How to Use Seedance: A Step-by-Step Guide for AI Video Creators

If you have ever wanted to turn a single sentence into a cinematic short film, this guide is for you. In the next few minutes you will learn how to use Seedance end-to-end — from your very first prompt to advanced multimodal scenes that combine image, video and audio references. Everything below applies to Seedance 2.0, and you can follow along live in the free Seedance text-to-video generator on our home page.

What is Seedance, and what can it do?

Seedance is a next-generation AI video generator that produces studio-quality short clips from plain-text prompts. Out of the box, Seedance ships with three core modes:

• Text-to-Video (T2V) — generate a video purely from a written prompt.
• Image-to-Video (I2V) — upload one or more reference images and let Seedance animate them into a scene.
• Audio-driven — upload audio and Seedance renders matching footage, with optional lip-sync.

These three modes can be combined: Seedance is fundamentally a multimodal model, so you can mix text, image, audio and even existing video clips inside the same prompt. That is the single biggest reason to learn how to use Seedance properly — it rewards careful prompt design with very fast, very consistent results.

How to use Seedance: the 3-step quick start

The fastest way to learn how to use Seedance is to follow these three steps:

1. Open the studio. Head to the Seedance 2.0 multimodal video studio on the home page and sign in. The default mode is "Text to video", so you can start typing immediately.
2. Write a prompt. Describe the scene, subject and camera, for example: Rainy city street, neon lights flashing. A man in a black trench coat walks with a red umbrella, slow-motion push-in, cinematic 8K.
3. Hit Generate. Seedance shows the estimated credit cost before you click, so you always know what each render will spend. A few minutes later, your first Seedance video is ready to download.

That is the absolute baseline workflow for how to use Seedance. Everything else in this article is about turning that baseline into a repeatable, brand-consistent creative pipeline.

How to use Seedance with images (Image-to-Video)

Image-to-Video is the most controllable mode and a great starting point for anyone learning how to use Seedance. Switch the References chip from "Text to video" to "Image", drop in up to nine reference images, and refer to them in the prompt with @image1, @image2, and so on.

Example prompt:

A girl slowly walks from @image1 (starting posture) to @image2 (arms spread),
sea breeze blowing through her hair, golden sunset background,
slow-motion push-in, character features consistent with reference images.

This is how Seedance keeps your characters, props and brand visuals consistent across every shot — without you having to rewrite the brief each time.

How to use Seedance with audio and lip-sync

For talking-head clips, switch to the Audio reference slot, upload your audio file, and turn on lip-sync. Seedance will generate footage whose mouth shapes match the uploaded audio. You can use this mode to localise an existing clip into a new language, create lecture videos with custom narration, or build short skits where the soundtrack drives the action. If the lip-sync looks off, tweak the prompt (describe the speaker more precisely) or re-encode the audio and try again.

How to use Seedance with multimodal references

The real power shows up when you combine modalities. You can attach images for character design, a video for camera motion reference, and audio for background music inside the same prompt. Use the @ syntax to bind them:

• @Image1 as the first frame
• Reference @Video1 for the camera movement and transitions
• Use @Audio1 for the background music
• Extend @Video1 by 5 seconds

Keep the total attached files under twelve, and prioritise the references that influence the final shot the most. This is the recommended way to use Seedance for ads, product demos and short-form storytelling.

How to use Seedance to keep characters consistent across shots

If you are making episodic content or a brand-led campaign, build a "character profile" once and reuse it everywhere. Upload multiple angle shots (front, side, expressions) into a profile, then mention the profile name in your prompt:

As long as you keep the profile name consistent, Seedance will maintain the same character across episodes, shots and aspect ratios.

Pro tips: how to get the best results with Seedance

A few quick rules from teams already shipping with Seedance every day:

• Start with image + prompt if you are new to Seedance. Adding even one reference image dramatically improves controllability.
• Save every working prompt. A library of proven Seedance prompts is the single most valuable asset for repeat creators.
• Use the prompt presets. The online Seedance prompt-to-video tool opens with five ready-to-use prompt templates every time you click the empty input.
• Debug the prompt first. When a render disappoints, fix the wording before tuning model parameters.
• Mix modalities. Text + image + audio almost always beats text alone.

Ready to try Seedance?

You now know how to use Seedance from the very first prompt to multimodal direction and character continuity. The next step is to actually generate something — and the free Seedance AI video generator with reference uploads on our home page is the fastest way to do that. Open the studio, paste any prompt from this article, and watch your idea become a cinematic clip. Your first Seedance render is free, and the only way to truly learn how to use Seedance is to ship one.