One image, full sheet

Artists, animators, and game studios use character sheets, also called model sheets or turnarounds, to keep a character the same from one drawing to the next. One page shows the character from every side, with close-ups of the details that are easy to get wrong. Character Sheet makes one from a single image.

Add an image of your character, and it lays out a wide 16:9 sheet: a large face close-up, full-body front, three-quarter, side profile, and back views, and close-ups of the hair, the outfit, and the most distinctive detail, such as a tattoo, a patch, or a piece of jewelry. Every panel shows the same character in the same outfit, in the style of the image you added.

Save the sheet as a character, and it becomes the reference for your later generations. Because it shows the character from every side, it gives the model more to work from than a single portrait does.

A full-body image in a simple pose gives the best sheet, because it shows the outfit, the shoes, and the build that every view has to repeat. A portrait works too, but then the sheet has to invent everything below the shoulders.

The style of the image carries into the sheet. A photo gives a sheet of photos, a 3D render a sheet of renders, and an illustration an illustrated sheet. Pick the style you want every later image of the character to have.

The Details field adds things the image does not show yet, or makes sure they appear: a silver circlet, a long red cape, a scar across the cheek, fingerless gloves. List them as short phrases separated by commas, and the sheet puts them in every view where they would be visible.

Use Details to design, not only to describe. Try a costume idea on a sheet before you commit to it in a story, and make a second sheet with other details to compare.

• Short phrases: "a silver circlet, a long red cape".
• Name colors and materials.
• Leave Details empty to keep the character exactly as shown.

Press Create Character on the sheet to save it with an @handle, then mention that handle in a prompt or pick it in apps such as Scene Builder and Video Character Swap. The views give the model the back and sides of the character as well as the front.

Artists can also draw or model straight from the views. For comics, keep the sheet beside your panels, and see the AI comic generator for making the pages.

• Save the best sheet as a character.
• Mention its @handle in your prompts.
• Pick it in any app that takes a character.

Any image works: a photo, one of your creations, or a character you designed with Character Builder: Attributes or Character Builder: Muse. For one new view rather than a full sheet, Angles turns a single image to a new camera position. For more ideas, see the AI character generator.

Mango 3 is the default model, and the sheet comes out at 2K unless you choose otherwise. Use images of real people only with their permission.

A sheet is only useful when every panel shows the same character, so give the app an image that leaves little to guess. Clear light, a plain background, and an outfit fully in view all help. Busy patterns and small accessories are the hardest details to repeat in every view, so check them first on the result.

If one view comes out wrong, make the sheet again: each run is a new take, and a second sheet often gets right the view the first one missed. Name a detail under Details when the sheet keeps leaving it out.

For a character you will use often, make a few sheets and save the best one. It is the reference every later image and video of the character starts from.