# Seedance Research Snapshot

last_verified: 2026-05-30

This snapshot records evidence used by the current v6 source, multilingual, visual-asset, professional-filmmaker, visual stress-test, and surface-refresh layers. It is a dated working layer, not a permanent guarantee of platform access, pricing, limits, or regional availability.

## Source Priority

1. Official ByteDance Seed pages and launch posts.
2. Official Volcengine or BytePlus ModelArk documentation.
3. Official or partner workflow documentation such as ComfyUI partner nodes.
4. Academic/model-card material published by the provider.
5. Professional film, post-production, color, subtitle, audio, and delivery standards.
6. Agent-skill packaging docs for repository structure.
7. Community prompt guides, forums, prompt corpora, and wrapper documentation.

## Confirmed Official Signals

- ByteDance Seed describes Seedance 2.0 as a unified multimodal audio-video generation model that supports text, image, audio, and video inputs.
- The official launch post says users can provide up to 9 images, 3 video clips, 3 audio clips, plus natural-language instructions.
- Official material emphasizes references for composition, camera language, motion rhythm, visual effects, and sound characteristics.
- Official material describes video extension and editing as core capabilities, not only fresh text-to-video generation.
- Volcengine's Seedance 2.0 tutorial was observed updated on 2026-05-29 and listed `doubao-seedance-2-0-260128` and `doubao-seedance-2-0-fast-260128`.
- Volcengine's May 29 video-generation tutorial is now the active first-party place to recheck first-frame and last-frame roles, return-last-frame, web-search tools, and input-combination rules.
- Volcengine's Seedance 2.0 prompt guide was observed updated on 2026-05-15 and reinforces role-bound multimodal reference prompting.
- Volcengine's May 28 pricing page can be cited only with source date, surface, model, currency, and recheck caveat. BytePlus JavaScript-rendered pages still require live verification before quoting prices.
- Runway documents a separate official Seedance 2 surface using model ID `seedance2`, 5-15 second duration, hosted `runway://` uploads, and audio-reference combination rules.
- Runway MCP launched on 2026-05-27 as an agent connector surface. Treat it as Runway access/workflow evidence, not as a ByteDance API capability claim.
- Real-person portrait or voice workflows require authorization, surface support, and platform-specific verification.
- ByteDance's own launch material lists remaining weaknesses: detail stability, hyper-realism, dynamic vitality, multi-subject consistency, text rendering, complex editing, and occasional audio distortion.
- OpenAI's current Codex Agent Skills docs describe a skill as a directory with a required `SKILL.md` plus optional `scripts/`, `references/`, `assets/`, and `agents/` folders. This repo follows that shape.
- Recent audio-video benchmark work such as AVBench and VABench strengthens eval vocabulary around cross-modal consistency, synchronization, lip-speech consistency, and audio-video QA, but it should not be treated as a Seedance access or performance guarantee.
- Professional workflow references reinforce that AI-video prompting should separate creative shot intent from delivery obligations: shot contracts, continuity ledgers, ACES/color handoff, subtitle/localization planning, audio stems/M&E/loudness, aspect-ratio variants, and QC are workflow metadata unless an active platform explicitly implements them.

## Field-Observed Signals

Use these as practitioner guidance, not platform guarantees:

- Short draft clips are useful before committing to 10-15 second renders.
- One primary camera move per shot remains a reliable stability rule.
- Reference assets need explicit roles: identity, background, motion, camera rhythm, audio tempo, or final-frame target.
- First/last-frame workflows are common in Chinese creator guidance and partner workflow docs.
- Audio-reference failures are often role conflicts: if a video reference also contains sound, mute it or lower its role to camera/motion when `@Audio1` should control timing.
- Localized Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Russian, and multilingual guides reinforce the same core structure: explicit reference roles, one camera move, clear action, sound cue, and constraints.
- Mixed Chinese-English prompts can be useful for safe role binding plus technical camera terms, but only as clarity. They are not official filter behavior and must not be used to hide unsafe intent.
- Extension chains benefit from a returned last-frame anchor when the active surface supports it.
- Editing or extending a failed segment can be cheaper and more controllable than regenerating the entire clip.
- Product logos, faces, readable text, hands, fast gestures, and multi-character blocking benefit from locked framing and stronger constraints.
- Agent-skill repos stay more usable when README explains the workflow at human level while scripts enforce file, source, and metadata integrity.
- Professional users need role-specific artifacts: directors need shot purpose and performance beats, DPs need shot contracts, producers need rights/approval gates, editors need continuity handoffs, colorists and sound teams need post metadata, localization teams need textless/caption/dubbing plans, and QC teams need delivery preflight.

## Excluded From Active Guidance

- Filter-bypass or moderation-evasion advice.
- Celebrity, public-figure, or private-person imitation.
- Exact protected character, franchise, studio, song, or voice replication.
- Pricing promises from wrapper sites unless the answer clearly labels the wrapper, date, and source.
- Claims from private groups, closed channels, or screenshots that cannot be rechecked.
- Benchmark leaderboards or paper claims used as a substitute for current official platform behavior.

## Update Rule

Refresh this snapshot whenever the README, platform-status docs, API guidance, or model-name map changes. If a claim is not tied to a source and date, move it to a field-observed note or remove it.
