July 15, 2026 · 5 min read
If you have ever tried to build a video series around a character, you know the problem. AI image generation is great at creating people, mascots, and illustrated characters, but ask it for the same one twice and you get a stranger. The hair changes, the outfit changes, sometimes the whole face changes between scenes.
Character references solve this. You upload an image of your character once, attach it when you create a video, and ClipPilot uses it to keep that character looking the same in every scene where they appear. Here is how to use it.
Head to Characters in the dashboard sidebar and click Add Character. Give your character a name and upload a clear image of them. JPG, PNG, and WebP all work, up to 8MB per image, and you can store up to 20 characters.
Your reference does not have to be a photo of a real person. Illustrated characters, 3D mascots, cartoon animals, and brand characters all work. The generation model uses the whole image as visual context, so whatever your character looks like in the reference is what carries into your videos.
A few tips for picking a good reference:
On the create page you will find a Character Reference section right under the video concept. Pick the character you want, or leave it on None for a regular video. One reference can be attached per video.
That is the whole setup. Write your script, pick your voice and captions like normal, and hit generate.
When your script gets broken into scenes, the AI also decides where your character belongs. If a scene calls for your character walking through a city at night, they will be placed in that shot using your reference image. If a scene is an empty grass field or a close-up of an object, the character is left out, because forcing them into a shot where they do not fit would look strange.
You do not need to mention the character in your script for this to work, but it helps. Scripts that clearly involve a person or character give the AI more scenes where featuring them makes sense.
This is worth understanding before you generate. When you pick a themed video concept like Cartoon, Anime, or Comic Book, ClipPilot restyles your reference image once at the start of generation so your character matches the look of the rest of the video. A photo of a person becomes a cartoon version of that person in a Cartoon video, and so on. Identity, clothing, and proportions are preserved as closely as possible, but the image itself is transformed into the new art style.
If you do not want your reference image altered in any way, use the Default theme. Default skips the restyling step entirely and uses your reference exactly as you uploaded it, so your character appears in their original look.
The reference sticks with the video after generation. If you open a finished video in the editor and regenerate a scene image, any scene that featured your character is regenerated with the same reference, so the character stays consistent with the rest of the video. Scenes without the character regenerate normally.
This also means you can safely rename or even delete a character from your gallery later. Videos you already made keep their own copy of the reference, so editing them keeps working.
If you are new to ClipPilot, the getting started guide walks through creating your first video, and the editor guide covers everything about changing a video after it is generated.