How long should a birthday video be?

Two or three minutes is plenty if people will watch it on a television in the room. If you are sending it on a phone, cut a version under a minute as well. A long slideshow is easy to abandon in a group chat.

Can I animate the birthday photographs?

You can animate one clear portrait as a short opener, if the face stays the same. Do not animate group shots. Generators often merge arms and change extra faces, which is a bad surprise in a family film.

Birthday and anniversary videos

A birthday or anniversary film is allowed to be warmer and quicker than a tribute. People will talk over it. Someone will arrive late. The cut still needs a spine, or it becomes a folder of pictures with a song on top.

Two versions, not one

Make the room version and the phone version on purpose.

In the room: two or three minutes, photos held for a few seconds, names only where someone might not be recognised (“Portsmouth, 2009”). Play it once, early, before speeches run long.
On a phone: under a minute, the ten strongest pictures, larger type, because a WhatsApp preview is ruthless. This is the file people will actually forward.

Both can come from the same timeline. Cut the short one by hiding photographs, not by speeding the long one up until it flickers.

What to include

For a birthday, a little embarrassment is traditional and a lot of embarrassment is not. Ask the person, if the film is not a surprise, which years they are happy to see. If it is a surprise, ask someone who has known them longer than you have.

For an anniversary, the structure that works is then and now. A photograph from the start of the relationship, then a recent one, repeated a few times, is clearer than a shuffle. Keep other people in the story if they were part of it. Take out anyone the couple would not want on a screen in front of their friends. That includes children who are old enough to mind.

Group photographs should stay still. An animator will try to move every face at once. Use CapCut for the sequence. It is the editor with a free plan and a timeline. If one portrait is strong enough, a two-second move from Runway can open the phone version. Read the animation guide and keep the prompt boring: slow push in, face still. Luma AI can do the same job if you are already paying for it. It is a lot of tool for a party film.

Music and the end card

One song that the person actually likes beats a “cinematic” track they have never heard. The licensing point from the tribute guide still applies if you publish the file: a song in your kitchen is not a song on YouTube. For a file that only plays in the house, keep it in the house.

End on a card you typed. “Happy 70th, Margaret” will not be improved by a model. Check the number. People notice.

A weekend plan

Collect thirty photographs. Delete down to eighteen for the long cut and ten for the short one.
Order them so a stranger could tell the years are moving forward.
Build the long cut in CapCut. Four seconds a picture is a fair start. One dissolve, not a new effect every time.
Duplicate the project and cut the short version.
Watch both on a television and on a phone. If type is hard to read on the phone, it is too small.
Export, send the short one, and keep the long one for the room.

If the surprise depends on a particular person not seeing it early, do not put the file in a shared photo album the week before. That is how surprises die, and no choice of app will save them.