Día de Muertos AI videos and portraits

Día de Muertos 2026: what people made

Updated 3 Nov 2026: this year's Día de Muertos ran on Sunday 1 and Monday 2 November, and it's over until next autumn. The breakout was the Marigold Bridge. The first AI clip of the person version, which MakeViral credits to @ia_chiomora on 20 Oct, had 3.7 million views on 2 Nov, and MakeViral said its own template had passed 9,900 uses by 21 Oct. Catrina selfies were the other big one: MakeViral counted 148,083 TikTok videos under #catrinamakeup on 12 Oct.

The pet and party picks stayed smaller. When we last read them in October, Day of the Dead Pet and Pet Afterlife Check-In were each on only one or two AI template sites, and the Skeleton Dance templates showed single-digit use counts. This page stays up for Día de Muertos 2027 with all five trends ready to make, and the next holiday is on Christmas AI videos.

The Día de Muertos AI trends, and what each one is for

Two are about remembering someone, two are a celebration, and one sits in between. Pick by what you want to say.

1. Catrina Makeup 1 person · 3 photos Your own face as La Catrina: white face paint, petal-ringed eyes, fine stitch lines across the lips and a candlelit altar behind you. Three looks back from one selfie: a crown of roses and marigolds, a Catrín top hat and a black lace veil. The AI selfie version took off in Mexico in October 2025. See yourself in it
2. Marigold Bridge 1 person · 10s Someone you miss walks across a night bridge paved with glowing marigold petals, gathers a handful to their chest and turns toward you. One photo of an adult, or of your cat or dog. MakeViral credits the first AI clip to @ia_chiomora on 20 Oct 2026 and says its template passed 9,900 uses by 21 Oct. See yourself in it
3. Day of the Dead Pet ≈25M views · 1 pet · 5s The festive one: your dog or cat with a sugar-skull pattern painted over its own fur and a marigold crown, by a candlelit altar under papel picado. It blinks and looks into the camera. Pick Marigold crown or a small Catrina hat. See yourself in it
4. Pet Afterlife Check-In 1 pet · 10s Your pet trots up a path of marigold petals to a glass desk where a cheerful skeleton clerk stamps its ticket and waves it through a golden arch. A gentle fantasy: an outing or a tribute, your choice. See yourself in it
5. Skeleton Dance 1 person · 10s The light one: you dance step for step with a glowing neon skeleton under marigold garlands and string lights, until it spins you and you land the same pose. Works with your pet too. See yourself in it

What Día de Muertos is, and why it isn't Halloween

Día de Muertos, mainly on 1 and 2 November, is a living Mexican tradition when families welcome home and remember relatives who have died, with marigolds, candles, food and cut-paper banners. UNESCO inscribed the Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead on its intangible heritage list in 2008.

The marigold path in two of these trends comes from a real custom: families lay cempasúchil (marigold) petals from the door to the ofrenda, the home altar, because the flowers are believed to guide the dead to it. We keep these trends respectful: no gore, no jump scares, and the remembrance ones show the person or pet as they were in your photo.

La Catrina began as satire. The Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada etched a skull in a plumed French-style hat around 1910 to 1913, mocking people who dressed like European aristocrats; Diego Rivera gave her a full body and a long dress in his 1946–47 Alameda Park mural. Today she is how many people dress to honour the day.

The "primer Día de Muertos" trend on TikTok

In October 2025, El Financiero reported the 'Es su primer Día de Muertos' trend, where people post photos of relatives, friends and pets who died that year (21 Oct 2025). Videos of a pet crossing a bridge of marigold petals followed, made with Gemini. This year the person version arrived as the Marigold Bridge.

If you're making one for someone you lost, use a clear photo of them as an adult, face in view. The video keeps their face, hair and glasses from your photo and the clothes they wear in it, with no skeletons or face paint. It's a way to remember someone, not a claim about where they are.

How to make a Día de Muertos AI video

1. Choose the trend

   Catrina for a portrait of yourself, Marigold Bridge or Pet Afterlife Check-In to remember someone, Day of the Dead Pet or Skeleton Dance to celebrate.

2. Add one photo

   A clear, front-facing photo in good light. For a pet, one animal in the photo with its face and ears in view.

3. Check the free preview

   You see a still in about a minute. If something is off, type the fix under it and it's redone.

4. Make it and post it

   The videos are 100 credits ($6.99) and the Catrina portrait set is 15 credits, each charged only when delivered. Post it with your own words in TikTok or Instagram.

More for the end of October

For costumes, transformations and haunted clips, see the Halloween AI trends. For your dog or cat, AI dog videos and AI cat videos. For a quiet goodbye clip all year round, see emotional AI trends.