Consistent AI character video: keyframes first, then motion

Two shots of the same woman, and the AI hands you two different women: same dark bob, same coat, another face. It's the most common way a multi-shot AI clip falls apart.

Make, the production mode of Ask, is built to keep the same character in every AI shot. Clap, eroq's cheerful little clapperboard, holds a face steady with three anchors, and nothing renders until you approve it. Below, a two-scene clip with Mara, a rooftop at dusk then the street below, from the first sentence to the cut. It's for anyone whose clip, ad or short film needs one face to survive the edit.

Why faces drift, and the three anchors

Every render is a fresh draw: the engine reads your words and invents a face to fit them, and "dark bob, rust-orange coat" fits a lot of faces. Make stacks three anchors against that:

1. Who she is: her look sheet, the identity picture, rides the renders.
2. What she wears, and the light: the same words in every scene prompt.
3. The frame: one keyframe per scene, approved first; each clip then opens on it.

Anchor one: the look sheet

A look sheet is a character's identity picture, made once in the character's Identity tab in Characters, from a few photos of the same face or from the persona alone.

In Make, a character with a look sheet rides every keyframe as that picture, and the clips carry it on: as a reference picture on engines that read them, or through the keyframe the clip opens on. A character without one stays out of the pictures: Clap still writes them into the prompts, and the plan card says so under its rows, with a "Make a sheet" link. Places and products work the same way: a product like AMBRE, the demo perfume, rides as a picture once its element has a sheet. Styles need none.

When to make the sheet first: whenever a character appears in more than one shot, or comes back next week. Words describe a type; a sheet pins a person. An extra who crosses the frame once can ride as words.

Anchor two: the same words in every scene

Clap writes each scene prompt in English for the engines, 50 to 110 words, and repeats what must not change: the same wardrobe words in every scene, the same light words across the piece so the shots cut together. Here's the kind of storyboard it writes for Mara:

Scene 1 · Rooftop at dusk · 5s
Mara, early thirties, dark bob, rust-orange wool coat over a black
turtleneck, stands at the edge of a city rooftop at dusk. Medium
close-up, 50mm, shallow depth of field. Warm amber sunset light from
the left, cool blue haze over the skyline, fine film grain. She turns
from the view toward the stairwell door. Slow push-in.

Scene 2 · The street below · 5s
Mara, early thirties, dark bob, rust-orange wool coat over a black
turtleneck, steps out onto a wet street just after dusk. Wide shot,
35mm, handheld follow. Last amber light in the sky, cool blue haze,
sodium street lamps in the puddles, fine film grain. She turns up her
collar and walks into the crowd.

Same hair and coat, word for word; the same light family, amber, blue haze, film grain. The sheet carries who Mara is; the words carry what she wears today and the light she stands in. Every row of a plan card opens on its full prompt, so you can check the wording before you pay for it.

Anchor three: the look test

In the studio, flip the switch under the Ask bar from Ask to Make, and type:

A two-scene vertical clip with Mara: a rooftop at dusk, then the street
below, 5 seconds each. Keyframes first.

A request this clear gets a storyboard and a plan straight away, and the Production panel on the right fills in: the brief, Mara under "Cast", both scenes under "Storyboard". Clap recommends a look test for films and ads with a cast or a product; for a clip, "keyframes first" asks for one.

The plan card reads "Plan · 2 renders": "Keyframe · Scene 1" and "Keyframe · Scene 2", each on Krea2 in 9:16 at 10 credits, then the total and one button, "Approve · 20 credits". Nothing renders before that click, and the price on the card is the price charged. Stills are the cheap part of a production (a 5-second clip on the default engine is 45 credits), so check the face, the coat and the light on a still before you pay for motion.

When the keyframes land, a grey line says "2 renders landed" and they show in the conversation, under the plan card, big enough to judge. Now look closely, because Clap won't: Make knows which renders landed or failed, not whether the coat came out the right orange. That call is yours.

Redo one scene with a sentence

Say the coat in scene 2 came out brown. Type it the way you'd say it, "The coat in scene 2 should be rust-orange like in scene 1, redo that keyframe", and Clap answers with a plan for that one render: "Plan · 1 render", "Keyframe · Scene 2", 10 credits. Scene 1 keeps the keyframe you approved. Any change works that way: "Make scene 2 at night" rewrites that scene's prompt and plans that scene alone.

Keyframe to video: each clip opens on its keyframe

Happy with both stills? Under "Next steps", tap something like "Render all the clips", or type it. The plan lists "Clip · Scene 1" and "Clip · Scene 2", each reading "Seedance 2.0 Mini · 5s · 9:16 · sound · from keyframe" at 45 credits, and one button: "Approve · 90 credits".

"From keyframe" is the whole trick. The keyframe you approved becomes the clip's first frame, on engines that accept a start frame: Seedance 2.0 Mini, the default, does, and so do Kling and Veo. The engine doesn't draw Mara again from scratch; it starts on the face, the coat and the frame you approved, and moves them.

Adding someone mid-production

Want Kai waiting for her in the street? In the Production panel (on a phone, the "Production" button opens it), tap "+ Add" next to "Cast" and pick Kai; "Elements" works the same way for a place or a product. "Clap works with them from your next message", so tell it where he goes: "Kai waits for her in scene 2, leaning on a black car."

Clap rewrites scene 2 with Kai, described the same way wherever he appears, and plans that scene again. If Kai has no look sheet yet, his name in the panel reads "no sheet", and the plan card says "Kai rides as words, not as a picture: no look sheet yet." with its "Make a sheet" link.

The cut

Once both clips are in, the chat shows "Your cut is ready", and "Open in Cinema" (also at the foot of the Production panel) turns the production into a Cinema film: one scene per scene, its latest clip, in order. Trim, add sound and titles, re-render any scene, export an MP4. That's a take.

More in Make, your AI producer, approve before you render and from storyboard to Cinema; casting by name in Ask mode has its own guide.

FAQ

How do I keep the same AI character in every shot?

Give the character a look sheet in Characters so their identity picture rides the renders, keep the same wardrobe and light words in every scene, and approve one keyframe per scene before the clips, which then open on them.

Why make keyframes before the clips?

A keyframe is a still of the shot's most telling instant, and it is cheap: 10 credits on the default image model, against 45 credits for a 5-second clip on the default engine. You check the look on the still, and the clip then opens on it.

Can every AI video engine start from a keyframe?

No, only engines that accept a start frame, such as Seedance 2.0 Mini, Kling and Veo; on those, the plan row says "from keyframe". Elsewhere the clip renders from the prompt, with the look sheet as a reference picture where the engine reads one.

What happens if my character has no look sheet?

They ride as words: the prompts describe them, but no identity picture is sent. The plan card says so under its rows, with a "Make a sheet" link. Make it in the character's Identity tab, then ask for the scene again.

Does Make check that the face matches?

No. Make reads which renders landed or failed; it doesn't look at the pictures. The keyframes show in the conversation, big enough to judge, and redoing one takes a sentence.

Can I redo just one scene?

Yes. Say what's wrong, "the coat in scene 2 should be rust-orange", and Clap proposes a plan with only that render. The rest of the production stays as you approved it.

Open Characters, give Mara her look sheet, then switch to Make and say "keyframes first".