How to stop the likeness drifting every time you ask for another take
Tell Vizard Agent which features are non-negotiable, and expect it to stop regenerating once it has a take that holds them. Each fresh generation is another chance for the face to drift, so past a certain point the right move is to keep the best likeness and make the remaining change without touching the people.
What do you type into Vizard Agent?
Put the preservation list before the action list, and make it a checklist: her freckles, her curly hair, the burgundy dress. Include everyone in shot, since a friend in the background drifts too. The order tells Vizard Agent which constraint wins when they collide, and the words "within that" stop the performance being honoured at the likeness's expense.
Preserve her exact face, freckles, curly hair, athletic build and burgundy dress, and her friend's identity. Within that, make her dance to the beat from the first second.
What does Vizard Agent actually do?
It checks the face at full resolution after every generation, late in the take as well as at the opening. Drift accumulates, so a take that matches the reference in its first second can be a different person by its last, and a contact sheet is too small to show it. In the session behind this article it:
- Generated a take and compared its faces, physique, gesture and props against the original photo, at full frame size near the opening and again later in the take.
- Re-checked a short section at full frame rate when an automated motion review disagreed with what the frames plainly showed.
- Rejected a take outright for visible appearance drift rather than accept better movement with a worse face.
- Went back over the earlier takes to find the closest match to the original build and features.
- Applied the remaining change, moving coloured light across the scene, without regenerating or warping either person.
- Kept the supplied track starting at its exact first sample, with no fade, trim or stretch, and verified the delivered audio was sample-for-sample identical.
When does this not work well?
When the performance you need can't be reached without regenerating. A change of pose, an added gesture or a different action is generative by nature, and each attempt carries the risk. Long takes are harder too: drift grows with duration, so a thirty-second continuous generation is a much worse bet than three ten-second pieces anchored to each other's end frames.
Common questions
What can be changed without regenerating? Lighting, colour, speed, trims and framing. Vizard Agent will say which of your notes qualify.
What if the best likeness has the worst movement? That is the usual trade. Vizard Agent will show you both and let you choose.
How many takes is too many? Three without improvement. After that, ask Vizard Agent to keep the best likeness so far.