# Source: https://trigger.dev/docs/guides/use-cases/media-generation.md

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://trigger.dev/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# AI media generation workflows

> Learn how to use Trigger.dev for AI media generation including image creation, video synthesis, audio generation, and multi-modal content workflows

## Overview

Build AI media generation pipelines that handle unpredictable API latencies and long-running operations. Generate images, videos, audio, and multi-modal content with automatic retries, progress tracking, and no timeout limits.

## Featured examples

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Product image generator" icon="book" href="/guides/example-projects/product-image-generator">
    Transform product photos into professional marketing images using Replicate.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Meme generator (human-in-the-loop)" icon="book" href="/guides/example-projects/meme-generator-human-in-the-loop">
    Generate memes with DALL·E 3 and add human approval steps.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Vercel AI SDK image generation" icon="book" href="/guides/example-projects/vercel-ai-sdk-image-generator">
    Generate images from text prompts using the Vercel AI SDK.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Benefits of using Trigger.dev for AI media generation workflows

**Pay only for active compute, not AI inference time:** Checkpoint-resume pauses during AI API calls. Generate content that takes minutes or hours without paying for idle inference time.

**No timeout limits for long generations:** Handle generations that take minutes or hours without execution limits. Perfect for high-quality video synthesis and complex multi-modal workflows.

**Human approval gates for brand safety:** Add review steps before publishing AI-generated content. Pause workflows for human approval using waitpoint tokens.

## Production use cases

<CardGroup cols={1}>
  <Card title="Icon customer story" href="https://trigger.dev/customers/icon-customer-story">
    Read how Icon uses Trigger.dev to process and generate thousands of videos per month for their AI-driven video creation platform.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Papermark customer story" href="https://trigger.dev/customers/papermark-customer-story">
    Read how Papermark process thousands of documents per month using Trigger.dev.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Example workflow patterns

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="AI content with approval">
    **Supervisor pattern with approval gate**. Generates AI content, pauses execution with wait.forToken to allow human review, applies feedback if needed, publishes approved content.

    <div align="center">
      ```mermaid  theme={"theme":"css-variables"}
      graph TB
          A[generateContent] --> B[createWithAI]
          B --> C[wait.forToken approval]
          C --> D{Approved?}

          D -->|Yes| E[publishContent]
          D -->|Needs revision| F[applyFeedback]
          F --> B
      ```
    </div>
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="AI image generation">
    Simple AI image generation. Receives prompt and parameters, calls OpenAI DALL·E 3, post-processes result, uploads to storage.

    <div align="center">
      ```mermaid  theme={"theme":"css-variables"}
      graph TB
          A[generateImage] --> B[optimizeImage]
          B --> C[uploadToStorage]
          C --> D[updateDatabase]
      ```
    </div>
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Batch image generation">
    **Coordinator pattern with rate limiting**. Receives batch of generation requests, coordinates parallel processing with configurable concurrency to respect API rate limits, validates outputs, stores results.

    <div align="center">
      ```mermaid  theme={"theme":"css-variables"}
      graph TB
          A[processBatch] --> B[coordinateGeneration]
          B --> C[batchTriggerAndWait]

          C --> D[generateImage1]
          C --> E[generateImage2]
          C --> F[generateImageN]

          D --> G[validateResults]
          E --> G
          F --> G

          G --> H[storeResults]
          H --> I[notifyCompletion]
      ```
    </div>
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Multi-step image enhancement">
    **Coordinator pattern with sequential processing**. Generates initial content with AI, applies style transfer or enhancement, upscales resolution, optimizes and compresses for delivery.

    <div align="center">
      ```mermaid  theme={"theme":"css-variables"}
      graph TB
          A[processCreative] --> B[generateWithAI]
          B --> C[applyStyleTransfer]
          C --> D[upscaleResolution]
          D --> E[optimizeAndCompress]
          E --> F[uploadToStorage]
      ```
    </div>
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## Featured use cases

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Data processing & ETL workflows" icon="database" href="/guides/use-cases/data-processing-etl">
    Build complex data pipelines that process large datasets without timeouts.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Media processing workflows" icon="film" href="/guides/use-cases/media-processing">
    Batch process videos, images, audio, and documents with no execution time limits.
  </Card>

  <Card title="AI media generation workflows" icon="wand-magic-sparkles" href="/guides/use-cases/media-generation">
    Generate images, videos, audio, documents and other media using AI models.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Marketing workflows" icon="bullhorn" href="/guides/use-cases/marketing">
    Build drip campaigns, create marketing content, and orchestrate multi-channel campaigns.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>