Tips for Keeping Your Midjourney Characters Consistent

Creating images with Midjourney is exciting, but making the same character appear consistently across different scenes can be a challenge. Whether you're working on a story, comic, or just want continuity, getting your AI creations to look alike is key. This post will share simple ways to help Midjourney stick to the character you imagine, using methods that guide the AI effectively.

Starting Points: Where to Get Great Character Ideas

To get Midjourney to create consistent images for a character, the best approach is often to start with good reference images. But what if you don't have any to begin with? You can generate them!

Certain prompts are designed to help you generate different views and styles of a single character. Here are some types of prompts you can use to create first-pass reference images:

• Expression sheet

• List of expressions

• Character design sheet

• Full body reference sheet

• Character reference sheet with several angles

• Isolated design asset

• Full body view

• Side view

• Rear view

• T pose

• Front and back view

• Two character sheets of [Character Name] front view back view

• Character model

Using prompts like these can help you get a range of initial images for your subject. You can then choose the ones that look best to refine further.

Why Animals Can Be Easier

If you are just starting out, especially for projects like children's books, consider making your main character an animal. It is usually much easier to get consistent images for animals than for human characters in AI art.

Building Consistency with Initial Prompts

Let's look at an example using a blue jay character. When you write your first prompt, you will describe the character and the style you want. For example:

"Large Blue Jay multiple poses and expressions children's book illustration style simple cute blue yellow feet white crest perfect beak flat color and no outline"

Notice you can change the beginning part of the prompt describing the scene or pose, but the end part, describing the character's look and the art style, should stay the same. This consistency in the style description helps Midjourney understand the 'look' you want for the character every time.

From your first generated images, you can pick the best one or ones that capture the look you like. These become your base.

Turning One Image into Many References

Once you have a base image you like, you can use it to create multiple reference images. Upscale the image you like best. Then, you can crop different views from this single image. Use any basic photo editing tool (even software like Microsoft Paint works).

Crop the image to get separate files showing:

• The character looking slightly left

• The character looking left at a 45-degree angle

• The character looking straight left

• Other angles, poses, or expressions within the image

Now you have many specific guide images. Each one shows your character in a slightly different pose, angle, or with a different expression. This gives you more control in future prompts.

Managing many reference images and prompts can become time-consuming. A tool like the TitanXT Midjourney Automation Suite can help streamline this process, allowing you to manage and use your character assets more efficiently.

Using Your Reference Images

When you want your consistent character to appear in a new scene or pose, you will use the reference image feature in Midjourney. You add the link to the specific cropped reference image you want to use at the start of your prompt, followed by the rest of your description and style keywords.

For example, to put your Blue Jay on a branch looking happy, you would use:

"[Reference Image Link Here] large Blue Jay happy on a tree branch joy [Your consistent style keywords]"

Midjourney will use the reference image to guide the character's appearance while incorporating the new scene and emotion from your prompt. This makes it much easier to get the character you want consistently.

Experimenting with Prompt Weights

Sometimes you need certain parts of your prompt to be more important than others. You can use weights (`::`) for this. A number after `::` tells Midjourney how much importance to give that part of the prompt.

For example, if you want the Blue Jay to be angry and in a side view, but you *really* want the side view emphasized, you could try:

"[Reference Image Link Here] large Blue Jay angry :: side on side view ::2 chirping at a child"

The `::2` on "side on side view" makes it twice as important as the parts without a weight (which default to `::1`). This can help you get the exact angle or feature you need.

Using prompt weights effectively can be complex, especially when managing many variables. Tools available in the TitanXT Midjourney Automation Suite can simplify prompt construction and weight management, helping you achieve consistent results faster.

Important Tip: The Redo Button and Seeds

If you generate an image you like and want Midjourney to try variations using the same starting point (seed) as that image, hitting the "redo" button below the image will *not* keep the original reference image link you used. To make sure Midjourney uses your reference image again, you must copy and paste the reference image link back into your prompt every time you run it, even if you are asking for variations.

Putting it Together

By using specific prompts to generate initial character concepts, selecting and cropping guide images from your best results, and then consistently using those guide images in your future prompts (along with consistent style keywords and experimenting with weights), you can significantly improve character consistency in Midjourney.

Getting characters to look the same across many images takes practice. Automating parts of your workflow, like managing reference images and structuring prompts, can save a lot of time and effort. Learn more about tools that can help you handle this, like the Midjourney Automation Suite from TitanXT.

Conclusion

Creating consistent characters in Midjourney is possible with the right steps. Start by generating initial concepts, refine them into clear reference images, and use these references diligently in all your future prompts for that character. Experiment with prompt weights to control specific outcomes. With these techniques and perhaps some automation to help manage the process, you can build a library of reliable characters for your creative projects.