A still can start to move and still be the wrong clip. The preview looks alive. The slot it has to fill was booked at ten seconds, or at two. Those are not the same job, and on this page they are not the same bill.
Image to video ai puts that choice on the form before Create. Upload a PNG, JPG, JPEG, or WEBP up to 20 MB, write the motion, then set resolution and duration. The still does not pick its own length. The desk does.
Why Is a Moving Preview Not Yet the Booked Clip?
Preview is a private judgment. Delivery is a public one. In preview, a reviewer can forgive a soft edge or a move that runs long, because the room already knows the product. In delivery, a stranger sees the clip once, often on a phone, and decides in seconds whether the file matches the slot that was reserved.
A generated move is easy to over-trust. The panel already spent credits assembling picture and motion. The sunk cost whispers that the hard work is finished. It is not. The hard work for a handoff desk is whether the seconds match the booking, whether the label is still the label, and whether the model row was one the credit pool could pay.
The desk check takes a minute. Play the file. Read the duration on the form you actually used, not the duration you remember wanting. If the clip is ten seconds and the bumper was two, it is already late before anyone argues about taste.
How Does the Form Price the Length?
Resolution is 480p or 720p. Duration is 2s, 4s, 6s, or 10s. A two-second move is a blink: a lid lifts, a label turns, a background drifts. A ten-second move has to hold the same object without the edge melting halfway through. Choosing 10s because it sounds more finished, then discovering the motion only had two seconds of idea in it, wastes the longer render.
720p is the sharper of the two exports on this form. If the job is a label, a price, or a small word on packaging, look at that word on the finished file. A soft 480p preview can flatter a caption that fails when the clip is the one you hand off. The form will not invent a cleaner logo than the one in the still. Crop to the frame you actually want before upload. The limit is 20 MB. A crushed JPEG of a product label is a bad master, and motion makes a soft edge worse.
How Do You Set the Clip in Three Steps?
The page does not hide a fourth mode inside the image form. If there is no still, it points at a different door. For a job that starts from a photograph, the path is the form in front of you.
- Upload the still that already holds the label you need to keep.
- Choose 2s, 4s, 6s, or 10s, and 480p or 720p, before you write a long prompt.
- Pick the model row your credits can pay, then read the finished seconds against the booking.
Write the motion after the length is chosen, not before. “Slow push in, label stays readable, no new objects” is a different prompt from “the product tours the room.” Conflicting motion in one sentence is how a rigid edge warps. The prompt should name the move and the thing that must not change.
Step 1: Upload the Still That Still Has the Label
Start with the frame you would actually publish as a photograph. Do not upload a wider shot and hope the model will crop to the product. The desk cannot keep a word the file never held in focus.
PNG, JPG, JPEG, and WEBP are the formats for upload. Stay under 20 MB. If the type on the package is already soft in the still, fix the still. A moving version will not sharpen a caption the source already lost.
Step 2: Book the Seconds Before You Describe the Move
Pick the duration that matches the slot. A two-second social bumper is not a ten-second product tour with the ends trimmed later. A hard trim keeps the wrong frame on the cut and often keeps a half-finished move. If the slot changes after the first export, change the duration on the form and run again. Do not squeeze a long take into a short file and call it the same brief.
Then pick 480p or 720p. Use 720p when the handoff has to carry small type. Use 480p when the slot is a rough internal look and the label is large enough to survive it. Read the word on the finished file either way.
Step 3: Generate, Then Measure the File You Got
The Create button spends the credits of the model row you selected. For Seedance 1.0 Pro Fast, that button reads Create with 20 Credits. After it returns, play the clip once with the booking in front of you. If the seconds match and the label is still the label, stop. If one fails, change one control and run again. Do not ship the preview because it looked alive.
Why Does the Model Row Change the Bill?
The model menu is not a style menu. Seedance 1.0 Pro Fast is marked at 20 credits and called out as best value. MiniMax H3 Max Turbo starts at 100 credits. Veo 3.1 Lite starts at 150. MiniMax H3 starts at 200. Flux 3 starts at 400. Video-ST-Lite 1.5 is listed as at capacity, so it is not a choice you can spend today.
The page offers 30 free credits every day, with an upgrade for more. Thirty covers one Seedance run at 20 and leaves a small remainder. It does not cover a model that opens at 100. Treating every row as interchangeable is how a desk burns the free pool on the first click and then discovers the clip they wanted was the expensive row.
A second image to video ai pass is cheaper to plan than to discover. Same still, same prompt, different duration or a different model row, and you can see whether the extra seconds earned their credits. The examples on the site are there to hover and remix. Use them as a motion reference, then put your own image in the upload. A sample clip is not your product.
What Does a Paid Plan Change?
The free start does not hide the watermark. The page says a paid plan is what removes it. If the clip is an internal draft, the mark can stay. If the file is going on a product page or into an ad, the watermark is part of the delivery decision, made before you promise a clean export. Do not render the hero length on the free tier and hope the mark can be cropped out later. A crop that cuts the mark often cuts the product with it.
That decision sits next to the credit decision, not after the client has already seen the file. Upgrade when the delivery has to be clean. Stay on the daily credits when the question is only whether two seconds or ten seconds hold the label.
What Common Errors Burn the First Run?
Most failed still-to-clip jobs share three habits:
- The duration was picked because it sounded longer, not because a slot was booked.
- The model row was the first name on the menu, and the credits did not cover it.
- The desk kept a watermarked hero because the motion looked finished.
None of these are mysteries about the model. They are from habits.
If there is no photograph, do not upload a blank and blame the model for inventing a product. The page points that job at Text to Video. That door starts from words. The image form starts from a master frame. Mixing them up produces a clip of an object nobody briefed.
How Do You Check the File Before It Leaves?
Play the export next to the still. Read the label. Read the duration you set: 2, 4, 6, or 10 seconds. Confirm the model row was one the credit pool could pay, and confirm whether a watermark is acceptable for this delivery.
Do not file a backup of a clip that misses the booking. Backups travel into the next cycle and get posted as the short version of a long take.
This path fits a desk that already holds one product still and needs a move of a known length. A mood reel can keep an open-ended preview. A booked bumper cannot. A slightly ordinary still with a readable label does more good than a glossy frame whose type dies as soon as it moves.
The cycle that sets the seconds first keeps the handoff honest. The cycle that falls in love with the preview pays for a second render. The numbers on the form do the work. The feeling that the clip “looks alive” does not.
Related: Wan 3.0 Image to Video: When Should You Add a Last Frame?
