A Guide to Midjourney V6 "Character Consistency" 🔥3 Tips to Level Up!
Maintaining a Consistent Character with Midjourney NEW "Character Reference"
Exciting News! Midjourney has just released the highly anticipated NEW "Character Reference".
This is similar to the "Style Reference" feature, it tries to make the character match a "Character Reference" image. This allows you to create a consistent character across images! It will be great for Cohesive Storytelling & Precision Styling! 🎨
Today, I will share a quick guide to get started with three bonus tips at the end! Let's see how it works!
![A pink hair girl in 4 different scenes](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*9AkHsNKnUKRG6CBb8GkDSQ.png)
Today's content will be broken down into three sections starting with a brief description of the new feature and followed by
- Part One: What is "Character References"
- Part Two: How to use "Character References"
- Part Three: 3 Extra Tips to Use "Character References"
Part One: What is "Character References" 🎨
This feature is similar to the "Style Reference" feature, but instead of matching a reference style, it aims to make the character match a "Character Reference" image.
"Character Reference" allows us to create a character roughly based on image(s) of an existing character provided via URLs.
Highlight Features
- ⚒️ Functionality: This feature is similar to regular image prompts except it 'focuses' on the character traits
- 👉🏻 Use: Type
--cref URL
after your prompt with a URL to an image of a character - 📝 Format:
/imagine text prompt --cref URL
- 🖼️ Compatibility: Works for both Midjournvey V6 and Niji 6
Modify with --cw ( Details in Part 3 )
- You can use
--cw
to modify reference 'strength' from0–100
--cw 100
(default) uses the face, hair, and clothes--cw 0
focus on face
Part Two: Quick Guide to Use "Character Reference"
Step 1: Choose Your Reference Image
Use an image you generated with Midjourney or pick one online.
👉🏻 I am using Niji 6 for the tutorial today. This is our reference image for today's tutorial
![Pink hair girl in sakura woods](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*dAkzERrpEB9Oe5gmTVwIjA.png)
Step 2: Upload an Image or Copy a URL
Upload the images with the "+" side. Copy the image URL.
Step 3: Type Your Prompt
Type/imagine
as you usually do. Then, input your prompt to describe the image you want to generate and add--cref URL
/imagine prompt
: Text Prompt--cref URL
![Text prompt on Discord with Midjourney](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*OWo2lXzZRpWeTt5yxr89XA.png)
Here are two resulting images
![None](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*Z9GjxSKCJllvFNOkImH6WA.png)
![None](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*FbVAwx7UpCo7UttHQEehZA.png)
Here are some more examples:
Left: A cute pink hair girl walking to the school --cref url Center: A cute pink hair girl sitting with bunnies in the garden --cref url Right: A cute pink hair girl playing drinking coffee in a cafe --cref url
![None](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*gAYwpuieEzWxeryzy7utUQ.png)
![None](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*10Z4wiWzjCs58TNqAcoLfw.png)
![None](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*8brULGjuP-f8N9laSPyIVg.png)
As seen in the images above, the character is best suited for prominent features such as the face, hair, and overall clothing. However, tiny details like the decorations on her hair and dress change frequently.
⭐️ Something To NOTE:
✅Character attributes that WILL work well with --cref
:
Big Obvious Features: teal curly hair, pink sunglasses, floor-length trenchcoat, green backpack
❌ Character attributes that will NOT work well with --cref
:
Tiny Details: A silver pendant necklace with eight small pyramid-shaped jewels, dimples, freckles or t-shirt logos.
⭐️ Three key ways to handle prompting with --cref
- 1. Anchor the details (pose, expression, emotion, costume, props, scene, action) so you're in control of them
- 2. Use a light touch and let
--cref
handle most of it, - 3. Provide just the scene for the character and let
--cref
do ALL the work.
Part Three: 3 Extra Tips to Use "Character References"
⭐️ Tip One: Modify the Details with --cw
How to Use --cw
(cref weight) for effect
The character attributes that Midjourney can identify from the reference image(s) will be blended with the prompt to create the final expression of your character.
You can use --cw
to modify reference 'strength' from 100 to 0
👉🏻 Here's what --cw
does:
- Strength 100 (
--cw 100
) is default and uses the face, hair, and clothes - Values between
--cw 99
to--cw 1
will begin to pick up less of the whole character - At Strength 0
--cw 0
will pick up ONLY the face
⭐️ Face-Swap with --cw 0
- Focus on the face.
- Good for changing outfits/hair, etc
- Roughly like a "Face-Swap".
Here are a few examples using --cw 0
Left: A cute japanese girl playing with bunnies
--cref URL --cw 100
Center: A cute japanese girl wearing swimsuit in the beach--cref URL --cw 0
Right: A cute japanese girl wearing uniform going to school--cref URL --cw 0
![None](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*WBsAFUSEPt8VnHIFn9y5PQ.png)
![None](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*HpKj-QC72_TaeGUWDYt7vA.png)
![None](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*37iXBSabbFMJIeat-lVF2w.png)
As you can see, we are able to keep only the face in the two images on the right (--cw 0
)and preserve face, hair, and clothes on the first image(--cw 100
).
🎎 Gender-swap with --cw 50
- Values between
--cw 99
to--cw 1
will begin to pick up less of the whole character - Write a prompt with the new gender and use
--cw 50
A cute pink hair Japanese girl in the sakura woods
--cref URL --cw 50
![None](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*B355ikVfV8JvlNBOWaIuCw.png)
![None](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*SgOXbzEkxtkb8e5sX_GuIw.png)
⭐️ Tip Two: Use Multiple Reference
You can use more than one URL to blend the information /characters from multiple images (this is similar to multiple image or style prompts)
- Use: Type
--cref
after your text prompt, followed by URLs to more than one reference image like this - Format: Text Prompt
--cref
urlA urlB urlC
Here is an example:
/imagine prompt: A cute pink hair girl in japanese traditional clothing holding an umbrella, walking in front of the temple --cref
urlA urlB
![Generate images with two characters reference](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*_xVHE0OL8KyDToPB5CopQw.png)
⭐ ️Tip Three: Working on Website
Character Reference works well on Midjourney website as well. Here's how:
Step One: Pick the Image
Drag or paste an image into the imagine bar.
Step Two: Select "Character Reference"
After picking the image, there will be three icons for you to select.
- Character Reference(
--cref
): Inspired by key character attributes. - Style Reference(
--sref
): Inspired by visual style only. - Image Reference (
URL in prompt
): Inspired by composition, style, subject.
Select "Character Reference". You can also upload more than one image.
![Character reference on Midjourney Website](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*Y_20gfZqjNr9h1yFegjlzA.png)
Step Three: Generate
Type the prompt and click "enter" as usual. And you will be able to generate a consistent character
![None](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*LmA3wmr0sELoeYvyi4-e9g.png)
💻 Midjourney website provides a seamless image generating experience, especailly with the new features and interface. Learn more from my Ultimate Guide to the Alpha Website
More to Note for "Character Reference"
- ✅ This feature works best when using characters made from Midjourney images. It's not designed for real people/photos (and will likely distort them as regular image prompts do)
- ✅ Cref works similarly to regular image prompts except it 'focuses' on the character traits
- ✅ Character attributes that WILL work well with big attributes
- ❌ It won't copy the tiny details like exact dimples, freckles / or t-shirt logos.
👉🏻 What's NEXT? More Advanced Tips and Prompting Multiple Characters 🔥
Be prepared for a more in-depth guide to use "Character Reference" as I explore more of its features. I am also preparing a guide on prompting multiple characters
The --cref
command works for single-subject, single-character images. If you plan to have multiple characters in the scene, you will need one extra feature.
👀 Here is a sneak peak of generating Consistent Multiple Characters. Stay tuned for my upcoming guide !💌
![None](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*8bmhjBWRgivD3h31bSVFsQ.png)
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