I made an attempt at a Mixed Mode for MiniMax H3 in ComfyUI — different generation modes in one timeline
I made an attempt at a new Mixed Mode feature for my MiniMax H3 Motion Director.
https://github.com/j955229/ComfyUI-MiniMax-H3-Motion-Director
The basic idea is simple: instead of forcing the whole Director project to use one generation mode, each Segment can decide what kind of generation it needs.
Before explaining the UI, here is the result from my first test.
[MEDIA 1 — FINAL RESULT VIDEO]
https://reddit.com/link/1vqbr7s/video/l7inkg69ktjh1/player
Final output: one T2V establishing shot followed by three motion-driven character shots, rendered as one sequence.
This is still an experimental feature, so I am treating this as a workflow test rather than a visual-quality benchmark.
What I was trying to solve
MiniMax H3 already has several useful workflows: T2V, I2V, FL2V, R2V, V2V and RV2V.
The problem starts when I want to use several of them in the same video.
Maybe Segment 1 only needs text.
Segment 2 needs an existing video's motion.
Segment 3 needs another source video plus a different character identity.
A later Segment may need an image, first/last frames, references, or the result of an earlier Segment.
Making a separate Director project for every type of shot defeats the point of having a Director.
So I tried making the generation mode a per-Segment property instead.
[MEDIA 2 — MIXED MODE OVERVIEW UI]
The Mixed timeline. In this test Segment 1 is T2V, while Segments 2–4 are Source Video segments. The controls between Segments are the visual/audio continuity controls.
The current user-facing choices are:
T2V / I2V / FL2V / R2V / Source Video
I intentionally combined V2V and RV2V into Source Video in the UI.
A Source Video Segment with no identity pictures behaves as V2V.
Add identity pictures, and that same Segment becomes RV2V.
So I don't have to maintain two almost identical editing interfaces just because the backend task changes.
The actual test
For this example, Segment 1 is a normal 5-second T2V shot.
I asked H3 to establish a moonlit traditional Chinese mountain stage with lanterns, mist and a slow camera push.
That gives the sequence a scene before the motion-reference shots begin.
Then I deliberately used three source videos that look completely different from the intended final characters and environment.
The point was to see whether I could treat them as motion sources, while each Segment independently defines who should appear and what the scene should look like.
Segment 2
This is the first motion source.
https://reddit.com/link/1vqbr7s/video/k8pvf6vmktjh1/player
Original source motion: the cat-eared character performing a sequence of hand and upper-body gestures.
For the actual Segment I only use 2.5s → 7.5s of that video.
And this is the identity picture I give the Segment:
Target identity for Segment 2.
The Mixed UI for that Segment looks like this:
The Source Video remains the motion source, while the identity picture tells H3 which character I want.
Because an identity picture exists, this Source Video Segment is compiled as an RV2V task.
The prompt also asks it to abandon the source video's original character design and environment, while preserving the original motion, body rhythm, hand movement and camera behavior.
Segment 3
For the next shot, I switch to a completely different source video.
https://reddit.com/link/1vqbr7s/video/ou56ofn0ltjh1/player
Second motion source, with a different character, clothing, environment and gesture sequence.
This time the selected range is 2.0s → 7.0s.
And I replace the character with this identity:
Target identity for Segment 3.
Again, this is still just one Segment inside the same Director project.
It gets its own Source Video, source range, identity references and prompt.
No separate workflow and no separate Director instance.
Segment 4
The third source is even more obviously different from the target.
https://reddit.com/link/1vqbr7s/video/rihzimv7ltjh1/player
Third motion source: a white-haired character turning and posing in a daylight temple environment.
I use 1.0s → 6.0s from this clip.
The target identity is:
Target identity for Segment 4.
And the Segment configuration:
The resulting shot keeps the general turning/posing motion, but replaces the source character and returns the scene to the moonlit environment used by the project.
That is the part I wanted Mixed Mode to handle: the source of motion and the visual identity of the shot do not have to come from the same asset.
A few other things I added around this
Mixed Mode is not a new MiniMax H3 generation task by itself.
It is basically a small compiler sitting above the existing Director modes. Each Segment is translated back into the normal H3 task that should actually execute.
I also added a concept called Segment Result.
For modes that need images, an earlier Segment's generated result can be reused instead of uploading another image. For example, an earlier result can become an I2V start frame, an FL2V first/last frame, or an identity reference.
The reference points to a stable Segment ID rather than just saying "previous Segment", because otherwise moving or deleting cards would silently change what another Segment references.
The small controls between Segment cards are also intentional. Visual continuity and audio continuity are controlled per boundary, rather than being one global switch for the entire project.
And Source Video has one important rule: it is a real, Segment-local source video. Videos stored in the Material Library are still Reference Videos. I kept those two concepts separate because they have very different semantics in H3.
Selective Run is also still available, so I can rerun only the parts of a Mixed project I am working on instead of regenerating the entire timeline.
It's the possibility of treating a MiniMax H3 project more like an actual shot list: choose the generation method that makes sense for each shot, instead of choosing one generation method for the entire video.