Edit a section, not the whole scene: what a focused AI edit costs

Generating a full and perfectly executed 30 second long AI video is hard.

A scene can be nearly right. The light is good, the performance lands, the camera move is the one you wanted, and then one object in the frame is wrong for the story. The obvious response is to regenerate the whole scene and hope the next take fixes that one thing while keeping everything you liked.

StoryDirector gives you a narrower option. You can split the scene on the timeline, select the stretch that contains the problem and send just that section for an AI edit. This guide walks through the workflow, shows real quotes from the app, and is clear about when a section edit is the better use of credits.

All credit figures below are on-screen quotes from a Pro account at the time of writing (October 2026). They are quotes, not completed jobs, and pricing can change, so check the quote in the app before you confirm anything.

How a section edit works

1. Split the scene. Open the scene in the editor, move the playhead to where the problem begins and choose Split at playhead. Do the same where it ends. Splits are reversible and save automatically as a draft.
2. Select the segment and choose Edit with AI. The panel notes that just this segment is sent for editing and that you will confirm the price first.
3. Describe the change. The Edit this cut dialog has a "What should change?" field. You can also attach up to four reference images (JPEG, PNG or WebP, up to 10 MB each) to show the object, appearance or setting you mean. Give each one a single, stated role.
4. Set what to preserve. Preserve the starting frame, Preserve the ending frame and Keep the original sound are separate choices. More locks are not automatically better: if the starting frame still contains the object you want to remove, preserving it works against the change. Keeping the original sound suits a change to the picture alone.
5. Read the quote. Before you submit, the dialog shows the credit price and states: "The price covers its input and output video. Your original version remains available."

A few limits apply at the time of writing. AI segment edits need an eligible Pro or Studio plan and a segment of 4 to 30 seconds. If a segment is shorter than 4 seconds, the editor tells you so; you can still remove or restore that cut, but you cannot send it for an AI edit. Edits in the timeline run on Seedance 2.5 and are quoted at 720p, including when the footage was generated with another model.

What the quotes looked like

Here is a like-for-like comparison from one story: a 29-second scene generated on Seedance 2.5 at 720p.

• Regenerate the whole scene on Seedance 2.5 at 720p: 857 credits.
• AI edit of a 4-second section: 144 credits.
• AI edit of a 10-second section: 360 credits.

In the edits we priced, the quote followed the length of the selected footage at roughly 36 credits per second: 144 for 4 seconds, 256 for about 7 seconds and 360 for 10 seconds.

Credits are part of the case, not all of it. When you edit a section, the rest of a take you already like stays as it was, and the original version remains available to compare against or go back to. Regenerating is not destructive either, since the current take stays as a prior take until a new one succeeds. The difference is that a regenerated take is a new performance of the whole scene, and you are back to judging every second of it.

When regenerating is the better spend

A section edit is not always cheaper. Per second of footage, the edits we priced cost more than a generation. The quote notes that an edit's price covers both its input and output video. In the quotes above, regenerating the 29-second scene came to about 29.5 credits per second, against roughly 36 for an edit.

That matters in a few situations:

• Short scenes. For a 7-second scene, editing its full length was quoted at 256 credits, while regenerating it at the same model and resolution was quoted at 207.
• When the whole scene is wrong. If the problem is the staging, the performance or the camera, an edit of most of the scene costs more than starting again. Revise the scene direction and generate a new take.
• Different models and resolutions. Regenerating the same 29-second scene on Seedance 2.5 at 480p was quoted at 399 credits, and on Wan 3.0 at 720p at 218. Edits are always quoted on Seedance 2.5 at 720p. A fair comparison uses the same model and resolution, and switching models to save credits also changes the look of the footage.

So open both quotes and compare them for the scene in front of you.

Choose the smallest section that holds the problem

• Keep it tight. Select the shortest stretch that contains the whole problem, within the 4-second minimum. If the issue lasts less than 4 seconds, extend the selection into the footage around it.
• Start where the object enters the shot. If the object you are replacing is already visible before your selection begins, the swap can show partway through the shot.
• Check automatic boundaries. Auto split shots finds visual changes. It does not catch every change of setting or camera, so review where the splits land.
• Plan longer shots in sections. If the moment runs past 30 seconds, plan compatible sections and check the seams between them.

Write a clear request

Start with the operation (Remove, Replace, Modify, Add), name the target and describe the result. For example: "Replace the brass ship's bell on the wall with a round brass clock; keep lighting and camera unchanged." Keep any preserve instruction short and limited to what matters. Avoid vague requests such as "make it better", and avoid "keep everything exactly the same" when the change needs something to move.

Budget for a retry, then check the seams

An edit costs credits whether or not you keep the result, and some edits need more than one attempt. Budget for at least one retry when you compare options: two attempts at the 4-second quote would be 288 credits, and that is the figure to weigh against a new take.

When the edit returns, watch the whole section, not one frame. Check the joins at both boundaries, the geometry of the changed object through any movement, hands, and any artifacts near the edges of the edit. Compare it with the original before you save. Saving a new version applies the timeline to your scene, and the previous version stays available. If the scene is part of a cut, rebuild the final cut to include it.

A quick checklist

• The problem sits inside a short stretch of a take you otherwise want to keep.
• The selection is 4 to 30 seconds and starts where the object enters the shot.
• You compared the edit quote with the regenerate quote at the same model and resolution.
• Your budget includes a retry.
• Preservation settings match the change you asked for.
• You checked the seams and compared before and after.

Where to go next

See how selected-section editing works, and read the editing and final cut guide for splitting, versions and rebuilding the cut. Plans and credit details are on the pricing page. Quotes in this article were captured in October 2026; the quote in the app is the number to work from.