Keep a character or product consistent across scenes

1. 1

   Make a sheet of what's fixed and what changes

   The raincoat matches across three pictures, but the cheek mark changes sides. It is easy to miss until the images are compared. Puff is a fictional editorial mascot; its sheet and review tables are practice materials.

   

   So start with a character sheet. Separate what must never change — shape, proportions, colors, outfit, distinctive marks — from what changes every time: scene, pose, expression, light. Give colors as hex codes, and say whose left and right you mean, so you have something to compare against later.

   Character sheet for Puff, the mascot of a fictional weather app (example)

   Type	Item	Details
   Fixed	Shape	Round, cloud-shaped body, two short legs, two small half-circle arms
   Fixed	Proportions	Width to height (legs included) 5:4; legs one-fifth of the height
   Fixed	Colors	Body #F8FAFC, cheeks #FDA4AF, raincoat #FACC15, boots #1E3A8A
   Fixed	Outfit	Hoodless yellow raincoat, navy boots
   Fixed	Marks	Two tall black oval eyes; a navy teardrop mark under the cheek on the character’s own right
   Changes	Scene and props	Set each time (e.g. a bus stop, an umbrella)
   Changes	Pose and expression	Set each time
   Changes	Light and time of day	Set each time

   Check it

   • Could a colleague draw the same character from the fixed rows alone? Replace anything open to interpretation, like "cute eyes," with a shape and a position.

1. 2

   Condense the sheet into one fixed block

   Write every prompt as a fixed block plus a changing block. The fixed block is the sheet's fixed rows condensed into one paragraph, pasted in unchanged every time. The changing block holds only the scene, the pose and expression, and the light, as in the table below.

   A chat assistant can condense the sheet for you. Give it a length limit, and the fixed block stays short enough to keep separate from the changing part.

   Changing blocks that follow the fixed block (example)

   Scene	Pose and expression	Light
   A bus stop in the rain	Holding an umbrella, on tiptoe, smiling	Soft light on an overcast afternoon
   A windy hill	Gripping a kite string with both arms, surprised	Bright sunshine on a clear morning
   A snowy alley	Looking up at the snowflakes, mouth open	Warm glow of streetlights in the evening

   Condense only the 'Fixed' rows of the character sheet below into one paragraph I can paste into every image prompt. Keep it to 50 words or fewer, keep the hex codes as they are, and leave out the 'Changes' rows.
   [Paste the character sheet]

   Round, cloud-shaped mascot; width to height 5:4; two short legs (one-fifth of height) and two small half-circle arms. Body #F8FAFC, cheeks #FDA4AF, hoodless yellow raincoat #FACC15, navy boots #1E3A8A. Two tall black oval eyes; navy teardrop mark under the cheek on the character’s own right.

   Check it

   • Check length and omissions. Do not drop color codes or the body-relative landmark just to meet a length limit.
   • Make sure all four hex codes and the position of the teardrop mark are there, and that nothing from the 'Changes' rows — scene, pose, expression, light — slipped in.
2. 3

   Make reference images first, then attach them

   Use the fixed block to make one full-body front view and one three-quarter view (turned 45 degrees), each on a plain background. Generate several and pick the ones that match the sheet best as your reference images.

   Supply an approved reference where supported. A style reference may guide palette and texture, while a composition reference guides arrangement; neither is automatically an identity lock. Check the selected model’s current documentation and version any change to the reference.

   [Paste the fixed block]
   Full body, standing straight and facing forward, plain light grey background, soft even lighting

   Check it

   • Check the reference images against the sheet, item by item. Anything wrong here spreads to every later scene, so regenerate until they match.
   • Keep the reference images in one place, with the date and a version number in each file name.
3. 4

   Compare with the sheet and fix only what's off

   When a scene comes back, compare it with the sheet. A chat assistant that can read images will spot differences quickly if you give it the image and the sheet together — but it can miss things or misread them, so do the final check yourself.

   If only one or two things are off, fix just those instead of regenerating the whole image, which can change the parts that were right. Ask in the conversation to change only that part and keep everything else, or use an editor feature such as generative fill, where you paint over an area and regenerate only that.

   List where the attached image differs from the character sheet below, as a table. Use the columns item, sheet, image and fix, in that order, and leave out anything that matches the sheet.
   [Paste the character sheet]

   The table translates three invented defects into review notes. It is not a model analysis of an actual image.

   For something that's only in the wrong place, like the mark, try: "In this image, remove only the teardrop mark and draw the same navy teardrop mark under the cheek on the character’s own right. Keep everything else exactly the same."

   Practice comparison of invented defects against the sheet

   Item	Sheet	Image	Fix
   Raincoat color	Yellow #FACC15	Yellow leaning orange	Correct only the raincoat color in an editor
   Teardrop mark	Under the cheek on the character’s own right	Under the cheek on the character’s own left	Remove it and redraw it under the character’s own right cheek
   Arms	Two small half-circles	Arms with fingers	Paint over the arms and regenerate only them

   Check it

   • Look again at each difference yourself. For colors, a value sampled with your editor's eyedropper beats the assistant's estimate.
   • After a partial edit, zoom in around the fix to check for awkward edges or anything else that changed.
4. 5

   Start products from a real photo; add logos and text by hand

   Products are stricter than characters: a slightly different bottle shape or label makes it a different product. Rather than generating the product, give the model a real product photo and ask it to change only the background, props and light. The more precisely you describe what must stay (shape, label, colors), the more likely it is to survive.

   Some models render logos and text fairly well, but matching the exact typeface and shape is hard. Add the original logo file and the text in your editor at the end, and match the colors to your brand values there too.

   A background-only request does not prove that product pixels survived unchanged. When exact representation is required, preserve the approved product region on a separate layer and composite it over the background. “Keep it unchanged” is a request, not a guarantee.

   Who does what in a product scene

   Element	How	Why
   Product shape and label	Use the real product photo as is	Generated details tend to drift
   Background, props, light	Give the photo and describe only what should change	The part a generator handles well
   Logo and text	Add the original files in your editor	Generators may not match the typeface and shape exactly
   Final colors	Match brand color values in your editor	Colors in generated results tend to shift slightly

   Keep the tumbler in the attached photo exactly as it is — don't change its shape, label or colors. Change only the background to a café window on a rainy day, and make the shadows match the soft, overcast light coming through the window.

   Check it

   • Put the product in the final image next to the original photo and zoom in to compare the shape, label and lid color.
   • Overlay the logo and text on the original files to check that the shapes match.

This is a learning check, not a test you must pass. Use the explanations to understand the ideas.

1. Q1Should a mark seen on the left in front view stay screen-left in profile?

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   Use the character’s own right cheek as the landmark. Rotation changes its screen position and may hide it; screen-left alone is not a valid rule.

   I read and understood the explanation

   This is your own review, not an automatic score.

2. Q2A coat-color edit also changes the boots. What needs review?

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   Recheck every fixed attribute against the approved version. A local edit request does not guarantee preservation of the rest, so the boot change must also be repaired.

   I read and understood the explanation

   This is your own review, not an automatic score.

3. Q3A bent pose does not have a 5:4 bounding box. Is it automatically wrong?

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   No. The 5:4 value was invented for the reference pose. Evaluate anatomy and stable traits with pose and perspective in mind.

   I read and understood the explanation

   This is your own review, not an automatic score.

1. 6

   Try it: review three scenes as one set

   Sketch front, profile and over-the-shoulder views. Apply the mark to the character’s own right cheek: it appears on the viewer’s left in front view and may be hidden in profile. Screen-left is not a stable body landmark.

   

   The fictional 5:4 ratio describes the reference pose. Applying that bounding-box ratio to a foreshortened or bent pose can incorrectly flag a valid drawing. Compare anatomy and component relationships appropriate to the pose.

   Create columns for scene, preserved traits, changed traits, decision and repair. Separate taste from defects. After a local repair, recheck the coat, boots and eyes as well. Archive the full set with the reference-sheet version.