Have you scrolled through Instagram, TikTok, or X lately and seen those shiny, toy-like figurines of people, pets, or characters? That’s the Nano Banana trend, powered by Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash Image tool. In India especially, people are turning this AI feature into a full-blown creative moment—politicians, celebrities, everyday creators are making “mini-figurines” of themselves. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
What makes it so popular: it’s free, fast, looks fancy, and gives massive share value. The figurines often include realistic lighting, textures, packaging mockups—you know, all the things that make it feel collectible. (creativebloq.com)
Turning the Trend Up a Notch: From Image to Video with Sloyd
We love the idea of the Nano Banana image—it’s fun, it’s polished—but what if we could push it further? What if instead of just a static figurine image, we create a short, 360-degree video? More movement, more depth, more immersive. Here’s how to do it using your own choice of character (say, Prabhas as Baahubali) or even yourself, and tools like Sloyd and Blender.
Step 1: Create Your Figurine
Use Nano Banana style (or Sloyd’s text-to-3D prompt) to define the character. This is classic 3D model prompt generation—the clearer and more detailed your prompt, the better your figurine turns out.
Prompt example:
“Create a stylized 3D character of Prabhas as ‘Baahubali’. Have him standing up facing the camera against a clear background.”
You can of course pick any character or use your own photo as reference.
Step 2: Turn the Figurine into a Real 3D Object
Take the output from step 1 and feed it into a tool that supports image-to-3D (Sloyd offers this). You’ll convert the figurine image into a 3D model you can import and manipulate. This is where a simple 3D toy model AI workflow turns a static image into something you can spin, animate, and render.
Step 3: Create the Background Image
Now, build a full scene. You’ll want something that showcases the workflow behind the figurine to give it context and polish. Use Sloyd or another image editor with a text prompt like:
“Use the figurine in this image to create a new image following these instructions: Create a picture of an organized desk, featuring a monitor and a few small accessories like a pen holder and a coffee mug. The computer screen prominently displays the ZBrush modeling process of the figurine, showcasing intricate sculpting details, wireframes, and texture maps in progress. Next to the monitor, a BANDAI-style toy packaging box stands upright, featuring vibrant, two-dimensional flat illustrations of the characters in dynamic poses, with the original artwork faithfully reproduced.”
This backdrop adds narrative and design flair—you’re not just showing the figurine but the creative process and aesthetic environment around it.
Step 4: Animate in Blender
- Import the 3D model you made from step 2 into Blender.
- Animate it with a simple 360° rotation so viewers can see the figurine from all around.
- Create a plane behind the 3D model and texture-paint that plane with the background image from step 3.
- Render the whole thing. Even a short loop (5-10 seconds) can look super clean.
Why This Level Up Works
- More dynamic content: Video adds movement and gives a better sense of the figure as a “real” object.
- Story & process: By including the background that shows modeling wireframes, packaging, etc., people can see behind the curtain. That builds interest.
- Shareability: Video tends to perform better on many platforms. Viewers stop scrolling when there’s motion.
- Creative control: You define every part—from the character to the environment to how it’s presented.
Final Thoughts
The Nano Banana trend shows how fast AI tools are letting anyone make art that looks polished and collectible. But there’s room to play and evolve: by turning images into video, by building scenes, by highlighting process.
If you try this workflow, you’ll get something more than just a pretty image—you’ll get a micro-story, a moving showcase, and something people will want to watch and share.
