How to put your own pet into a video in place of the one that is there

Last updated 2026-09-15 · 8 min read

What is the short version?

Sending photos of your pet and asking for them to be in the video gets you the photos in the video. What you wanted was the animal in the footage to be yours — same movement, different cat.

1. Send Vizard Agent reference photos of your pet.
2. Say the animal in the clip should be replaced by it.
3. Say which animal, if the clip has several.

What do you need before you start?

The clip and photographs that show your pet properly. Vizard Agent builds the replacement from those references, so pictures from a couple of angles and in reasonable light do far more for the result than a single perfect portrait.

• The clip. The one with the movement you want.
• Photos of your pet. Several, from different angles.
• Which animal to replace. By colour or position.
• Which to leave alone. If there is more than one.
• How long the swap runs. Whole clip or one section.

What do you type into Vizard Agent?

Use the word "replace" and then tell Vizard Agent what should happen to any other animals in the clip. That second half matters more than it looks, because a clip that cuts to a different animal halfway through will otherwise have both of them changed into yours.

Prompt

Variants worth knowing:

• "Replaced by, not added to." The distinction that matters.
• "Same movement, same shots." You are keeping the performance.
• "Should stay exactly as it is." Protects the other animal.

What does Vizard Agent actually do?

Here is the Vizard Agent sequence on a real clip in which one of two cats had to be swapped for the owner's. The survey comes first, because you cannot replace a subject reliably without first establishing how many subjects the footage actually contains.

1. Looks at each reference photograph you supplied.
2. Surveys the source video shot by shot.
3. Studies the sections containing the animal to be replaced.
4. Watches its movement in detail before attempting anything.
5. Checks which capability suits replacing a subject in footage.
6. Feeds the original video in as the basis for the replacement.
7. Substitutes your pet using the reference pictures.
8. Compares source frames with replaced frames side by side.
9. Finds the exact frame where the second animal takes over.
10. Leaves that animal untouched and finishes the swap.

Step four is what preserves the thing you liked. The original animal's movement is the performance — the way it lands, the way its tail goes — and the replacement is built onto that rather than generated fresh.

Step nine is the step nobody asks for and everybody needs. "Replace the cat" is unambiguous until the clip contains two cats, and the boundary between them is a specific frame that has to be found rather than estimated.

Step eight is how you check it without watching twice. Frames from the original beside the same frames replaced show you immediately whether the movement survived and the animal is recognisably yours.

What does the result look like?

The same clip, with your pet in it. The movement, the timing, the lighting and the cuts are the original's; the animal is yours, consistent from shot to shot, and Vizard Agent shows you the before-and-after frames rather than asking you to spot the difference.

When does this not work well?

A replacement follows the original's body. If your pet is a very different size or shape — a small dog standing in for a large one — the movement will not sit convincingly on it, and the result reads as the original animal wearing your pet's colours.

• Very different size or build. The motion does not fit.
• A different species. Usually too far.
• Fast or blurred movement. Little to anchor the likeness to.
• Poor reference photos. Dark, distant or one angle only.
• Long clips. The likeness drifts over time.

How do you fix a result that came back wrong?

Say what is unlike your pet, as specifically as you can. A note like "the markings are wrong on the left side" gives Vizard Agent something concrete to check against your reference photographs, whereas "it does not look like her" gives it nothing to act on.

• "The markings are wrong." More reference angles are used.
• "You changed both cats." The switch frame is found and one is restored.
• "It drifts later on." The likeness is re-anchored in the later shots.
• "The movement changed." The original motion is re-applied.

How does Vizard Agent compare to doing it yourself?

By hand this is rotoscoping — masking the animal frame by frame and compositing a replacement that matches the light. For a few seconds of a moving cat that is a serious job, which is why most people settle for the slideshow instead.

Common questions

How many photos should I send? Two or three from different angles. Vizard Agent will say if it needs more.

Will the movement stay the same? Yes. Vizard Agent builds the replacement onto the original motion.

What if there are two animals? Say which is which. Vizard Agent finds the frame where they change over.

Can it do part of a clip only? Yes. Tell Vizard Agent which section and the rest is untouched.

Does my pet need to be the same colour? No. Vizard Agent takes the colour from your photos; a similar build matters far more.

Will it work on a long video? Shorter is safer. Vizard Agent will tell you where the likeness starts drifting.

Can it do a dog instead of a cat? Within reason. A very different shape will not carry the same motion.

What about the background? Unchanged. Vizard Agent replaces only the subject, and leaves the scene alone.

Can I see before and after? Yes. Vizard Agent compares the source and replaced frames for you.

What if my photos are all from one angle? The side you never photographed is guessed. Vizard Agent will flag that.

Will the audio change? No, unless you ask. The soundtrack stays as it was.

Can it put my pet into a different video later? Yes, and the same references can be reused.

Does it work on generated footage? Yes, the same way as on filmed footage.

What if the result looks like the old animal recoloured? Tell Vizard Agent. That usually means the build is too different to carry the motion.