character-continuitylisted

# Character & Continuity Bible ## Two principles **Consistency is a workflow.** No current tool guarantees frame-identical continuity; every model is probabilistic. What separates professional output from amateur output is whether the production locked its assets before generating, and changed one variable at a time afterwards. **Invariance beats fidelity.** A slightly imperfect face that never changes will pass. A better face that shifts between shots will not. Cast something you can hold. --- ## 1. Cast before you shoot Casting produces four assets per character, all created before a single shot exists. ### The canon frame One approved master image. Once approved, **never regenerate it**. Everything else descends from it. - Front-facing, neutral expression, mouth closed, eyes to camera - Even, soft, neutral lighting. No dramatic key, no colour cast — dramatic light bakes shadow into the identity and poisons every downstream shot - Clean background, minimum 1024px short side [PRACTITIONER: a working floor, not a documented threshold] - Head and shoulders with headroom, not a tight crop. Models need the jaw-to-shoulder relationship For an invented character, generate 10–20 candidates and cast deliberately [PRACTITIONER: the number is judgement, not measurement — cast until one is distinctive, however many that takes]. **Judge on distinctiveness, not beauty.** A face with a specific feature — a broken nose, heavy brows, deep-set eyes, a gap tooth — appears to hold be