Seedance 2.0 Omni Reference: How Multi-Reference Input Works and How to Structure It | SeedanceTips

Seedance 2.0 omni reference is the mode where you send a text prompt together with up to 9 reference images, 3 reference videos and 3 audio clips, and the model builds one new video from the parts of each file your prompt points to. You point to files by type and number (“Image 1”, “Video 2”, “Audio 1”), and BytePlus recommends a working set of 4-5 assets rather than the full allowance (BytePlus ModelArk documentation, data checked 2026-10-09). The rest of this page sets out what each reference type supplies, the input limits, and the prompt structure BytePlus publishes for this mode.
This is a documentation guide, not a hands-on test. Everything below comes from three official BytePlus ModelArk pages: the Dreamina Seedance 2.0 series tutorial (page stamp “Last updated: September 29, 2026”), the Dreamina Seedance 2.0 series prompt guide (stamp “September 28, 2026”) and the video generation tutorial (stamp “September 28, 2026”). Where BytePlus says a technique helps or hurts, that is BytePlus’s claim; we have not measured output quality here.
The Seedance 2.0 series tutorial defines the mode in one sentence: “Input text, reference images, videos (with or without audio tracks), and audio to generate a new video.” The same paragraph lists what the model can take from each file type:
Source: Seedance 2.0 series tutorial, “Basic usage” section, read 2026-10-09.
The prompt guide frames the mode as extraction: “Extract some elements from the asset (such as subject, style, scene, and sound effects) to generate a brand-new video.” Omni reference does not modify your input files; it reads them as instructions for a fresh clip.
All three models in the series support it. The tutorial’s capability table, checked 2026-10-09, marks image reference, video reference and four combined sets (image + audio, image + video, video + audio, image + video + audio) as supported on Seedance 2.0, 2.0 Fast and 2.0 Mini. The video generation tutorial’s table marks audio-only reference as not supported on all three, with the note “must be used with an image or video”.
On the API, omni reference has no separate endpoint on 2.0: each reference file in the task’s content array carries a role of reference_image, reference_video or reference_audio. Authentication and polling are in the Seedance API guide.
Seedance 2.0 has several modes that accept files, and the docs treat them differently.
Sources: Seedance 2.0 series tutorial and video generation tutorial, read 2026-10-09.
First and last frames inside omni reference. The 2.0 series tutorial allows a workaround: “For omni reference video generation, you can specify reference images as the first/last frame via prompts to indirectly achieve the effect of ‘first and last frames + omni reference’.” It then sets the boundary: “If you need to strictly ensure that the first and last frames are consistent with the specified images, please always use image-to-video (first and last frame) feature (configure the role parameter to first_frame / last_frame).” A prompt line such as “opening frame is Image 1” is a request, not a lock.
Reference vs edit. Edit and extend tasks on 2.0 also take a video, and the prompt wording decides which job runs. The prompt guide’s note is direct: “For edit / extend video tasks, directly use ‘<Video_N>’ to refer to the video. Do not use ‘reference <Video_N>’, to avoid being incorrectly identified as a reference task.” “Reference the camera movement in Video 1” asks for omni reference; “Extend Video 1 backward” asks for extension. Edit and extend are covered in our Seedance 2.0 video-to-video guide.
The guide also allows combined tasks, with the pattern “Reference [Reference_Dimension] of <Image/Video_N>, strictly edit <Video_X>, [Specific_Edits]”. That is how you restyle one clip using an element from another file.
Each file type has its own count, length and size window. These are the Seedance 2.0 series limits from the “Omni reference input” section of the video generation tutorial:
Image formats are .jpeg, .png, .webp, .bmp, .tiff, .gif, .heic and .heif. Videos must be .mp4 or .mov in H.264 or H.265 with AAC or MP3 audio, and their width times height must fall between 407,696 and 8,295,044 pixels. Audio must be .wav or .mp3. The tutorial adds: “Do not use Base64 encoding for large files.”
The 15-second totals apply across all videos and across all audio clips, so three 5-second videos already use the whole video budget.
Seedance 2.5 allows 1-30 images and up to 10 videos and 10 audio clips (30 seconds total each). Output resolutions and frame sizes are in our Seedance 2.0 spec sheet.
The consumer Dreamina app describes the same allowance as “up to 12 reference resources, including 9 photos, 3 videos, and 3 audio clips” on its Seedance 2.0 page, as recorded in our spec sheet on 2026-10-08.
This is the rule that most omni reference prompts get wrong, and the tutorial states it in full: “Prompts must reference assets in the format asset type + number, where the number is the sorting order of the asset among assets of the same type in the request body. For example, ‘Image n’ refers to the nth reference image with type=“image_url” in the content array (counting starts from 1 in array order). Note that referencing assets by Asset ID is not supported.”
Three consequences follow.
BytePlus writes the reference token three ways across its own pages, all read 2026-10-09:
The documented rule only asks for “asset type + number”, and none of the three pages says one style outperforms another, so pick one and use it consistently. Our Seedance 2.0 tips cover the wider prompt settings.
An image often holds more than one candidate subject, so the prompt guide asks you to name which one you mean. Its pattern is “Define [Core_Subject_Features] in <Image/Video_N> as <Subject_N>”, using “2–3 clear and stable static features (such as clothing, hairstyle, appearance, or category)”. Its own example: “Define the woman wearing a red dress and a straw hat in Image 1 as Subject