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BytePlusBytePlusBytePlus ModelArk for ComfyUI

Old Photo to Living Memory

Template
Old Photo to Living Memory, in the ComfyUI template browser under BytePlus
Workflow file
Old Photo to Living Memory.json
BytePlus nodes
Seedream 4.5 & 5.0, Image Quality Enhance, Seedance 2.5 First-Last-Frame to Video, Video Smoothness Enhance
Keys needed
ModelArk API key, AI MediaKit API key
Also uses
Extract Text, MarkdownNote, Save Image, Save Video (built into ComfyUI)

What it makes

Section titled “What it makes”

A restored, larger copy of an old photo and a 5-second clip in which the people in it smile and blink. It is for anyone with a family picture they would like to see move. The idea: restore first, animate second, so the video starts from a clean frame, and finish with a smoothing pass that repairs stutter.

The workflow

Section titled “The workflow”
The Old Photo to Living Memory template in four groups: input photo, restore and upscale, add motion, smooth and save
Four groups. The first one only creates a stand-in photo so the template runs as it is.
  1. Seedream 4.5 & 5.0 (Seedream 5.0 Flash) paints a faded black-and-white portrait of an elderly couple as a stand-in for your photo. An Extract Text node turns its response into a link.
  2. Image Quality Enhance restores and upscales the photo from that link with tool_version standard and output_size multiple at 2.0. Save Image keeps the restored photo.
  3. Seedance 2.5 First-Last-Frame to Video with the model set to Seedance 2.0 uses the restored photo as its first frame and the prompt “The couple smiles warmly and blinks softly … very subtle natural motion, the camera stays almost still.” It makes 5 seconds at 720p with the ratio on adaptive and no audio.
  4. A second Extract Text node pulls the video link out of the Seedance response.
  5. Video Smoothness Enhance gets that link, repairs periodic stutter and removes duplicate frames. Save Video writes the clip to BytePlus/Video/LivingMemory.

Run it

Section titled “Run it”
  1. Add your ModelArk API key and your AI MediaKit API key in Settings → BytePlus if you have not yet (API keys). The template needs both.
  2. Open the template browser and choose Old Photo to Living Memory under BytePlus.
  3. To use your own photo, delete the first group and paste a public https link to the picture into image_url of Image Quality Enhance. A Load Image node also works, but then log in to your Comfy.org account in ComfyUI: a connected image is uploaded to Comfy.org storage first.
  4. Press Run. The restored photo appears first, the video follows.

Settings worth changing

Section titled “Settings worth changing”
  • Prompt of the Seedance node: describe the motion you want and keep it small, such as a blink, a smile or a breeze.
  • tool_version in Image Quality Enhance: standard is the fast clean-up. Professional is meant for fine texture on old photos and portraits; check the node page for its limits.
  • multiple in Image Quality Enhance: 2.0 here. Choose target size to set a width and height instead.
  • duration: the template sets 5 seconds on the Seedance node.
  • periodic_stutter and duplicate_frames: set either to detect only to count issues without changing the video.

Example result

Section titled “Example result”
Three frames of the animated elderly couple in a black-and-white portrait, and the restored photo below them
Example result: the clip is 834x1112 and 5 seconds long.
The saved living memory from this example.

Time and cost

Section titled “Time and cost”

Seedream and Seedance bill on your ModelArk account; Image Quality Enhance and Video Smoothness Enhance bill on your AI MediaKit account. The seed controls are set to randomize, so every run makes a new photo and clip and bills again. Set a control to fixed and ComfyUI reuses the cached result of an unchanged node without billing. Both MediaKit nodes read their input from a link, so no Comfy.org login is needed as long as you keep the links.

Section titled “Related”