Volcano Engine Launches Seedance 2.5 Draft Mode for Lower-Cost Video Iteration

Summary

Volcano Engine announced on September 22 that its Seedance 2.5 video-generation API now supports Draft mode, which separates low-cost previewing from final rendering. Creators first generate a 480P preview to assess the scene, composition, subject movement, dialogue, sound effects, and camera rhythm, then use the preview ID to request a 1080P final video. The system carries over the preview’s prompt, reference materials, seed, ratio, duration, and other parameters for a second inference, aiming to keep the final shot’s structure, composition, motion, and overall direction highly consistent. In the company’s example using 1080P five-second clips without input video, four attempts to find a suitable result saved 57% and nearly doubled generation speed; at a 20-to-1 attempt-to-success ratio, the reported saving reached 77%. Unlike the common workflow of generating at low resolution and then upscaling, Draft mode directly produces native 1080P output, which the article says provides richer detail and more natural lighting and color. Small changes may still appear in local textures, complex patterns, small text, or the number of people in dense crowds. Runway, Magnific, and Artlist offered positive feedback on detail, speed, consistency, and the reduction of typical upscaling artifacts, while noting that motion defects visible in previews can be corrected during 1080P rendering. Enterprise users can set `draft=true` through the API, and consumer creators can select Seedance 2.5 Draft mode in Jimeng.