How to prompt MiniMax H3 Max

The only prompt box

This studio has one prompt field. Official MiniMax H3 Max does not expose a negative prompt on the fields we send. You cannot list twenty “no” words and expect a clean plate. Describe the frame you want, including empty streets and quiet rooms.

Prompt expansion (Balanced or Quality) rewrites that box before the model sees it. It is not a second creative brief. If the source sentence is empty, expansion fills it with generic cinema.

How to prompt MiniMax H3 Max does not change by resolution. 480P and 768P read the same text. Duration changes how much story the text must carry.

Four parts, one paragraph

Write in this order. You can use four sentences or one tight block.

1. Subject — who or what is on screen, and what changes.
2. Camera — locked tripod, slow push-in, track, pan, crane, handheld. One axis is enough.
3. Light — practicals, neon, overcast, a swinging spotlight, dusk beach.
4. Sound — room, foley, score, quoted dialogue.

A product block:

Macro shot of a glass perfume bottle on wet black slate. A warm spotlight swings across the label and catches a gold mist. Sound: a single glass tap, then a short aerosol hiss and a low studio bed.

A people block:

Cinematic close-up of a detective under a fogged street lamp. He says, "The ledger was in the coat the whole time." Sound: slow footsteps on wet stone and one distant bell.

A wide block:

Wide crane down to a vintage coupe on a dusk beach. The driver checks the mirror, then the car pulls away along wet sand. Sound: surf, a door latch, then a rising engine.

Copy one, generate 5 seconds, unmute. That is the craft loop.

Time is part of the prompt

Five seconds is one action. Ten seconds is two beats. Fifteen is three. If you buy 15 seconds and describe one bottle turn, you paid for a slow bottle turn.

Mark the clock when you leave 5 seconds:

0–5s: wide crane down to a vintage coupe on a dusk beach. 5–10s: the driver checks the mirror. 10–15s: the car pulls away along the wet sand. Sound: surf, a door latch, then a rising engine.

Do not paste a 15-second shot list into a 5-second job. The model will crush it.

Mode changes what the prompt owns

Text to video: the prompt owns framing. Pick an aspect ratio. Name the shot size.

Image to video: the still owns framing. The prompt owns motion and sound. Do not fight the still with “now make it an aerial.”

Reference to video: the prompt still needs the four parts. Then name files: “Follow the motion of Video 1. Keep the label from Image 1.”

Wrong-mode prompting is the most expensive habit on this site.

Words that do nothing

Cinematic. Luxury. Viral. Masterpiece. 8K. Unreal Engine. Award-winning color. “Like a Nike ad.” Those phrases do not lock a lens or a tap. Replace them with a camera and a sound.

“No crowd, no text, no watermark” is a negative list. Write “empty wet street, clean bottle label, no on-screen type.”

“Make it better” on a second run does nothing unless you change one of the four parts.

Seed, expansion, and iteration

Fix a seed when you are comparing one wording change. Do not treat a seed as a character ID across days.

Stay on Balanced while you hunt for the camera. Switch to Quality when the four parts are already specific and you want the stack to flesh them out.

Change one thing per take: the camera sentence, or the quoted line, or the duration. Six 5-second drafts at 25 credits each is 150 credits. Six 15-second essays is 450.

If you cannot mark time and sound, you are not ready to generate.

Safety is not a style

The safety checker and Waffo Prompt Sift read the same box. Adult, graphic, or child-unsafe requests are blocked. We do not treat a policy block like a refundable platform error. Write another brief.

Do not prompt other people’s faces, logos, or tracks you do not control. The Terms and Acceptable Use Policy apply even when the wording is clever.

A prompt you can reuse

Keep a short library:

• Packshot: locked macro, one light move, two foley hits.
• Dialogue close-up: face, one quoted line, one room cue.
• Exit: wide, a vehicle or person leaves, rising bed.

Swap nouns. Do not rebuild the grammar every time. That is how you stop paying to rediscover the same four parts.

Worked rewrites

Bad: Cinematic luxury perfume ad, 8K, no text, viral.

Better: Macro of a glass bottle on wet black slate. Slow spotlight swing across the label. Sound: one glass tap, then a short hiss and a low studio bed.

Bad: Make a man talk about the case like a movie.

Better: Close-up of a detective under a fogged street lamp. He says, "The ledger was in the coat the whole time." Sound: footsteps on wet stone, one distant bell.

The second versions name a lens, an action, and a mix. That is how to prompt MiniMax H3 Max when you are not wasting a 25-credit test. Save those two blocks in a notes file and only swap the noun, the quoted line, and the foley. You will spend fewer credits rediscovering grammar you already proved on the last job.

FAQ

Is there a negative prompt for MiniMax H3 Max?

Not on the official fields this studio sends. Describe the frame you want.

Should I write a long prompt?

Write four parts. Mark time on 10–15 second jobs. Length without beats is not better.

Does Quality expansion replace prompting?

No. It rewrites a specific brief. It cannot invent a shot from “cinematic ad.”

Where do I put dialogue?

In quotation marks, in the same prompt, short enough for the duration.