Seedance

Seedance (BytePlus ModelArk) is ByteDance's video family with native audio: a clip comes with sound in one pass. Brut carries Seedance 2.5 (the current flagship), Seedance 2.0, and the 2.0 family's two cheaper tiers, Fast and Mini.

#Get a key

Create a ModelArk key in the BytePlus console and paste it into ⚙ Settings → Seedance. The same key serves Seedream images.

Activate the model first. ModelArk models are switched on per account: open the console's Model activation page and activate each model you will run (Seedance 2.5, 2.0, and the Seedream models) before the first call. It is a one-time switch. Until then every request fails with "Your account … has not activated the model dreamina-seedance-2-5-260628"; Brut shows that message verbatim on the node.

How BytePlus bills you. Everything is pay-as-you-go, and resource packs are optional:

• Credits (recommended): prepaid by card from Billing → Billing overview in the console, minimum USD 5 per top-up, they never expire, and the balance is a hard ceiling on spend. A balance of USD 30 unlocks the Seedance family (Seedream needs no minimum).
• Automatic billing: a bound card charged when consumption reaches a threshold (USD 50 by default) and on the 2nd of each month. No ceiling on BytePlus's side, so Brut's project budget caps are the ceiling.
• Resource packs are optional: one model each, 90 days, priced at the list rate, outside promotions. An activated model keeps running on the card or the credits after any pack is used up. A Savings Plan exists too; you do not need one.
• PayPal-only accounts cannot run pay-as-you-go ModelArk: add a card, or buy a pack.

#Models & features

Seedance 2.5 (first in the menu):

• Image-to-video from a start frame, or start + end frame, and text-to-video.
• 4 to 30 seconds in one clip, or smart length (the model picks). Long single takes are its headline.
• 480p, 720p, 1080p (1080p is 10-bit HEVC: it plays in VLC/mpv and modern browsers; older players may refuse it).
• Up to 30 reference images on the references inlet (a Reference Board plugs in). Address them in the prompt as @Image1, @Image2… in wiring order and say what each supplies ("@Image1 is the building, copy its materials exactly").
• The clip's aspect ratio follows the start frame. Seedance 2.5 refuses a ratio on frame-to-video runs, so the node hides the aspect select and says so. Text-to-video keeps the full menu (16:9, 9:16, 4:3, 3:4, 21:9, 1:1).
• Draft mode: a 480p draft take costs exactly what a 480p clip costs, and for seven days it can be re-rendered as the same shot at 1080p, billed like a 1080p clip. Explore at 480p, pay 1080p only for keepers. In Brut: the Draft take box on Image → Video (and Draft takes on Film Shots), then ⬆ Render final. Your own BytePlus key only.
• Native audio on by default (it costs nothing extra). Prompt grammar: integer-second beats (0-3s: …, 3-8s: …), () for music, <> for sound effects, {} for dialogue, "no BGM" / "no audio" when you want silence. The Seedance 2.5 video prompt preset in Refine writes this structure for you; Seedance 2.5 shot plan rewrites a whole cinema plan in it.

Seedance 2.0: 4 to 15 seconds (or smart length), up to 4K, first/last frame, reference images, and it accepts an explicit aspect ratio on frame-to-video runs. Still the choice when you need 4K straight out of the model. Its grammar is different (shot labels rather than timestamps, full-width audio symbols): use the Seedance 2.0 video prompt and Seedance 2.0 shot plan presets for it. Both generations stay in the menu; pick per job.

Seedance 2.0 Fast and Seedance 2.0 Mini are the same family at a lower rate: 4 to 15 seconds (or smart length), 480p and 720p only, first and last frame, text-to-video, up to 9 reference images, native audio, the 2.0 prompt grammar (so the Seedance 2.0 video prompt preset). No draft mode: that is 2.5's. Mini is the cheapest video in Brut, about $0.18 for a 5-second 480p clip at list price; use it to test a move before paying for the 2.5 or 2.0 render. Both also run through OpenRouter.

Watermark is always off. Video editing, extension and video/audio references exist on 2.5's API and come to Brut as a Video → Video node later.

No BytePlus key? Both generations also run through an OpenRouter key, marked ⇄ runs via OpenRouter on the node. Seedance 2.5 there is 480p/720p only, 4 to 30 s, first and last frame, no reference images, no smart length and no draft mode, billed per video token at the same rate as BytePlus (the ledger records the exact billed amount). The 1080p tier, the 30-reference workflow and draft mode need your own BytePlus key.

#Gotchas

• Every clip comes with its last frame. The clip's final frame arrives as an image (at the clip's exact size, no watermark, not billed), kept beside the clip. On Image → Video, ⏭ Last frame → Image In drops it on the canvas: wire it into the next clip's start frame to continue the shot. Because BytePlus made that frame, the people in it are accepted as a start frame (measured; see the faces gotcha below).
• References loosen the start frame. Seedance cannot take an exact start frame and reference images in the same clip. With references wired into Image → Video, the start (and end) frame guide the clip instead of fixing it: the framing is approximate rather than pixel-exact, and the clip's aspect follows the start frame. The node says so on its references line; wire no references to keep the exact first-frame behaviour.
• Photoreal faces are refused in start frames and reference images, generated or not. ModelArk's moderation blocks start frames, reference images and videos that look like they contain a real person, and it cannot tell an AI-generated face from a photograph (field-tested: a fully generated woman was refused as "may contain real person"). Only faces made by ModelArk's own models under your account, their preset digital characters, or authorized-person assets pass. Brut carries the first of those: people generated by Seedream 5.0 on your own key are trusted as Seedance start frames and references for 30 days, and the trust survives a resize or a re-export. The rule we measured: a Seedream picture made from text passes on Lite, Pro and Flash, and so does a frame of a Seedance clip; an edit (Image → Image) is refused like a picture from any other maker, on every Seedream model, and a crop of an accepted picture is refused too. The refusal message on the node names the refused picture (the start frame, reference 2) and this path. A populated archviz render from another model can trip this too; wire a version without people and bring them in with the video prompt, or do character swaps on Gemini Omni or Kling Omni, whose gates accept generated people.
• Three concurrent tasks per individual account. When Film Shots runs more clips than that, the extra ones queue on BytePlus's side and finish a little later; nothing fails.
• A draft can be finalized for seven days; at the very edge BytePlus may refuse, and the node says so.

#Pricing, read this before you buy credits

Seedance's billing has two sharp edges (how to pay at all is under Get a key above):

• Credit packs are model-bound, and optional. A Seedance 2.5 pack does not cover 2.0 (or the fast/mini tiers), and vice versa. Buy the pack that matches the model you'll run, or stay pay-as-you-go on credits or your card.
• Rates are per token, and tokens depend on resolution and on whether the request contains video. BytePlus's list rates, as approximate prices per second:

The node shows the estimate before you run, and Film Shots itemizes it per clip. The ledger row is priced from BytePlus's own token count, not from the estimate, so what you see in the spend readout is what you were billed. Failed generations cost nothing.

A draft take bills like a 480p clip and its final like a 1080p clip: no discount on either, the saving is that you render 1080p only for the shots you keep, and the final is the same shot, not a new roll of the dice.