Used AI video to pre-test ad concepts before committing to a real shoot

I run creative for a DTC brand and we do about 4-5 video shoots a year. Each one costs somewhere between $8-15k all in. The problem is we're always guessing which hooks and concepts will convert until we put real ad spend behind them.

A couple weeks ago I started mocking up rough video concepts with two models that just launched: Seedance 2.5 and MiniMax H3. The workflow was simple. Generate a bunch of variations of the same ad concept with different hooks, different openings, different product angles. Use those to pressure-test creative direction internally before we book talent and a studio.

Seedance 2.5 does up to 30 seconds in a single clip at 4K. Long enough to rough out a full short-form ad. You can feed it reference images of your product and it maintains decent consistency across the clip. MiniMax H3 works differently. It generates audio natively with the video in the same pass, so you get something that sounds closer to a finished spot without editing in a separate track. It tops out around 5-15 seconds at 2K, but for testing whether a hook grabs attention that's more than enough. APOB AI is running MiniMax H3 unlimited and free right now since the weights are open, so I went through about 40 test clips in one afternoon without paying anything.

Now the honest part. Hands still break. Complex motion like someone walking toward camera while gesturing can go uncanny fast. I regenerated maybe a third of my clips because the motion just wasn't there. None of this output passes for real footage if someone actually watches closely. I pulled the best takes into CapCut for basic editing, used Midjourney stills for the thumbnail frame.

But for the specific problem of "we have 6 possible creative directions and need to pick 2 before spending $12k on a shoot," this was genuinely useful. The creative direction conversation with my team got way more productive when everyone could watch rough versions instead of reading a brief and imagining.

All test videos were AI-generated content, not real footage.