All fictional heroes start out as nothing more than thoughts: a hero whose suit gleams like light, a sorceress living in the woods with eyes of shimmering silver, an aviator dragon rider, and a doctor from the other side of space.
Generating visuals based on these concepts can be fun and rewarding but can also be a challenge if you’re not an artist, animator, or video editor. Here are some text and image artificial intelligence (AI) video workflows that can make this process easier by using written descriptions or image references to generate short-form video clips for you.
These methods will help you test different visual options for your characters before developing your broader story, game, comic, or animation. It’s important to keep in mind that you’re not relying on AI to come up with these ideas for you, but to test them out bit by bit.
What Are Text-and-Image AI Video Workflows?
A text-and-image AI video workflow means you’re using text and images together to influence an AI video tool. The text describes your idea, the image shows a reference for a character, costume, face, colors or environment.
It’s like a prompt like, “A young elf knight standing in a moonlit forest in green armour with crystal sword.” And an image of the elf character’s face or outfit as reference. This can be described as an AI video generator from text and image, because you’re generating the AI video from both.
Why These Workflows Matter for Fantasy Character Projects
Fantasy character concepts typically require more than a mere portrait. They need atmosphere, motion, a feeling of narrative. A static image can demonstrate a character’s appearance, but a video can reveal the way he or she enters a room, conjures a spell, or strides through an abandoned castle.
And it matters because fantasy projects are steeped in mood. A brooding sorcerer, a gentle forest creature, and a scarred ranger each have distinct atmospheres, palettes and facial expressions. AI-powered video workflows give us the chance to brainstorm these concepts early on before we spend a great deal of time on final illustrations or motion design, not to mention providing a handy planning tool to whip up a brief mood video prior to writing a scene or designing an in-game character.
How Text Prompts Affect the Output
A text prompt is an instruction you provide the tool with. The better a text prompt is, the better the results will be. This doesn’t have to be a long prompt, but it does need to be precise. You can tell it what clothing or fur, hair, or other type of fur the character is wearing, or its species, its character, its mood, what it is doing, where it is and lighting.
Rather than writing “make a cool wizard,” try writing “an old mountain wizard wearing a blue robe, standing on a cliff at sunrise while holding a wooden staff with a stone on top of it.” Text prompts are also useful for animation. Beginners should stick to basic motions like “turning slowly towards camera” before attempting more complex animations like “fighting a dragon” and the like.
How Images Help Keep the Character Consistent
The use of visuals keeps the character more consistent by giving the AI a clear reference for their appearance. If there is an existing sketch, portrait, costume design, or reference image that can be used as the basis for the video, this can be used to guide the character so they more accurately resemble what you want them to look like.
An AI video to image generator can be a good option when there is one specific image that shows a character you like, and you wish to turn this image into a few seconds of motion. For example, imagine a queen with a jewelled crown. This image can be used to create a clip of the same queen where her cloak flies in the wind.
As with all AI generation tools, there will always be a lack of perfect consistency, with the character’s armor, hairstyle, eyes, and hands potentially looking different with each clip. It is therefore advised to always use the same reference images, reiterate these details in each of your prompts, and avoid adding anything too complex to the scene.
Here’s a simple workflow to follow:
- Get your character concept clear before you start. Write down a few ideas: what’s this character about? What are their goals? What environment do they live in? What colors or motifs define them? Clear ideas give you better input for prompts.
- Generate or find a base image, like a piece of artwork, a reference of a full portrait, a costume moodboard, or a quick reference sketch. Now write a short, specific prompt for one scene and action. For example: “a fire mage in the stone ruins, sparks rising around her.”
- After the video is made, review the clip. Note what succeeded and what fell short. Perhaps the look of the outfit is right on, but the motion is weird. Make one tweak at a time to know what’s working and why.
Common Uses for Fantasy Character AI Videos
Some typical uses of fantasy character AI videos include text-and-image creations to do simple things like introduce a character, show off a magic test, encounter a creature, have a dream, reveal a castle, or see a hero evolve. The clip doesn’t need to be a scene from a film. A five-second video can give you a better understanding of your character.
If creators want a cinematic fantasy vibe – say, a knight striding through fog or a dragon soaring over snowy peaks or a royal guard standing at attention in a rain-soaked courtyard – they may use an AI video generator that renders realistic videos. The aim here is to make everything seem believable, even if the subject is magical.
Things to bear in mind
As powerful as AI video can be, it doesn’t make the impossible possible. It’s going to turn out some amazing stuff and some really weird motion, morphing faces, extra fingers, impossible weapons, clothes that morph every frame, and so on, so treat each output as work-in-progress, not the end product.
And, of course, consent and rights and the integrity of other artists’ styles are paramount. Don’t directly copy living artists, and don’t use a person’s face without permission. If you’re planning on doing romance stuff or adult content, or using an AI tool like an AI love simulator with a video generator, be responsible. Consider how appropriate the content is for your target audience and be sure your output isn’t just an AI fantasy character generator.
Also, there’s no such thing as “no limits” or “uncensored” video output when you’re using AI video tools. Everything has a policy, and creators should be thinking about the implications of policies too. Boundaries help everyone: your project, your viewers, and potentially, whoever whose face or work you might accidentally use.
Improving Your Output
Simplify your approach. Using one prompt usually yields better images than using multiple combined prompts. You are probably going to get a more favorable result using a character, a setting, and one action than you would using an entire scene that has lots of characters, powers and camera moves. An excerpt of a single witch lighting a candle is generally better than a clip with ten visual effects.
Include descriptive details. Describe colors, textures, atmosphere, and lighting when you create your prompts. Prompts that include descriptive details, such as “warm lantern light, ancient stone hallway, silver armor”, will usually give you better results than prompts that consist of keywords like “epic” or “cool”.
Archive and organize your work. Save your best prompts and reference images in a word document. After you come across a prompt and reference image that work together, feel free to re-use them at a later time as a base for future work. Keep a list of prompts that are well-organized, to achieve a certain “look” for a character.
Make tweaks. Experiment with slight changes, such as altering the ordering of words or changing a keyword instead of starting a new prompt entirely.
Conclusion
AI workflows that mix text and images make it easy for fantasy makers to give their character concepts a starting point for movement. You can try out their outfits, their atmosphere, their magic, or the plot’s big scenes. You do not have to be an expert animator for this.
Keep an open mind, give the scenes a definite direction and keep them uncluttered, and iterate as you go, with patience and creativity. AI offers a fresh way to look at your fantasy characters but you and only your brain can give them a life.
