Use case: how the Nexus series halved its Seedance bill with Blender storyboard frames
PJ Ace's studio and director Theo Dudley make the Nexus series by blocking out scenes in Blender and feeding them to Seedance as references, and were spending about $2,000 a day on generations. Exporting each scene as 30 storyboard images instead of a 30-second Blender video roughly halved the cost, though they still spend at least $1,000 a day.
What it does
Claude does about 80% of the Blender blockout work, with tweaks afterward. Each scene is exported as a storyboard image sequence and used as Seedance reference images instead of a reference video. The background plate sets the lighting, and the director screenshots front-lit and backlit versions so Blender reinforces the light direction in every shot.
Results and limits
Switching from reference videos to reference stills cut the generation cost roughly in half, but tweaking a clip still burns about $10 each. Sound effects come from Seedance itself and music is licensed; film grain and the grade are added in post, and episodes stay under 4 minutes.
Worth knowing
In the character references they white out the face except on the close-up profile shot, so Seedance doesn't pull face details from the wide shots. Nexus is a Dreamina Original Series, so the thread is sponsored; the team's written workflow guide came out on 23 October and is in our Learn section.