How to Use Kling 3.0 Motion Control: A Developer's Guide (Web + API)

What Is Kling 3.0 Motion Control

Motion Control takes one character image and one driving (reference) video, then generates a video in which the character matches the reference's movements, facial expressions, and — optionally — camera orientation. The visual identity comes from your image; the motion comes from your video.

What changed from 2.6 to 3.0

If you used Motion Control on Kling 2.6, the 3.0 upgrade is about consistency and physics rather than a new interface:

• Better identity preservation — less face drift across the clip.
• Grounded physics — feet stay anchored instead of "sliding on ice."
• Element consistency — multi-angle face and outfit detail hold up better through turns.
• Longer outputs — up to 30 seconds when orientation follows the video.
• Faster inference — materially quicker turnaround per generation.
  One behavior to keep in mind: 3.0 Motion Control transfers movement only. It does not blend scene elements from the driving video into your character — the output sticks to the character image you supplied.

Kling 3.0 pro Motion Control vs Kling 3.0 std Motion Control

The two tiers run the same model with different output quality. Use std while you iterate on the reference video and prompt, then switch to pro for the final render.

"Per Time" means the final cost scales with the generation you run; the model page's playground shows the live total before you submit.

Input Requirements (Read This First — It Saves Credits)

Most failed generations come from bad inputs, not the model. The single biggest predictor of a clean result is the quality of frame 1 and the driving video.

Character image

• One person, clean half-body or full-body framing.
• Face clearly visible and reasonably large in the frame — small faces force the model to invent detail, and likeness drifts.
• Match the framing roughly to your reference video (don't pair a head-and-shoulders portrait with a full-body dance video).
  Driving (reference) video
• 3–30 seconds, single continuous shot, no cuts or hard camera moves — cuts can truncate the output.
• One subject, full body and head visible and unobstructed.
• Steady, moderate motion. Very fast or complex action may make the output shorter than the input, because only valid continuous segments are extracted.
• Keep hands visible if you need good hands in the result.
  If less than 3 seconds of usable continuous motion can be extracted, the generation can fail and — per Kling's terms — those credits are not refunded. Validate your reference clip before submitting at scale.

How to Use Kling 3.0 Motion Control in the Web App

For one-off clips, the Kling web UI is the fastest route:

1. Open Kling, select the 3.0 model, then click Motion Control.
2. Upload your driving video into the "character actions to mimic" box.
3. Upload your character image into the box on the right.
4. (Optional) Add a prompt describing the scene — lighting, environment, camera. Do not describe the action; that comes from the video.
5. Set character orientation: follow the video (up to 30s) or the image (up to 10s).
6. Choose std (720p) or pro (1080p) and click Generate.
   That's enough for manual work. The rest of this guide is for automating it.

How to Use the Kling 3.0 Motion Control API

This is the part most teams come for: a guide to the Kling 3.0 Motion Control API you can run end to end. GPT Proto exposes Kling through a unified, OpenAI-compatible account with a single key, and the video tasks follow a create-then-poll pattern.

Step 1 — Get an API key

Sign up at gptproto.com/dashboard and generate a key. One key works across every model on the platform. Export it so the examples pick it up:

export GPTPROTO_API_KEY="your_key_here"

Step 2 — Create a Motion Control task

You submit the character image, the driving video, the tier, and an optional prompt. The API returns a task id you'll poll for the result.

Note: GPT Proto authenticates Kling with a Bearer token in the Authorization header. The Motion Control task takes image (character), video (driving clip), prompt, negative_prompt, character_orientation, and keep_original_sound.

cURL

curl -X POST "https://gptproto.com/api/v3/kling/kling-v3.0-pro/motion-control" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GPTPROTO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "image": "https://example.com/character.jpg",
    "video": "https://example.com/driving-motion.mp4",
    "prompt": "studio lighting, plain grey background, static camera",
    "negative_prompt": "warped background, extra fingers, motion blur",
    "character_orientation": "video",
    "keep_original_sound": false
  }'

Swap kling-v3.0-pro for kling-v3.0-std to run the 720p tier.

Step 3 — Poll for the result

Video generation is asynchronous. Take the id from the create response and poll the predictions endpoint until status is finished, then read the output URL.

Python (end to end)

import os
import time
import requests
 
BASE = "https://gptproto.com/api/v3"
API_KEY = os.environ["GPTPROTO_API_KEY"]
HEADERS = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}", "Content-Type": "application/json"}
 
def create_motion_control(image_url, video_url, prompt="", negative_prompt="",
                          tier="pro", orientation="video"):
    url = f"{BASE}/kling/kling-v3.0-{tier}/motion-control"
    payload = {
        "image": image_url,                       # character identity
        "video": video_url,                       # driving motion (3-30s, single shot)
        "prompt": prompt,                         # describe the SCENE, not the action
        "negative_prompt": negative_prompt,       # artifacts to suppress
        "character_orientation": orientation,     # "video" (<=30s) or "image" (<=10s)
        "keep_original_sound": False,
    }
    r = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=HEADERS, timeout=60)
    r.raise_for_status()
    return r.json()["data"]["id"]
 
def wait_for_result(task_id, interval=5, timeout=600):
    deadline = time.time() + timeout
    while time.time() < deadline:
        r = requests.get(f"{BASE}/predictions/{task_id}/result", headers=HEADERS, timeout=60)
        r.raise_for_status()
        data = r.json()["data"]
        status = data.get("status")
        if status in ("succeeded", "completed"):
            return data["outputs"]          # list of output video URLs
        if status in ("failed", "error"):
            raise RuntimeError(data.get("error") or "generation failed")
        time.sleep(interval)
    raise TimeoutError(f"task {task_id} did not finish within {timeout}s")
 
if __name__ == "__main__":
    task_id = create_motion_control(
        image_url="https://example.com/character.jpg",
        video_url="https://example.com/driving-motion.mp4",
        prompt="studio lighting, plain grey background, static camera",
        tier="pro",
        orientation="video",
    )
    print("task:", task_id)
    outputs = wait_for_result(task_id)
    print("video:", outputs)

Confirm the exact status strings against the live response — the image-to-video docs expose data.status, data.outputs, and data.error, which is what the poller reads here.

Writing a Good Kling 3.0 Motion Control Prompt

The prompt in Motion Control is not where the action lives — the driving video handles that. A Kling 3.0 Motion Control prompt should describe everything except movement: the setting, lighting, wardrobe details, mood, and camera behavior.

Do describe:

• Environment and background ("neon-lit alley at night", "plain white studio cyclorama")
• Lighting ("soft key light from the left", "hard rim light")
• Camera intent ("static camera", "locked-off tripod shot")
• Style notes ("cinematic, shallow depth of field")
  Don't describe:
• The action itself ("waving", "dancing", "turning around") — that comes from the reference video and a conflicting prompt can fight it.
  A reliable starting template:

[scene/background], [lighting], [camera behavior], [style]

Example: plain grey studio background, soft even lighting, static camera, cinematic

Use the negative prompt to suppress recurring artifacts: warped background, extra fingers, motion blur, duplicate limbs.

Orientation and Duration

character_orientation does double duty — it controls how the character is posed and caps the output length:

Rule of thumb: if identity drifts, try image; if motion feels stiff or under-transferred, try video. The output length tracks the reference video, so a 12-second result needs a ~12-second driving clip and the video orientation.

Common Problems and Fixes

Pricing

GPT Proto bills per task, pay-as-you-go — no subscription floor. Pricing is "Per Time," so the final cost scales with the generation you run; the model page's playground shows the live total before you submit.

Live rates are on each model page.

Next Steps

• Try the model: Kling 3.0 Pro on GPT Proto
• Standard tier: Kling 3.0 Std on GPT Proto
• Compare costs across video models: Browse GPT Proto models
• Get a key and ship: GPT Proto Dashboard