/higgsfield-seedance-vfx

name: higgsfield-seedance-vfx
description: "Writes, improves, or rewrites Seedance 2.0 prompts that TRANSFORM footage the user already has (video-to-video), rather than building a scene from scratch. Use whenever a real clip is the starting point and they want to: add a VFX element (set a head or hair on fire, transform a hand, make a limb invisible), swap the environment around a preserved subject (desert, clouds, lava, a neon city), drop a giant photoreal creature behind or onto a subject/landmark, relight or regrade so subject and added elements read as one shot, sync a crash-zoom or push-in to a spoken line or timecode, or generate a matching transformed start frame to animate from. Also use when they paste such a prompt and ask to change its lighting, timing, creature, or runtime, or say 'make a Seedance prompt for this video' with a clip attached. This is the video-to-video specialization; for a brand-new scene from image references with no source clip to preserve, higgsfield-seedance applies instead."
user-invocable: true
metadata:
  tags: [higgsfield, seedance, seedance-2.0, video-to-video, v2v, vfx, footage-transformation, environment-swap, creature, relight, 4k]
  version: 1.1.0
  updated: 2026-09-26
  parent: higgsfield

Higgsfield Seedance VFX — Footage Transformation

This skill is for **editing a clip the user already has**: keep a real subject and the real camera move, change only what they ask for. It is the video-to-video sibling of `../higgsfield-seedance/SKILL.md` (the general Seedance director). It **reuses that skill's grammar verbatim** — the six-slot formula, the Prompt-Craft Laws, the preflight linter — and adds the transformation layer below. Do not contradict the parent skill; when a shot needs filter-safety, mode selection, or engine rules, defer to it.

> **This file is the Seedance 2.0 v2v lane.** It stays the right choice when the job needs > **4K**, `mode=std`, or a `genre` hint. If the plate job is running on **Seedance 2.5** — > up to 1080p, up to 30 s, many references, platform start/end frames in `omni_reference` — > the lane is > `omni_reference` with the clip attached as a video reference, and its production doctrine > (source ≥ 4 s, duration = source, the four-batch rule, the performance-inheritance clause) > lives in `../higgsfield-seedance-2-5/VFX-PIPELINE.md`.

> **This skill is a video-to-video layer on top of `../higgsfield-seedance/SKILL.md`.** > Every VFX transform is still a Seedance prompt. This skill only changes the *starting > point*: a real source clip whose subject, performance, and camera move must survive the > edit. `higgsfield-seedance` § Seedance 2.0 Prompt Modes / Transformation covers the > *in-clip morph* (a character visibly becoming something else in one take); **this** skill > covers *preservation-VFX* — lock the real plate, layer the effect in.

QUICK FACTS

*Routing aids — read the linked sections for the actual rules.*

• The one job: **preserve** everything that makes the source recognizable, **change** only the named element; repeat the fragile guardrail ("face and identity unchanged") at the end [→](#the-core-idea-preserve-then-change-one-thing)
• Run it in **Seedance 2.0, mode std, 4K** — faces, lip-sync and fine detail hold at 4K where they warp at 1080p (`fast` can't do 4K; Cinema Studio caps at 1080p) [→](#resolution-run-it-in-4k)
• `@source` declares the clip as the base (not a style ref); add `@creature`/`@element` only when a real texture keeps getting faked [→](#prompt-anatomy-transform-variant)
• **Three levels** of difficulty: L1 swap the world · L2 change an element in-frame · L3 full handheld cinematic [→](#three-levels)
• Two modes: **add an element** to the plate, or **replace the environment** around a preserved subject [→](#two-transformation-modes)
• **Color matching alone looks pasted-in** — match key direction, bounce, optics/haze, edges/grounding [→](#lighting-integration-the-part-that-makes-or-breaks-it)
• Photoreal creatures need **biological accuracy** (wrinkled, cracked, asymmetric, matte — never smooth/glossy/inflated) + a real contact shadow; a reference image beats a description [→](#photoreal-creature--element-integration)
• Timed zoom synced to a line: anchor it **twice** — semantic (`On the line "…"`) + numeric (`At about Ts`); see `references/dialogue-timing.md` [→](#timed-camera-moves-synced-to-dialogue)
• Prepended-intro budget: `total − intro = surviving window` for the source performance; recompute on every change [→](#duration-discipline)
• Generate the transformed **start frame** first to lock the look before spending video credits; see `references/first-frame.md` [→](#first--start-frame-workflow)
• Output is **plain-text English**, no markdown inside the prompt, easy to copy [→](#output-format)

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The core idea: preserve, then change one thing

A transformation prompt has two jobs that pull against each other: **lock** everything that makes the source recognizable (the person's identity, face, wardrobe, performance, framing, lens, and camera motion), and **change** only the named element. If you under-specify the lock, Seedance re-rolls the face or the camera and the edit stops matching the original. So every prompt states both halves explicitly, and repeats the most fragile guardrail — usually **"face and identity unchanged"** — at the end of the action.

This is the whole blueprint: real footage goes in, the exact same shot comes back — same subject, same movement — with only the one requested change applied.

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Resolution: run it in 4K

Run everything in **Seedance 2.0, `mode=std`, 4K**. The 4K matters: faces, lip-sync and fine detail hold at 4K where they warp and fall apart at 1080p — and a footage transform lives or dies on the preserved face reading as the *same* face. The `4k` resolution enum is model-verified (`../../specs/model-specs.json` → `seedance_2_0`); the "detail holds at 4K" observation is a **practitioner claim**, strong but not a spec guara