Avatar video previews: test three holiday hook lines, render only one

Preview first, pay for the full render once

Create one avatar-video preview per hook line, compare the first-frame stills, and call generate-video on only the preview you like. A preview generates the first-frame still stage without starting the full talking-video render, so you review composition before spending on the final render.

For a holiday campaign the variable is usually the hook. Three previews with the same avatar and scene but different script values show whether the framing suits each line, and only one goes to a full render.

The four routes

The preview resource has four routes. Create takes the same fields as an Avatar Video request: exactly one of script or video_inputs, plus optional product_image, scene, quality, aspect_ratio, title and captions.

Create, then generate

Preview stills are never caption-burned. Captions set at create are stored and applied at generate-video. An empty body keeps the quality chosen at create; an optional quality overrides only the final render tier, and the preview stills are reused either way.

curl -sS -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/avatar-video-previews \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: hook-a-001" \
  -d '{
    "avatar_handle": "sume_clawra",
    "script": "I almost skipped this gift set, then I opened it.",
    "scene": { "type": "prompt", "prompt": "Cozy living room, string lights" },
    "quality": "standard",
    "captions": { "enabled": true, "style": "punch" }
  }'

What can change after approval

Structural fields (script, video_inputs, avatar_handle, scene, aspect_ratio) still require a new preview, so lock them before you compare. Read resource_status for readiness and job_status for polling rather than the legacy status. If the stills are wrong but the request is right, regenerate keeps the same preview id and only starts a new preview-only job.