Kling Motion Control: How It Works, Settings, and Prompts

Kling motion control takes two inputs, a reference video of someone moving and a character image, and produces a new clip where your character performs that movement. It copies body motion, facial expression and pacing from the video and keeps the look of your image. On Oakgen it runs as Kling V3 Pro Motion Control and costs about 57 credits per second of reference video as of October 25, 2026.

For clean results, use a single-subject clip of 3 to 30 seconds with no cuts and no camera movement. Match the framing of your character image to the clip, leave Character Orientation on Match Video unless you need a camera move, and add a facial element when the face drifts.

What are the Kling motion control specs on Oakgen?

The table lists what Oakgen's form accepts for Kling V3 Pro Motion Control, read from Oakgen's model config on 2026-10-25, next to what Kling and fal publish.

Output length is the detail people miss most. There is no setting for it. The clip you upload decides it, so trim the reference first. The 30-second ceiling only applies in Match Video mode. Switch to Match Image and Oakgen rejects anything over 10 seconds.

What does motion control do?

Motion control is a form of motion transfer AI. The model reads the pose and movement of the person in your reference clip and retargets it onto the character in your image. Kling describes it as control of a character's movements and expressions, extracted from an uploaded video.

People often mix it up with two other things.

• Image-to-video. You give a photo and a text prompt, and the model invents the motion. That works for a slow smile or a camera push-in. It works poorly for choreography, because a sentence cannot describe eight counts of a dance.
• Camera "motion control" prompting in Kling 3. Our Kling 3 prompting guide uses the phrase for directing camera speed, dolly moves and subject direction in a text prompt. That is prompt vocabulary for text-to-video and image-to-video. The Motion Control model in this guide is a separate mode that needs a reference video.

To compare motion transfer with other reference-driven approaches, the Seedance 2.0 vs Wan 2.7 control guide covers how other model families handle reference motion.

How is Kling 3.0 motion control different from 2.6?

Kling's guide says VIDEO 3.0 Motion Control "builds upon the Motion Control introduced in VIDEO 2.6" and focuses on facial consistency, meaning stable features and smooth expressions in complex, multi-angle and long motions. The guide page is dated March 5, 2026.

The differences you can check are smaller than the marketing suggests.

1. Facial element binding exists only on 3.0. Kling says the element uses facial information only. It does not carry clothing, hairstyle, makeup or props.
2. Element binding only works in Match Video mode. Kling's guide, fal's schema and Oakgen's form all say so.
3. 3.0 costs 50% more per second at fal. fal lists $0.168 per second for 3.0 Pro and $0.112 for 2.6 Pro, both checked on 2026-10-25.

Oakgen removed Kling V2.6 Pro Motion Control, so on Oakgen the choice is made for you. If you want 2.6 for its lower price, fal still lists it, and the clip rules in this guide apply to it too.

What does each setting do?

Character orientation

Most people leave the default without realizing it also decides who controls the camera and how long the reference clip can be.

• Match Video (default, up to 30 s). Per Kling, the character's movements, expressions, camera movement and orientation all follow the reference clip. If the dancer turns to face left, your character turns left. Oakgen's form recommends it for complex motion.
• Match Image (up to 10 s). Movements and expressions still come from the reference, but the character keeps the orientation from your image, and you steer the camera with the prompt. Kling's showcase lists zoom in, zoom out, camera up, camera down and a fixed position.

Dance, sports and any big body movement go on Match Video. Use Match Image when your character is posed a specific way, such as a product shot or a seated presenter, and you want a camera move the reference clip does not have.

Description (optional prompt)

The reference video controls the motion. The prompt steers what surrounds it, such as wardrobe detail, background elements, lighting, props and, on Match Image, the camera. fal's schema says the characters, backgrounds and other elements in the output come from your image, so use the prompt for additions and adjustments, not to rewrite the scene.

Keep original sound

This is on by default, and the output keeps the reference clip's audio track. Turn it off if the reference has music you do not have rights to publish, then add your own track in editing.

Elements

Attach a front-facing face image, then up to 3 more angles. Kling's advice is to upload faces that match the output you want.

Reference the element in your prompt as @Element1.

What makes a good reference clip?

Most failed generations trace back to the reference clip. Run every clip through this list before you upload. Each rule comes from Kling's guide or Oakgen's input config.

Kling's guide says that when a result comes out shorter because the motion was too fast, the credits are not refunded in the Kling app. Oakgen bills by the measured length of the reference clip you upload, so trim the messy seconds out yourself.

What makes a good character image?

• Clear body proportions. fal's schema and Oakgen's form both say the character should avoid occlusion and take up more than 5% of the image area. In practice, bigger is better.
• Hands and limbs visible. If the reference waves and your character's hands are in their pockets, the model has to invent hands.
• Room to move. Kling says large motions need space around the character. A tightly cropped portrait cannot do a wide arm sweep.
• Matching framing. A headshot driven by a full-body dance clip gives the model a scale problem it usually solves badly.
• Matching aspect ratio. Use a vertical image with a vertical clip. A horizontal image with a 9:16 dance clip often warps bodies.

Need a character that does not exist yet? Generate a full-body shot in the AI image generator with a neutral pose, arms slightly away from the body and a plain background. If the character appears in more than one video, the AI character consistency guide covers how to keep them recognizable across images first.

How do you use Kling motion control on Oakgen?

1. Open Kling V3 Pro Motion Control.
2. Under Motion Reference, upload your trimmed clip, or pick one of the 11 preset motion clips under the upload field to test.
3. Under Character, upload your character image.
4. Leave Character Orientation on Match Video for dance and full-body motion. Choose Match Image for a posed character plus a prompted camera move, 10 seconds max.
5. Add an optional Description with scene, wardrobe or lighting details. With an element attached, mention @Element1.
6. In the advanced settings, decide on Keep Original Sound, and add an element (front face first, then up to 3 angles) if identity matters.
7. Check the credit estimate, generate, and review the result frame by frame at the start, at the fastest move and at the end.
8. If the output is soft, run it through the AI video upscaler as a separate step.

How much does Kling motion control cost on Oakgen?

Oakgen prices Motion Control per second. Credit prices come from Oakgen's pricing code and the generator shows the exact price before you run. The seconds are the measured length of your reference clip. Credits below were calculated with Oakgen's pricing code on 2026-10-25.

Kling V3 Pro image-to-video on Oakgen uses the same $0.168 per second with audio on, or $0.112 per second with audio off. So motion control costs the same per second as image-to-video with sound, and it copies exact choreography where image-to-video guesses.

Test with a 5-second slice of your reference before you run the full 20 seconds. Most problems, such as wrong framing, limb glitches and face drift, show up early. New Oakgen accounts start with 0 credits, so you need a plan or credit add-on before the first run.

Which prompts work with Kling motion control?

The prompt only steers scene and style here. Keep it short and concrete. Treat these as untested starting points to adapt, since we did not run them for this guide.

1. Dance trend, clean background
A young woman in a cropped white hoodie and wide-leg jeans dancing in a bright minimalist studio, soft daylight from a large window, pale grey studio backdrop.

2. Add a background element (adapted from Kling's own example)
A corgi runs in and circles around the dancer's feet, cozy living room, warm evening lamp light.

3. Spokesperson with identity lock (Match Video, element attached)
@Element1 presenting to camera in a modern kitchen, holding a matte black water bottle, natural window light, shallow depth of field.

4. Stylized character
A 3D animated fox character in a red scarf dancing on a snowy village street at night, string lights, gentle snowfall.

5. Product demo, posed character (Match Image)
A barista in a denim apron behind a coffee counter, slow camera zoom in toward the cup, morning light, steam rising.

6. Wardrobe swap while keeping motion
The same woman wearing a black satin evening dress and gold earrings, rooftop at dusk, city lights behind her.

A few rules help. Describe what you want to see, not the dance steps. Keep the character description consistent with the image, so do not prompt "red hair" on a brunette. For Match Image camera moves, name one move only.

How do you fix common motion control problems?

Which projects suit motion control?

Dance trends. A reference clip carries the exact timing of a routine, which a prompt cannot. Film your own version of the trend on a tripod, then apply it to an illustrated character, a mascot or yourself in a different outfit. The AI dance video guide walks through the photo-to-dance workflow, including music.

Product demos with a spokesperson. Film a team member doing the demo gestures, such as picking up the product, turning it and pointing at a feature. Map it onto a brand character with a facial element and Match Video. Small product details such as labels can still drift, so check every frame.

Character animation and previz. Act out a fight beat or walk cycle on a phone and apply it to concept art. Rigging still does the final job. This shows quickly whether a design reads in motion.

UGC-style ads. Record one creator-style take and apply it to several on-brand characters to test which look performs. A synthetic character should not claim a personal experience nobody had.

Multi-shot stories. Motion control generates one continuous shot. For a sequence, generate each shot with the same character image and element, then cut them together. The Kling 3 multi-shot character consistency workflow covers keeping a character stable across shots, and what Kling 3.0 brought to Oakgen covers the rest of the Kling 3 lineup.

Can you use other people's faces and dance videos?

Faces and bodies. Animate a real person's photo only if it is you or you have their permission. Oakgen's terms say you need the rights and consents for any real likeness you upload, and they do not allow using someone's likeness to impersonate or deceive. Sexualized content of real people is banned outright.

The reference video. A public TikTok is not free stock footage. The recording belongs to whoever made it. The US Copyright Office says choreographic works can be protected once fixed, for example on video, while social dances, commonplace movements and athletic movements may lack enough authorship to qualify. Do not try to judge that line case by case for commercial work.

• Film your own reference, or use a friend who agrees to it.
• For commercial work, use licensed footage or get written permission from the creator.
• Label synthetic people in ads and do not present them as real customers.
• For children's photos, get a parent's consent, and think twice before posting at all.

When is another tool a better choice?

• You want the lowest per-second price. fal still lists Kling 2.6 Pro Motion Control at $0.112 per second, a third less than 3.0. Oakgen does not run 2.6. If faces are small in frame, 2.6 elsewhere may be enough.
• You need 720p output. Kling's own API lists motion control at $0.126 per second for 720p and $0.168 for 1080p. Oakgen has no resolution selector, so a 720p draft costs the same as the full run.
• You need a background from the reference video. Some hosts let you choose whether the scene comes from the reference or the character image. Oakgen's form does not. The scene follows your image plus the prompt.
• You need two characters in one shot. Kling animates one character per generation. Duets need two generations and compositing in an editor.

For Kuaishou's newest model, see how to use Kling 4.0 for vertical Shorts and micro drama episodes.

How we checked this

On 2026-10-25 we read Oakgen's model config for Kling V3 Pro Motion Control and Kling V3 Pro image-to-video (input limits, fields and provider cost), Oakgen's pricing code, the motion preset list, and the list of models Oakgen has removed. On the same date we read Kling's Motion Control user guide, Kling's API pricing page, fal's pages for the 3.0 and 2.6 endpoints, and the US Copyright Office circular on choreography.

Kling's guide does not state the 10-second Match Image limit, the 2,500-character description limit or the three extra element angles. Those come from fal's schema and Oakgen's form. We did not run 3.0 against 2.6 side by side, so the quality claims above are Kling's, and the prompts are untested starting points.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kling motion control?

Kling motion control is a video-to-video mode. It takes the movement from a reference video and applies it to the character in a still image. The output keeps the look of your image and copies the body motion, expressions and pacing of the reference clip.

Which Kling motion control version does Oakgen run?

Oakgen runs Kling V3 Pro Motion Control only, as of 2026-10-25. Kling V2.6 Pro Motion Control was removed from Oakgen. Kling's guide says VIDEO 3.0 Motion Control builds on 2.6 and improves facial consistency, and 3.0 adds facial element binding.

How long can a Kling motion control video be?

Oakgen accepts a reference clip of 3 to 30 seconds with Character Orientation set to Match Video, and at most 10 seconds with Match Image. Those limits come from fal's API schema and Oakgen's form. The output length follows the reference clip, and Kling notes that very fast or complex motion can produce a shorter result.

Does Kling motion control work with two people in the reference video?

It animates one character. Kling's guide says that with several people it uses the person with the largest on-screen presence, and if people take up a similar share of the frame, none may be selected. For duets, generate each dancer separately and composite them.

Is it legal to use someone else's dance video as a motion reference?

Do not assume a video is free to use because it is public. The recording belongs to whoever made it, and the US Copyright Office says choreography can be protected, although social dances and commonplace moves may not qualify. Use your own footage or licensed clips, or get permission, and never animate a real person's photo without their consent.

Sources

1. Kling AI, Motion Control User Guide (VIDEO 3.0 and 2.6)
2. Kling AI, API pricing
3. fal, Kling Video v3 Pro Motion Control model page and schema
4. fal, Kling Video v2.6 Pro Motion Control model page and schema
5. US Copyright Office, Circular 52: Copyright Registration of Choreography and Pantomime
6. Oakgen Terms of Service