The Hit the Road Dude AI trend, starring your pet

How to make a Hit the Road Dude video yourself

You do not need this page to make one. This is how the video is put together, with the prompts for every shot, so you can build it with any picture model and image-to-video model you like.

1. Step 1

   Time your shots to the sound first

   Before drawing anything, play the sound and write down where each line starts: the first question, the answer, the silence, "State?", "This?", "hit the road" and the private property speech. Then plan one shot per stretch, so that every cut lands on a line and your pet is silent where the sound is.

2. Step 2

   Draw one still per shot from your pet’s photo

   Use a picture model that takes a reference photo and draw six stills from the same photo of your pet. Describe the white pickup, the plaid shirt and the pond the same way every time, and for a shot that starts on a word, draw your pet with its mouth already open mid-word.

3. Step 3

   Animate each still, then cut on the lines

   Give each still to an image-to-video model with one line about what moves, and say outright whether the mouth moves: talking in the line shots, shut in the stare. Trim each clip to its stretch of the sound, lay them end to end at 9:16 with hard cuts, and add the sound on TikTok when you post.

The shots, second by second

The prompts, shot by shot

Each shot is made in two steps. Give its still prompt to a picture model with your pet's photo as the reference, then give the picture it draws to an image-to-video model with the motion prompt. Add these endings to every prompt: they set the look and keep your pet the same from shot to shot.

1. 0–2sPulling up

   Still prompt

   Copy

   A quiet farm pond on a sunny summer afternoon, reeds at its edge, a dirt track running along the grassy bank, green pasture and tall trees behind. A wide shot from low on the bank: in the bottom corner of the frame the tip of a fishing rod rests in a rod holder stuck in the grass, nobody holding it. An old white pickup truck, a little dusty, with no badges or writing on it, rolls along the dirt track toward the camera, a few metres away, both doors shut and its windows up. Bright sunlight glares white off the windscreen and the side windows, so nothing inside the cab can be made out: the pet in the reference photo is the driver, hidden in there, and is not seen in this shot. No people anywhere in the frame.

   Motion prompt

   Copy

   The pickup rolls the last few metres along the dirt track and stops beside the camera, side on, the driver's door facing the lens. The sun keeps glaring off its windows, so the driver stays hidden. Handheld camera, as if filmed by someone on the bank.

2. 2–4.2sThe window

   Still prompt

   Copy

   A close shot of the driver's side window of an old white pickup truck, a little dusty, with no badges or writing on it, parked on the dirt track beside a quiet farm pond on a sunny summer afternoon, reeds at its edge, a dirt track running along the grassy bank, green pasture and tall trees behind, seen from the bank at the height of the window. The window glass is halfway down. Behind it the pet in the reference photo sits at the wheel, wearing a small red-and-black plaid flannel shirt, its head above the edge of the glass, looking straight into the lens with a flat, unimpressed stare, mouth closed. No people anywhere in the frame.

   Motion prompt

   Copy

   The window glass slides smoothly down into the door until the window is fully open. The pet does not move: it holds a dead-still, unblinking stare straight into the lens with its mouth shut, only its whiskers twitching. The camera holds still with a slight handheld shake.

3. 4.2–6.7s“State?” “This?”

   Still prompt

   Copy

   The open driver's window of an old white pickup truck, a little dusty, with no badges or writing on it, parked beside a quiet farm pond on a sunny summer afternoon, reeds at its edge, a dirt track running along the grassy bank, green pasture and tall trees behind, a little closer. The pet in the reference photo sits at the wheel, wearing a small red-and-black plaid flannel shirt, leaning slightly toward the camera, eyes wide in disbelief, mouth open mid-word as if it has just said one short, outraged word. No people anywhere in the frame.

   Motion prompt

   Copy

   The pet asks two short questions in disbelief, its mouth opening and closing once for each as if it is speaking: the first with its eyes wide, the second with its head tilted, poking one front paw down at the ground outside the window. After each it stops with its mouth shut, waiting for an answer. Slight handheld shake.

4. 6.7–9.1s“Hit the road, dude”

   Still prompt

   Copy

   The open driver's window of an old white pickup truck, a little dusty, with no badges or writing on it, parked beside a quiet farm pond on a sunny summer afternoon, reeds at its edge, a dirt track running along the grassy bank, green pasture and tall trees behind. The pet in the reference photo sits at the wheel, wearing a small red-and-black plaid flannel shirt, front paws on the steering wheel, glaring at the camera with a stern, fed-up look, mouth open mid-word. No people anywhere in the frame.

   Motion prompt

   Copy

   The pet mutters a few words at the lens, its mouth moving as if it is speaking, then lifts one front paw off the wheel and jabs it out of the window, pointing firmly along the dirt track away from the pond, as if to say get out of here, still talking. Slight handheld shake.

5. 9.1–12.5s“Private property”

   Still prompt

   Copy

   A closer shot of the open driver's window of an old white pickup truck, a little dusty, with no badges or writing on it, parked beside a quiet farm pond on a sunny summer afternoon, reeds at its edge, a dirt track running along the grassy bank, green pasture and tall trees behind. The pet in the reference photo, wearing a small red-and-black plaid flannel shirt, leans its head out over the door with its front paws on the window sill, glaring into the lens from close up, mouth open mid-word. No people anywhere in the frame.

   Motion prompt

   Copy

   Leaning out of the window, the pet talks straight into the lens without stopping, its mouth moving as if it is speaking, and taps one paw down on the door twice, as if to say this land right here. Then it stops talking, closes its mouth and gives one firm nod. Slight handheld shake.

6. 12.5–16sGone

   Still prompt

   Copy

   A quiet farm pond on a sunny summer afternoon, reeds at its edge, a dirt track running along the grassy bank, green pasture and tall trees behind. A wide shot from low on the bank, the tip of a fishing rod resting in a rod holder in the bottom corner of the frame, nobody holding it. An old white pickup truck, a little dusty, with no badges or writing on it, drives away from the camera down the dirt track, seen from behind, its tailgate toward us, both doors shut, dust rising behind its back wheels. The small rear window of the cab shows the back of the head of the pet in the reference photo, at the wheel. It is the size of a real pet, its whole head well below the roof of the cab. No people anywhere in the frame.

   Motion prompt

   Copy

   The pickup drives off down the dirt track, away from the camera and the pond, with the pet inside and its doors shut, kicking up a trail of dust and getting smaller toward the trees. The camera stays on the bank and holds still with a slight handheld shake.

Where it goes wrong

• Keep the mouth shut through the stare

  Ask a video model for a talking animal and it talks the whole time, which ruins the pause before "State?". Say that the mouth stays shut in the stare, and that it moves only in the shots with lines.

• Say "no people" in every still

  Draw an empty pond bank and the picture model fills it with someone fishing; put a rod in the foreground and a hand grows round it. Say there is nobody in the frame, and prop the rod in a holder that nobody is holding.

• Describe the truck and the shirt every time

  Each still is drawn on its own, so a white pickup in one shot comes back blue, or with a brand badge, in the next. Say the same thing about the truck, the shirt and the pond in every still. And film the truck leaving from behind: seen side on, ours opened its door, and once the cat got out and walked off.

• Hide the driver in the wide shot

  In a wide shot your pet is small behind the windscreen, and a picture model asked to show it draws it bigger instead: twice we got a cat whose head stuck out above the roof of the cab, even when we said it was pet-sized. Keep the driver behind sun glare and let the window reveal it.

• Your own pet, or with the owner’s yes

  Use your own cat or dog, or a pet whose owner agreed. Do not use a celebrity’s pet or a famous animal account, and leave the man from the original clip and the people fishing out of it: they are private people.

• Label it as AI-generated

  Switch on TikTok's AI-generated content label before you post. A realistic clip of a cat driving a truck is exactly the kind people ask about, and viewers trust a post that says so.