Introduction
One of the biggest challenges in AI-generated storytelling is maintaining character consistency — ensuring your protagonist looks and feels the same across multiple images.
In this tutorial, I’ll show how to use Leonardo AI and a combination of reference tools and prompt strategies to achieve cohesive visual storytelling for comics, animation, and creative projects.
Step 1: Define Your Character
Start by clearly describing your character — name, age, clothing, emotional tone, and personality traits.
Example prompt:
“Female explorer, 30s, short brown hair, green jacket, cyberpunk setting, confident expression, cinematic lighting.”
Generate a few initial images and choose one that best represents your character’s look and mood.
Step 2: Use the Character Reference Feature
Leonardo AI allows you to upload a reference image or use character consistency models.
Upload your chosen base image, then activate Character Reference Mode.
This helps Leonardo preserve facial features, colors, and style across generations.
Tip: Adjust the reference strength (between 0.4–0.7) for balance — too high can freeze expression variety, too low may lose resemblance.
Step 3: Expand Your Story
Now create variations:
- Different camera angles (front, profile, full body).
- Emotional states (happy, worried, surprised).
- Scenes or settings (urban, desert, futuristic).
Keep using the same character reference and repeat the key descriptors (“same woman”, “same outfit”, “short brown hair”).
Step 4: Enhance with Photoshop or Camera Raw
Once your images are consistent, import them into Adobe Photoshop or Camera Raw to fine-tune lighting and tone.
Match skin tone, saturation, and contrast to unify the series visually.
If you plan to animate later, use Topaz AI or VideoProc for upscaling and frame coherence.
Step 5: Create a Cohesive Storyboard
Arrange your consistent characters in a mood board or mini-story panel.
This step is key for storytelling portfolios — it shows how you can manage continuity and narrative using AI tools.
Conclusion
Character consistency is what turns random AI generations into true visual storytelling.
By combining Leonardo AI’s character tools with traditional editing, you can build cohesive worlds that feel alive — and that’s exactly what creative teams value today.
See my visual example here: [add link to your “before/after” board or gallery on photoyeah.eu]