Keep characters and style consistent across AI shots

A story breaks when the lead has a new face in shot three. Video models render each clip on its own, so consistency has to be set up before the render. DepCut does part of that for you, and the rest comes from how you write the brief and what you attach.

How DepCut anchors a cast

When the AI assistant plans a narrated scene, it works in images first. The text of a shot describes what happens. What people and places look like rides as reference pictures.

1. A look. The plan fixes one visual style for the whole video.
2. A sheet for each character and location. Each gets one reference image, designed once from the style and from any references you attached. The sheet fixes face, wardrobe and carried props.
3. A keyframe for each shot. The opening frame of a shot is drawn from those sheets. These are the frames you review on the storyboard.
4. A shot from the keyframe. The video starts from that frame.

If a shot cannot start from its keyframe, DepCut steps down. It tries a render guided by the sheets, and as a last step a text-only render that carries the written descriptions. Identity drifts most in that last step, so look closely at any shot that needed it.

Give the plan strong anchors

What you put in the brief decides what the sheets contain.

• Name wardrobe and props. A red raincoat and a brass lantern, written in the brief, are named again in every shot where they appear.
• Introduce each character once. A character can arrive late in the story and still keep one identity from the first beat. Give them a name and a fixed description.
• Attach reference images. A style reference is the strongest anchor for the look. Attach it to your message or mention it with @.
• Say what the reference is for. A reference contributes its look. If you want the pictured character or place to appear in the video itself, say so in the brief. Otherwise the plan designs a fresh cast in the same technique.
• Describe a look by its traits. Write "flat hand-drawn animation, clean thick outlines, soft colors". Named shows, franchises and artists can be rejected.

Hold a character in single clips

Outside a scene run, you set the anchors yourself.

1. Generate one clear picture of the character in the Image tab, or import a photo into Media.
2. In the Video tab, attach it and set How references are used to Ingredients. The picture then acts as an identity anchor, and your prompt describes the new scene as written.
3. Type @ in any later image or video prompt to bring the same picture back as a reference.

Choose Frames when the picture should be the exact opening frame of the clip.

Fix drift one shot at a time

Review the storyboard before you approve. A wrong face on a keyframe is easy to fix at that stage, because redrawing a frame does not spend credits. Hover the tile, click Redraw this frame, or tell the assistant what to change.

After rendering, use Redo this shot on the one that drifted, or ask the assistant to redo it by number with a short note. The shot runs its steps again, and the other shots and the cast stay as they are. Re-cutting a span keeps the style and the cast, and a full restyle changes the look of every shot.

Plan a short story

Plan a short story in DepCut with one named character and one prop, and compare the keyframes on the storyboard before you approve.