Motion Brush was an influential example of selectively directing movement inside generative video. It was also tied to Runway Gen-2. Runway says access to Gen-2 started being revoked in mid-March 2025 and the model became unavailable to everyone on May 11, 2025. This creates a trap for anyone promising a current brush workflow based on screenshots from an older course.
What an archival Motion Brush lesson demonstrates
The underlying creative problem is still relevant: a director may need a river to move while a nearby building remains still, or a character to turn without the camera following it. In an older Gen-2 workflow, the brush represented a way to specify localized motion. The important teaching concept is regional control versus globally prompted change. An old sample can be used to explain that distinction but cannot establish that the same control exists in a current Runway model.
Read the primary deprecation notice
Runway’s first-party Gen-2 retirement article explicitly states that Motion Brush was a Gen-2-specific feature and does not exist on newer Runway models. It also says support cannot simply re-enable Gen-2 on an account. Consequently the honest status label is unavailable, rather than beta, hidden, paid-only or temporarily broken. Record the May 11, 2025 end date next to the model in any historical comparison table; do not extrapolate it to a separate vendor’s motion-brush tool.
Replace a desired effect, not a button
Translate the old instruction into a present-day shot objective: identify the moving region, movement direction, duration and surrounding elements that must stay constant. Create a reference still and prompt a modern image-to-video system with a specific motion description, or use ordinary compositing and animated masks when determinism matters. Generate the minimum-length experiment first and check that the nonmoving region really remains stable. This is a new workflow design, not feature equivalence.
When traditional tools are better
For logos, technical diagrams, exact product geometry or branded typography, a keyframed mask in a conventional motion editor may be safer than regenerating a frame. Generated video can introduce subtle unwanted redesigns and temporal flicker. If the editor must reproduce the same output across revisions, saving editable masks and keyframes can matter more than rapidly obtaining an attractive first attempt. Motion Brush’s history helps define those trade-offs without creating a false claim of current accessibility.
Cost and rights
Any new-generation credit calculation should use the replacement model’s current specification and AI 10’s dated price registry. Do not import Gen-2’s 2024 pricing into a 2026 quote. For a historical illustration, obtain rights to show the original footage or screenshots; this publication bundle contains no third-party visual assets. Label any newly generated recreation as a reconstruction when relevant to the audience’s understanding.
Worked editorial scenario
A publisher finds a popular “brush the water to move” tutorial still attracting views. An accurate update should mark the Gen-2 steps as historic, show the retirement date next to the video, and link to a currently supported category of alternative controls. Do not silently replace the footage and pretend a new prompt-based shot uses the same regional-control method. If the publisher includes a recreation, label it as such and verify permission for any archived tutorial screenshots. This is both a reader-trust issue and a practical way to keep a useful educational page without misleading beginners.
Sources & Further Reading
- Runway and official project documentation — gen2 (first-party source; checked 2026-10-25)
Product availability, plans and rights should be rechecked before publication. No hands-on test, independent benchmark or rights-cleared third-party media is claimed in this article.