References and main characters
Style references set the world; character photos keep a face consistent from the first scene to the last. What each one does, what the showcase films were made from, and how many you get per plan.
#Two kinds of picture
The right column of the intake takes two kinds of image, and the engine treats them differently. Style references describe the world: colours, textures, a place, a drawing style, a cover. Main character photos describe a person whose face should be recognisable in every scene they appear in. Both are optional, both are JPG, PNG or WebP up to 12 MB, and you can drag them straight onto their area.
#Style references
A reference is not decoration. The image stage is conditioned on the real file, so what you upload shows up in the frames: the paper grain of a scan, the exact green of a logo, the charcoal of a cover. The director also reads the reference and often makes it the destination of the story, the place the film arrives on the last chorus.
| Showcase film | Reference | What it became |
|---|---|---|
| Surgical Manipulator | One render of a translucent organism, no direction | A dead coolant plant the organism had colonised; the track wakes it up valve by valve. 108 scenes from one picture. |
| Off | A masked-headphones logo on a green grid, plus a portrait, no direction | The logo became the mask the man wears; the grid became the green of every lamp and window. |
| Nan Nan | One drawing and a paragraph | A hundred small scenes of objects defecting from gravity, reaching the exact state of the drawing on the final chorus. |
| Eucalyptus | Three scanned artworks | The ink, the paper grain and the goldfish became the world; the artist was redrawn in that language and walked through the page. |
| Lost in Catacombs | Six real photographs of the tunnels | The actual passages, plaques and bone walls, in a first-person night. |
| 13 and Demon Wants To Be Free | The album cover | Palette and texture for every scene; 13 lands frame for frame on the cover. |
How many you can add depends on your account: 2 without a plan, 3 with a SoundBoost mastering membership, 8 with a Music Video plan. The counter next to Style references shows where you are. More is not always better; three references that agree beat eight that argue.
#Main characters
- Add Main CharacterThe button at the bottom of the references column. Give the character a name; it is how you refer to them in the direction ("Berkan walks into…").
- Add photosUp to five per character on a plan. Different angles, the same person, decent light. Phone photos are fine: Eucalyptus was cast from five of them.
- Say what the photos are forOptional but useful: "his photos only keep his face, hair and beard" tells the director to redraw the rest in the world of the references.
Scenes where the character is visible get extra care so the face holds across takes, and the film keeps the same silhouette from the first shot to the last. The line under the photos says it plainly: Used where your character appears. Your direction leads the story. A character does not have to be in every scene; the story decides.
| No plan | Mastering member | Starter · Creator | Director | Professional | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Style references | 2 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Main characters | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Photos per character | 0 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
The Add Main Character button shows the plan that unlocks the next character (Director for a second, Professional for a third) and opens the plans when you are at your limit. Characters you already added stay editable after a downgrade.
#Reference or character?
- A photo of you, the singer, the band: character. The face has to survive a hundred scenes.
- Your album cover, a painting, a drawing, a logo, a photo of a place: style reference. The film should look like it, not star it.
- A photo of a person you want as a mood, not a cast member (a stranger in a station, a portrait for its lighting): style reference. Off did exactly this with a portrait as the character instead, which is why the man under the mask has that face.
- A cartoon or character sheet of an invented person: character, with the sheets as its photos. Underworld cast its student from five sheets.
#Later, on the storyboard
References keep working after the intake. Edit image on a scene can name up to three other scenes whose look the edit should match, so a character drifts back to their best frame instead of to the uploaded photos.
Can I add references after the storyboard started?
Not to the project itself; the treatment was written from the ones it had. Use Edit image with an instruction on the scenes that need it, or start a new project with the fuller set. The song analysis is reused, so the second run is quicker.
Why does my character look slightly different in a wide shot?
Identity holds best in close and medium shots; in a wide, the face is a few pixels and every model struggles. Direct wides to show the silhouette and the costume, and keep the recognisable moments closer.
A reference could not be read
The thumbnail says Could not read this photo. Usually a corrupt file or an unusual colour profile. Export it again as a plain JPG and re-add it.
Does a reference of a real person get refused?
Storyboard frames are fine. Occasionally a scene's motion is declined because of a real person's likeness; the scene says so and offers a retake.