Character Reference Sheet: What to Include and How to Make One with AI

On this page, a character reference sheet means one image of a character seen from several angles, with the expressions, outfit, colours and marks that must stay the same. It is laid out so that whoever draws or generates the character next works from the same picture. Below is what to put on one and the prompts that make each panel from a single front portrait with an AI image model. Then comes the one decision that arrives with AI: whether to give the model the finished sheet as one picture or as separate panels.

That decision depends on how many reference images your model reads. If you have no character yet, start at the front portrait in step 1; if you already have one portrait you like, it is your front panel, and you can go straight to step 2.

Key takeaways

• Put four angles on the sheet (front, three-quarter, profile and back), three expressions, the default outfit, a colour row and a short notes panel.
• Make every other panel from the front portrait as the reference image, and change only the angle or the expression from one prompt to the next.
• Print a label under each panel, and use the same word in the prompt when you hand the sheet back to a model.
• Send the panels as separate references when your model has room for them, and the whole sheet as one image when it does not.

What goes on a character reference sheet

A sheet answers one question for whoever uses it next, a person or a model: what about this character never changes? Put these on it, in this order:

• Four angles: front, three-quarter, profile and back, all in the same neutral pose and the same light, so the viewpoint is what changes between them.
• Three expressions: a real smile, a focused or serious look and one signature expression that fits the personality, cropped to head and shoulders. The front portrait already shows the neutral face.
• The default outfit in full, plus a second outfit only if you plan to use it often.
• A colour row: skin, eyes, hair and the two or three main clothing colours, each as a flat swatch.
• The marks that never move, such as a scar, a tattoo or a piece of jewellery, with the side each one sits on.
• A notes panel in plain words: name, age, height and build, and one line on how the character carries themselves.

Do not skip the notes panel: you can paste it straight into a prompt as text. If you have nothing written down yet, the character description generator is a place to draft one, and the random character generator is a place to start when you have not picked a character at all.

How to make a character reference sheet with AI

The method is one portrait first, then every other panel made from it. Each prompt below changes one thing, the angle or the expression, and keeps the rest of the wording identical, so when a panel comes out wrong you know which line moved it.

Step 1: Make the front portrait

Describe the character and make a plain, front-facing, full-body portrait: neutral background, soft even light, the whole outfit in frame, arms relaxed. In Influverse, start from the AI character generator and paste your description there. Creating a character in Influverse costs 4 credits.

Full-body front view of [your character description], standing straight, arms relaxed at the sides, neutral expression, looking at the camera. Plain light grey background, soft even studio light, no props. Character design reference, full outfit visible.

Step 2: Make the three other angles

Open the image page with the front portrait as the reference image and paste one prompt per angle. Each prompt keeps the pose, background, light and outfit wording of step 1 and changes only the view, and it drops the words about looking at the camera, because the face turns away.

Three-quarter view of the same character, turned partly to their left so both eyes still show, standing straight, arms relaxed at the sides, neutral expression. Plain light grey background, soft even studio light, no props. Character design reference, full outfit visible.

Side profile view of the same character, facing left, standing straight, arms relaxed at the sides, neutral expression. Plain light grey background, soft even studio light, no props. Character design reference, full outfit visible.

Back view of the same character, facing away from the camera, standing straight, arms relaxed at the sides, neutral expression. Plain light grey background, soft even studio light, no props. Character design reference, full outfit visible.

Check each angle against the front panel before you keep it: hair length and parting, which ear the earring is in, which arm the tattoo is on. Compare the back view closely, because the front portrait shows nothing of the back of the hair or the outfit.

Step 3: Make three expressions

Keep the front portrait as the reference and swap only the bracketed expression for each of the three panels.

Head and shoulders close-up of the same character, [a warm open smile / a focused, serious look / one raised eyebrow, amused], looking at the camera. Plain light grey background, soft even studio light. Character design reference.

Step 4: Assemble and label the sheet

The steps above leave you with separate images: the front, the other angles and the expressions. Put them on one canvas in any layout or design tool, in the two rows of the diagram above: the four angles along the top at the same height, the three expressions below them.

• Sample the colour row from the front panel with an eyedropper: skin, eyes, hair and the main clothing colours, each as a flat square beside the expressions.
• Type the notes panel from your description: name, age, height, build, the marks and which side they sit on.
• Print a short label under each panel: FRONT, THREE-QUARTER, PROFILE, BACK, SMILE, FOCUSED, SIGNATURE.
• Export two things: the whole sheet as one image, and each panel on its own at the size you generated it, so you can send either.

Step 5: Price the panels before you generate

Here is the set priced with the settings fixed: the character created first, then the three angles and the three expressions as six images on one model at one quality.

One GPT Image 2 image at Balanced quality costs 3 credits, and one Nano Banana 2 image at 2K costs 5 credits.

Creating the character at 4 credits and then making six panels on GPT Image 2 at Balanced quality at 3 credits each comes to 22 credits, which is $1.10 at $0.05 a credit. The same six panels on Nano Banana 2 at 2K cost 30 credits, six images at 5 credits each, against 18 credits for the same six panels on GPT Image 2 at Balanced quality.

Which model fits depends less on that difference than on how you will use the sheet afterwards, which the next section covers. If you want every model's quality options in one place first, see the image models compared side by side.

Using the sheet in later images and video

Whether to hand a model the whole sheet or its panels comes down to how many reference images the model reads, and the table shows that figure for each image model.

So the rule follows the room you have. Nano Banana 2 takes up to 5 reference images, while GPT Image 2, Nano Banana Pro, Seedream 5.0 Pro, Seedream 5.0 Lite and Flux 2 each take up to 10.

• On GPT Image 2, Nano Banana Pro, the Seedream models or Flux 2, send the front, three-quarter and profile panels as separate references, and keep the other slots for a product, a place or a second character.
• On Nano Banana 2, send the whole sheet as one reference when the scene also needs a product or a location, and the front, three-quarter and profile panels when the character is alone in the picture.
• Count every reference the request already carries. If your tool adds the character's own saved images to each request, those take slots too, so subtract them before you decide how many panels fit.
• Either way, name the panel you mean in the prompt, such as "match the profile panel", instead of leaving the model to work out which part of the sheet to follow.

Runway's API getting started guide, read in October 2026, gives a reference image a tag that the prompt then names with at-mention syntax. Borrow the habit: print a label under each panel and use the same word in your prompt.

Runway's API inputs guide, read in October 2026, does not recommend reference images smaller than 640×640px or larger than 4K. Treat that as a floor for a panel you send on its own, and export each panel at full size when you make it instead of cropping it from a finished sheet later.

Wan 3.0 Prime, Seedance 2.5, Seedance 2.0, Seedance 2.0 Mini and Seedance 2.0 Fast generate video from reference images. For a clip, send the front and three-quarter panels as references on one of those in the AI video generator, or use a single panel as the starting image on a model that starts from an image.

Influverse says its characters keep the same identity across every model with no training step. If that holds for your character, the sheet is something you keep and reuse as a reference, never a dataset to train on. Once it exists, the work moves to scenes, and scene prompts that change one thing at a time pick up where this page stops.

Common mistakes that make a sheet useless

• Changing the light between panels. Keep one light for every panel, so a difference between two panels is a difference in the character, not in the lighting.
• Posing each angle differently. Keep the same neutral stance in every angle panel.
• Leaving panels unlabelled. A label is what lets a prompt point at one panel.
• Keeping a back view you never checked. Compare hair length, seams and every accessory against the front panel first.
• Cropping panels out of a small sheet. Export each panel at full size when you make it.
• Describing the face again in later prompts. Once the sheet is the reference, the prompt describes the scene and nothing else.

If you want the mechanics behind how a reference carries a character from one picture to the next, read how an AI character generator works.