Visual consistency is the main challenge when you create an illustrated book with artificial intelligence. A character whose hair color changes between two pages, a setting that transforms for no reason, a style that shifts from one illustration to the next: these inconsistencies break the reader's immersion. Maker Book includes several mechanisms to guarantee visual consistency throughout your book. This guide explains how these systems work and how to make the most of them.
The main character reference system
At the heart of visual consistency lies the reference image of the main character. When you create your hero in the wizard, Maker Book generates a design image that will serve as the reference for every illustration in the book. This image is sent with each illustration generation, allowing the drawing engine to faithfully reproduce the character's appearance.
Alongside the image, a detailed text description (called a character sheet) is also generated. It precisely describes the skin tone, hair, clothing, accessories and every distinctive feature of the character. This dual reference, both visual and textual, maximizes the character's fidelity from one page to the next.
How to improve the initial reference
If the character generated in the first step isn't quite right for you, you can refine it before launching the story generation. Describe the adjustments you want (for example "longer hair", "a red scarf around the neck", "freckles") and the system will regenerate the character based on your feedback.
Take the time to perfect this reference image: it determines the hero's appearance in every illustration in the book. Investing a few minutes at this stage will save you from having to retouch illustrations later on.
Design sheets for secondary characters
When your story features other important characters (a friend of the hero, a mentor, an antagonist), Maker Book automatically generates design sheets for each of them. These sheets contain a reference image and a text description, exactly like the main character.
Secondary character images are sent to the illustration engine every time the character appears in a scene. This is the source of truth: when a design image exists for a character, it takes precedence over any text description. This principle ensures that secondary characters keep their appearance throughout the book.
Managing secondary characters effectively
To get the best results with secondary characters, follow these recommendations:
- Limit the number of important secondary characters to two or three. The more characters there are, the harder it becomes to maintain consistency.
- Give each character distinctive visual features: a hat, a specific clothing color, a recognizable hairstyle. These details help the illustration engine tell the characters apart.
- Check the generated design sheets before continuing. If a secondary character doesn't match your vision, you can adjust its description.
Recurring objects and their design sheets
Some stories feature important objects that appear regularly: a magic sword, a spellbook, a pendant, a vehicle. So that these objects keep the same appearance every time they show up, Maker Book lets you generate dedicated design sheets for key objects.
Each object design sheet is generated on a white background, in a square format, at high resolution. The engine uses the hero's image as an artistic style reference, which ensures the object will be drawn in the same style as the characters. When the object appears in an illustration, its design sheet is sent as a reference.
Describing places and settings
Consistency isn't only about characters. Settings also play an important role. Maker Book generates a settingStyle that describes each recurring location in the story: the enchanted forest, the hero's bedroom, the castle, the village square. This description is injected into the illustration prompts to ensure the same place is depicted consistently.
The system also detects whether two consecutive pages take place in the same location. If so, the prompt explicitly asks to reproduce the environment from the previous page. If the location changes, the system focuses on character consistency rather than the setting.
Advanced techniques to maximize consistency
Using cross-page references
In the editor, when you edit an illustration, you can mention "page 3" in your instructions. The system will understand that you want to use the illustration from page 3 as a visual reference. This is especially useful when you like a specific setting on one page and want to reproduce it elsewhere.
The "Edit this image" mode
The "Edit this image" mode in the editor keeps the overall composition of the existing illustration and applies only the requested change. This is the preferred option when an illustration is almost perfect but needs a minor adjustment. For example: "add a smile to the character", "change the sky color to orange", "remove the tree on the right".
The "New shot" mode
The "New shot" mode regenerates the illustration with a different cinematic camera angle (high angle, low angle, over-the-shoulder, ground-level view, etc.). This mode is useful for adding visual variety between pages while keeping the characters and the setting consistent. The system randomly picks from eleven different angles.
Regenerating from scratch with "New image"
If an illustration doesn't satisfy you at all, the "New image" mode regenerates it entirely from the scene description. The character references are always sent, so the hero will remain visually consistent even with a completely new illustration.
The illustration history
Maker Book keeps a history of every version of an illustration (up to ten versions per page). If you regenerate an illustration and like the result less than the previous version, you can go back with a single click. This history is saved in the database and persists across sessions: you'll never lose an illustration you loved.
General principles of consistency
To get the best results, keep these principles in mind:
- A single artistic style for the whole book. Don't switch styles partway through.
- Short, precise descriptions in your edits. The engine works better with concise instructions than with long, detailed paragraphs.
- Check the first illustrations generated before continuing. If the character isn't right from the start, fix it immediately rather than hoping the following pages will improve.
- Use cross-page references to reproduce a look you like.
- Reference images always take priority over text. If a text description and a design image conflict, the image wins.
Visual consistency is what makes the difference between a book of random illustrations and a real children's book. By understanding and leveraging Maker Book's reference tools, you can reach a level of consistency that rivals a professional illustrator working manually on every page.