How do I keep AI-generated characters consistent across shots?

Identity drift — your character's face slowly morphing between shots — is the #1 thing that makes AI films fall apart. The discipline that fixes it:

1. Lock a reference set before you shoot anything. Generate a character sheet — front, profile, three-quarter, full body — iterate until it's right, then FREEZE it. Those images feed every future generation. Text descriptions re-roll the dice every time; reference images anchor the identity.

2. Prompt with visual markers, not vibes. Concrete, repeatable details — "close-cropped silver beard, thin scar through right eyebrow, espresso skin, burnt-orange work jacket" — give the model anchors that survive across generations. Vague descriptors ("handsome older man") guarantee drift.

3. Wardrobe is identity. Costume changes are where consistency goes to die. Keep wardrobe locked per sequence and treat any change like a real production would — deliberately, with a new locked reference.

4. Stage around residual drift. When two shots don't quite match, don't butt them together — separate them with an insert or reaction, exactly like an editor hides a continuity error.

5. Treat references like negatives. Named, versioned, backed up, never casually overwritten. Lose the reference set and your world resets.