Leonardo.Ai Guide: From AI Art and Flow State to Video Generation

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 11:03:14 +0800

Leonardo.Ai is a generative AI platform for creators and design teams. It is mainly used to create images, videos, and design assets. It is not a general chatbot. It is a tool built around visual production workflows: generating images from text, editing with reference images, exploring styles, upscaling images, creating short videos, and connecting image and video generation to your own product through an API.

Official website:

`1`	`https://leonardo.ai/`

App entry:

`1`	`https://app.leonardo.ai/`

If you are familiar with tools such as Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Firefly, or Canva Magic Media, you can think of Leonardo.Ai as an AI visual platform with a stronger production workflow focus. It is not only about producing one image. It helps you keep exploring, editing, upscaling, animating, and maintaining style consistency around the same creative direction, with API access when needed.

What Leonardo.Ai Can Do

Leonardo.Ai’s main features can be grouped into several areas.

The first is AI image generation. You enter a prompt, choose a model, style, and parameters, then generate realistic images, illustrations, concept art, product images, character designs, scenes, advertising assets, and more. The official site emphasizes high-quality visual generation from simple prompts or custom models.

The second is image editing. After generating an image, you can keep refining it, such as adjusting local areas, removing unwanted objects, changing composition, or preserving a character or style, instead of starting from scratch every time.

The third is video generation. Leonardo.Ai can turn static visuals into motion, which is useful for short video concepts, ad assets, social media content, product showcases, and storyboards. The platform also integrates multiple video generation models so users can choose based on the scenario.

The fourth is Flow State. This feature is useful at the early ideation stage. You enter a simple description, and it quickly gives you multiple visual directions. When you find a direction you like, you can continue with options such as “More Like This” to narrow the style, lighting, composition, and color palette.

The fifth is Blueprints. These are closer to preset workflows for people who do not want to tune complex parameters themselves. For example, you can generate a rotating product video from a single product image, remove objects, or turn an empty room into a furnished space.

The sixth is the API. Developers can use the Leonardo API for text-to-image, image-to-image, image-to-video, image editing, custom model training, upscaling, and related workflows, then connect media generation to their own apps, websites, workflows, or content platforms.

Who It Is For

Leonardo.Ai is useful for these scenarios:

Creators, designers, and marketing teams generating covers, ads, and social media assets.
Game, art, and film concept design for exploring characters, scenes, props, and visual styles.
E-commerce and brand teams creating product scenes, backgrounds, campaign visuals, and short videos.
Content teams building video storyboards, shot concepts, and animated visuals.
Developers adding image or video generation to their own products through the API.

If you only generate a fun image once in a while, Leonardo.Ai can still work. But it is more valuable for people who need to iterate visual directions, keep a media library, and produce a series of related assets.

How To Get Started

The basic workflow is simple.

Open https://app.leonardo.ai/ and sign in.
Enter the Image or Video tool.
Write a prompt describing the subject, style, scene, lighting, aspect ratio, and intended use.
Choose a model or preset. If you are unsure about the style, start with Flow State.
After generation, pick the result closest to your goal and continue editing, upscaling, or using it as a video start frame.
Save it to your Library so it can be used in the same project or as the basis for similar versions.

A practical prompt structure looks like this:

`1`	`Subject + use case + style + composition + lighting + colors + aspect ratio + what you do not want`

For example:

`1`	`A premium smartwatch on a dark marble table, product advertising photography, close-up composition, soft studio lighting, black and silver color palette, high detail, 16:9, no text, no watermark`

For Chinese-language content, you can start with Chinese prompts, but English is often more stable for visual style, photography terms, and camera language. In practice, try both Chinese and English versions and compare the results.

How To Use Flow State

Flow State helps when you know roughly what you want but do not know the visual direction yet.

For example, if you are making a premium watch ad but are unsure whether it should be black-and-gold, outdoor, minimalist studio, or futuristic, you can do this:

Enter Flow State.
Type a simple description, such as A professional photograph of an elegant luxury watch.
Browse the continuous visual directions.
When you see a composition or style that works, choose a “More Like This” style option to keep generating in that direction.
Save the image you like to the media library, then move into editing, upscaling, or video generation.

The value of this feature is that it reduces blank-page pressure. Many creative projects do not need a perfect prompt at the start. They need enough options to see what is possible.

Making Videos With Leonardo

Leonardo.Ai’s video feature is well suited to image-first motion work. A common workflow is:

Generate a key visual with Image or Flow State.
Select the best image as the start frame.
Enter the Video tool and describe the motion you want.
After generation, check whether the subject deforms, the camera is stable, and brand or product details remain intact.
If the result is not good enough, go back to the image stage, adjust the start frame, and generate again.

AI video can still suffer from detail drift, deformed hands, incorrect text, and unstable product structures. For commercial assets, it is better to treat Leonardo.Ai as a concept and asset production tool. Final videos still need human review and post-production.

When The API Makes Sense

The Leonardo API is for developers and enterprise workflows. The official site says it supports text-to-image, image-to-image, image-to-video, LoRA training, custom presets, upscaling, and related capabilities.

Good use cases include:

Batch-generating product scene images in an e-commerce backend.
Giving users cover or poster generation inside a content platform.
Creating multiple ad variants from brand templates.
Generating avatars, props, or backgrounds inside a game or app.
Connecting visual generation to internal automation workflows.

API pricing is based on API Credit usage. The official site provides trial credit, pay-as-you-go options, and custom plans. Before production use, evaluate concurrency limits, generation cost, content review, copyright terms, uploaded image privacy, and commercial usage rules.

Pricing And Tokens

Leonardo.Ai has free allowances and paid plans. The pricing page says free users get daily tokens, while paid users get larger monthly token allowances. Some plans also include rollover tokens, top-up tokens, team features, and higher concurrency.

Two details matter.

First, one token does not equal one image. Different models, resolutions, videos, upscaling, background removal, and other actions consume different amounts. The real cost depends on the computing load.

Second, prices and limits can change. When writing tutorials or guides, do not treat a specific package price as permanent. Let readers check the official Pricing page.

Relationship With Canva

Leonardo.Ai is now part of Canva. Canva announced the acquisition of Leonardo.Ai in July 2024 to strengthen its visual AI and generative design capabilities. Canva’s announcement said Leonardo.Ai would continue developing its own web platform while accelerating with Canva’s resources, research capability, and content ecosystem.

Leonardo.Ai’s own announcement also stressed that after joining Canva, it would continue to operate as Leonardo.Ai as an independent platform, with existing tools, community, plans, and pricing continuing, while some capabilities would gradually appear inside Canva.

So you can understand it this way:

Leonardo.Ai is a generative visual AI platform within the Canva ecosystem.
It still has its own website and app entry.
Canva users may see more Leonardo.Ai capabilities inside Canva over time.
For regular users, the most direct entry is still app.leonardo.ai.

Practical Advice

If this is your first time using Leonardo.Ai, try this order:

Use Flow State to find a visual direction.
Use Image to generate the formal asset.
Use editing and Upscaler to refine details and clarity.
If you need a short video, use the selected image as the start frame.
If you need batch production, then consider the API or a team plan.

Do not start by obsessing over complex parameters. Clarifying the subject, purpose, style, and reference images matters more than switching models blindly. The real time-saving value of AI visual tools is not that they produce a perfect image in one try. It is that they let you see many directions quickly and then narrow them down to something usable.

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