looks weird.
• Batman is weirdly moving inside of the car.
• Batman is neither getting out of the car, nor does he shake hands with Superman who btw does not exist at all in the video.

While I was testing all these prompts, I realized that Dream Machine may be messing up because of the longer prompts since it only provides 5-second videos. Hence, I gave it a shorter and simpler prompt: 

Prompt: “A man riding a bicycle on a hill in cold, blistery weather.” 

Here’s what I got:

Observations:

Can not imitate real-life characters: Today, when AI has generated tons of videos/images of popular celebrities and well-known figures, Dream Machine fails miserably at doing so. I gave it the following prompt and got an instant regret.

Prompt: “A man dancing between Ross, Rachel, Joey, Phoebe, and Monica” 

Brace Yourself:

Observations:

Apart from the obvious fact that these are not the right characters, where is Ross?

Great facial expressions, fails when it comes to hands: This one is a classic issue with many AI video generators. Facial expressions are great. However, Dream Machine can not generate proper hands.

How to Use Luma Labs Dream Machine?

To use the Luma Labs Dream machine, sign up on the Lumalabs.ai website. Once you’ve successfully logged in with your credentials, follow the below steps to create AI videos using Dream Machine:

1. On the homepage of Dream Machine, click on “Try Now”
2. On the next screen, enter the choice of prompt, explaining the kind of video you require.
3. Alternatively, you can upload an image of your choice instead of the written prompt. You can submit the prompt as it is or click “Enhance Prompt” to add more clarity.
4. Wait for the AI video generation tool to understand your prompt/image. Once the prompt is submitted, your requested video will show in “queue” and an estimated time will be shown to you.
5. Check the AI-generated video.

Luma Labs Pricing

Luma Labs free plan comes with a limit of 30 videos per month. However, you can choose to pay for the premium plans if you have a higher requirement. Below are the monthly prices of Dream Machine AI video generator.

Free	30 Videos Per Month
Standard Plan	120 Videos Per Month ($29.99/Month)
Pro Plan	400 Videos Per Month ($99.99/Month)
Premier Plan	2000 Videos Per Month ($499/Month)