Prepare Your Assets
The quality of your inputs directly impacts the final animation. Here's what you need:
Driving Video
The reference video containing the motion you want to transfer.
- Clear, well-lit footage
- Subject centered in frame
- Consistent lighting throughout
- 720p or higher resolution
Target Character
The character or person you want to animate.
- High-resolution image/video
- Similar pose to driving video
- Clean background preferred
- Full body visible if needed
Pro Tip
For best results, ensure your driving video and target character have similar body proportions and initial poses. This minimizes artifacts and creates more natural-looking animations.
Select the Right Mode
Choose between Move and Mix mode based on your specific use case:
Use Move Mode When:
- You want to preserve your target character's exact appearance
- Animating a custom character design or illustration
- Transferring body poses and skeletal movement
- Creating consistent character animations across multiple clips
Use Mix Mode When:
- You want to blend appearance features from both videos
- Replacing a character in an existing scene
- Adapting clothing, hair, and facial details
- Virtual try-on or fashion visualization
Configure Settings
Recommended Settings
Resolution
Start with 720p for testing, then use 1080p for final output. Higher resolutions provide better detail but take longer to process.
Frame Rate
24 FPS provides cinematic quality. Match your driving video's frame rate when possible for smoother motion transfer.
Clip Length
Keep initial tests under 5 seconds. Longer clips require more processing time and may introduce temporal inconsistencies.
Process & Review Results
After processing, carefully review your output for quality and natural appearance:
What to Check:
- Motion smoothness: No jerky or unnatural movements
- Temporal consistency: Character appearance stable across frames
- Lighting coherence: Lighting matches scene context
- Body proportions: Natural scaling and positioning
- Edge quality: Clean boundaries, no visible artifacts
Dos and Don'ts
DO
- Use high-quality, well-lit source videos
- Match body proportions between driving and target
- Start with shorter clips for testing
- Keep subjects centered in frame
- Use similar initial poses when possible
- Test both Move and Mix modes
- Process in 720p first before going to 1080p
- Review frame-by-frame for quality
DON'T
- Use low-quality or blurry reference videos
- Mix drastically different body types
- Process very long clips without testing
- Use videos with rapid camera movements
- Expect perfect results with extreme poses
- Ignore lighting differences between inputs
- Skip the preview/test phase
- Use heavily occluded subjects
Common Pitfalls & Solutions
Problem: Flickering or unstable character appearance
Solution: Use higher quality target images, ensure consistent lighting in driving video, try shorter clips
Problem: Unnatural body proportions
Solution: Choose driving videos with similar body types to target, adjust target image framing
Problem: Motion looks choppy or jerky
Solution: Increase frame rate, use smoother reference movements, check driving video quality
Problem: Character blends incorrectly with background
Solution: Use target images with cleaner backgrounds, try different mode (Move vs Mix)
Problem: Facial expressions don't transfer well
Solution: Switch to Mix mode, ensure driving video has clear facial features, use frontal angles
Problem: Details lost in clothing or accessories
Solution: Increase output resolution to 1080p, ensure high-quality target image
Advanced Tips
Lighting Consistency
When replacing characters, match the lighting direction and intensity between your driving and target sources for more believable results.
Pose Matching
Pre-process your target image to match the initial pose of your driving video. This significantly reduces artifacts in the first few frames.
Multi-Angle Coverage
For complex scenes, process multiple angles separately and composite them for better overall quality.
Temporal Smoothing
If you notice frame-to-frame inconsistencies, consider post-processing with video stabilization tools.
Resolution Upscaling
Generate at 720p for speed, then upscale to 1080p or 4K using AI upscaling tools like Topaz Video AI.
Batch Processing
For longer content, break into 5-10 second clips, process separately, then seamlessly stitch together.
Practice Exercise
Ready to put your knowledge into practice? Try this exercise:
Find or record a 5-second video of someone waving or gesturing
Select a target character image (photo, illustration, or AI-generated)
Process using Move mode at 720p
Review for motion smoothness and character consistency
Try again with Mix mode and compare results
What's Next?
You now have the knowledge to create professional character animations with Wan-Animate. Continue your learning journey with these resources: