Katechon ArcOur guide to consistent characters explains the basic method. This answer adds what we learned applying it across hundreds of shots.
The method, with what goes wrong at each step
| Step | What can still go wrong | What fixed it for us |
|---|---|---|
| One reference sheet per character | A face that resembles a famous actor gets shots blocked | Recast the face (different build, glasses, facial hair), then re-render all of that character's shots |
| Attach the sheet to every shot | A costume or form change mid-story | Make each new look its own character reference (Blood Sun) |
| Style set at project level | Painted backgrounds with photoreal people break the look | One painting language for characters and sets alike |
| Few characters | Look-alike extras drift into the leads | Keep the cast small; ours worked best at about five core characters |
| Review boards before video | Small drift: a sidekick grows wings, guards render as fairies | Regenerate the shot alone and tighten its description |
Recasting lookalikes
Video providers block output that may resemble a real person. On one series, almost all of the blocked units belonged to one character whose sheet read like a well-known actor; rewriting his shots did nothing, recasting his face fixed it. On BROODFALL a shaved-head, grey-bearded lead had about 5% of his shots blocked. Design faces that are clearly no one, and if a character's shots keep failing, check the face before the prompt.
Costume and form changes
When a character changes appearance (a wedding dress, a wound, a transformation), a single sheet cannot cover both looks, and the model blends them. On Blood Sun: The Fall of Kratos, later costume and form changes became their own characters, so every one of its 268 shots could reference exactly the look it needed.
One model for the whole series
Different video models draw the same reference differently. High Note used Seedance 2.0 Mini for every episode, pilot included, and the look stayed uniform from first to last. RatKid and the Red Balloon switched providers mid-production when balances ran out; the shared references held the cast, but it is the riskier path.
Checklist
- Every speaking character has one approved sheet; every distinct look has its own.
- No face reads as a celebrity.
- Style brief applies to people and places alike.
- Boards checked for the right faces before video.
- Drifted shots regenerated individually, not whole episodes.
Where Katechon Arc fits
Arc is built on this: characters, locations, props and products are assets with reference sheets that attach to every shot they appear in, across all episodes of a project.
Arc does not train a custom identity model from photos of a real person; for a persistent digital double of yourself, tools built for that fit better.
People also ask
Does AI character consistency work?
Well enough for long series with reference images: we kept casts recognizable across 40- and 45-episode dramas. Expect a few drifted shots per episode and regenerate them.
Why do AI characters change between shots?
Each clip is a fresh generation. Described only in words, a character is reinterpreted every time; reference images give the model the same evidence each time.