AI short films with Seedance: the API and the method

BytePlus ModelArk Seedance API setup, step by step: account, region, API key, model activation, and the billing traps that block the first request.

A working Seedance API Python example: submit the generation task, poll the task id until succeeded, download the MP4. Exact payloads, states, errors.

The Seedance reference_image / reference_video payload, learned by 400 error: typed roles, @Image1 citation, and parallel submission of a whole beat list.

Seedance character consistency through asset registration: register a Virtual Portrait Asset once and hold one face across dozens of independent renders.

Seedance video reference motion transfer: the working request shape, four verbatim 400s, line-art face safety, hosting, and the 409,600 pixel floor.

AI video with a consistent environment across shots: one scene plate as an image ref locks the world for every independent Seedance render.

Seedance prompt engineering with a video reference: directed prompts per beat, duration matched to the cut, plus the iron rule: never contradict the ref.

Editing AI generated video shots together: why concat reads as resets, and the coverage, settle-cut and impact-flash grammar that fixes it in post.

Seedance 2.0 limits: duration, resolution, ratio, the hard 400s verbatim, and the real cost ladder from 480p iteration to a finished film.

Seedance cannot chain frames while using reference media. The weld chain gets you continuity anyway: long take, line-art anchor, a transition prompt, repeat.