Reverse-engineer any reference video
Seedance 2.0 Video to Prompt Generator
Paste a YouTube link or .mp4 URL and get a Seedance 2.0–ready prompt with camera, motion, style, and duration tokens. English and 中文 output. Open it in the generator with one click.
First extraction free for signed-in accounts · 5 credits after that · YouTube and direct .mp4 / .webm links
What it is
Why a video-to-prompt step belongs in your workflow
A video-to-prompt generator reverses the usual text-to-video workflow: instead of writing a prompt and waiting for a clip, you give it a reference video and it returns a prompt — the description, camera language, motion intensity, lighting, and style tokens that, run through a generation model, would reproduce a clip in the same register. It is the fastest way to copy a visual idea you have already seen working, without spending an hour rewriting prompts by trial and error.
Most generic video-to-prompt tools output flat captions tuned for nothing in particular. The Seedance 2.0 Video to Prompt Generator on this page is tuned specifically for ByteDance's Seedance 2.0: every extraction returns the exact parameter shape Seedance accepts — aspect ratio, duration hint, camera move, motion strength, style cue — plus a parallel Mandarin version so the output works just as well for Douyin / TikTok content as it does for English-market campaigns.
Four steps
How the extractor works
Paste a video URL
YouTube link or a direct .mp4 / .webm address. The clip should be 5–60 seconds — short enough that the model can attend to it densely, long enough to read motion and style.
Seedance Vision analyzes the clip
Seedance Vision — our in-house multimodal extractor — watches every frame, reads the on-screen text, and identifies subject, scene, camera movement, motion intensity, lighting, color grade, and pacing.
Get a Seedance-ready prompt
The result is a structured JSON of fields plus two coherent paragraphs — one in English, one in Simplified Chinese — that map cleanly onto Seedance 2.0's parameter space.
One click into the generator
Hit "Open in generator" and the prompt is copied to your clipboard and the page scrolls to the embedded Seedance generator. Paste, tweak, and ship.
Anatomy
What a Seedance-ready prompt looks like
Every Seedance Vision extraction comes back with these six structured pieces. They map directly onto the parameters Seedance 2.0 reads when you submit a job — no manual translation step required.
Subject token
Who or what is in frame, described generically (no real names or brand logos). Specific enough to anchor the model without overconstraining it.
Scene + lighting
Setting, time of day, weather, key props. Lighting is called out separately because Seedance reads it as a strong style cue.
Camera tokens
Shot type, angle, and movement (e.g. "slow tracking shot, low angle, shallow depth of field"). The strongest lever for cinematic output.
Motion intensity
Implicit speed and direction of motion in the clip. Translates to Seedance's motion strength setting and prevents over- or under-animated output.
Aspect + duration
Two short hints — 16:9 / 9:16 / 1:1 / 4:3 and 5s / 8s / 10s / 12s — that map to Seedance 2.0's native parameter space.
Bilingual output
English and 中文 prompts describe the same scene in parallel. Use the Mandarin version directly for Douyin-native creators or to test rendering of in-frame Chinese text.
Side-by-side
Video-to-prompt tools compared
Most generic extractors output flat captions. Only one is tuned for Seedance 2.0's exact parameter shape and ships bilingual output by default.
| Tool | Output language | Tuned for | Camera tokens | Aspect / duration | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seedance Vision (this page) | EN + 中文 | Seedance 2.0 | Yes | Yes | 1 free, 5 credits |
| Higgsfield video-to-prompt | EN | Higgsfield | Partial | No | Free / paid |
| Krea reverse prompt | EN | Krea | No | No | Paid only |
| ChatGPT (manual) | EN (or any) | None | Manual | Manual | Plus / Pro plan |
| Plain caption model | EN | Generic | No | No | Free |
Use cases
Who reaches for this
E-commerce: copy a top-performing ad
Found a competitor product video that's converting? Run it through the extractor, get the exact camera and lighting setup, and re-shoot with your product in your brand voice.
Douyin / TikTok: batch-produce same-style hooks
Lock the visual register of one viral clip, then generate ten variants with different subjects. Faster than scripting the look from scratch every time.
Agency proposals: 10-minute storyboarding
Client sends three reference videos. You return three Seedance prompts and three live-generated drafts before the kickoff call ends.
Tutorial creators: deconstruct great cinematography
Use the structured fields as a teaching artifact — a transparent breakdown of why a clip looks the way it does, before reproducing it live on stream.
Best practices
Tips for sharper extractions
- Pick a 5–15 second reference. Anything longer averages multiple shots together and the prompt gets generic.
- Avoid fast-cut montages. The extractor reads them as one ambiguous clip; a single continuous shot produces a sharper prompt.
- For Mandarin scenes, choose a reference that has on-screen Chinese text. The 中文 prompt comes back tighter when the model can anchor on real characters.
- Treat the extracted prompt as a draft. Tweak the camera and motion fields manually if you want to push further from the reference.
- When the source is a YouTube link, age-restricted or members-only videos will fail — use a public clip or download and re-host as a direct .mp4.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is a video-to-prompt generator?
- A video-to-prompt generator takes a reference video and returns a structured text prompt — subject, scene, camera, motion, style, duration, aspect — that you can paste into a text-to-video model to reproduce a clip in the same visual register. It reverses the usual workflow: instead of writing a prompt and rendering a video, you start from the video and recover the prompt.
- How does the Seedance 2.0 Video to Prompt Generator work?
- You paste a YouTube URL or a direct .mp4 / .webm link. Seedance Vision, our in-house multimodal extractor, watches the clip frame by frame and returns a JSON of structured fields plus two coherent paragraphs — one in English, one in Simplified Chinese — that are explicitly tuned for Seedance 2.0's parameter space.
- Which video sources are supported?
- YouTube links (youtube.com, youtu.be, m.youtube.com) and direct video URLs ending in .mp4, .webm, .mov, or .m4v. Douyin and TikTok URLs are not yet supported in this preview — for now, download the clip and re-host as a direct video link, or use the YouTube mirror if one exists.
- How much does one extraction cost?
- Your first extraction is free once you sign in — no credits required. After that, each successful extraction consumes 5 credits. There is no charge if the extraction fails or if the URL is rejected by validation. Credits can be purchased on the pricing page or earned via subscription.
- Will the extracted prompt match the original video exactly?
- No model can reproduce a video pixel-perfectly from a prompt — that is not the goal. The extracted prompt captures the visual register: subject, scene, camera language, motion, style, and lighting. Run it through Seedance 2.0 and you get a clip in the same family as the reference, not an identical replica.
- Does it output prompts in Mandarin?
- Yes. Every extraction returns both an English prompt (prompt_en) and a Simplified Chinese prompt (prompt_zh), describing the same scene in parallel. The Mandarin version is the right input for Seedance 2.0 when your output needs accurate Chinese text rendering or East Asian subject treatment.
- Can I use the prompt with other video models (Sora, Kling, Runway)?
- The structured fields and the natural-language paragraphs are model-agnostic and work as a starting point for any text-to-video system. The aspect and duration hints map directly to Seedance 2.0; for Sora, Kling, or Runway you may need to translate them to that model's native parameter naming. For comparisons see Seedance vs Kling and Seedance vs Sora 2.
- How long does an extraction take?
- Most short clips (under 30 seconds) return a result in 20–60 seconds. Longer clips and YouTube videos with high resolution take longer because the model must download and attend to more frames. The endpoint times out at 120 seconds.
- Is there a free trial?
- Yes. Every signed-in account gets one fully free Video-to-Prompt extraction — no credits required, no card required. After that, each extraction costs 5 credits. The lowest-friction top-up is the $15.99 Basic Pack (780 credits, valid 12 months) — enough for ~150 extractions plus Seedance 2.0 video generations.
- Are extracted prompts copyrighted?
- A reverse-engineered prompt describes a video in your own words; the prompt itself is not a copy of the source. However, deliberately reproducing a copyrighted character, recognizable real person, or brand logo through Seedance is the same legal question as recreating it any other way — the extractor explicitly avoids naming protected subjects, but final responsibility for downstream usage is yours.
Ready to reverse-engineer your first video?
Paste a URL above, get a Seedance-ready prompt, and open it in the generator below.
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