The anchor frame method generates one locked, clean keyframe of your AI character at the target location before any video clip is produced. That single image becomes the visual reference fed into Seedance 2.0 (or whichever video model the invideo agent routes to) for every subsequent shot, holding character and setting consistent across the whole ad.
The anchor frame method generates one locked, clean keyframe of your AI character at the target location before any video clip is produced. That single image becomes the visual reference fed into Seedance 2.0 (or whichever video model the invideo agent routes to) for every subsequent shot, holding character and setting consistent across the whole ad.
What the anchor frame method is — a 60-word definition
The anchor frame method is an AI video keyframe lock: you generate and approve a single still image of your character standing in the target environment, then use that one frame as the visual reference for every video clip in the ad. Because the anchor carries face, wardrobe, lighting and location together, downstream generations inherit the same look — it's the load-bearing step in a full character consistency workflow.
How it works in three steps
The invideo agent runs the anchor frame method as a generate → lock → reference sequence, and you can drive it inside one project chat.
1. Generate the anchor frame. Ask the invideo agent for a clean, photoreal still of your character at the target location in your delivery aspect ratio. Iterate on image only — framing, wardrobe, lighting, environment — until one frame is exactly right. Image iterations are cheap; video iterations are not, which is why you settle the look here.
2. Lock that frame as the project reference. Approve the frame and lock it by version number so the invideo agent treats it as the canonical character-in-location reference. Once locked, every subsequent video generation pulls from this frame instead of re-rolling the character from scratch.
3. Reference it into every clip. Feed the locked anchor into Seedance 2.0 reference-to-video as the keyframe for each shot, with a separate per-beat instruction for camera move and action. A documented production confirmed this preserves character identity — including skin tone in hands and feet — across all shots in a localized ad, where skipping the anchor and going straight from character + voiceover references caused tone drift in close-ups. For tactics that complement this at the multi-shot level, see character consistency across shots.
When to combine the anchor frame with a character sheet
The anchor frame locks character-in-location for a specific scene; a multi-angle character sheet locks the character independent of any scene. Use both when your ad has close-ups, multiple angles, or scene changes that the single anchor frame can't cover.
The pattern: build the character sheet first (cast headshots, then front/side/back views with wardrobe assigned), then generate the anchor frame from that locked sheet at the specific location. Now Seedance 2.0 has two references per clip — the sheet for identity, the anchor for environment and lighting — which is the standard setup in a production AI video ad workflow that runs across multiple shots and setups.
Skip the sheet only on the simplest case: a single-location, single-character UGC ad where one anchor frame is enough to drive every clip. For anything multi-scale (e.g., a character holding a small product and a large product in the same ad), build a separate anchor per product scale so the model doesn't confuse scale relationships during generation.
FAQ
What is the anchor frame method?
It's an AI video keyframe lock technique where you generate one approved still of your character at the target location, then reference that single frame into every video clip generation. The anchor carries face, wardrobe, lighting and setting in one image, so clips stay consistent without re-prompting each shot. More detail in this Q&A on anchor frame.
When do I need it?
Any time an ad has more than one clip of the same character in the same setting. Without an anchor, identity and lighting drift between clips. With one, every Seedance 2.0 generation inherits the same look — and you only spend video credits on locked frames, not exploratory iterations.
How does it differ from a character sheet?
A character sheet is a multi-angle reference of the character alone (front, side, back, wardrobe) that locks identity across any scene. An anchor frame locks the character in a specific location with a specific lighting setup. Sheets travel across scenes; anchors are per-scene. On multi-shot ads, you build the sheet first and generate the anchor from it.
Sources
- Anchor Frame Method discussion — r/aivideo — community discussion on keyframe-locking techniques for character consistency in AI video.
- Seedance 2.0 model page on invideo — reference-to-video capabilities used when the anchor frame is fed as the keyframe.
- r/StableDiffusion — keyframe and reference image workflows — broader creator discussion of single-frame reference approaches in AI image-to-video pipelines.
Watch these to see the techniques in action:
