From Portraits to Characters - An Introduction

[Phil]

Introduction — Why I am interested in characters

My fascination with characters started long before AI, through photography.

I have always been interested in portraits — not only in how a person looks, but in what can be expressed through a face, a gesture, a look, or a particular moment.

When I started working with Midjourney, this interest took a different direction. Instead of photographing someone who already exists, I could create a character and gradually discover who that character might become.

Observations — What I discovered

One of the things that surprised me most was how much better Midjourney has become at handling recurring characters.

It can still fall back on familiar visual stereotypes when given only a simple description. But when I give a character more context — their appearance, situation, attitude, actions, or emotions — the result can become much more personal and less stereotypical.

This gradually led me away from simply describing what a character looks like, and toward exploring what the character feels, what they are doing, and what might be happening behind the image.

At some point, I became less interested in creating a character and more interested in developing one.

Experiments — How I tested it

My first experiments were fairly random, using different portraits and trying various expressions.

Things changed when I started using an avatar from a small story about creatures living in a magical forest. This character eventually became my main subject for experimentation.

At first, the avatar had recognizable features, but its appearance could still vary considerably from one image to another. Over time, I kept developing it according to my own ideas, while also adapting to the possibilities offered by the evolution of Midjourney.

For the first experiments with a new expression, I always use the same base image as a reference. This gives Midjourney a stable visual identity to work from, while I change the expression or reaction I want to explore.

Only after obtaining a useful result do I sometimes use that result as a new reference for further refinement. The main goal is always to preserve the character's identity and minimize unnecessary variations.

I also avoid introducing several characters at once. For example, I first establish the main character clearly before introducing the cat that accompanies him. This reduces the number of variables Midjourney has to interpret at the same time.

Results — What it produced

These experiments gradually transformed an initially variable avatar into a recognizable and coherent character, capable of expressing specific emotions, reactions and attitudes.

The techniques I discovered with this character could then be transferred to other characters, including the cat accompanying him.

This is only the starting point. The different aspects of character development — identity, expressions, reactions and interaction — will be explored in more detail in the following chapters.

Discussion

A separate topic will be available for discussion, observations and experiences from other members.

This is not intended to be a tutorial or a definitive method. It is simply a record of what I discovered by experimenting.