Keep one character consistent across AI video clips

The channels that grow on TikTok and Shorts with AI video almost all do one thing: they run a recurring character. A viewer who liked episode three comes back for episode four. The problem is that video models forget your character the moment a generation ends. The fix is a character sheet — a fixed block of description you paste at the top of every prompt.

Key takeaways

  • Write the character once as a fixed block, then prefix it to every brief unchanged.
  • Describe the five things models drift on: face, hair or surface, outfit, proportions, one personality tell.
  • Lock the art style in the same block; a style change reads as a different character.

What goes in a character sheet

  1. Name and type. ‘Milo, a small round robot’ — the type anchors proportions.
  2. Face. Two or three fixed features: ‘large amber eyes, a single antenna, no mouth’.
  3. Hair or surface. Colour and texture: ‘matte white shell with a scuffed left shoulder’.
  4. Outfit. One signature item that never changes: ‘a red knitted scarf’.
  5. Proportions. ‘Head is half its total height’ — the drift you notice most.
  6. Personality tell. A repeated gesture or habit: ’tilts its head before speaking’.
  7. Art style. ‘Soft 3D, Pixar-like lighting, shallow depth of field’.

How to use it

Paste the sheet, unchanged, above the brief for every clip. Then let the brief change the scene, action and camera — never the character. If a generation drifts, don’t edit the sheet; regenerate. Editing the sheet to chase one bad output usually breaks the next ten.

Common ways it goes wrong

  • Describing the character with adjectives (‘cute’, ‘cool’) instead of physical facts — models can’t hold an adjective steady.
  • Changing the art style line between episodes — it reads as a new character even if every other line is identical.
  • Letting the brief mention clothing or hair; keep all appearance in the sheet so there’s one source of truth.

Our Character Consistency Kit is exactly this format with worked examples, and every character-story prompt in the catalog is written to accept a sheet on top.