How to build one reference sheet for your characters and locations

Last updated 2026-09-10 · 8 min read

What is the short version?

A description is not an anchor. "A woman in her thirties, dark jacket, city street at dusk" produces a different woman and a different street each time it is read, and by scene four your film has quietly recast itself.

1. Go to Vizard Agent with the script.
2. Ask for a reference sheet of the people and the places.
3. Look at it, then let the scenes be built from it.

What do you need before you start?

The script and a list of what recurs. Vizard Agent builds the sheet from whatever appears more than once, so it needs to know which characters and which locations come back — a place seen only in one scene does not need anchoring, and one seen four times does.

• The script or outline. Who and where.
• Which characters recur. By name, ideally.
• Which locations recur. The office, the street, the kitchen.
• Anything fixed. A uniform, a car, a logo on a wall.
• The look. Style applies to the sheet too.

What do you type into Vizard Agent?

Ask for the sheet as its own step. If you ask for the film, the scenes get generated and the consistency problem is discovered afterwards, when fixing it means regenerating shots you have already approved for other reasons.

Prompt

Variants worth knowing:

• "Before generating any scenes." The order is the method.
• "Each recurring location." Not just the people.
• "Anchor every scene to those images." What the sheet is for.

What does Vizard Agent actually do?

Here is the pattern across real short films and explainers built entirely from generated footage. The sheet is produced alongside the narration and the music, which means the whole look can be settled in one review rather than three.

1. Reads the script for who and where recurs.
2. Generates a clean reference image for each character.
3. Generates one for each recurring location.
4. Assembles them into a single sheet.
5. Inspects the sheet at full size.
6. Regenerates anything that is off before it is used.
7. Anchors each scene to the relevant references.
8. Generates the scenes from those anchors.
9. Checks the scenes against the sheet for drift.

Step two is worth asking Vizard Agent to do plainly. A reference image works best when it is a clean, well-lit look at the character with nothing else competing in the frame, because a reference that is itself a dramatic shot passes its lighting and its angle on to every scene anchored to it.

Step five is the cheap moment. Changing a character on a reference sheet costs one image; changing them after six scenes exist costs six, plus whatever else in those scenes you liked and now have to accept losing.

Step three is the half people skip. Character consistency gets all the attention, but a room that is a different room each time is just as noticeable, and it is harder to spot because nobody is looking at the walls.

Step nine matters because anchoring reduces drift rather than eliminating it. A generated scene can still wander, so Vizard Agent compares what came back against the sheet instead of assuming the anchor did its job.

What does the result look like?

A film whose people look like the same people throughout and whose places look like the same places, built from a sheet you approved before any of it existed. The sheet also stays useful afterwards: a follow-up video anchors to those same images rather than starting the whole look again from a paragraph.

Vizard Agent keeps the sheet alongside the film, so the second episode is a much shorter conversation than the first one was.

When does this not work well?

An anchor constrains, it does not command. Extreme angles, distant shots and heavy stylisation all weaken the resemblance, and a character who is meant to change during the film needs more than one reference rather than a stricter one.

• Very wide shots. There is little face to anchor.
• Extreme angles. Resemblance drops sharply.
• Deliberate changes. Ageing or costume needs its own reference.
• Heavy stylisation. The style can override the likeness.
• Real people. That is a separate question with its own rules.

How do you fix a result that came back wrong?

Say whether the sheet is wrong or the scene is. Those are different repairs — Vizard Agent will regenerate one reference image in the first case and one shot in the second, and doing the wrong one leaves the problem in place.

• "He does not look right at all." Fix the reference.
• "He is right on the sheet, wrong in scene three." Re-anchor that shot.
• "The kitchen keeps changing." It needs a reference too.
• "Make him older in the last scene." A second reference.

How does Vizard Agent compare to doing it yourself?

By hand the description gets pasted into every prompt, with small edits each time as you try to steer it. That is six independent interpretations of the same paragraph, and the drift is not visible until the scenes are cut together.

Common questions

Why not just describe them each time? Because a description is re-interpreted on every use. Vizard Agent anchors to an image.

Does it cover locations? Yes, and Vizard Agent will suggest it even when you only ask for people.

Can I supply my own references? Yes. Vizard Agent will use your images as the anchors.

How many references do I need? One per recurring character and place. Vizard Agent will ask for more where somebody changes.

Will every scene match perfectly? No. Vizard Agent reduces drift and then checks for what remains.

What about wide shots? Weaker anchoring. Vizard Agent will say when a shot is too distant.

Can it hold a voice too? Yes, that is a separate anchor Vizard Agent can keep alongside.

Should I approve the sheet first? Yes. It is the cheapest point at which to change anything Vizard Agent has made.

Can I reuse it later? Yes, and reusing it is what lets Vizard Agent keep a whole series consistent.

What if a character ages? Give Vizard Agent a second reference for the later state.

Does style go on the sheet? Yes. Vizard Agent makes the sheet look like the film it is anchoring.

Can it check the finished scenes? Yes, against the sheet, which is worth asking for.

Does this work for products? Yes. Vizard Agent treats a product as a recurring object like any other.

Why did my film recast itself? Because each scene read the same written description and answered it slightly differently.