Prompt-to-image AI is great for character designers who find themselves lacking initial visual inspiration; you enter a description and select a style, and AI generates an image that corresponds to the prompt, potentially lessening the barrier to entry for beginner designers.
That said, AI should still only be used as a tool in one’s design process, not a substitute for design principles. An image by itself does not define a character. You must also think of the character’s personality, purpose, backstory, readability, and consistency.
Prompt-to-Image AI for Character Design
Prompt-to-image AI transforms written prompts into images. Using this technology, character designers can input detailed descriptions about the characters themselves (personality, role, race, gender, sexuality, etc.), their outfits, accessories, and overall aesthetic, to the mood, the posing, the lighting, their surroundings, and the art style. A text-to-image AI tool can be useful for character artists since it can provide a visual representation of ideas that you might be unable to illustrate yourself.
What It Does (in Simple Terms)
In general terms, most AI image generators work by using your prompt (which may include an image input or other parameters) to search for associations between images and text it was trained on. It then uses those connections to build a picture to match the prompt. The tool itself can change the prompt and generate variations of the results, while adjusting the prompt, the style, or using a combination of multiple images.
Keep in mind that using AI to create art is a very experimental and exploratory process that often requires trial and error to achieve desired results.
Why Beginners Are Using It
It’s a popular choice among beginner artists for many reasons. One of the main benefits is that it helps alleviate the fear of a blank page. It’s easy to create a blank sheet of paper and then be overwhelmed by the idea of producing a perfectly executed character portrait, as that is a daunting task.
You can, however, use the AI to quickly generate character portraits for your mood boards, role-playing games, character ideas, avatars, indie games, and so much more. They’re great for testing out early character concepts and getting ideas down.
The Benefits of Using AI to Design Characters
The speed of using AI for designing characters is very high. For instance, you can generate multiple iterations for a character – the formal one, the rugged one, the futuristic one, the mysterious one, the heroic one, the soft and friendly one, all in minutes, which makes it easier to brainstorm.
It also makes visual thinking available. It’s easy for a writer to come up with rough visuals, and the artist who’s a beginner could use them for reference – albeit rather loosely.
Also, one can use this AI for design to experiment with different styles. Can the character look better as comic-book art or watercolor? 3D rendering as game character design or realistic film concept design? This is a very important question; for example, the most sophisticated AI girl generator will give a pretty, professional, portrait-like look. But whether or not that look befits the character, story and world, you’ll have to ask.
Practical limitations of prompt-to-image AI
AI often generates images that appear superficially good, but on closer inspection, they are impractical. Clothing can seem absurd, hands, weapons, jewelry, symbols, and small details can be warped, and characters can be stylish, but the intended feeling can be absent.
Another common limit is consistency. AI can fail at maintaining a particular character across various poses, expressions, settings, and clothing if required. This makes it difficult to use for producing comics, animation, games, corporate images, or similar projects.
The system can sometimes misinterpret the prompt, so you ask for a compassionate but weary leader, and the image shows a hostile or flashy, youthful one. Such tools are more useful when used with human feedback, because they work better with human guidance.
Tips to Writing Better Character Design Prompts
Start by telling the prompt the character’s role, are they a detective, healer, pilot, knight, student, evil guy, mentor, shop keeper?
Next tell the prompt what kind of character they are; nervous, proud, playful, elegant, rough, gentle, suspicious, etc. The personality will determine a lot of the posture, facial expression, mood, etc.
And finally the most important: their specific outfit, color scheme, hair style, accessories, pose. And the setting and art style.
Just don’t jam too much unrelated info into one prompt or it doesn’t usually work; you’re better off starting separate prompts and then changing each element (role and personality, outfit, color, pose, etc) as needed. Then you’ll be able to figure out what works or not, rather than throwing everything and figuring out what changed in the final result.
A Simple Prompt Formula for Beginners
Here’s a formula you can use that’s fairly basic: Give a character role, personality, some specific visual elements, their pose or expression, the setting, and what the art style will be like. For example: A careful space mechanic boy character, wearing an orange jacket, wearing short, messy hair, wearing a tool belt, holding a cracked helmet, inside dim repair bay of a spaceship, semi-realistic art style.
It shouldn’t be complicated, but specific, enough to get something, and then once you have a basic outcome, you should be able to just rewrite the same prompt with modifications like older, happier, less armored, more solid shape, simpler setting.
Practical Tips for Better Character Results
Here are some practical advice for better character results. Treat the first image that you generate as an option, rather than a final. You’ll want to generate multiple results and examine them individually to pick out the best elements for a particular character. You might get the best face from one result, the best outfit from another, and the best color scheme from a third.
Combine what you want in these ways by hand in a sketch or notes, or using an editing program. Save what you can from each imperfect result. You might find that one image is good in most ways except its strange hands, but you like its cloak shape very well, while another image is great as an example of facial expression but not so good at representing anatomy. Think of each result as being raw material.
Additionally, you should probably write a short character brief before attempting character generation at all. Specify the character’s place in the world, their role, personality, their goal(s), and several visual keywords for appearance. A character who is a village herbalist should not look exactly the same as a battle mage for the royal court, unless the narrative makes a compelling case for the resemblance.
What to Avoid When Using AI for Character Design
Don’t try to mimic a living artist too closely. Instead of just typing one artist’s name for the style guide, go for something more general like “soft watercolor fantasy,” “bold comic book shading,” or “clean cartoon animation style.”
Don’t use tools or features just because they claim to have fewer restrictions. With image tools geared toward adult audiences, like an AI hentai generator, make sure you’re aware of age restrictions, consent issues, the platform terms of use, and the places where your images are going to be posted.
Treat character design with care, especially when you get into more mature subjects like that. Don’t just try to design beautiful characters. Is the silhouette readable? Does the costume suit the world? Does the expression fit the personality? Will the character be usable in many different situations?
Using AI Wisely in a Character Design Workflow
Use AI as a tool in a character workflow. A smart workflow begins by being more intentional with the prompt than a shot in the dark. Set the character and state the image problem before prompting your AI to do a bit of an exploration; then, pick the best options and make annotations in your notes.
Afterward comes the human eye to make any necessary fixes:
- clean up strange artifacts
- clean up complicated clothing
- clean up weird hands
- make sure the image still works as a character story
For client work, you may also need a character sheet, artist turnarounds, or a consistent reference sheet.
When to Use Prompt-to-Image AI
AI art generators are perfect for the initial stages of a project. It’s especially useful for creating personal characters or character concepts, developing story or concept visualizations, making assets for a tabletop rpg, mood boards, or trying a few different visual styles. Essentially, prompt-to-image ai art is good to use when you’d like to get an idea for a concept, without having to commit much time, money, or effort in making sketches, hiring someone to illustrate, or creating a 3D model.
When to Hire a Human Artist
On the flip side, human artists are the best choice when it comes to something that’s uniquely original, needs to be a more polished final, needs a consistent visual style, and needs an exact direction. This means in animated films or comic books, a logo and mascot for a business, assets licensed into video games, or a line of items to be produced, or an official character design sheet.
Prompt-to-image ai art is fast, but can’t be as specific about visual direction or create a consistent image over a set of different poses or angles.
The Final Word: Using AI as a Tool, Not a Tool for All
A prompt-based AI is a great tool for starting a character design. It can help you try out options, learn your preferences, and find some styles you didn’t expect. It can, however, ignore or misinterpret the prompts and result in details that need some fixing.
The right way to use it is with an open mind, not with total trust. Come up with a simple but good idea of the character you want to create, ask the AI specifically, look at its creations and use the best parts, and decide what goes into the final design. If you use it this way, you will likely be able to design characters that are more interesting and fun, without losing control of them.
