Prompts that outlive the model they were written for.
Guides for generative image and video models, written against the models we actually run — and dated, so you can tell what still holds.
Foundations
Holds across every modelModel guides
Pinned to a version & datedLatest
What Changed In Seedance 2.5 — And What Got Smaller
A 30,000-character prompt cap, clips up to 30 seconds, and reference video. But the resolution ceiling went down, not up.
Half These Image Models Charge The Same For A Quarter Of The Pixels
Nano Banana Pro costs the same at 1K as at 2K. Flux and Seedream don't charge for resolution at all. Rendering small is often paying full price for less.
The Anatomy Of A Prompt That Still Works Next Quarter
Subject, action, setting, camera, light, style. Six slots. Fill them in that order and most of what people call prompt engineering disappears.
Shot Sizes, And Why "Close-Up" Isn't Specific Enough
Wide, medium, close-up, extreme close-up. How much of the subject is in frame is the single most reliable control you have over an AI shot.
Change One Thing: How To Iterate On A Prompt
Rewriting the whole prompt after a bad result teaches you nothing. Changing one clause at a time is slower per attempt and far faster overall.
Your Prompt Is Probably Being Truncated And Nothing Told You
Prompt caps across current image and video models range from 1,000 to 20,000 characters. Go over, and the tail is usually dropped in silence.
Veo 3.1 Fast vs Quality — A Four-Times Price Gap
Same prompt limit, same aspect ratios, same seed control. One costs four times the other, and only one of them accepts an input image.
Camera Angles That Change What A Shot Means
Eye level, low angle, high angle, Dutch. Four words that change the meaning of a shot more than any adjective you could add.
Why You Should Generate The Image First, Then Animate It
Text-to-video gives you one roll of the dice on everything at once. Image-first splits it into two cheap decisions you can actually control.
