The Master Guide / 00 Start here
Twelve mistakes this Guide is built to stop
The twelve mistakes that cost the most credits and time. Each is already a rule with its own home; this page only gathers them.
The twelve mistakes that cost the most credits and time. Each is already a rule with its own home; this page only gathers them.
Attaching a storyboard or presentation frame to a generation. Read it and write what it shows in words. Video with Seedance → Validate, then pre-flight
Leaving a setting on the platform default: the aspect on "auto", the duration unset (it gives 5 s), the resolution unset (720p), the audio unset. Set every setting on every job. Video with Seedance → Platform facts and settings
Judging faces, skin, hair, labels or lips on the 480p draft. The draft shows motion and staging; faces wait for the 1080p finish, at full size. Video with Seedance → Draft and finish
Buying a 1080p finish before the draft's window is checked against the plan's intent. Planning, budgets and takes → Draft small, then analyse
Changing several things in one retry. Name the failure and its level, then change one thing in that layer. Planning, budgets and takes → Fixing a failed take
Retouching a generated frame or take by hand. A near-miss gets a model edit pass or a new image; nobody fixes the pixels. Planning, budgets and takes → Fixing a failed take; Photoreal anchors (Nano Banana Pro) → Edit passes, then a fresh image
Checking "full size" at half playback resolution. Full size means 100% zoom with the playback resolution set to Full. The quality bar → The hard stops
Writing feelings instead of tasks ("she is sad"), or the unwanted state instead of the wanted one ("not scary"). Performance → Acting as a task; Video with Seedance → The prompt grammar
Accepting a slow or static camera where the plan wants motion. It fails the motion standard, whatever else holds. Video with Seedance → Take selection and review
Cropping a 9:16 version out of a 16:9 master. Each ratio's master is generated natively; a feed edit's reframed remainder is the one planned exception. Video with Seedance → Platform facts and settings; Graphics, captions, versions and delivery → Versions
Letting Seedance voice Arabic, or laying an Arabic line over a clip without a Sync pass. Speaking shots and lip sync → Choosing the route per shot
Adding Higgsfield credits, Suno credits, ElevenLabs credits and dollars into one total, or showing "credits", "draft" or a tool name on a client page. Planning, budgets and takes → Costs and the estimate; The stages and gates → What the client sees, and what stays internal