character-consistency

character-consistency

Lock a character's visual identity into agents/reference/ai-video/<project>/characters/<id>.json so every scene reuses the exact same tokens verbatim. Downstream skills (video-director, pixar-storyteller, motion-choreographer) read this file and never paraphrase. Verified by visual regression (pixel similarity ≥ 95%, Phase 6 Step 3).

When to use

• A multi-scene run names the same character on screen more than once — Character Lock is mandatory before the second scene drafts.
• A character drift bug landed (face / outfit / prop changed between scenes) — re-lock and rerun the affected scenes.
• A series, episode, or recurring ad uses the same on-screen identity.

Do NOT use when:

• One-shot scene with no recurring character — overhead is wasted.
• The "character" is an environment or set (a place, not an entity) — use a style.json lock pattern in the project's notes instead. Recurring creatures, vehicles, and hero objects DO get a real lock — pick the matching subject_class below.

Procedure

Step 0: Inspect

1. Check agents/reference/ai-video/<project>/characters/ — if a lock already exists for this id, read it, do not redraft. Edits require an explicit revision note (Phase 6 visual regression must rerun).
2. Confirm the character will appear in ≥ 2 scenes; one-shot → skip.

Step 1: Draft identity tokens

Emit a JSON file at agents/reference/ai-video/<project>/characters/<character-id>.json with the following fields. Every field is mandatory; missing field → fail the lock.

{
  "id": "kebab-case-id",
  "name": "Display Name",
  "subject_class": "humanoid | creature | vehicle | abstract | object",
  "silhouette": "one-line read of the body shape from 30m",
  "palette": ["#hex1", "#hex2", "#hex3"],
  "wardrobe": "garment list, materials, era",
  "signature_prop": "the one object that travels with them",
  "posture_default": "how they stand when not acting",
  "eye_behavior": "blink rhythm, glance habit",
  "face": "age band, skin tone, hair (length / color / texture), distinguishing marks",
  "voice_note": "timbre + cadence for native-audio adapters; null if N/A",
  "reference_frame": "scenes/<id>/frames/<n>.png or null",
  "version": 1
}