Midjourney’s game-changing update – consistent characters, new storytelling potential
Reviewed By: Kevin Pocock
Table of Contents
If you've ever wished your AI-generated characters could keep their looks and swag intact across your images, today's your lucky day! AI image generator MidJourney has just rolled out a serious update. One that allows your characters to maintain their appearance throughout multiple images. This signals big things for AI storytelling and an end to all those annoying glitches and inconsistencies. Let’s get into Midjourney’s consistent characters.
Why it's a big deal
Imagine maintaining your character's signature looks and style from one scene to the next. Hairstyle, outfit, AND defining features! Well, now you can, thanks to the introduction of a new tag in Midjourney called –cref (short for “character reference.”)
This one small change opens up a big new world of creative possibilities – and below we’ll show you how to use it:
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- AI-powered short films: Filmic narratives. with consistent, recognisable, characters.
- Revolutionary comics: User-generated graphic novels with visually consistent characters.
- Next-level modeling shoots: Virtual models showcasing outfits with flawless continuity.
- Meme magic: Characters that carry their unique charm across humorous situations.
- Collaborative Storytelling: Now it’s easy for a team of creators to collaborate on visual stories simply by sharing a few images. This ensures that everyone’s vision is signed with seamless cohesion.
- Educational Potential: Imagine historical figures created by students that maintain visual consistency throughout.
- Game/FilmStoryboarding: Trying out characters in various looks and scenes is now a breeze.
A collection of artistic renditions featuring a cat dressed as a samurai in various traditional japanese settings.
A collage of eight photographs featuring the same woman in various outfits and settings, showcasing consistent characters in Midjourney.
Collage of six portraits showcasing a woman in steampunk attire, featuring consistent characters with varying poses and expressions.
Essential AI Tools
Designed for digital, not the real world
MidJourney founder David Holtz has stressed that this tool has been tuned to work best on AI and Midjourney-generated characters. Using photos of real people may produce oddities and distortions. While that won't stop people experimenting, it appears (that for now at least) its true power lies within MidJourney itself..
A simple walkthrough for Midjourney consistent characters
Here's how to get started with consistent characters inMidJourney:
Step
Discord
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- Generate Your Reference Image: Start by crafting your base character using Midjourney, or pull something from your image archive. If you still need a hand, ChatGPT can help you with detailed descriptions.
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- The Power of –cref: Now type –cref into the text box in Discord, followed by the URL of your character image.
Customise with –cw: Control how much consistency you want. Use –cw 100 if you want everything about your character to move from image to image or experiment with other values ( –cw 0 will bring over just the face).
N.B. Don't expect precision just yet. It won't capture every detail, but it does capture a lot! As you can see from the images we created below, the –cref feature maintains a lot of consistency across generations.
Remember, you can also blend the information from more than one character: —cref URL1 URL2, which works similarly to multiple image prompts.
Step
Web Alpha
- Drag and Drop: Upload your character image to the image bar (top left corner).
- Activate Character Reference: Click the new icon with a character portrait.
- Adjust with –cw: The same customization principles apply as in Discord.
Beyond Humans: The fun extends to consistent non-human characters. Dragons, aliens, or even your adventurous samurai cat – let your imagination run wild!
The road ahead
Of course there will be much more to discover in the days ahead. Expect a ton of experiments and some amazing results across social media. Have fun creating your own consistent characters. We look forward to coming across your creations!
Can Midjourney create consistent characters?
Yes, with the new Midjourney update you can do exactly that – and the steps in this guide will show you how. This new level of consistency adds a huge amount of cohesion to storytelling for (almost) innumerable possibilities.
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