Evili takes a photo you provide and a template you pick, and generates a video or an image from it. Here is the whole path, so you know what to expect before you spend anything.
1. Pick a template
Open Templates (the + button at the bottom of the screen on a phone). Templates are grouped by category, and Search templates finds one by name. Each card shows its coin cost. Opening a template tells you what is worth reading first:
- What you need — one photo, or two, and sometimes a line of your own,
- You get — a video or an image (and its shape, where the template states one),
- Costs — the coins it spends,
- Approval frame — on templates that make a still first, what that frame costs,
- Watermark — none.
Press Make this to set it up. You need to be signed in for this step; if signing in takes you away from the template, open it again from Templates.
2. Add your photo
You choose the photo yourself: upload one, pick one you have saved, or press Use camera on a phone to take one. Nothing is taken unless you do one of those. Upload a JPEG, PNG, WebP or HEIC under 20 MB. A clear, well-lit, front-facing photo of one person gives the best result — see The result isn't what I expected for what actually helps.
A template that needs two photos shows Photo 1 and Photo 2. Both are needed before Generate works, and your saved photos can fill either one.
You can save up to three reference photos so you do not have to find them again each time. A saved photo has to be under 10 MB; when you have three, delete one to add another. Saved photos are under Settings → Saved photos (Me in the bottom bar on a phone), and you can delete them there at any time.
If the screen says "That photo cannot be used here. Try a different one.", an automatic check turned the photo down before anything started. It is not a judgement about you: try a different photo, and write to support@evili.ai if you think the check got it wrong.
Some templates also ask you to describe the scene in a line of your own, and some let you choose a Length, Quality or Frame. Where a template offers no choices, it says Fixed by this template.
One rule with no exceptions: only upload a photo of yourself, or of someone who has agreed to be in it. See Whose photo you may upload.
3. Start it
Press Generate. The button shows the coin cost, and pressing it reserves those coins and starts the generation. If a template makes a frame first, the note under the button says so: only the frame's coins move now, and the rest move when you approve the frame. If it fails, the coins come back.
4. Watch it, or don't
The generation runs in four steps and the screen tells you which one it is on. You do not have to stay on that screen, and you can close the tab. While it runs, a chip in the header shows it wherever you go in Evili; select it to come back. When it lands, the chip says Ready — open it (Ready on a phone) for a few seconds, or Could not finish it (Failed) if it did not finish. After that, you will find it in My generations.
Evili does not send phone or browser notifications; the chip only shows while Evili is open. Want an e-mail instead? Turn on Email me when a generation is ready under Settings → Preferences (Me in the bottom bar on a phone). If that e-mail does not arrive, check your spam folder; the result is in My generations either way.
Once you press Generate, the generation cannot be cancelled — it runs to the end. That is why the coin cost is shown before you press it.
5. Find it in My generations
Everything you have made is under My generations (Library on a phone), with All, Video and Image filters for the kinds you have made. Open a finished item to:
- Download it — do this for anything you want to keep (Download is also on the tile itself),
- Share it — on a phone this usually opens your share sheet with the file itself; elsewhere it gives you a private link (copied for you on a computer). Anyone with that link can see that result and download it. Nothing you make is public unless you share it yourself. See I shared a result — who can see it?,
- Generate again — makes it again from the same template and the same photo, and spends coins again,
- Delete it.
The one deadline to know about
A finished generation, and the photo behind it, are deleted 30 days after it finishes. That applies to everyone, including subscribers. Download what you want to keep. See Downloads, and the 30-day window.
Things worth knowing up front
- Every result is generated by AI. It is not a recording of anything that happened, and you should not present it as one.
- The same input can produce a different result twice. Models are probabilistic. This is normal, not a fault.
- You own what you make, and you may use it commercially — post it, advertise with it, sell it. We do not use your photos or your results to train models and we do not put them in the catalogue.
Anything not covered here: support@evili.ai.