Compare AI video tools
M Studio starts from your screenplay: it plans the shots, makes a storyboard picture and a video clip for each one, and adds voice, music and sound on a timeline in one project.
M Studio is a Runway alternative for filmmakers who start from a finished screenplay. Pick Runway if you want many video models in one place (Gen-4.5, Aleph 2.0, Kling 3.0, Seedance 2.5), need Aleph 2.0 to change footage you already shot, or want to generate inside Premiere Pro, After Effects or DaVinci Resolve with Runway's plugins. Pick M Studio if you have a finished screenplay and want it planned into a shot list with a storyboard picture, a clip, voiceover and music for every shot, on a $27/month plan; for our 2-minute pitch-trailer job, the Runway plan whose included credits cover it is Max at $95/month.
Switching is probably not worth it if you already finish your edits inside Premiere Pro, After Effects or Resolve with Runway's plugins, or you need Aleph 2.0 to change footage you shot, and you do not need a screenplay planned into shots for you.
Prepared by the M Studio team. Last checked against Runway ML’s own pages. How we checked
M Studio vs Runway ML
Starting point
Import a screenplay PDF (up to 25 MB) or write a brief. M Studio plans scenes, a shot list and the cast, then writes each shot's picture and video prompt.
Video generation
One model, MiniMax H3: text or picture to video, shots of 5 to 15 seconds, up to 9 reference images per shot.
Consistent characters
One reference image per character. Every shot that mentions the character sends that image to the picture and video model.
Script to cut
Script, storyboard, video clips, voice, music, and sound without moving files between tools
One session
First cut in one session: storyboard, video clips, and an animatic from your script
Edit-ready
Export MP4, WebM, or MOV (1080p on Starter, 4K from Professional), or hand the cut to your editor as FCPXML or EDL
Models from these AI providers
At a glance
M Studio reads a screenplay PDF and plans scenes, a shot list and the cast, then writes each shot's picture and video prompt. Runway's Agent reads a PDF brief or script and builds video in a conversation, with a timeline inside it.
M Studio makes every clip with MiniMax H3. Runway's paid plans include its own Gen-4.5 and Aleph 2.0 plus partner models such as Kling 3.0 and Seedance 2.5.
M Studio plans include a dollar budget for pictures and video; voiceover, music and sound effects do not draw on it. Runway plans include credits that every tool uses, audio included.
Static board vs motion
Drag the handle to compare a static storyboard with the video clip M Studio makes from it.
Drag the handle to compare the static board with the M Studio video clip.
Script, characters, pictures, video, voice and the timeline that ties them together — every part of making a film lives in one place. Pick a tool to see it in action.
Editor — Lay your shots out on a real timeline and cut them together.
Feature by feature
The answer in each cell, with the plan it needs. A check marks the stronger side for a writer-director making a film from a script; an equals sign means neither is stronger. Each Runway ML cell links the page we read it on.
| What you need | M Studio | Runway ML |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $27/month, billed monthly; no free plan | Stronger here:Free plan (125 one-time credits); Standard $15/month billed monthly, or $12/month billed yearly (625 credits a month)Read on runway.com, Oct 15, 2026 |
| Starting point | About the same:Import a screenplay PDF (up to 25 MB) or write a brief. M Studio plans scenes, a shot list and the cast, then writes each shot's picture and video prompt. | About the same:Runway Agent reads a PDF brief or script up to 10 MB and can assemble a multi-shot scene on a timeline in the same conversation. All plans.Read on runway.com, Oct 15, 2026 (All plans) |
| Video generation | One model, MiniMax H3: text or picture to video, shots of 5 to 15 seconds, up to 9 reference images per shot. | Stronger here:Gen-4.5: text or image to video, 2 to 10 seconds, 720p output, 12 credits a second, Standard plan and up. Paid plans also include Aleph 2.0 and partner models (see below).Read on help.runwayml.com, Oct 15, 2026 (Gen-4.5, Standard and up) |
| Consistent characters | About the same:One reference image per character. Every shot that mentions the character sends that image to the picture and video model. | About the same:Saved references: upload an image, name it and @-mention it in a prompt to keep a character consistent across scenes. Which reference types work depends on the model.Read on help.runwayml.com, Oct 15, 2026 |
| Voice, music and sound effects | About the same:Voiceover in 12 languages, music and sound effects, made in the project and mixed on a timeline (volume, trim, fade). Starter includes 50,000 voice characters and 20 sound-effect generations; none of it draws on the budget. | About the same:Music, voice and sound-effect generation on Standard and up, paid in credits: text to speech is 1 credit per 50 characters, a Lyria 3 Pro song 8 credits. One custom voice clone on Pro, three on Max.Read on runway.com, Oct 15, 2026 (Standard) |
| Editing and editor handoff | About the same:Storyboard canvas and a timeline. Export MP4, WebM or MOV, plus a delivery package with FCPXML and EDL for Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve or Final Cut Pro. 1080p export on Starter; 4K on Professional ($99/month). | About the same:Studio timeline to trim, stitch, reorder and export a video (all plans). Plugins run Runway inside Premiere Pro and After Effects (Sep 8, 2026) and DaVinci Resolve (Sep 23, 2026) on paid plans.Read on runway.com, Oct 15, 2026 |
| Lip sync and performance | About the same:Lip sync of your own picture to a voice line or an audio clip, made with MiniMax H3. | About the same:Act-Two moves a character image or video to match a recorded performance video, with its speech and expressions: 5 credits a second, up to 30 seconds, Standard and up.Read on help.runwayml.com, Oct 15, 2026 (Standard and up) |
| Usage on the entry plan | Stronger here:Starter, $27/month: a $90 budget, which buys 1,800 seconds of video at $0.05 a second, or 360 GPT Image pictures at $0.25. Top up a wallet past it; nothing is charged without a top-up. | Standard, $15/month: 625 credits, which Runway says is 52 seconds of Gen-4.5 or 78 Gen-4 Images (1080p). Monthly credits do not roll over; you can buy extra credits, at least 1,000 at a time.Read on runway.com, Oct 15, 2026 (Standard) |
| Review and team seats | Stronger here:Starter includes 2 seats. Team members comment on each shot; clients watch through a read-only share link. | Team plan: $69 per seat a month billed monthly ($55 billed yearly), starting at 2 seats, 2 to 9 members, frame-accurate comments with @mentions, shared projects and one credit pool.Read on runway.com, Oct 15, 2026 (Team) |
Same job, both tools
24 shots of 5 seconds, each with a storyboard picture and a video clip, plus a voiceover and music. Budget three takes of every clip and two of every picture. One person, one month, billed monthly.
$27/month
Starter, billed monthly
Starter includes a $90 monthly generation budget. A storyboard picture costs $0.25 (GPT Image) and video costs $0.05 a second (MiniMax H3), so the 48 pictures and 72 five-second clips use $30 of it. Voiceover, music and sound effects do not draw on the budget. Exports are 1080p; 4K export needs Professional at $99/month.
Read on mstudio.ai, Oct 25, 2026$95/month
Max, billed monthly
At Runway's published rates the job is about 4,750 credits: 360 seconds of Gen-4.5 at 12 credits a second (4,320), 48 Gen-4 Images at 8 credits (384), about 40 credits for a 2-minute voiceover (1 credit per 50 characters) and 8 for a Lyria 3 Pro track. Max includes 9,500 credits; Pro ($35/month, 2,250 credits) would need about 2,500 bought credits, and Runway does not publish what bought credits cost. Gen-4.5 clips are 720p, with 4K upscaling on paid plans.
Read on runway.com, Oct 15, 2026 (Max)Decision fit
M Studio reads the PDF and plans scenes, a shot list and the cast, then writes each shot's picture and video prompt, so you can review the storyboard before you make any clips.
Starter includes $90 a month for pictures and video at published prices: $0.25 a GPT Image picture and $0.05 a second of video. Voiceover, music and sound effects do not draw on it.
The delivery package carries FCPXML and EDL, so the cut opens as a timeline in Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve or Final Cut Pro.
Starter has 2 seats. Teammates comment on each shot, and a client watches through a read-only share link.
Decision fit
Paid plans include Runway's own Gen-4.5 and Aleph 2.0 plus partner models such as Kling 3.0 and Seedance 2.5. Agent picks a model for the task, or uses the one you ask for.
Aleph 2.0 in Edit Studio edits the rest of a video to match a frame you change (paid plans, since May 21, 2026).
Runway plugins run in Premiere Pro and After Effects (since Sep 8, 2026) and DaVinci Resolve (since Sep 23, 2026) on paid plans. ProRes or PNG-sequence output for Gen-4.5 costs 5 extra credits a second; Runway's changelog says Pro and up, its pricing page lists it under Max.
The Free plan gives 125 one-time credits. Gen-4.5 needs Standard ($15/month) or higher.
Sources:Read on runway.com, Oct 15, 2026Read on runway.com, Oct 15, 2026Read on runway.com, Oct 15, 2026Read on help.runwayml.com, Oct 15, 2026 (ProRes and PNG sequences)Read on help.runwayml.com, Oct 15, 2026
Switching
Switching is probably not worth it if you already finish your edits inside Premiere Pro, After Effects or Resolve with Runway's plugins, or you need Aleph 2.0 to change footage you shot, and you do not need a screenplay planned into shots for you.
How we checked
Prepared by the M Studio team. We make M Studio, so read this as a vendor's comparison and check the linked sources. Each fact about another product links the page we read it on, with the date we read it. "Read on" means we read it on that vendor's own pricing page, docs or release notes; we did not run its product for this page. M Studio facts come from our live plans and model list. We last checked the Runway ML facts on .
Why M Studio
Script, storyboard, video clips, voice, sound, and export, with no handoffs between single-purpose tools.
Script, storyboard, video, voice, and sound in a single workflow — no tool switching.
Export the finished film in 4K on Professional and up (1080p on Starter).
Write, direct, and narrate films end to end — scripts, dialogue, and voiceover in your language.
You own what you make — use it commercially, on YouTube or for clients.
How it works
M Studio builds a film shot by shot, and you direct every shot — this is the whole path, start to finish.
Start from a one-line brief, or import a screenplay PDF and build straight from the pages you already wrote.
Scenes, action and dialogue laid out shot by shot — editable line by line before anything renders.
Add each character once with a reference image so the same face carries across every shot in the film.
Your script breaks into shots on a canvas. Reorder, reframe and re-prompt any shot until the board reads right.
Turn approved storyboard pictures into video clips one shot at a time, then layer voiceover, music and sound effects.
Take the finished cut out as an MP4, MOV or WebM, up to 4K on Professional and up, ready for the edit or the pitch.
There is no length cap in the editor. Because films are made shot by shot, how long a film can run comes down to how many video clips your plan includes — not a limit in the tool.
FAQ
Common questions about workflow, AI generation, audio integration, and export capability.
It depends on how much you make. Runway is cheaper to start: it has a free plan, and Standard is $15/month for 625 credits, against M Studio's $27/month Starter. For our 2-minute pitch trailer (72 five-second clips, 48 pictures, voiceover and music), M Studio uses $30 of Starter's $90 budget, while Runway needs about 4,750 credits, which the $95/month Max plan includes.
No. M Studio makes clips with MiniMax H3 and does not run Runway's models. If you need Gen-4.5 or Aleph 2.0 for some shots, make them in Runway and upload the files to the M Studio project.
Yes. Runway's Agent reads a PDF brief or script up to 10 MB and can assemble a multi-shot scene on a timeline. M Studio is built around that step: it plans scenes, a shot list, the cast and each shot's prompts from the screenplay before any clip is made.
It depends on how you edit. Runway runs as a plugin inside Premiere Pro, After Effects and DaVinci Resolve, and offers ProRes output on its higher plans (Pro and up in its changelog, Max on its pricing page). M Studio exports MP4, WebM or MOV plus FCPXML and EDL, so the whole cut opens as a timeline in Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve or Final Cut Pro.
No. There is no importer for Runway projects. Download the clips, pictures and audio you want to keep and upload them as files; M Studio plans the shots again from your screenplay.
Related pages
Try it on your own script
Go from script and shots to storyboard pictures, video clips, and sound without moving between tools.
$1 today for 24 hoursThen from $27/mo unless you cancelReminder email ~6h before it ends