What is AI image-to-video generation?

AI image-to-video generation uses deep learning models to animate still images into cinematic videos. You upload a photo, describe the desired motion and camera movement, and the AI generates a video that brings your image to life while preserving its original style, colors, and identity. Seedance 2.0 is built on ByteDance's state-of-the-art Seedance diffusion model, the same AI research lab behind TikTok, CapCut, and Doubao, delivering industry-leading quality in identity preservation, motion synthesis, and cinematic realism.

What image formats and sizes are supported?

Seedance image-to-video supports JPG, PNG, and WebP formats with images up to 10MB. For best results, we recommend images with at least 1024px on the longest side. The AI automatically analyzes your image's composition, subject, style, and lighting to prepare for optimal motion synthesis. Both portrait and landscape orientations work perfectly.

How is image-to-video different from text-to-video?

Text-to-video creates videos entirely from text descriptions, generating characters, scenes, and settings from scratch. Image-to-video starts with your existing photo as the foundation, animating it with motion while preserving the exact visual identity, style, and composition. Image-to-video excels when you need to animate product photos, bring artwork to life, create social media content from existing photography, or add cinematic motion to portraits. Try our text-to-video feature at /text-to-video for creating videos from scratch.

Will the AI preserve my image's style and identity?

Seedance's identity preservation is the best in the industry. The AI maintains perfect fidelity to your source image, including face features, clothing details, color palette, artistic style, lighting mood, and composition, all preserved across every frame. This is powered by ByteDance's proprietary identity-preserving diffusion technology, which solves the #1 challenge that competitors like Runway and Pika still struggle with.

Can I control camera movement and motion?

Yes! Seedance gives you full creative control through text prompts. Specify camera movements (dolly in, pan left, zoom out, crane up, tracking shot), subject actions (hair blowing, water rippling, eyes blinking), and environmental effects (wind, rain, light changes). Example prompt: "Slow dolly in, subject turns head slightly to the right, hair gently blowing in wind, warm sunset lighting intensifies." The AI interprets your prompt and generates precise, cinematic camera paths.

What resolution images should I upload for best results?

For optimal image-to-video results, upload images with at least 1024×1024 pixels. Higher resolution source images produce better detail preservation in the output video. Seedance generates videos up to 1080p (Full HD) with professional color grading. Avoid heavily compressed or blurry images because the AI preserves what's in your source, so higher quality input means higher quality output.

Can I use product photos for e-commerce videos?

Absolutely! Seedance image-to-video is widely used by e-commerce businesses to transform static product photos into dynamic promotional videos. Upload a product shot on a white background and the AI can generate cinematic rotating showcases, lifestyle context animations, and platform-optimized content for Amazon, Shopify, TikTok Shop, and Instagram. Many sellers report 30-50% higher engagement with video listings versus static images.

How many reference images can I upload?

Seedance image-to-video supports up to two reference images per generation. You can upload a single image or combine two images to give the AI richer visual context, enabling more creative transitions and compositions. The AI preserves the identity and style of your source images while generating high-quality cinematic motion.

Is Seedance image-to-video free to use?

Yes! Seedance 2.0 offers free credits for every new user with no credit card required and no signup needed for your first generation. You can experience the full power of ByteDance's AI image-to-video technology at zero cost, including 1080p output and watermark-free downloads. For professional and high-volume usage, we offer affordable credit packs starting from $4.99.

Are outputs watermark-free and commercially licensed?

Yes! All videos generated with Seedance 2.0 image-to-video are completely watermark-free. Unlike many competitors that add watermarks to free-tier outputs, Seedance delivers clean, professional-quality videos with full commercial license included, ready for social media, marketing campaigns, e-commerce listings, client deliverables, and professional productions at no extra cost.

How does Seedance compare to Runway, Pika, and Luma for image-to-video?

Seedance 2.0 offers several advantages for image-to-video. Compared to Runway Gen-3, Seedance provides free access without mandatory subscription ($12/mo for Runway), superior identity preservation, and built-in audio generation. Compared to Pika, Seedance supports higher resolution (1080p vs 720p), longer clips (15s vs 4s), and better style fidelity. Compared to Luma Dream Machine, Seedance includes audio synthesis, more precise camera control via text prompts, and watermark-free output on all tiers. Seedance is backed by ByteDance's massive AI infrastructure with 150,000+ employees.

How fast is image-to-video generation?

Seedance image-to-video typically generates a video within 30 to 120 seconds depending on duration, resolution, and motion complexity. Image-to-video may be slightly faster than text-to-video since the AI builds upon your source image rather than generating visual content from scratch. Our infrastructure, powered by ByteDance's global GPU cluster, ensures consistent performance even during peak hours.

Seedance 2.0

Turn Any Image Into Stunning AI Videos Instantly

Upload any photo, whether it's a portrait, product shot, artwork, or landscape, and watch Seedance 2.0 bring it to life with cinematic motion, perfect identity preservation, and professional quality. Powered by ByteDance's state-of-the-art diffusion model. Over 100,000 videos generated. Free, no signup required.

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How Image to Video Works

How to Convert Images to Video with Seedance AI in 3 Steps

Smiling woman in a bright living room with a landscape photo on the wall, representing a source image ready for AI video generation

STEP 1

Upload Your Image

Upload any photo including portraits, product shots, landscapes, and artwork. Seedance accepts JPG, PNG, and WebP formats up to 10MB. The AI analyzes composition, subject, style, and lighting to prepare for natural motion synthesis.

Woman surrounded by swirling holographic text and light particles, visualizing how text prompts guide AI motion generation

STEP 2

Describe the Motion

Tell Seedance how you want the image to move: camera angles, subject actions, and environmental effects. Example: "Slow dolly in, hair gently blowing in wind, soft ambient lighting." Choose duration (4 to 15s), aspect ratio, and enable AI audio generation.

Woman walking confidently on a cliff at golden hour with dramatic sunset clouds, showcasing cinematic AI video output quality

STEP 3

Download Your Video

Get your AI-animated video in HD quality (up to 1080p) with cinematic motion and professional color grading. All outputs are watermark-free and commercially licensed, ready for social media, e-commerce, or professional productions.

Why Seedance AI Leads Image-to-Video

Seedance Image to Video: Industry-Leading AI Features

Woman in traditional Chinese hanfu sitting in a moonlit pavilion with floating lanterns, demonstrating Seedance AI style preservation across diverse visual genres

Any Image, Any Style

Upload portraits, landscapes, product shots, anime illustrations, oil paintings, or fashion photos. Seedance's multi-modal AI understands and preserves every visual style. Powered by ByteDance's proprietary transformer architecture, it outperforms Runway, Pika, and Luma in style preservation benchmarks.

Close-up portrait of a woman with silver-streaked hair on a rain-soaked neon city street, demonstrating Seedance AI identity preservation across video frames

Perfect Identity Preservation

Seedance's identity-preserving diffusion technology maintains perfect face features, clothing details, color palette, and artistic style from your source image across every video frame, solving the #1 challenge in AI image-to-video generation.

Wuxia warrior in crimson silk robes performing an aerial sword strike in a misty bamboo forest, showcasing Seedance AI natural motion synthesis

Natural Motion Synthesis

Transform still images into fluid, natural motion. Seedance's motion synthesis engine interprets your source image to generate physically plausible movements including hair flowing, water rippling, clouds drifting, and fabrics swaying, all with Hollywood-grade cinematic quality.

Aerial cinematic shot of a surfer riding a turquoise wave at golden hour, demonstrating Seedance AI camera control capabilities

Camera Control from Your Prompt

Specify camera movements like dolly, pan, zoom, crane, and tracking shots directly in your text prompt. Seedance translates your cinematic vision into precise camera paths that bring your still images to life with professional cinematography.

Built-in Audio Generation

Seedance automatically generates context-aware sound effects, ambient audio, and background music that perfectly match your animated image. Powered by ByteDance's audio AI, the same technology behind CapCut's audio features.

Luxury perfume bottle on polished black marble with golden reflections and rose petals, showcasing Seedance AI product video generation for e-commerce

E-Commerce Ready

Transform product photos into stunning promotional videos instantly. Upload a product shot and get cinematic rotating showcases, lifestyle animations, and social media-ready content in 16:9, 9:16, 4:3, 1:1, 21:9, and 3:4 formats.

Silver-haired woman in a high-tech flight suit on a futuristic starship bridge with holographic displays, representing Seedance enterprise API capabilities

Enterprise-Ready API

Integrate Seedance image-to-video into your products with our production-grade API. Built-in rate limiting, credit management, webhook callbacks, and 99.9% uptime SLA. Trusted by agencies, e-commerce platforms, and SaaS products worldwide.

Image to Video FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions About AI Image to Video

Have another question? Contact our team at [email protected]. We typically respond within 24 hours.

Ready to Bring Your Images to Life?

Join 5,000+ professional creators, photographers, and e-commerce sellers who trust Seedance 2.0 by ByteDance to transform their images into cinematic videos. Free to start, no credit card required.

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