Midjourney Tutorial: Bringing Characters to Life

The world of artificial intelligence has made enormous progress in the field of image generation in recent years. Tools like Midjourney now make it possible for people without in-depth graphic design knowledge to create stunning visual content.

Today, I'm going to walk you through my process for using Midjourney to take an existing character - in our case, our ForwardFuture astronaut, Astro - and place them in different poses and scenarios. You'll learn how to use precise prompt formulations to change a character's posture, mood and dynamics while maintaining the basic character style. This technique is especially valuable for storytellers, content creators and anyone who needs consistent character portrayals across different scenes.

Setting Up Midjourney

Getting started with Midjourney is reasonably straightforward:

1. Join Discord: First, you'll need a Discord account. If you don't have one, head to discord.com and sign up.

2. Join the Midjourney Server: Go to midjourney.com and click the "Sign Up" button to access the Discord server.

3. Start a Trial or Subscribe: Midjourney offers a free trial, but you'll need a subscription for ongoing use. Check their website for the latest pricing.

4. Access the Bot: Once you're in the server and subscribed, go to any of the #newbies channels or start a direct message with the Midjourney Bot.

5. Your First Command: Type /imagine followed by your prompt. For example: /imagine a comic-style astronaut

Key Concepts & Best Practices

Before we dive into character editing, let's cover some important terminology and techniques:

Aspect Ratio

• Use --ar followed by your desired ratio (e.g., --ar 1:1 for square images)

• Common options: 1:1 (square), 16:9 (landscape), 9:16 (portrait)

• For character work, I prefer 1:1 to keep the full figure in frame

Style Parameters

• --style tags help maintain consistent visual aesthetics

• For Midjourney v6.1, only --style raw is compatible

• --style raw uses an alternative model that gives you more control over your images

• Images made with --style raw have less automatic beautification applied

Chaos Level

• --c parameter controls randomness (1-100)

• Lower values (5-20) maintain consistency between generations

• Higher values create more variation

• For character work, I keep this low (around 5-10)

Image Quality

• --q parameter controls rendering quality

• Values range from 0.25 to 2

• Higher values mean longer rendering but better details

• For finished pieces, I use 1 or higher

Basics of Character Editing in Midjourney

When you want to maintain the style of your character with only the pose and setting changing, you need to use the following approach:

The Core Components:

1. Character Reference: Use the --cref parameter followed by the URL of your original character (more on this below)

2. Maximum Character Weight: Set --cw to 100 for maximum consistency

3. Minimal Description: Keep your character description minimal and focus on pose and setting

4. Clear Pose Instructions: Be extremely specific about positioning

5. Simple Backgrounds: Start with simple backgrounds before attempting complex scenes

The exact formula for perfect character consistency:

/imagine prompt: astronaut [specific pose description], [setting description], minimal details beyond pose and setting --cref [your character image URL] --cw 100 --ar 1:1 --style raw --v 6.1

With --cw 100, Midjourney will maintain almost every detail of your character, including the exact outfit, colors, and design elements.

Prompt Examples: Astro in New Poses

For each example below, you'll need the URL of your original astronaut character image.

To get this URL:

1. Upload your initial character image to Discord

2. Right-click on the image and select "Copy Link"

3. Save this link for use in the prompts below

If you don't have an astronaut character yet, you can first create one with a prompt like:

/imagine comic-style astronaut character, friendly appearance, vibrant colors, simple white background, full body view --ar 1:1 --style raw --v 6.1

Then use the URL of that generated image in the following prompts by adding --cref [your URL].

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