Generate Consistent Characters in Midjourney Every Time

If you create content with characters, like videos, training materials, or brand mascots, you need those characters to look the same from one scene to the next. Midjourney has a great feature for this called character reference. It allows you to take one character design and show them in different clothes, places, and poses.

This capability is powerful. It helps you tell your story visually. In this post, you will learn how to use Midjourney's character reference feature. We will show you what to do step by step and what results you can expect.

Picking Your Starting Character Image

First, you need an image of the character you want to use consistently. This image will be the main reference for all the future images you create. Your starting character can be realistic, a cartoon, or even an animal. The method works for almost any character style.

To get this first image, you will prompt Midjourney just like you normally would. Describe your character's look, what they are wearing, and any details. The image Midjourney generates will be the base reference for everything that follows.

For instance, you might prompt for a "Pixar style girl with curly hair." After a few tries, you find an image you like. This image is now your foundation. Remember, this works with any style – photorealistic, illustrations, anime, and more.

Keeping the Character Consistent in Different Scenes

Now, how do you use that base image to show your character in different situations or doing different things while keeping their look the same? This is where the character reference feature comes in.

When you create a new image, you write your prompt describing the new scene––for example, "the girl riding a bike." At the end of the prompt, you add the command `--cref` followed by the web address (URL) of your base character image. It looks like this:

`[image prompt] --cref [URL of your base image]`

When you run this prompt, Midjourney will use your base character's face and general look but place them in the scene you described. You could have your character eating spaghetti, learning martial arts, or working on a computer. The `--cref` feature makes it simple to put your character into many different settings.

Using a tool like the Midjourney Automation Suite from TitanXT can make managing these image URLs and prompts much easier, especially when creating many consistent images for a large project.

Controlling Outfits and Poses with Character Weight

You might notice that using `--cref` often keeps the character's outfit the same as in the reference image. If you want to change what the character is wearing, you can use the character weight setting, short for `--cw`.

Character weight goes from 0 to 100. The default is 100. At `--cw 100`, Midjourney tries to match the face, hair, and clothes from your reference image exactly.

When you lower the character weight, for example to `--cw 0`, the unique facial features stay similar, but Midjourney has more freedom to create different outfits based on your prompt. A weight around 50 or 60 can also help get different poses if Midjourney isn't creating the pose you want with the default setting. Experimenting with the value helps you find the right balance for your needs.

Try combining `--cref` with different `--cw` values to control both character identity and their appearance in any given scene.

Changing Art Styles While Staying Consistent

A cool part of the `--cref` feature is that you can change the art style of your image while keeping the character's face consistent. You can start with a base character in one style, but then prompt for an oil painting, a photorealistic look, animation style, pop art, watercolor, or anime.

As long as you use the `--cref` command with your original character image URL, the character will maintain their look even when the art style surrounding them changes completely.

Saving Your Character Reference

Copying and pasting the image URL every time you want to use a character can take extra effort. Midjourney offers a way to save your character reference with a custom name using the `prefer set` command.

Here's how:

• Type `/prefer set`.

• Enter a name for your character, like `name: mycharacter`.

• Enter the value, which is `--cref` followed by the URL of your base character image. Like `value: --cref [URL]`.

• Press Enter.

Now, instead of pasting the URL, you can just add `--mycharacter` (or whatever name you chose) to the end of any prompt. This is a quick way to reuse your character reference without typing or pasting the full URL every time. This kind of shortcut is especially helpful if you are generating a large number of images, a process that can be streamlined significantly by tools like the Midjourney Automation Suite.

Conclusion

Midjourney's character reference feature, combined with the character weight setting and the prefer set command, gives you powerful control over character consistency. Whether for storytelling, branding, or creative projects, you can now ensure your characters look the same no matter the scene, action, or even art style.

Give these features a try! If you are working on large projects requiring many consistent images, exploring ways to automate your workflow could be beneficial. Check out the Midjourney Automation Suite from TitanXT to see how it can help.