My First Look at Seedream 4.0 [With 20+ Prompts]
The AI world is just too wild right now! I feel like the buzz around the Google’s Nano Banana model just started, and now Seedream 4.0 by Bytedance is already here and in internal testing. From what I’ve seen in the official documents, the results are even better! I had to share my first impressions of what this new model can do.
It’s not just a small update. This is a complete overhaul that merges text-to-image, powerful editing, and multi-image generation into one model.
So, What’s the Big Deal? Core Upgrades in Seedream 4.0
Compared to version 3.0, Seedream 4.0 is a huge leap forward. Here’s the breakdown:
- Text-to-Image is way better now. It actually listens to your prompts more accurately, supports higher resolutions, and is ridiculously fast—we’re talking a 2K image in less than 1.8 seconds!
- Image Editing is a huge leap. You can throw one or more pictures at it, give it a command in plain English, and it’ll make any change you want.
- It can now generate whole sets of related images at once. This is a lifesaver for brainstorming or storyboarding.
The 5 Features of Seedream 4.0 That Blew My Mind
After digging through the examples, five features really stand out and show the true power of Seedream 4.0:
- Editing with Natural Language: You don’t need complex prompts. You can just tell it what to do in normal language, like “add a helmet,” “remove the people in the background,” or “replace this with that,” and it just works.
- It Actually Remembers a Character’s Face: This is huge. You can create a character and then generate them in completely different styles—like an illustration, a 3D model, or a photo—and it will still look like the same person, keeping their features consistent. It also preserves the original photo’s details, so you don’t get that weird, glossy “AI look” after an edit.
- It Genuinely Understands Your Ideas: The model has a deep knowledge base, which means it can take your vaguest, most “out-there” ideas and turn them into something real and concrete. It can even handle logical reasoning to predict or simulate things.
- Mixing and Matching Multiple Images: This is where the fun begins. You can feed it multiple images at once to combine them, transfer styles, or create complex compositions that were incredibly difficult before. It also outputs related image groups, which is amazing for creative brainstorming.
- It’s Super Fast and Super High-Res: The speed is incredible, with images appearing in seconds. Plus, with support for up to 4K resolution, the quality is top-notch, giving you plenty of room for professional editing later.
Okay, Talk is Cheap. Let’s See the Results of Seedream 4.0!
This is the part that really matters. The test examples are just stunning.
Case Study 1: Character Consistency
The Task: Take a single character and recreate them across different art styles.
Prompt 1: Change the camera angle from a head-on shot to a top-down shot, adjust the framing from a close-up to a medium shot, and change the aspect ratio to 16:9.
Just look at the results! The image on the right, generated from the left, totally nails the new top-down perspective and 16:9 ratio. Best of all, it keeps the original style and all the objects in the scene perfectly consistent.
Prompt 2: Make the figure a wool felt art piece, supported by a small stand to keep its posture, set on a dark desk.
While Nano Banana is the expert in generating model images, the output from Seedream 4.0 is also outstanding.
Case Study 2: Image Refinement & Consistency
The task: Take a single image and refine specific elements while maintaining overall scene consistency.
Prompt 1: Optimize the man’s facial skin texture, making it smoother and more natural while retaining pore and texture details
What’s amazing is how Seedream 4.0 keeps all the original detail. It avoids that artificial, “greasy” look you often get with AI, making the result look completely natural.
Prompt 2: Retouch, fix wrinkles, adjust lighting and shadows for high-definition commercial product photography.
Seriously, this is a game-changer for anyone trying to tell a story or build a brand. Keeping a character and image consistent used to be a nightmare, but this feature seems to solve it brilliantly.
Case Study 3: Image Editing Through Prompt
Task: Add, delete, modify, replace, and reference elements in an image.
Prompt 1: The man is no longer wearing a top hat; instead, a small bird is perched on his right shoulder.
Prompt 2: Apply a frosted, icy texture to the apple while maintaining its original shape and color gradient.
Prompt 3: Change the background outside the window from a snowy street to a large, fiery explosion in the night sky.
Prompt 4: Show the burger box partially opened, with a well-composed hamburger visible inside, ready to be eaten.
Prompt 5: Integrate the gaming chair into a futuristic gaming setup with a large screen and powerful PC. Add purple and blue LED lighting to the chair’s edges to match the room’s aesthetic.
My takeaway is that the editing experience with Seedream 4.0 was fantastic. Whether I was trying to add something new, remove an object, or reference another style, the results were consistently precise. This isn’t just a cool feature; it’s a powerful tool that genuinely unlocks new creative avenues for commercial work, personal art projects, and even simple, fun experiments. It really delivers on its promise.
Case Study 4: Multi-Image Input & Output
Task 1: Input multiple images simultaneously to perform complex edits such as combining, style transferring, replacing, and deriving new content.
Prompt 1: Combine the woman from Image 1 and the man from Image 2 into a single frame, referencing the pose from Image 3.
Prompt 2: Generate an image of a joyful girl and her stuffed cow toy on a roller coaster ride in an amusement park, 4:3 aspect ratio.
After trying out the multi-image input of Seedream 4.0, I have to say it’s a seriously powerful feature. It feels less like a simple editing tool and more like you’re a director orchestrating a complex scene. This is a massive advantage for anyone looking to create very specific compositions that are difficult to describe with words alone. It offers a level of creative control that really stands out.
Task 2: Generate multiple, content-related images in a single output.
Prompt 1: In the style of the reference image, generate a group of 4 pictures, each for a blind box toy of a crow, a rabbit, a puppy, and a kitten.
Prompt 2: Generate 4 images based on this reference, changing the title’s material to ice, glass, plush, and mechanical for each
Prompt 3: Storyboard a fight scene with these two characters as reference.
The multi-image output feature is an absolute game-changer for workflow and brainstorming. This is fantastic for exploring design options or quickly storyboarding a narrative sequence. It streamlines the creative process, making it much faster to visualize and develop an idea from a single concept into a full series.
Case Study 5: Deep Intent Understanding
Task 1: Upgraded knowledge base to understand complex or detailed prompts.
Prompt 1: Generate a sketch of a delivery robot.
Prompt 2: A whiteboard with the following equations written on it: E=mc^2, sqrt(9)=3, (-b+/-sqrt(b^2-4ac))/2a.
You can immediately see the jump in quality. Seedream 4.0’s understanding is a massive improvement over version 3.0.
Task 2: Transform abstract or imaginative concepts from vague ideas into concrete, detailed visuals.
Prompt 1: Generate a sketch of a delivery robot.
Prompt 2: A whiteboard with the following equations written on it: E=mc^2, sqrt(9)=3, (-b+/-sqrt(b^2-4ac))/2a.
What really blew me away was how Seedream 4.0 can take a completely abstract, almost poetic idea and turn it into a stunning visual. I started with just a vague feeling, and it produced a concrete, detailed image that perfectly captured the mood. For anyone who struggles with a creative block or wants to bring a “wildly imaginative” idea to life, this feature is an absolute dream.
Task 3: Use advanced reasoning to predict and simulate scenarios, making the unseen visible.
Prompt 1: Create an old-fashioned television based on the provided line drawing.
Prompt 2: Create an action figure that matches the poses of the character in the sketch.
The reasoning and prediction capability is where Seedream 4.0 feels like it’s from the future. It doesn’t just create a picture; it logically simulates a scenario. This is an incredibly powerful tool for conceptual design, world-building, and visualizing “what if” scenarios.
Task 4: Automatically select the optimal aspect ratio to best compose the generated image.
The Adaptive Aspect Ratio is a brilliant quality-of-life feature. The model is smart enough to analyze your subject and automatically pick the best composition—wide for a landscape, tall for a portrait. It’s a small detail that makes a huge difference, consistently delivering more dynamic and well-composed images with zero extra effort from me.
So, How Can You Actually Use Seedream 4.0?
The Seedream 4.0’s possibilities seem endless, but here are a few ideas based on the official use cases:
- For Designers: You can instantly create poster layouts, branding kits, e-commerce shots, and even interior design concepts.
- For Artists: This could be your new best friend for storyboarding comics and films, illustrating children’s books, creating merchandise, or just coloring your line art.
- For Fun: The creative and fun uses are limitless. You can make stylized portraits, custom emojis, cool toy designs, or turn your doodles into amazing 3D art.
The Catch? You’ll Have to Wait a Little Longer
So, the only downside is that Seedream 4.0 is still in internal testing. But the good news is that a public beta is expected to launch very soon. Based on this first look, this is definitely a model to watch.