How to Recreate the Viral 'City Made of Any Material' Trend

A simple guide to turning your own city into knitted, beaded, LEGO, crystal, or paper-style worlds.

Want to recreate the trending "city made of beads / yarn / crystals / LEGO / paper" effect?

With ZenCreator.pro you can transform any photo of your city into a handcrafted miniature — then animate it using Image-to-Video.

This guide walks you through the full workflow.

Step 1 — Pick Photos of Your City (or Any Scenes You Love)

You can use:

• recognizable landmarks of your city
• wide streets, squares, parks
• close-up architectural details
• scenes with people or cars
• any visuals you want to stylize

The richer the details → the better the handcrafted material will apply.

Step 2 — Open the Editor / Combiner Tool

Go to:

Editor / Combiner

https://app.zencreator.pro/tools/image-editor

Upload your chosen city photo.

Now you will convert the scene into a handcrafted miniature made from yarn, beads, glass spheres, LEGO, paper, clay, or whatever material you choose.

Step 3 — Enter the Material Transformation Prompt

Here is the example prompt from the reference video (adapted for general use).

Replace the materials and scene description according to your photo.

Transform this city street into a handcrafted miniature made entirely out of glass beads and crystal spheres. Recreate every detail — the buildings, windows, street lamps, sidewalks, cars, and people — using shimmering beads, pearls, gems, and glossy translucent spheres of different sizes. All architectural elements should appear sculpted from luminous beads that reflect and refract light, creating sparkling highlights and glowing reflections. Maintain the original perspective and composition of the street, but present the whole scene as a luxurious beadwork diorama filled with jewel-like textures, magical lighting, and radiant micro-reflections.

Examples of material variations you can use:

• knitted / crocheted yarn city
• LEGO brick city
• paper-cut miniature city
• glass marbles & crystal spheres
• beads, pearls, sequins, and gemstones
• plasticine / clay toy city
• cardboard diorama
• wooden toy blocks

Important:

Describe the materials clearly and describe your scene in detail (buildings, cars, people, clouds, signs).

The AI will apply the chosen material to every element of the frame.

Click Generate — and your handcrafted city image is ready.

Repeat for several photos — you'll need multiple stylized frames for the final video.

Step 4 — Create a Set of Stylized Scenes to Build a Story

To make your final video interesting:

• Use different angles of your city
• Capture wide shots, close-ups, famous landmarks
• Add scenes with people, cars, street details
• Mix iconic views with smaller intimate details

Each stylized image will become a fragment of your animated sequence.

Step 5 — Animate Your Stylized Scenes Using Image-to-Video

Once you have a collection of handcrafted-style frames:

Open Image-to-Video

https://app.zencreator.pro/tools/video-generator

Upload one stylized image.

Choose the model:

Kling 2.5 — best for high-detail cinematic motion.

Now enter a camera-motion prompt.

Here is an example from the reference video:

Create a cinematic animation inside this crystal-crafted cityscape. The camera gently moves forward and upward, keeping all buildings, streets, and architectural proportions perfectly stable. Every surface is made of thousands of glass beads, gems, pearls, and crystal spheres. As the camera advances, sunlight scatters across the beads, creating sparkling reflections, rainbow flares, and shimmering highlights.

Increase micro-detail as the camera approaches buildings: individual beads, internal reflections, slight imperfections, and tiny refractions should appear. Add drifting dust particles and soft golden sun rays for depth. The final atmosphere should feel magical, radiant, and luxurious — a city sculpted entirely from shimmering beads and glass spheres.

Click Generate — your first animated fragment is ready.

Repeat for all stylized images.

Step 6 — Combine Your Clips Into a Full Video

After generating all animated fragments:

• import them into any video editor (CapCut, Premiere, DaVinci, VN)
• trim or reorder the shots
• add music or sound design
• add transitions if needed

Now you have a complete handcrafted-material city video — knitted, beaded, LEGO, crystal, paper, anything you choose.

Material & Format Tips (Important)

Define the material clearly

Specify: knitted yarn, crocheted wool, glass spheres, beads, LEGO blocks, paper cutouts, cardboard, clay, etc.

Describe the scene in detail

Include the buildings, trees, people, cars, lights, signs, clouds.

The more detail → the more consistent the material becomes.

Use the correct aspect ratio

For social media:

• Reels / TikTok / Shorts: 9:16
• Landscape YouTube videos: 16:9
• Carousel posts: 1:1 or 4:5
• Pinterest-style vertical art: 2:3

Set the aspect ratio both at image generation and video generation stages.

Use varied shots

Wide + medium + detail = visually strong final video.

Summary

Using ZenCreator's Editor / Combiner and Image-to-Video tools, you can recreate viral city transformation trends and create stunning handcrafted-style videos.

All you need is:

1. Photos of your city or favorite scenes
2. Editor / Combiner for material transformation
3. Image-to-Video (Kling 2.5) for cinematic animation
4. Creative prompts describing materials and motion
5. A video editor to assemble the final sequence

Transform your city into a viral masterpiece that captures attention and showcases creative possibilities!