I keep seeing people click “generate” on an AI video tool, expect a finished movie, and then get frustrated when it spits out something half-baked. So when I stumbled on this breakdown from an AI professional on LinkedIn, I got genuinely excited. The author lays out a workflow for Seedance 2.5 that flips the whole approach on its head, and honestly, it makes so much sense once you see it.
The big idea from the original poster? Prompting is the last thing you should worry about. That surprised me at first, but the more I read, the more I understood why. Great AI video isn’t about magic words. It’s about preparation and direction.
Why hitting “generate” 100 times is the wrong move
Here’s what the creator wants you to understand upfront. Seedance 2.5 is impressive, and it’s also expensive. If your plan is to click generate over and over and cherry-pick the best result, you’ll burn through your budget fast, unless you happen to have unlimited money to throw at it.
The expert is blunt about it: don’t expect a perfect movie after one click. Human direction, iteration, and editing are still required. And that’s completely normal with generative AI right now. Once you accept that, you stop fighting the tool and start actually working with it.
AI video technology is still far from perfect, but bringing your stories to life is increasingly feasible. That’s the mindset shift the author is really selling here.
The step-by-step workflow the author recommends
This is where it clicked for me. Instead of leaning on the AI to do everything, this savvy professional front-loads all the human decisions first, then hands the mechanical work to the machine. Here’s the process broken down:
- Prepare your character references first, so the AI has consistent faces and figures to work with across every shot
- Build your storyboards, mapping out what each scene should actually look like before any generation happens
- Gather your props and any visual elements the scene needs, so nothing gets improvised badly by the model
- Create full-quality images to feed in as source material, because better inputs mean better outputs
- Write one clear brief that spells out exactly what you want the final video to communicate
- Use a Claude Skill to translate that brief into the actual prompts, so you’re not hand-writing prompt syntax
- Let Seedance 2.5, accessed through Dreamina, generate the video from all of that prepared material
Notice the pattern? Every creative and directional choice is made by a human, upfront. The AI only steps in once the vision is locked. The rationale is simple: the machine is great at execution, but it’s still terrible at deciding what your story should be. So you decide that part yourself.
The real-world test that convinced me
What sold me was that the mind behind this post didn’t just theorize. The creator actually tested it. They ran the workflow with five gameplay recordings from a tower defense game they built as a weekend project, eight character references, and a single brief.
The result? Seedance followed about 80% of the prompts and uploaded elements, even when juggling multiple characters in the same scene. I think that’s a seriously impressive hit rate for AI video right now. Getting a model to respect your character references and your prompt instructions at the same time has been a huge pain point, so 80% is a real signal that the prep-first approach pays off.
Tips you can steal today
Even if you never touch Seedance, the underlying lessons from this contributor apply to almost any AI video tool:
- Prep beats prompting: spend your energy on references, storyboards, and briefs, not on tweaking prompt wording endlessly
- Budget with intention: treat each generation as costly and plan your shots, rather than spraying and praying
- Stay the director: keep human judgment in charge of story, tone, and expression, and let AI handle the rendering
- Use tools to bridge the gap: a Claude Skill turning a brief into prompts means you focus on the vision, not the syntax
Where AI video still needs to grow
I appreciate that the author stays honest about the limits. This isn’t a “the future is already here” hype post. The creator points to exactly what the technology still needs before it’s truly ready for everyone:
- Lower costs, so creators aren’t priced out of experimenting
- More accurate models that follow direction closer to 100% of the time
- More human expression and creative control baked into the tools
- Fewer uncanny effects that break the illusion and pull viewers out
That balanced take is a big part of why I trust this breakdown. It’s not selling a fantasy. It’s showing you a practical way to get real results with today’s imperfect tools, while being clear-eyed about what’s coming next.
If you’re even a little curious about AI video, this workflow is worth internalizing. Prepare everything a human should decide, then let the AI do the heavy lifting. Go check out the full LinkedIn post from the original creator for the complete rundown and the details behind that tower defense test.