Wan Animate

Animating with Wan is not one route, it is three, and picking the wrong one is the usual reason a first attempt goes nowhere. This page is the family-level view; the version-specific detail lives on Wan 2.2 Animate.

Three kinds of animation

• A still image into motion — image to video. The composition is already fixed, so the prompt only has to describe movement. This is the shortest path for portraits, product shots and character sheets.
• A clip continued — extend a video. You already have footage that ended too early; this continues it rather than rebuilding the scene.
• A style carried forward — reference to video. You supply clips that show the look you want and describe new content to receive it.

Text-to-video is the odd one out: it is not animating something you have, it is inventing the scene. That makes it the most expensive route to iterate and the one where the prompt carries the most weight.

The source frame decides more than the prompt

For stills, quality in determines quality out, and the failures are predictable:

• Leave room for the movement. A subject cropped at the edge has nowhere to travel.
• Sharpen before you animate. A soft source animates into a soft clip — fix it while it is still cheap to regenerate.
• Decide the aspect ratio first. Reframing after the render costs more than framing before it.

Then describe only the change. "Slow push in, she turns towards the camera" is a complete instruction when the model can already see the frame. Redescribing the whole scene spends the prompt on information it has.

Where it goes wrong

Two patterns account for most bad results:

1. Asking a static image for a large change. The model has to invent most of the frame, and that is where warping and morphing appear. Small, plausible motion is the easy case.
2. Changing two things at once. Prompt and seed together teaches you nothing about either. Fix the seed, change the wording, compare — that is how you learn what your shot needs.

The practical answer to both is to iterate at a low output band and render only the winners at final size; Wan 2.2 Resolution explains why the band is part of the route here.

Which generation

Wan 2.5 exposes the widest set of routes and is the sensible default if you have no reason to prefer otherwise. Wan 2.2 and Wan 2.1 are still available, and are worth calling when you want consistency with work you already produced. Model names and settings are shown live in the form — that is the source of truth, not any list on a page.

Cost depends on the model, resolution and duration and is shown beside the form before you submit; credit prices are on pricing.

Questions people ask

Can Wan animate a photo? Yes — supply it as the first frame on image to video and describe the movement.

Can it animate a video I already have? That is extend a video for continuation, or reference to video if you want its look applied to new content.

Why does my animation warp? Usually the movement asked for is too large for a single still. Ask for less and it will hold together.

Where do I start? Open the Wan workspace and choose the route that matches what you already have.