Does Wan 3.0 allow 2-second clips for a Shorts cold open?

Yes. The Videos docs list wan-3.0 at 2 to 30 seconds, so a 2-second cold open is a valid request. At 720p, $0.125 per second, it costs $0.25.

Seedance 2.5 starts at 4 seconds and Omni Flash 1.1 at 3, so Wan is the one that can generate a two-second hook as its own clip.

Why test hooks as separate clips

A series lives or dies on the first seconds of each episode, and a hook is cheap to vary. Generating six two-second openings and one body is six times $0.25 for the openings. You pick one and join it to the body in Timeline.

YouTube's Help page on Shorts series describes a series as a Shorts-only playlist with seasons and episodes, with each episode at most 180 seconds (read 2026-10-07). The cold open is yours to design inside that limit.

A batch of openings

Eight two-second Wan openings at 720p cost $2.00. At 480p they cost $1.00. Use 480p to choose, then re-run the winner at 720p. Send resolution; Wan's estimator treats a missing one as 1080p.

Pair this with the 180-second episode post for the body, and keep the chosen opening's prompt so the next episode can reuse its style.

The hook is not the episode

Two seconds is a hook, not a story. Put the visual hook in frame one; if the shot needs to build, ask for 4 seconds and cut it in the edit with video trim, which costs $0.02 per job.

Use the eight clips as variants of one opening beat: same character and setting, a different first action. Join the chosen one to the body in the Timeline render.