One character, one style
Lesson 5 of 13 in the course “AI Images and Slides”. Free, with animations and a quiz.
Why a series falls apart
Liya made five posts, and her candle looks different in each: taller, another colour, a different label. It’s the same random start from lesson one, only now it gets in the way. A buyer scrolls the feed and doesn’t realise it’s one product. A brand lives on recognition, so next we’ll learn to keep one item, one character and one style across the whole series.
Give it a photo of your item
The most reliable way is to show the model your actual item. Liya photographs her candle in daylight, attaches the photo to the prompt and writes: “Use this candle as is: don’t change the shape, wax colour or label. Put it on a bookshelf.” ChatGPT and Gemini can do this. Google says Nano Banana 2 keeps up to 14 objects and up to 5 characters consistent in one workflow. After generating, Liya still checks the label: the model sometimes redraws small letters.
A character sheet
For a mascot or comic hero, artists make a character sheet: the same character from the front, side and back, plus different emotions, in one picture. Liya invented a mascot, a little candle called Wicky. Once she asks: “a character sheet: a little candle with a flame on its head, front, side, back and happy, on a white background.” She saves the good sheet and attaches it to every new prompt. That way Wicky stays himself in any scene.
A style passport
To make the whole feed look like one story, Liya wrote a style passport: 3–5 words about the mood, 2–3 colours, one type of light, one type of shot and the format. She pastes this block unchanged at the start of every prompt. Midjourney also has style references for this, the --sref parameter: the model takes the style from a sample picture. But even without them, fixed words give a series a shared character.
A series template
From here it’s simple. A series prompt is the style passport plus one variable. Only the place changes: a bookshelf, the edge of a bathtub, an autumn table. Everything else is word-for-word the same, and the pictures look like they’re from one photoshoot. Copy the template below: paste your style passport, attach a product photo and change only what’s in square brackets at the end.
Check with a grid
Before posting, Liya puts nine pictures from the series side by side, as they’ll look on her profile. That way the odd one out jumps out: cold light among warm ones, a different candle, an off colour. She redoes that one without touching the rest. It’s faster than explaining to followers later that it’s the same candle. The trick works for any series: product cards, covers, stories.
Check yourself
- Liya wants to put her candle in a new scene. How does she keep its look?
Correct answer: Attach a photo of the candle and say not to change the shape or label. A photo is the most precise reference. Words describe an item roughly; a photo shows it as it is. - Which of these is a “style passport”?
Correct answer: A fixed block: mood, 2–3 colours, light, shot and format. The style passport goes into every prompt unchanged, so the series looks unified. - In a grid of nine pictures, one is cold among warm ones. What now?
Correct answer: Redo just that one with the same template. Eight pictures already match. Redoing one is faster and doesn’t break what works.