Wan 2.2 Animate API

Wan 2.2 Animate turns an approved character image and a separate motion reference into a new character-performance clip. Use it when appearance and movement have already been decided in different assets, rather than asking one source to supply both.

It works in two modes. With animation_mode set to animate, the character from your image moves with the motion of the driving video; with replace, the person in the driving video is swapped for the one in your image and the video's own scene is kept. The output runs as long as the driving video, 2 to 30 seconds, at 480p or 720p.

A clean A-pose is worth more than a long prompt

The published reference plate is the kind of image this endpoint wants: whole body in frame, neutral A-pose, seamless backdrop, even light. Everything the output looks like comes from that image. A cropped or heavily occluded plate limits every clip you will ever make from it, and no prompt recovers it.

The clip is as long as the source, up to 30 seconds

The output is as long as the driving video, which must run 2 to 30 seconds, so a two-minute source has to be trimmed first. Billing follows the seconds actually delivered rather than the cap used for the quote, so trimming the driving video before you upload it is the direct way to control cost.

Check the likeness at 480p before paying for 720p

The published clip is that same plate driven by a reference video: same burgundy top, same wide-leg trousers, now mid-turn. Resolution is a price tier, and 720p costs more per second than 480p, so confirm that the identity and silhouette survive at 480p on the shortest usable driving video first.

Put your character into existing footage

With animation_mode set to replace, the person in the driving video is swapped for the character in your image while the footage keeps its own scene. Use it when the location already exists on video and only the performer needs to change.

Short loops from one character sheet

Up to 30 seconds covers a feed loop, a sticker or a reaction clip. Keep one plate and swap driving videos to build a library of gestures, such as a wave, a turn or a shrug, that all read as the same character because they share the same reference image.

Dance and performance routines

A character plate plus a driving video of the routine you want: wardrobe and build stay fixed by the plate while timing, weight and camera come from the footage. What bounds the work is ownership: you need the rights to both the plate and the driving video, and you are responsible for how the result is used.

Testing a plate before a longer render

Run a five-second 480p transfer to see whether a new character plate holds its face, hands and silhouette under motion. It is the cheapest way to reject a bad plate before committing it to a full 30-second job.

# Generate the idempotency key once; reuse it when retrying after a lost response.
export SPICY_IDEMPOTENCY_KEY="${SPICY_IDEMPOTENCY_KEY:-$(uuidgen)}"
curl -X POST https://api.spicyapi.ai/api/v1/jobs/createTask \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPICY_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $SPICY_IDEMPOTENCY_KEY" \
  -d '{
  "model": "alibaba/wan-2.2-animate/character-animation",
  "input": {
    "animation_mode": "animate",
    "image_url": "https://example.com/reference.png",
    "resolution": "720p",
    "video_url": "https://example.com/reference.mp4"
  }
}'

# Copy data.taskId from the response into TASK_ID, then poll the status.
TASK_ID="TASK_ID_FROM_RESPONSE"
curl "https://api.spicyapi.ai/api/v1/jobs/recordInfo?taskId=$TASK_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPICY_API_KEY"

See the API reference for authentication, the complete schema, polling, and error handling.