Sneaker drop teaser: test on Seedance 2.0 Mini, finish on 2.5

For a sneaker teaser, test the idea on seedance-2-mini at 480p, then finish the winner on seedance-2.5. A 10-second 9:16 test on Mini costs $0.88 and the 720p keeper on 2.5 costs $5.78.

Five Mini tests plus one 2.5 keeper come to $10.18.

Why split the tiers

Mini and Fast are the two cheapest Seedance tiers on Sume, and both stop at 720p and 15 seconds. That ceiling is fine for a teaser. Move up only when you need 1080p (offered by 2.0 and 2.5) or a clip over 15 seconds (2.5 only), which a 10-second drop teaser usually does not. If a Seedance 2.0 keeper at 720p is good enough, it is cheaper than 2.5 at the same length, so test that tier before you assume the newest model is the one to ship. Price should follow the need, not the version number.

A teaser lives or dies on one idea: the reveal, the stomp, the color pop. You can judge the idea on a cheap draft. You cannot judge the sheen of leather or the fine pattern of a knit on a 480p Mini clip, so those get judged on the keeper.

The tiers are different models, so a prompt that works on Mini is a hypothesis for 2.5. The Video Router docs list Mini as 480p/720p and 4-15 seconds, and 2.5 as 480p/720p/1080p and 4-30 seconds, so a 10-second clip fits both.

Price ladder for a 10-second vertical teaser

All four Seedance tiers, same request, 9:16.

A teaser prompt

One idea, one move. The copy below is a starting point; change the shoe, not the structure.

• Shot: "Low angle, a white and orange running shoe on a wet black street at night, neon reflections."
• Move: "The shoe slams down into frame from above; a ripple spreads in the puddle; the camera pushes in to the toe box."
• Light: "Orange and teal neon, hard rim light on the sole."
• Sound: "One heavy thud, then a short rising hum."
• End: "Cut to black on the last frame."

Send the draft

Change model and resolution for the keeper. Keep the prompt identical so you compare like with like.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/videos \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: sneaker-draft-001" \
  -d '{"model":"seedance-2-mini","prompt":"Low angle, a white and orange running shoe on a wet black street at night, neon reflections. The shoe slams down into frame from above, a ripple spreads in the puddle, the camera pushes in to the toe box. Orange and teal neon, hard rim light. One heavy thud.","duration":10,"resolution":"480p","aspect_ratio":"9:16"}'

Plan the whole drop

A launch usually needs more than one clip: a 5-second loop for a story, a 10-second teaser for a feed and a longer 15-second cut for the product page. All three can be Seedance requests with the same first-frame photo. At 720p 9:16 they cost $2.89, $5.78 and $8.67 on 2.5, in that order. If the story loop is a throwaway, make it on Mini or Fast at 720p: $0.95 and $1.52 for 5 seconds.

Order the work by risk. Test the teaser first because it carries the idea, then derive the loop and the product-page cut from the winning prompt.

Judging drafts

Score each draft on three things and write the scores down: does the reveal land in the first three seconds, does the move read clearly, does the product stay recognizable. Drop anything that fails the first. A fourth criterion, polish, belongs to the keeper pass.

Because there is no seed, you cannot promote a draft to a keeper. The 2.5 render is a new take. If the keeper loses the thing you liked, rewrite that thing into the prompt in plain words. And if the shoe is a real product with a launch date, send a real product photo as a first frame; prompts alone will not reproduce a specific colorway.