Make an AI Movie
AI Character Bible Template
Build an AI character bible that keeps appearance, performance, costume, voice, and story state consistent from prompt to final edit.
Define the character beyond a face
An AI character bible is the production source of truth for every decision that makes a character recognizable. Begin with story function: age range, background, occupation, objective, fear, social status, and what changes over the film. Then write a short identity paragraph in observable terms. Instead of "a mysterious detective," specify a guarded former transit officer in her late forties who scans exits before sitting, speaks economically, and dresses for function rather than fashion. These choices guide pose, expression, clothing, blocking, voice, and props, allowing different departments—or different generation tools—to produce the same person rather than merely the same face.
Separate permanent traits from story-state traits. Bone structure, eye spacing, dominant hand, height, posture baseline, accent, and signature mannerisms belong in the permanent record. Hair length, bruises, fatigue, costume, dirt, and emotional temperature belong to a scene-linked state table. Define boundaries as well: what must never change accidentally, what may vary naturally, and what changes only after a scripted event. This prevents a continuity note such as "tired" from turning into a different age, and it lets you track a bruise or limp as narrative information instead of visual decoration.
Build the visual identity dossier
Approve a neutral hero portrait, full-body view, and turnaround showing front, three-quarter, profile, and back. Add expression tiles for neutral, guarded, amused, afraid, angry, and exhausted, keeping camera, light, and styling as consistent as possible. Include close crops of identity anchors: hairline, eye color and shape, nose, jaw, freckles or scars, hand details, and any distinctive accessory. A clean, evenly lit dossier gives the generator legible evidence; cinematic shadows and extreme lenses should be tested later, once the baseline identity is stable.
Record physical relationships, not just adjectives. "Narrow hazel eyes beneath straight brows, slightly crooked bridge, small scar through the outer left eyebrow" is more reproducible than "striking face." Note height relative to recurring characters and the scale of props that share the frame. Choose a small number of signature anchors that survive different angles, then allow ordinary human variation in skin texture and expression. If every pixel is treated as sacred, the character can look pasted in; if no anchor is sacred, identity drifts. The bible should make that tolerance explicit.
Specify costume, performance, movement, and voice
Give each recurring costume a coded look with front and back references, materials, closures, shoes, accessories, and scene range. Add grooming rules such as part side, curl pattern, stubble length, nail color, and whether rain or action changes the look. For performance, define resting posture, walking tempo, gesture size, eye-contact pattern, dominant hand, and two or three recurring behaviors. A character who rubs a thumbnail before lying or always leads turns with the left shoulder remains identifiable in a wide shot where facial similarity cannot carry the scene.
Create a voice card that includes register, pace, accent region, vocal texture, breath pattern, typical sentence length, and pronunciation of names or invented terms. Add a short approved dialogue sample and a list of performance notes for major emotional states; "fear becomes quieter and more precise" directs performance better than "sound scared." If voice synthesis is part of the pipeline, save the authorized voice asset, settings, and test line beside the visual references. Never let a temporary voice or face sample become the de facto standard without confirming that the production has the necessary permission to use it.
Turn the bible into a repeatable generation package
Create a master character block containing only stable identity language, plus separate blocks for scene state, costume, performance, and shot direction. Reuse the master block verbatim rather than embellishing it for each scene. Tag approved reference assets by purpose—IDENTITY-FRONT, IDENTITY-PROFILE, COSTUME-C, EXPRESSION-FEAR—so an artist supplies only the evidence a shot needs. A profile close-up should receive a profile reference; a running wide needs the full silhouette and costume more than a beauty portrait. This modular package reduces contradictions and makes prompt failures easier to diagnose.
Run a character stress test before full production: bright interior, low-key night exterior, profile, overhead wide, emotional close-up, fast walk, partial occlusion, and a two-character frame. Score face, body, hair, costume, age, and performance separately. If the same failure repeats, improve the relevant reference or descriptor before generating dozens of shots. Record the model and workflow that passed the test, but retain platform-neutral assets. Tools change; a strong dossier, state table, and approved performance language can migrate to a new generator without rebuilding the character from nothing.
Govern the character through production
Assign one owner to approve changes and maintain a dated change log. Version major decisions—MARA-BIBLE-v06—and distinguish approved assets from experiments with obvious folder names or status fields. The shot manifest should record which bible version, costume state, injury state, prompt blocks, references, and generation settings produced each take. When the director approves an unexpected but useful variation, either reject it as a one-shot anomaly or deliberately promote it into the bible and check every downstream scene. Silent exceptions are where continuity systems collapse.
At each edit review, compare the character across neighboring shots and across the full story arc. Check identity, apparent age, scale, dominant hand, costume, hair, injury, emotion, eyeline, gait, and voice—not just the face. Use an issue log with severity and repair owner, and reserve the strictest threshold for hero close-ups and direct match cuts. The bible is not a gallery that production consults once; it is a living contract between writing, design, generation, sound, editorial, and finishing. Its value is measured by how quickly the team can answer, "What should this character be at this exact story moment?"
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