Seedance 2.5 prompt director — the omni-reference dialect. Routes the four generation modes (t2v / omni_reference / video_edit / video_extension), writes explicit @Image/@Video/@Audio reference roles with exclusions, stages 30-second videos into end-state beats, and covers video editing, forward/backward extension, first-last-frame and multi-keyframe control, storyboard grids, blockout rendering, and seamless transitions. Use whenever the user asks for a Seedance 2.5 prompt, mentions Seedance 2.5 / Dreamina / Jimeng, wants a clip longer than 15s on Seedance, wants to EDIT or EXTEND an existing video rather than generate a new one, or supplies more than a handful of image/video/audio references. For Seedance 2.0 (4K, start/end frames, genre hint) use higgsfield-seedance instead.
Seedance 2.5 prompt director — the omni-reference dialect. Routes the four generation modes (t2v / omni_reference / video_edit / video_extension), writes explicit @Image/@Video/@Audio reference roles with exclusions, stages 30-second videos into end-state beats, and covers video editing, forward/backward extension, first-last-frame and multi-keyframe control, storyboard grids, blockout rendering, and seamless transitions. Use whenever the user asks for a Seedance 2.5 prompt, mentions Seedance 2.5 / Dreamina / Jimeng, wants a clip longer than 15s on Seedance, wants to EDIT or EXTEND an existing video rather than generate a new one, or supplies more than a handful of image/video/audio references. For Seedance 2.0 (4K, start/end frames, genre hint) use higgsfield-seedance instead.
Seedance 2.5 is a different dialect from Seedance 2.0, not a version bump you can
prompt through by habit. 2.0 is a reference-driven shot generator with start/end frames
and a 4K lane. 2.5 is an omni-reference production model: up to 50 reference
materials, 30-second native runtime, and three non-generation modes — it can edit a video
you already have, and extend one forward or backward from its boundary frame.
The prompt grammar changes with it. Reference roles are declared in prose (@Image 1 defines …), audio and text get bracket syntax, long videos are staged with explicit end
states, and first/last frames are announced inside the prompt rather than selected as
a mode.
Model split — read this before writing anything. 2.5 caps at 720p and has no
start_image / end_image media role, no genre hint, and no 4K lane. If the job
needs 4K, a genre hint, or platform-level start/end frame pinning, it is a
Seedance 2.0 job — ../higgsfield-seedance/SKILL.md. See § Choosing 2.0 vs 2.5.
QUICK FACTS
Generated-checked block (scripts/build_index.py verifies anchors). Routing aids — read the linked sections for the rules themselves.
Four modes, picked before writing: t2v · omni_reference · video_edit · video_extension; the mode changes what the prompt is→
Higgsfield surface: 480p/720p only, duration 4–30s, no start/end-frame role, no genre hint, extension_mode required for (and only for) video_extension→
video_editignoresduration and aspect_ratio and bills by the source video's length; video_extension inherits the source's aspect ratio →
Every reference material gets an explicit role and an exclusion — "what to use" plus "what not to use"; never let the model infer the mapping →
Each material also declares a fidelity grade — full-preserve / partial-preserve / attribute-transfer (name the target) / loose-guide; beat lines name characters (name + one visible marker), never handles →
Material budget: 30 images / 10 videos ≤30s total / 10 audio ≤30s total, 50 materials max; stability ranges are 1–8 subjects (images), 1–5 subjects at 5–10s (video/audio) →
Multi-reference is a 5-step workflow — map → group → profile → select-by-scene, one line per subject; @Images 1 through 4 define four characters is the canonical failure →
Long videos are staged, not paragraphed: one primary change per stage + an explicit end state; timestamps allocate a budget, they are not frame-accurate edit points →
Staging fixes too many EVENTS; two incompatible JOBS in one generation (physics + performance) is a separate cut — split into two prompts and stitch →
Bracket syntax: () music · <> SFX · {} dialogue · 【】 subtitles; non-Chinese dialogue needs a language line before the line →
First/last frames and multi-keyframes are declared in the prompt () — aspect ratio locks to the first image; never merge the two anchors into one sentence
Provenance
Two independent sources, labelled throughout:
Label
Source
[OFFICIAL — Dreamina]
ByteDance's Dreamina Seedance 2.5 Prompt Guide + User Guide — the model vendor's own prompt doctrine. Prompt grammar is model-side, so it carries across to Higgsfield's hosting.
[OFFICIAL — platform]
Higgsfield's live models_explore catalog, snapshot 2026-08-07 (../../specs/model-specs.json). Parameters, enums, and media roles come from here and nowhere else.
[DREAMINA-ONLY]
A Dreamina product feature with no Higgsfield parameter behind it. Never quote these as things the user can do here.
Where the two disagree about what is settable, the platform snapshot wins — it is what
the API actually accepts.
The Mode Router
Pick the mode first. The same sentence means different things in different modes, and two
of the four modes are not generation at all.
The user wants
Mode
What the prompt is
A clip from a description, no materials
t2v
A scene brief — the core formula below
A clip built from images / videos / audio they supply
omni_reference
A role map plus a scene brief
To change something inside a video they already have
video_edit
An edit order: master + scope + preserve list
More footage before or after a video they already have
video_extension
A boundary contract plus new content
Two rules that fall out of this:
First/last frames, keyframes, storyboard grids, and blockouts are all omni_reference.
2.5 has no separate first/last-frame mode on this platform — the anchor images are
ordinary references whose role sentence says they are the first and last frame.
[OFFICIAL — Dreamina: "no need to switch to a separate first/last-frame mode"]
Editing is not regeneration. If the user wants the shot rebuilt, that is
omni_reference with the old clip as a motion reference — not video_edit. video_edit
preserves the master's timeline and changes one scoped thing inside it.
Video-to-video is not automatically video_edit. The field VFX workflow — swap the
person in this plate, keep every other pixel — runs in omni_reference with the source
attached as a video reference, because that is the lane where duration is settable and
must be matched to the source (and where the source therefore has to be ≥ 4 s, the
duration floor). video_edit is the lane for a scoped change inside a master whose
timeline must survive untouched. Full routing table + the performance-inheritance clause:
VFX-PIPELINE.md § Stage 4. [FIELD — AI-vs-VFX, 2026-08-08]
The Higgsfield Parameter Surface
[OFFICIAL — platform, snapshot 2026-08-07] · verify against ../../specs/model-specs.json
before quoting (HARD RULE 3).
Three consequences worth stating to the user before they spend credits:
video_edit bills by the source video's duration, and neither duration nor
aspect_ratio is settable — a 20-second master costs a 20-second render no matter how
small the edit.
video_extension inherits the source's aspect ratio; only the extension's
duration is yours to set.
No genre parameter. 2.0's genre hint does not exist here — genre lives in the
prompt's visual-style clause instead.
The linter reads the enums out of ../../specs/model-specs.json, so an out-of-range duration, a
1080p request, or a video_extension missing its extension_mode is caught before the
render.
The Core Prompt Formula
[OFFICIAL — Dreamina] Combine only the parts the shot needs; omit the rest rather than
padding empty slots.
<Subject> performs <primary action or event> in <scene and environment>.
The visuals feature <visual style>.
Use <shot size, camera angle, camera movement, or cuts>.
Audio includes <dialogue, ambience, sound effects, or music>.
Subject + action is load-bearing — make it concrete. "The man runs" → "the man
accelerates into a sprint while his jacket reacts to the airflow."
Scene and environment — location, time, weather, spatial relationships, background state.
Visual style — lighting, color, materials, texture, mood. Only descriptors that add
information; stacked buzzwords ("cinematic, 8K, masterpiece") sample nothing in particular.
The named-substitute discipline in ../higgsfield-seedance/SKILL.md § Prompt-Craft Laws
applies unchanged.
Camera — shot size, angle, movement, focus subject, transitions. Motion matches the
action; it is not decoration.
Audio — dialogue, voice characteristics, ambience, SFX, music, synchronized to the visuals.
Generation parameters are not prompt text. Resolution, duration, and aspect ratio are
set on the generation page or via the API — writing them into the prose does nothing except
in the modes that auto-lock them, where they are not settable at all.
Reference Roles — Say What to Use and What Not to Use
The moment there is more than one material, or a material sitting next to a text
description, the prompt must state what each material contributes. [OFFICIAL — Dreamina]
@Image 1 defines <subject>'s <appearance, clothing, structure, or material>.
@Video 1 defines <motion, camera movement, or pacing>.
@Audio 1 defines <character or sound type>'s <voice, dialogue, ambience, or music>.
Every material that could leak something unwanted gets an explicit exclusion in the same
sentence:
@Image 2 defines the workbench and window light. Do not use the people in the image.
Rules:
Mappings live in the prompt. Text labels drawn inside an image are not a mapping, and
the model will not infer which person or prop a material represents.
Video-only references are motion/pacing references by default, not identity — say so
explicitly when you mean otherwise.
Several views of one subject must say they are one subject: "All four images define
one folding desk lamp. The output must contain only one lamp throughout." Without it the
model duplicates the subject.
When a reference video already carries the motion accurately, state only which
attributes to inherit. Restating every action fights the reference. A blockout or motion
video carries motion and spatial structure — not identity — so the prompt still has to
define subjects, scene, action, and visual style.
Never place a reference handle in a shot where that subject is absent — the same rule
as 2.0's tag discipline; the model forces it into frame.
Character sheets leak their staging. A sheet's neutral backdrop and multi-view panel
layout are the most common character-material leak — the flat gray studio renders as the
actual set. Pair every character-sheet role with its own exclusion: "Do not take the
gray backdrop, the panel borders, or the multi-view layout."
Beat lines name characters, never handles. In action/beat prose, a character appears
as name + one visible marker at their first appearance in the beat — "Mira — silver
streak, rust-red jacket — crosses the stall line" — not as @Image 2. The model binds
by what it can see in the material, and a handle used as a sentence subject is the
classic way one character comes back as two people. [OFFICIAL — SD25-PE mapping priority: material content outranks upload order]
Fidelity — say how much of each material must survive
[EMPIRICAL — MiniMax H3 skill corpus, re-derived; cross-model structure, unmeasured on Seedance] A role says what job a material does; it still doesn't say how much of the
material must reach the pixels. Declare one fidelity grade per material, in the same
sentence as its role:
full-preserve — the subject appears as-is: face, build, wardrobe, all of it.
partial-preserve — the named parts survive, the rest is free: "the jacket and the
scar; hairstyle may change."
attribute-transfer — named traits lift onto a different, named target: "apply
this fabric's weave and sheen to Mira's coat." The target must be named — this is the
one case a bare role line cannot express, and the one that goes wrong silently.
loose-guide — mood, palette, or energy only; nothing is copied literally.
@Image 4 defines the brocade fabric — attribute-transfer onto Mira's coat only.
Do not carry the garment's cut, the mannequin, or the studio backdrop.
Material budget
[OFFICIAL — Dreamina] Hard limits vs the ranges that actually stay stable:
Type
Hard limit
Stable range
Images
30, each ≤4K
1–8 distinct subjects
Videos
10, ≤30s combined
1–5 subjects, 5–10s each
Audio
10 clips, ≤30s combined
only clips directly relevant
Video-edit source
1 video + reference images
source ≤20s, 1–5 reference images
50 reference materials total. Above the stable ranges (9–12 subjects in images, 6–10 in
audio/video, 6–8 edit reference images) generation still works but stability drops and the
shot may need several attempts — budget for it, or split the scene.
More than five subjects needing multiple views → one view per image. Independent view
images beat a single collage of views; the collage is the less stable form.
Spend one view on a strong expression, not four resting faces.[OFFICIAL — Higgsfield Seedance 2.5 deck, PART 2] A set of neutral views teaches the model the face at rest and
nothing else, so the first line of dialogue invents a mouth. Generate the views on a neutral
light-grey ground and make one of them a strong expression — anger, or a wide smile —
so the model learns the character's facial dynamics and teeth structure, not only the
resting face. The canonical four: front view · back view · facial details at neutral ·
facial dynamics and teeth under strong emotion. Close the set with the identity line
(§ Reference Roles) so all four are read as one person.
Multi-Reference — the Five-Step Workflow
[OFFICIAL — Dreamina] The goal is not to cram every reference into one sentence. It
is to define the relationships among characters, props, scenes, actions, and audio so the
model picks the right material for the right moment.
Step 1 — name and map each subject individually. One line per subject:
<Character A> corresponds to @Image 1. Use only the appearance, hairstyle, and clothing.
<Character B> corresponds to @Image 2. Use only the appearance, hairstyle, and clothing.
<Prop A> corresponds to @Image 3. Use only the structure, material, and color.
<Scene A> references @Image 4. Use only the spatial layout, architecture, and lighting.
Do not use the people in the image.
The canonical failure:@Images 1 through 4 define four characters respectively.
That sentence does not say which image is which character, and the model will guess.
Step 2 — group by type once several subjects are in play: [Characters] → [Props] →
[Scenes] → [Motion and Audio]. Add the non-interchange lock to the character group:
"Do not interchange these characters' appearances, clothing, actions, positions, or dialogue."
Step 3 — profile any recurring subject. A character crossing several scenes, or
carrying several materials, gets one consolidated block:
[Subject Profile: Conservator]
Appearance and clothing: @Image 1.
Fixed prop: <Sample Case> from @Image 5.
Locations: <Conservation Lab> and <Gallery>.
Motion references: the case-opening motion from @Video 1.
Do not use: other characters' clothing. Do not give this character other equipment.
Step 4 — select references by scene. Per scene, list only the subset actually used,
then the event and its end state:
Scene 1 | Inspection in the Conservation Lab
Use: <Conservator>, <Sample Case>, <Conservation Lab>, and the case-opening motion from @Video 1.
Event: <Conservator> opens <Sample Case> at the workbench and inspects the sample inside.
End state: <Conservator> remains on the inner side of the workbench. <Sample Case> stays
beside the conservator's right hand.
Step 5 — check ownership. Props belong to exactly one character ("belongs only to
"); character count, clothing, and spatial direction stay constant across scenes.
Long Video — Stages and End States
[OFFICIAL — Dreamina] 2.5 generates up to 30 seconds natively. Anything with several
events gets staged — one flat paragraph is where dropped beats come from.
Each stage carries exactly one primary state change and closes on an explicit,
directly visible end state. Each new stage restates what carries over.
[Generation Goal]
Generate a <video type>. The central subject is <subject>, and the primary event is <story summary>.
[Stage 1]
Initial state: <initial state of characters, props, and scene>.
Primary event: <one primary action or event>.
End state: <character positions, prop ownership, or visible scene state>.
[Stage 2]
Continue from the previous stage: <state that must remain unchanged>.
Primary event: <one primary action or event>.
End state: <observable state>.
[Stage 3]
Primary event: <closing event>.
End state: <final visible state>.
[Maintain Consistency]
Keep <character identity, number of characters, clothing, prop ownership, spatial direction,
and audio relationships> consistent.
Split by JOB, not only by length
Staging solves too many events in one paragraph. It does not solve two
incompatible jobs in one generation, and that is a separate cut worth making
[DEMO — Higgsfield "AI Love Stories" tutorial, 2026-08].
The reported case: an arena scene containing a fight (a giant throw, a sword
snatch, a takedown) and, in the same beat, the acting around it (a hidden
worry, a flirtatious exit, hope draining from a face). Run as one prompt it
held — badly, in both directions at once: "the fight gets softer, the faces get
flatter." The model spends its attention budget once. Asked to nail physics
and micro-performance in one generation, it half-does each.
Split into two prompts, one job each, stitched in the edit:
Cut it here
Because
physics ↔ performance
mass, contact and follow-through vs. eyes, breath and micro-expression. Different attention, different optics, usually different shot sizes
action ↔ dialogue
the same split wearing other clothes
the beat that needs room
the second reported case: a 30s carnival scene held as one prompt, and was still split into 3×15s because the first-touch beat needed room — "these beats felt completely rushed". Length was not the constraint; pacing was
How to tell which cut you need. Length-driven splits are decided by
counting events. This one is decided by asking: what is this shot's dominant
job? If a prompt has two honest answers, it has two shots in it. That is the
same question the Feasibility Veto asks about a single frame, applied to a
whole generation.
Note the direction of the second case: it fit, and was split anyway. "It
generated" is not the bar — a scene that renders every beat but rushes the one
that matters has failed at the thing you were making it for.
Practical consequence, stated plainly by the same production: a perfect 30s
render does not exist. Generate raw footage per job, then assemble. Several
of the finished scenes in that film take the background from one take and the
foreground action from another.
Timestamps and pacing
Stages are the default. Reach for one-second precision only when a specific handoff,
entrance/exit, transition, or beat must land on a moment.
Pattern
Use for
Example
Time range
Allocating pacing to a segment
0-3 seconds… 3-7 seconds… 7-12 seconds…
Exact time point
One key event
At 5 seconds, the camera whip-pans rapidly to the left and completes the transition.
Relative timing
A delay between two events
Three seconds after the character presses the button, the room lights gradually turn off.
Ranges are consecutive and non-overlapping, and they are a time budget, not a
frame-accurate edit point — actions may land slightly either side of a boundary.
Too little content in a range hands the model freedom you did not intend; too much causes
excessive cutting or dropped events.
Never demand a frequency inside one second ("complete three actions in one second").
Timestamps allocate time; they do not enforce cadence.
Every timestamped segment still ends on an explicit end state, exactly like a stage.
Relationship to 2.0's beat arithmetic.../higgsfield-seedance/SKILL.md § Output
Format requires timed beats to sum to the declared duration. That still holds — but sum
to 4–30s here, and remember that on 2.5 the sum is a budget the model approximates, not a
cut list it honours to the frame.
Audio and Text — Bracket Syntax
[OFFICIAL — Dreamina] Prompts can be written entirely in natural language. Use the
brackets when music, SFX, dialogue, and subtitles must be told apart explicitly:
Content
Syntax
Example
Music
()
(Soft, rhythmic piano music plays in the background)
Sound effects
<>
<A bell rings in the distance>
Dialogue
{}
{Hello, welcome back.}
Subtitles
【】
【Chapter One: Departure】
Dialogue language reinforcement. For non-Chinese dialogue — or when English text comes
back spoken in Chinese, or a specific regional variety is wanted — state it before the line:
Dialogue language + regional variety or accent + delivery style + speaker + {dialogue}
Dialogue language: authentic Los Angeles English. The young man says in natural Los Angeles
vernacular: {No way, you actually made it.}
Two house rules carry over from ../higgsfield-audio/SKILL.md and the film pipeline in
../higgsfield-seedance/HELL-GRIND.md:
Speech lives in the audio clause only — not a word of dialogue inside the action
description, or the model narrates it as behavior. The trap is that writers do not think
of subtext as speech: they exchange a look that says "you too?" is a line the script
never wrote, and it comes back spoken. [HOUSE — the failing take is timecoded in the nutllwhy/seedance-tvc-director evaluation, MIT, 2026-08-09.] Anything readable is a
voicing request — quoted subtext, a remembered line, a slogan, a sign read aloud. Write
the visible behavior instead (jaw sets, eyes hold), and note that adding "no dialogue"
does not undo it: the readable text is still there being asked for.
Diegetic-only is a project choice, and 2.5 finally obeys it. Random subtitles and
unrequested BGM were 2.0's most-reported nuisance; ByteDance calls suppression of both a
headline 2.5 fix [OFFICIAL — Dreamina]. Still say it — and no 【】 block — rather
than trusting the improvement. Write the suppression as NO BGM, not (no music):
a production term reads as a hard spec where a bare negation reads as a preference, and
lead with the positive diegetic list before it (../higgsfield-audio/SKILL.md §
Suppressing music).
First-Last Frame and Multi-Keyframe Control
[OFFICIAL — Dreamina] On 2.5 these are prompt statements, not a mode, because the
platform surface has no start/end-frame media role.
@Image 1 is the first frame. It defines the opening composition, subject position, pose,
prop state, scene, and camera direction.
@Image 2 is the last frame. It defines the ending composition, subject position, pose,
prop state, scene, and camera direction.
@Image 3 defines <Subject A>'s <appearance, clothing, structure, or material>. Do not change
the first-frame composition defined by @Image 1 or the last-frame composition defined by @Image 2.
<Describe one continuous action or event>.
The video begins naturally from the first frame defined by @Image 1 and reaches the last
frame defined by @Image 2 after the continuous action.
Between the first and last frames, maintain continuity in <character identity, prop structure
and ownership, scene layout, and camera direction>.
Three failure sources, all avoidable:
Never merge the anchors — @Images 1 and 2 are the first and last frames is the
documented wrong form. One role sentence per image.
First and last images must share an aspect ratio, or the last frame stretches. The
output ratio locks to the first image; duration stays settable.
Supplementary references supplement only their named attribute — each one repeats the
"do not change the first/last-frame composition" clause.
Multi-keyframe sequences (3+ ordered stage images) open with Use @Image 1 through @Image N as keyframes in this order, then describe the key state each image represents.
Independent keyframe images align far more reliably than several frames combined into one
grid. Keyframes control stage order and key states — they do not reproduce every
intermediate frame.
Storyboard grids and blockout references (coarse vs fine) are the next rung up:
MODE-PLAYBOOKS.md § Storyboard grids and § Blockout references.
Editing, Extension, and the Composite Modes
The long templates live in MODE-PLAYBOOKS.md in this directory. What you need to know
before opening it:
Video editing — define the source as the sole editing master, then edit goal, edit
scope, target material, and the preserve list. Subject replacement additionally needs a
Timeline Inheritance clause so the new object inherits the old one's exact timing,
path, occlusion, and exit. Background replacement scopes the edit to outside the
subject's silhouette. Audio categories (dialogue, language, voice, BGM, SFX) edit
independently.
Video extension — the one rule that decides success: align the boundary frame before
describing new content. Forward extension continues from the source's last frame;
backward extension must land on the source's first frame as its explicit end state.
"Then connect to the source video" is the documented failure phrasing — it leaks later
elements in early and lets the image drift after it arrives.
One-click video (images → one edited video) — Material Roles → Image Order → Motion Amount → Editing Style → Visual Treatment → Audio. "Turn these into a video" is never enough.
Seamless transitions (bridge content between two clips) — Before Video → After Video → Trigger Action → Camera Movement → Visual Transformation → Arrival State → Audio.
Transition vocabulary — natural shot switch · fade in/out · stacking · white/black flash ·
erase · mask · similar-object · action · dynamic relay · zoom in/out · ink-wash. Each
named with its own trigger and arrival composition.
Emotional Direction and Camera Terms
[OFFICIAL — Dreamina]
Emotion. Abstract words ("tense", "warm", "oppressive") set a direction and leave the
rest to interpretation. Pair them with directly visible or audible cues — eye movement, brow
tension, mouth movement, breathing, gaze direction, hand movement. Two to four cues is
enough for one transition; listing every facial detail is counterproductive.
The overall emotion shifts from <starting emotion> to <ending emotion>.
After <triggering event>, <subject> first shows <immediate observable reaction>.
Then, <eyes, brows, mouth, breathing, gaze, or hand movement> gradually <changes>.
Finally, <subject> expresses <target emotion> through <restrained or explicit outward behavior>.
Use event-triggered multi-stage form only when the emotion genuinely changes several times.
For muscle-level control beyond this, ../higgsfield-facs/SKILL.md (AU codes); for the
behavior-under-pressure layer that makes the cues mean something,
../higgsfield-acting/SKILL.md.
Camera terms. Basic language works directly — shot size (extreme wide / wide / medium /
close-up / extreme close-up), movement (push in, pull out, pan, lateral move, follow, orbit,
dive, dolly out, tilt up, handheld shake), position (low angle, overhead, first-person).
Popular techniques (one-take, dolly zoom, aerial, FPV, bullet time, handheld, bounce speed
ramp) also work directly — but with several subjects in frame, still say which subject
the camera follows or orbits, where the move starts, and where it ends.
For a niche or ambiguous term, keep the term and translate it into an observable result:
Cinematography term + target subject + visual change + foreground/background relationship + direction or speed
Rack focus: shift focus smoothly from the leaves in the foreground to the person in the
background. The leaves gradually blur while the person's face changes from soft to sharp.
For a precise transition moment, add the trigger time, the occluding object, the direction,
and what continues afterwards. Aperture/focal-length/shutter numbers are allowed but the
intended visible result is clearer than a raw value alone.
FOV degrees still beat millimetres. The discrete-anchor FOV bank in
../higgsfield-seedance/SKILL.md § FOV anchors is house doctrine across the Seedance
family and applies here unchanged.
The Real-Person Character Formula
[OFFICIAL — Dreamina] The vendor's answer to "my characters look AI, or look like twins"
is a seven-slot character block. It works for stylized characters too.
[Role] [Skin color / skin texture] [Facial details] [Eyes / soul]
[Hairstyle / hair color] [Clothing / clothing texture] [Body type / mood / temperament]
[Other requirements, if any]
Slot notes:
Skin — carry real texture: visible micro-pores, translucency, capillary flush. This is
the single slot that most separates "photo of a person" from "AI render".
Facial details — eye shape, brow line, nose bridge, lips, jawline. Specific beats pretty.
Eyes / soul — what the gaze is doing and what it carries. Dead eyes are the number-one
tell; see ../higgsfield-acting/SKILL.md § Eye life.
Body type / mood / temperament — the body as biography, not a compliment.
House override on slot 1. The source guide labels the first slot [Age/Race]. Do
not write age. Engine rule 1 in ../higgsfield-seedance/ENGINE-RULES.md is age-blind
characters, and Higgsfield's own feature-film brief gives the reason: the content filter
tightens sharply the moment it reads a minor. Write role, build, clothing, and action
instead — "a lean courier in a soaked parka", not "a 22-year-old". Ethnicity stays a normal
descriptive slot; age does not.
Choosing 2.0 vs 2.5
The job needs
Model
4K or 1080p output
2.0 (mode=std) — 2.5 has no lane above 720p
Platform-pinned start / end frame media role
2.0
A genre hint parameter
2.0
A clip longer than 15 seconds in one generation
2.5 (up to 30s)
Editing a video that already exists
2.5 (video_edit)
Extending a clip forward or backward
2.5 (video_extension)
More than 9 reference images, or >3 reference videos/audio clips
2.5 (30 / 10 / 10 vs 2.0's 9 / 3 / 3)
Cheap 480p prompt validation
either — both cap the draft lane at 480p
The honest default: draft and structure on 2.5 when the job is long, reference-heavy, or
edit-shaped; finish on 2.0 when the deliverable needs resolution. They are not
interchangeable takes — a 2.5 draft validates the prompt, not the 2.0 render, for the same
reason ../higgsfield-seedance/SKILL.md § Drafts Validate the Prompt gives: there is no
seed to pin.
What carries over from 2.0 unchanged
The engine rules are shared. ../higgsfield-seedance/ENGINE-RULES.md applies in full —
age-blind characters, exit-frame = implicit cut, off-screen = nonexistent, avoid reflection
shots, ≤3 tracked characters, double-contrast cuts, micro-expressions as physics. So do the
positive-phrasing law (Seedance has no negative-embedding architecture in either version),
the homograph trap, and the block scaffold for production-scale briefs.
Hard Limits — Do Not Over-Promise These
[OFFICIAL — Dreamina]
Timestamps allocate time; they are not frame-accurate edit points. Never imply a beat
will land on an exact frame.
Video-editing prompts raise the probability that critical events align with the source —
they cannot guarantee frame-by-frame overlap.
Multi-reference selects and combines the right materials per scene; it does not make
every material appear at once.
Frame-level text accuracy is not promised. Subtitles, formulas, signs, and product
specs need prepared reference materials plus post — the same conclusion as 2.0's text-rendering
high-risk row.
Video editing locks the input's aspect ratio and approximate duration; output may differ
by up to ~0.3s from transition-frame handling.
First/last-frame generation locks aspect ratio to the first image; mismatched ratios
stretch the last frame.
Video extension locks aspect ratio to the source; the extended segment's audio volume may
differ slightly.
Boundary frames connect naturally, not identically — review both sides of the seam plus
the whole extended segment.
Seamless transitions aim for visual and audio continuity, not pixel-identical preservation
of either source clip.
Dreamina-Only — What Higgsfield Does Not Expose
[DREAMINA-ONLY] These exist in ByteDance's own Dreamina/Jimeng product and appear in the
guides, but there is no Higgsfield parameter behind them on the 2026-08-07 snapshot. Do
not offer them here.
Dreamina feature
Status on Higgsfield
Closest thing that does work
Ultra Long Video — 30–180s in one generation
Not exposed; duration caps at 30
Stage a 30s generation, then chain video_extension
Nested extension to 60s via repeated UI operations
The model rule (source ≤30s → extend up to 30s) holds; the one-click nesting UI does not exist
Chain video_extension calls, re-checking the boundary each time
Edit with marks / Advanced Edit — box, arrow, brush, anchor annotations on a frame
Not exposed; there is no annotation channel
video_edit with a written scope: object + change + effective time range
Coarse/fine blockout prompting via omni_reference (MODE-PLAYBOOKS.md § Blockout references)
Native 180s / multi-minute deliverables
—
Generate in 30s pieces and assemble in post (../higgsfield-pipeline/SKILL.md)
Extension chain math. The model-side rule is: a source within 30 seconds can be
extended by 4–30 seconds in one operation, so a 30s source plus a 30s extension is the
60-second ceiling for a single chain. Beyond that, re-anchor from the original references
rather than extending an extension — the same degradation curve as 2.0's chain cap in
../higgsfield-seedance/SKILL.md § Extension Prompting.
Pre-Submission Checklist
[OFFICIAL — Dreamina], plus the house preflight. Only the rows for techniques actually used:
Subject and primary action or event stated plainly
Every reference states what to use and what not to use
Every character, product, and prop named and bound to a specific material
References selected per scene, not all required at once
Each long-video stage has one primary change and a clear end state
Character count, clothing, prop ownership, and spatial relationships consistent throughout
Editing prompts define the sole master, edit scope, target quantity, and preserve list
Abstract emotions and niche camera terms paired with observable cues
First/last frames: one role per image, matching aspect ratios, anchors not merged
Storyboards state which structure to inherit, not literal panel reproduction
Blockouts: coarse vs fine identified first, inheritance list stated
Auto-locked parameters respected for edit / first-last / extension
Extension: boundary frame, motion trend, and audio continuity all checked
One-click video: roles, order, motion amount, editing style, audio all defined
Transitions: both clips' roles, trigger, process, and arrival state defined
No age words anywhere (engine rule 1)
seedance_lint.py --preflight --model seedance_2_5 run and clean
VFX-PIPELINE.md — the AI-VFX production pipeline: asset-class model routing, the size-ref
frame, location batching, the omni_reference v2v lane, the four-batch rule, the slop catalog
Editing needs a sole editing master + edit scope + Timeline Inheritance; extension needs the boundary frame aligned before any new content: MODE-PLAYBOOKS.md
AI-VFX production pipeline — model-per-asset-class routing, the size-ref frame, location batching, the omni_reference v2v lane (source ≥4s, duration = source), the four-batch rule, the slop catalog: VFX-PIPELINE.md
Emotion needs 2–4 observable cues, not adjectives; niche camera terms get translated into a visible result →
The real-person formula is 7 slots — and slot 1 is role, never age: the age-blind engine rule outranks the source guide's [Age/Race] label →
Hard limits that must not be over-promised (frame accuracy, locked parameters, pixel-identical transitions) →
Dreamina-product features that are not on the Higgsfield surface — Ultra Long Video 180s, mark-based editing, Clay Renderer →
