Seedance Image to Video: the still is the contract (2s, 3s, 4s, 1080p, 9cr)
Seedance Image to Video is image-to-video. If the label is wrong, every second is waste.
Seedance Image to Video is image-to-video. If the label is wrong, every second is waste.
Seedance Image to Video is ByteDance's dancing-motion row. The catalog description is blunt: transform images into dynamic dancing videos. An image is required. The only category is image-to-video. Output tops out at 1080p (480p / 720p / 1080p). Durations run 2s through 12s, one second at a time. Listed cost is 9 credits. Native audio is not marked on this row. Aspect ratios include 21:9, 16:9, 4:3, 1:1, 3:4, 9:16, and auto. Styles on the row are Cinematic, Documentary, Abstract. Frame rates 24fps and 30fps. Motion levels Medium and High.
That list is why this is not "ByteDance video" in the abstract. It is a still that has to dance.
Two seconds is a beat
The floor is 2s. That is unusual and useful. A two-second hit is a chorus stab, a pack pop, a shoulder drop. You do not need 8s of choreography to learn whether the still survives motion. Start at 2s, 3s, or 4s. Climb toward 12s only when the phrase is actually that long.
Every extra second copies the still. If the label is misspelled in the plate, you are buying up to twelve seconds of the misspelling. Fix the still first. Then buy time.
Nine credits is the listed figure on a row that also bills by resolution and duration in the matrix. Do not treat 9 as a reason to max the ladder "because it is cheap." 2s at 1080p that holds is the win. 12s at 1080p of a still you do not like is the whole budget of a small job, spent on dancing.
The still is the choreography
Seedance does not invent a dancer from a paragraph. requires_image is true. No upload, no clip. The pose in the frame is the starting body. If the arms are wrong in the still, High motion will not correct them; it will commit to them.
Dance is the described job. That is more specific than generic image-to-video. If you needed a slow product orbit with no body, this is the wrong family even if the still is pretty. If you needed a body to move like a chorus, this is the family — and the still is the costume, the face, and the floor.
The catalog does not mark native audio. Do not write a silent prompt and expect a track. Score later, or pick a row that actually lists audio. Add music after the take if the job is picture-first.
Use the image-to-video tool to run the still. Do not paste the still into a text-to-video box and hope the model finds it.
What 1080p will not save
1080p is the ceiling. There is no 4K on this output list. Upscaling a bad dance does not make it on-brief. Approve the still at the size you would print. Then animate.
Cinematic / Documentary / Abstract are style knobs, not a new identity. Documentary will not turn a studio packshot into field footage if the still is a seamless sweep. Abstract will not hide a wrong SKU. Medium versus High motion is the aggression of the move, not a fix for a stiff pose. If the pose is stiff, recrop or re-shoot the still.
ByteDance's other rows live on the ByteDance roster. The ranked image-to-video map is best image-to-video. This page is only Seedance's contract: the still dances, the still is the brief, and 2s is a legal length.
Hold the still at arm's length
If you would not ship that frame, you are not allowed to animate it.
If you would ship the frame, generate 2s. Watch the first beat. If the identity holds, then 3s or 4s. 12s is a sentence you have already outlined.
If you needed speech on the face, stop. This row does not mark native audio, and a dancing still is not a talking head. Pick lipsync after the picture exists.
FAQ
Can I run Seedance from text only?
No. The catalog requires an image. Text-to-video is a different ByteDance row, not this one. If you do not have a plate, lock a still first. If you have a plate and you still type a scene as if the upload were optional, you are on the wrong label.
Why start at 2 seconds?
Because 2s is on this ladder and it is enough to see whether the still survives motion. 3s and 4s are the next honest checks. 12s is the ceiling. Paying the 9-credit row for the ceiling before you have seen a beat is how a wrong label becomes a twelve-second problem.
Does Seedance output 4K?
Not on this row. Max output resolution is 1080p, with 480p and 720p also listed. If the delivery spec is 4K, this is not the delivery model. It can still be the motion test.
Will I get a soundtrack?
The catalog does not mark audio on Seedance Image to Video. Plan music or VO as a later pass. A "dancing video" without a listed soundtrack is still a picture job. Do not wait for a chorus that the row did not promise.