However you can save tokens if you choose the right tool or the fast version of a model. This guide helps to make a good choice.

You can access many of them within an aggregate site like Leonardo.Ai. They continuously integrate the newest and most popular AI models into their app.

Prices and subscriptions

To test these tools I decided to subscribe to Canva Business. I explain why I made this decision.

I had two options:

Option #1: subscribe to the Leonardo.Ai Essential plan.

Option #2: subscribe to Canva Business, because it contains also the access to Leonardo.Ai Essential.

I chose the 2nd option because I already have a Canva Pro subscription and this upgrade is the most budget friendly option for me.

Here is a table with the approximate prices in case of monthly subscription in April 2026:

Canva Pro costs about $16 / month (so this is only a +$6 expense for me).

Tip: if you plan to use Leonardo or Canva for long time, then yearly subscription is a better deal.

If you have done everything correctly, than after Leonardo.Ai login with Canva Account you get this popup message:

And you see in the bottom left corner, that you have 8500 Fast Tokens:

The testing method

I used the same parameters and prompt for all AI video models (edit: if a specific AI video generator model is too sensitive, then some prompt refinement is needed). This uniform testing parameters allow for fair comparison.

The main parameters are:

• 16:9 aspect ratio
• 480p resolution
• generate audio – if this feature is available
• length: 8s – if possible (alternatively 5s)

The prompt

A young man in a dark wool overcoat and waistcoat walks alone through a narrow cobblestone street in Victorian London at dawn. Rain falls steadily, soaking the streets and forming rippling puddles that reflect the dim glow of gas lamps. Horse-drawn carriages pass in the distance, their wheels splashing through the wet road, while faint smoke drifts from nearby chimneys into the cool morning air. He pauses beside a small street-side tea stall, steam rising from a freshly poured cup, and turns to look over his shoulder with a calm, knowing expression. The camera slowly pushes in on his face. Cinematic lighting, shallow depth of field, shot on a vintage 50mm cinema lens, moody and atmospheric.

1. Seedance 2.0

This video generator is available on Leonardo.Ai.

A standard resolution (480p), 8 second video in Seedance 2.0 model costs 1124 tokens, but you have 150 free tokens per day.

Remark: you can save tokens if you use Seedance 2.0 fast model.

The user interface is easy-to-use:

The Result

First generation was failed due to the strict rules of Seedance. I altered the prompt slightly to this:

A lone figure in a dark wool overcoat and waistcoat walks through a narrow cobblestone street in Victorian London at dawn. Rain falls steadily, soaking the streets and forming rippling puddles that reflect the dim glow of gas lamps. Horse-drawn carriages pass in the distance, their wheels splashing through the wet road, while faint smoke drifts from nearby chimneys into the cool morning air. He pauses beside a small street-side tea stall, steam rising from a freshly poured cup, and turns slightly as if aware of something behind him. The camera slowly pushes forward, keeping his face partially obscured by shadow. Cinematic lighting, shallow depth of field, vintage film lens look, moody and atmospheric, slightly stylized.

The generation took about 460 seconds (almost 8 minutes).

My summary: Seedance in Leonardo.Ai is easy to use. This tool followed my instructions almost exactly. I like the overall mood, the music and sounds. I only miss the visible rain, but the cobblestone is wet and the wheel splashes are also visible.

2. Veo 3.1 Lite

Google’s AI video generator is available in Leonardo.Ai with various models. I selected the 3.1 Lite version, which is a fast, low-cost video generator.

I tried first the original prompt, not the fine-tuned “Seedance-version”.

Remark: the lowest resolution is 720p, not 480p, so I generated the video with that quality. The cost is only 400 tokens (standard Veo 3.1 model costs 3200 tokens!).

The video was completed in about 1 minute.

My opinion: you can clearly see, that the image quality is very good, it’s a cinematic video, but thanks to the lite version there are many inaccuracies: the floating cup, the character suddenly turning around, and the lamp appearing out of nowhere. Seedance video has a better vibe.

Maybe I try the accurate model later and update this article, but it’s very expensive (3200 tokens as I mentioned).

Veo 3.1 Lite is ideal for prototyping, but not for production-like movies.

Pros:

• good atmosphere
• visible rain
• veo accepted my first prompt

Cons:

• short generation time comes with inaccurate results and strange errors
• no background music

2. Veo 3.1 Standard

Update: I added a new test. This is the standard Veo 3.1 result (not the lite version).

The rendering time was about 2 minutes.

My short summary about Veo 3.1:

• this video is more accurate, but still has some problems:
  • in his right hand an umbrella appears first, but at the tea stall it turns to a cup
  • the Horse-drawn carriage emits smoke in the background, not a chimney

3. Runway

This test coming soon.

Unfortunately this video generator is not available in Leonardo.

4. Sora 2

Sora from OpenAI is also a popular video generator. Let’s test what it can do!

The only resolution for a 16:9 video is 1280 x 720 (HD) as you can see on the image above.

The cost of this generation is 800 tokens. (There is also a Sora 2 Pro model which costs 3x more, 2400 tokens, but we test the standard Sora 2 at this time.)

This video took about 2 minutes to generate.

The overall image quality is good, this is a moody, cinematic video with classical look. I like it. But Sora 2 does not follow the plot: just a very slight turn to the side, he does not stop at the tea stall.

And maybe I should refine the prompt, because I wanted the camera to follow the guy from behind, like in the Seedance video.

Pros:

• very good cinematic visual quality
• even footsteps have a sound

Cons:

• mid or low quality sound
• no music
• Sora did not followed the plot

5. Kling Video 3.0

I decided to use the standard Kling Video 3.0 model, because it is not so expensive and promises strong visual consistency.

The lowest resolution I can choose is HD.
This video costs 1008 tokens.

Kling needed 270 secs (about 4.5 minutes) to generate this video.

My evaluation: I like the overall mood, colors, the lens type and cinematic look. I also like the implementation of the plot. The “dramatic” pause before he turns back is perfect.

Pros:

• real cinematic look with realistic colors and depth of field
• very realistic result
• good sound quality

Cons:

• no music, but it is possible that you need to ask for this directly in the prompt

6. Hailuo 2.3

I chose the standard model, not the fast.

A big difference to other video generator models that Hailuo can use different visual styles. I tried to align the styles to the vibe of this theme.

See my image for the settings:

This video costed 224 tokens, so it’s very cost-friendly.

This 10 sec video was about 2 minutes to generate.

This video is a little bit scary, like a shot from a thriller movie. Unfortunately, the gas lamps are not lit. There is no option to generate sound.

Pros:

• a strong, thriller-like mood
• very good image quality

Cons:

• maybe the overall color is too blueish, but the reason can be the Foggy lighting style.
• the cobblestones look like artificial (computer-generated)
• no sound
  

Summary

My personal favorite is Seedance and Kling. They both gave me the result I wanted. Hailuo is also promising and cost-friendly.

AI video generators are very popular in 2026. You have the choice to select and test your favorite app. The decision is not always easy, because the quality, prompt adherence and token cost is depends on which model and parameters you choose. I hope, that this short article can help you to start with AI videos.

Later, I would like to write an article about the most popular AI video generators separately to give you prompting tips regarding camera movement for example.

I know that other AI video generators existing on the market of course, but I think that these above are way enough to experiment with.

Do you have experience with AI video generators? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

The post The Best AI Video Generators – I tested them, here are the results appeared first on AI Art Blog.

I would like to list here the most useful and budget-friendly (possibly free) tools for graphic design.

3D Software

Blender – an open source creative software for modeling, sculpting, lighting, rendering of 3D images. Completely free. It has a long learning curve, but lot of free learning materials are available on the web.
It contains also a professional video editing tool.

Digital painting

Krita – Free and open source painting software. User friendly UI, huge set of brushes, ability to create tilable textures and patterns and a lot more.

Procreate – this software made for Mac users. Not free, but on low budget if you have an Apple product. The Procreate team clearly defines that they don’t plan to implement any generative AI functions to their apps, which can really support the real artists and creative, human made artwork. Read about this on their the official site.

Sketchbook – I really like this drawing software because of the good drawing tools like pencil, pens, brushes and much more. If you have a stylus then using this tool can be a very good drawing experience. Sketchbook is available for desktop and mobile devices (Mac and Android and even Windows). Free for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. It has a Pro Mac version which is not free.

Photo editing

Canva is an online, web-based graphic design and photo editing tool. Canva has a free version, but it has also premium plans. This software contains an inbuilt AI image generator (with limited usage in the free plan), so not clearly a “noAI” tool, but it has many traditional design features.

GIMP – free image editing and painting software. Similar to Adobe Photoshop and Affinity Photo. Adobe and Affinity products are more user-friendly, but GIMP is free and it doesn’t have AI features, just the classic selecting and painting tools and image filters.

Web design

Placeholder image generator – use this excellent free tool if you would like to create photos in different categories, in custom sizes for your website design or prototype. More image formats are available like jpeg, png and even webp.

Vector graphics design

Affinity Designer – not free, but relatively cheap and not subscription-based.

Inkscape – this is probably the most popular and free vector graphics editor for Windows, macOS and Linux

Video editing

Shotcut – free and open source video editor. Fast cutting, wide range of video and audio effects, 4k video editing and much more. I recommend to watch the tutorials on the official site to get familiar with the UI.

Do you have a great tool which is not on this list? Write a short sentence about it and send the link in the comment section below or send it to our mail address: hello at aiartblog.com.

The post Collection of NoAI Tools appeared first on AI Art Blog.