References, and drawing on them

References show the model what to keep to. In the card, choose the paperclip in the row under your words and pick from your Library, or upload. Each one goes into your words as a chip where your cursor was, with its picture, so you can write around it: “the jacket from [chip] on the singer from [chip]”. The model is told which file each chip is at that spot. Delete the chip, or choose its ×, and it’s no longer sent. The paperclip shows how many are attached.

Frames is only for a video’s start and end frames. A shot that starts from a frame can’t also take references on most video models, and the card says so before you send.

Pictures

Attach as many as the model uses: up to 30 on Seedance 2.5, nine on Seedance 2.0, four on Nano Banana Pro, three on Veo 3.1.

Videos and sound

On Seedance 2.5, Seedance 2.0 and Seedance 2.0 Mini, the paperclip also offers videos and sound files, for the new shot to follow: a dance’s moves, a camera move, how someone speaks, or a beat. Say in your words what to take from each.

• Seedance 2.5 takes up to 10 videos and 10 sound files, each 2 to 30 seconds, 30 seconds of each together.
• Seedance 2.0 and Mini take up to 3 of each, each 2 to 15 seconds, 15 seconds of each together, and use sound only beside a picture or video.

Choose a video or sound chip to open The part to send: drag the two violet ends of the timeline under the preview, or slide the part along when the file is longer than the model takes. Tap anywhere on the timeline to move the playhead. Play the part plays just that part, and Done closes it. If the model can’t use one, the card says so before you send; on Auto, only models that can are picked. A reference video is charged as seconds of the shot, at its quality: a 5 second shot following an 8 second clip costs as much as a 13 second shot. Sound adds nothing. Videos are sent as they are or as a copy made to fit, and sound as an MP3, before anything is spent.

Send one frame of a video

A model that takes no videos, or has no room for another, can still use a still from one. Pick the video in the paperclip’s Library tab and Pick a frame opens: the video with a strip of its frames under it. Drag or tap the strip to move the lime playhead (the arrow keys move it a tenth of a second), or press Play to watch, then choose Use this frame. Back returns to your files. The frame goes into your words as a chip, like any picture, named after the video and the time, and counts as one of the model’s pictures. It doesn’t appear in your Library.

On a model that does take videos, choose the video’s chip and use the The video and One frame tabs in What to send to switch it to a single frame. The frame takes the video’s place in your words.

Draw on a picture

Choose a picture’s chip to open Mark what should change: a Pen line, an Arrow or a Box, in lime, red or white, from the tools under the picture. Say what the marks mean in the line below, like “make this jacket red”, then choose Done. The marked picture goes in place of the plain one, and the model is told the marks are directions, not part of the shot. Undo the last line takes the last mark off; the chip’s × removes the reference.

Draw a reference from nothing

When there’s no picture to start from, sketch one. In the paperclip’s Library tab, choose Draw, the tile after the upload tile. You get a blank white page in the card’s shape, marked Draw here until your first line. Draw with Pen, Arrow and Box in black or red, and use Undo the last line to step back. In the line below, say what it shows, like “her on the cliff, camera pushing in”, then choose Add to the shot. Back returns to your files. On a phone the sketch is its own page, Draw a reference, with one back button at the top and Add to the shot pinned at the foot.

The sketch goes into your words as a chip, like any picture, and counts as one of the model’s pictures. The model is told it’s a rough layout: it follows where things go and how the shot is framed, not your lines, colours or drawing style. A sketch doesn’t appear in your Library.

Choose a sketch’s chip to open Your sketch with its lines still there. Change it and choose Save, and the new sketch takes the old one’s place in your words.

Name an edit or design

The paperclip’s panel has two tabs, Library and Studio. On Studio, each of your video edits and designs is a tile with its name under it, the ones you opened or made most recently first. Choose one and it goes into your words as a chip with its cover, so you can write “trim the intro of [chip]”. Choose it again to take it out. The Agent knows which edit or design you mean and can open it. A chip names the edit for the Agent; it isn’t a picture sent to the model, so it doesn’t count toward the references above.

Again later

A conversation remembers its references, the part of each clip, the marks and your sketches, and puts them back as chips at the start of the card. One you’ve deleted from the Library since is left off.