I built an AI pet dance app: one photo, one generator

I built CatDance, a small web app that turns a pet photo into an AI dance video. The idea is playful: take a cat, dog or plush photo and make it the star of a short dance clip.

Update — October 23, 2026: CatDance now offers a NEON cat dance template alongside Smalltown Boy. Personalized generation is paid; the earlier free-preview offer described at launch has ended.

One photo, two dance templates

For NEON, upload a clear cat photo to replace the lead dancer in the routine to A2O LITE’s NEON. Add a second pet photo, reuse the same photo for both dancers, or leave B empty to keep the default tuxedo cat. The scene is fixed. New videos are approximately 10 seconds, 720p and landscape 16:9, with original template audio and no watermark. The white-cat demo is labeled 480p; it is not a paid 720p output example.

Smalltown Boy remains a separate template: about 19 seconds, 720p and portrait 9:16, with an optional second pet and preset backgrounds. Its background choices do not apply to NEON.

Both use one-time USD purchases: $9.90 for one generation or $29.90 for four. There is no subscription or free personalized generation. Confirmed failed generations restore the credit; completed AI results can vary in appearance and movement. Including original template audio does not grant additional music rights or a commercial-use license.

Generation is only half the job

The frontend uses React and TanStack Start, with the application running on Cloudflare Workers. Generated files are delivered through object storage.

One practical lesson: a provider reporting “completed” is not the same as a customer having a downloadable video. The application still has to retrieve the output, assemble the full clip when necessary, attach template audio and persist the final file.

I now treat delivery as an explicit part of the job lifecycle. Errors record which stage failed, retries have a limit, and failed orders return the generation credit. An ambiguous submission should also be investigated before automatically submitting the same paid model request again.

Show the output before asking for a purchase

The homepage includes real input-photo and video examples. For a creative tool, those pairs explain the product better than a long feature list: people can judge whether the result is something they would want to share.

Photo quality and subject identity still matter. A clear image with one visible subject is a better starting point than a crowded or heavily cropped photo. Two-pet replacement is a more demanding task than replacing a single pet, and AI results can vary.

Try it

You can see the examples and use the generator at catdance.app. I am the maker of the product; this is a launch note, not an independent review.

For the new routine, start with the NEON examples and generator. I would be interested in feedback on whether the template examples and upload flow make the choices clear.