Start with the numbers: they explain why this tool exists. According to DataEye Research's 2025 comic-drama report, AI comic dramas grew from a near-zero share of monthly playback in January to 10.88 percent by December, with 2.196 billion plays in that single month, up 181 times for the full year. A blunter data point: citing the China Network Audiovisual Association, Geek Park reported that AI content made up over 74 percent of micro short dramas launched across platforms in the first half of 2026.
On October 26, ByteDance-owned Jimeng AI announced the launch of its Short Drama Studio, covering the pipeline from script, art, and storyboards through post-production and localized overseas remakes. This is a hands-on SOP that walks from script input to exported video in six steps: what to do, what the evidence is, and what is not public yet. Wherever you see "unverified," no published report has described that detail. We invent no buttons or prices and give you a way to check each gap yourself.
1. The Groundwork: Entry Points, Project Containers, and Credits
The Jimeng site is jimeng.jianying.com, most complete on the web version, plus a mobile app and mini-programs inside Douyin and Jianying (CapCut). To be clear: the exact location of the Short Drama Studio entry inside the product has not been described in any report, so it is unverified. Log into the web version, look for a short-drama label on the home page, or search the help docs.
A structural change: Jimeng has shifted from capability-based entries (images, video, scripts as separate tools) to a project-based workflow. Short Drama Studio puts script, characters, scenes, storyboard, video, and post-production into one project container, and all six steps below happen inside it.
One relationship: parts of Short Drama Studio integrate and upgrade capabilities from Xiaoyunque, the short-drama agent in the CapCut family launched in March. Per Geek Park, the two products remain independent platforms under the CapCut umbrella; this is capability integration, not a merger.
On billing, Jimeng runs on free credits granted daily at login, purchased credits, and subscription credits; API capacity is billed separately and does not share the membership pool. Per the official pricing pages, Basic membership costs 188 CNY per quarter with 725 credits monthly, Standard costs 568 CNY per quarter with 2,210 credits, higher tiers carry 12,320, 18,480, and 27,720 monthly credits, and Super carries 54,600 credits at a first-month price of 2,235 CNY. Caveat: the site is running a Double 11 promotion (annual plans from 45 percent off), and prices and credit tiers differ across pages; the live official pricing page is the only source of truth.
On free credits: the official wording says credits are granted daily at login, but no amount is displayed. Third-party accounts conflict (200 starter credits; 60-100 per day; 66 per day), so this article endorses none of them; check your own account page. Whether Short Drama Studio is billed separately has not been disclosed; only its credit consumption is confirmed. The launch coincides with Double 11: annual plans from 45 percent off, up to two bonus membership months, and one free trial each of script generation and script analysis. A team edition also shipped, with multi-account asset management and centralized credit allocation.
2. Step One: Pick a Starting Point and Build the Script
There are three starting points: create from a one-line idea, adapt an existing novel or IP, or import a finished script. Which tab hosts the "new drama" button is undescribed and unverified; confirm it at the project entry.
For the one-line-idea route, DreamScript, Jimeng's first dedicated in-house script model, fills in characters and plot to assemble a workable script. Per Tencent News' hands-on review, this stage supports dialogue-based rewriting and script self-checks with visible diffs. The focus is the first three episodes: whether character identities are clearly established and whether the main conflict arrives on time. Dialogue is checked line by line against character profiles, and lines that break characterization trigger warnings.
For adaptation or import, upload a script or novel; the system maps character relationships and structure, then organizes episodes; texts up to 100,000 characters can be parsed. The officially announced DreamScript capabilities also cover multi-genre generation (original, adaptation, overseas, commentary), hit-pattern diagnosis, and continuous generation of up to 100 episodes. A "script doctor" checks the first three episodes' main plotline and whether the protagonist's identity and core conflict are sharp. The model also parses characters, scenes, props, voices, and costumes for the whole series; once bound to the asset library, one edit syncs everywhere.
3. Step Two: Lock In Character and Scene Assets
After the script, the system identifies character backgrounds, relationships, and scene descriptions, turns them into character sheets with generation prompts for you to confirm, then produces the character and scene assets and links them to shots. Art is handled by Anycook, the in-house image model, which the company says is tuned for short-drama aesthetics: more realistic, distinctive characters and multi-style scenes.
The key mechanic is asset persistence: characters can start from an uploaded reference or a generated look, and once confirmed, that look becomes a project asset later shots reuse directly. New costumes stay under the same character entry, tagged with the episodes they appear in. Scenes work the same way; a living room or office set can be saved and recalled whenever the story returns there. Geek Park's screenshots confirm an asset library page, but the exact buttons and flow are unverified, so run a small project through asset confirmation before scaling up.
4. Step Three: Shot Breakdown with Canvas and Storyboard
Storyboarding belongs to DreamShot, the in-house storyboard model. Geek Park describes automatic shot breakdown: from a story seed, Jimeng refines character settings and conflict, then breaks the script into shots automatically. Manual adjustment details afterward are unverified.
Two working modes exist. In free canvas mode you place different versions of character looks, scenes, and shot references side by side and iterate on the visual direction; once production starts, you switch to the ordered storyboard and arrange shots in script order. Both modes share the same materials, and assets flow between them, so one edit syncs globally. The stated performance envelope: up to 10,000 nodes per canvas, smooth dragging, zooming, and undoing even at a thousand nodes. DreamShot also accepts conversational edits, including dialogue revisions and global changes,
5. Step Four: Previsualize on the 3D Director's Stage
Before spending credits on real generation, enter the 3D Director's Stage. Per Geek Park, you arrange actor blocking, prop placement, camera angles, and movement paths; if a composition looks wrong, move the camera directly, and if spacing is off, re-stage the blocking. Confirmed compositions and camera data feed the video model as references for final generation.
The cheaper trick is smart previsualization: chain several shots together and preview the pacing, motion, and transitions of a whole scene before deciding what to fix. The cost math is the official account: for the price of one 8-second clip, you can previsualize a scene lasting 1 minute 13 seconds, verifying the scene at about 10 percent of full generation cost. This is the main lever on gacha costs; do not skip it. The names of specific controls inside the stage are unverified.
6. Step Five: Final Generation and Post-Production
Generation is driven by the storyboard and preview results. The honest gaps: the underlying video model has not been named in any report; Jimeng's platform carries the Seedance family, but whether you can pick Seedance 2.5 inside Short Drama Studio and whether credit costs differ per model are both unverified.
Post-production has four officially listed capabilities. Clip reshoots: redo a single disappointing shot instead of the whole piece. Voice reconstruction: dialogue and background audio are separated, and re-dubbing is supported. Smart shot splitting: complex footage is automatically divided into editable shots. Asset interconnection: one edit propagates through the whole chain.
7. Step Six: Export and Overseas Remakes
Export is where honesty matters most: the button location, resolution and aspect-ratio options, watermarking, and whether footage pipes into Jianying (CapCut) are all undescribed, therefore unverified. For reference, general Jimeng membership benefits include watermark removal plus HD and frame-interpolation upgrades, but whether they apply to Short Drama Studio output is also unverified. Render one short sample episode and walk the export path, output specs, and watermark situation yourself before fixing a workflow.
Overseas localization is a launch capability, officially split into three stages: deconstructing the original (characters, scenes, props, and shot structure recognized automatically), regenerating visuals per your chosen style, aspect ratio, and target region, and localization that preserves original pacing and shot language. Combined with DreamScript's overseas script generation, you can run an overseas-first script or remake an existing title. The caveats: the supported-language list and usage limits (source length caps, copyright checks, regional restrictions) are unpublished and unverified. For comparison, Wanxing Drama Factory officially supports voiceover in thirty-plus languages, so test a short clip before committing. This is not entirely new: Xiaoyunque shipped remake transfers in August, now folded into Short Drama Studio.
8. Pricing and Pitfalls
A unit-price calculation first: under the Double 11 promotion (annual plans from 45 percent off), Seedance 2.5 video generation starts at 0.19 CNY per second, or 0.18 via CLI. At 0.19 CNY per second, one minute costs roughly 11.4 CNY in base generation fees. That is only the duration-based base fee: real productions also incur plans, attempts, and revision overhead, and every reshoot burns credits. Short Drama Studio's internal billing is unpublished; trust the actual interface.
The pitfalls, one by one:
- Pricing is unsettled. Short Drama Studio's own pricing is unannounced; you cannot claim it is free, only that it consumes credits.
- Long-series coherence is unproven. Media commentary notes output quality and long-script coherence remain to be verified; do not expect 100-episode generation to work out of the box.
- Revisions carry hidden costs. Every reshoot and regeneration spends credits; budget two to three times the final runtime.
- Credit expiry. Bonus credits arrive monthly with subscription credits and expire in 29 days; each account gets the bonus once, it is not re-granted after refund-and-repurchase, and large promotional bonuses are non-refundable.
- API and membership credits do not mix. API capacity is purchased separately.
- Queue risk. Third parties report long free-tier queues during Seedance 2.0's peak, with member acceleration; Short Drama Studio's queuing is unverified, so run batch jobs off-peak.
- Industry common sense: skipping character setup produces inconsistent characters; hands-off AI output is not watchable, so humans must vet scripts and storyboards; AI comic dramas go through regulator and platform review, register before release, and need an AI label on every episode.
9. How It Compares
The category is crowded this month, with distinct positions. Xiaoyunque AI (ByteDance, CapCut family) launched the first short-drama agent in March and supports one-click production from 100,000-character scripts; part of its capability set now sits inside Short Drama Studio. Wanxing Drama Factory (Wondershare, launched in March) goes for the one-stop premium film route with thirty-plus language voiceovers and became an early Kling 4.0 integration partner on October 22. Kuaishou's Dream Expert 2.0 turns the comic-drama pipeline into a platform product on the Kuaishou creator platform, with incentives up to 500,000 CNY. Jimeng's differentiation is the full-pipeline container combining the three-model division of labor with Director's Stage previsualization, plus CapCut ecosystem ties.
A scope note: this site's earlier SOP covers piping LibTV into WorkBuddy, the platform-integration side. This article touches neither connectors nor agent workbenches; it stays on Jimeng's own six-step workflow. The two split along platform integration versus product practice.
FAQ
Q1: Is Jimeng Short Drama Studio free?
It consumes Jimeng credits; separate billing is undisclosed, so you cannot assume it is free. During Double 11 you get one free trial each of script generation and script analysis; daily login grants credits, but the site shows no amount, so check your account page.
Q2: Can I start without screenwriting experience?
Yes. Choose the one-line-idea start and DreamScript fills in characters and plot into a complete script, with dialogue-based rewriting and self-checks; the script doctor reviews identity setup and conflict timing in the first three episodes.
Q3: What does one episode cost?
The reference point is Seedance 2.5's promotional 0.19 CNY per second, about 11.4 CNY per minute in base fees. But Short Drama Studio's internal billing is unpublished, and reshoots cost extra credits, so real cost scales with revisions.
Q4: What if characters look inconsistent across shots?
Walk the Step Two asset confirmation first: once a look is confirmed it becomes a project asset that later shots reuse directly. Industry experience says skipping this step is the fastest way to visual drift.
Q5: Can I remake an aired drama into a foreign-language version?
Remake transfers support deconstructing the original, regenerating visuals for a target region, and keeping the original pacing, but the language list and usage limits are unpublished and unverified; test a short clip for language coverage and remake quality before committing a batch.
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