How to Create Consistent Characters in Midjourney with --cref

One of the hardest problems in AI art is keeping the same character recognizable across different scenes. Midjourney's character reference feature, triggered with --cref, lets you point at an existing character image so new generations carry the same face and features. This is the backbone of comics, storyboards, and brand mascots.

What you need

• A clear single-character image to act as your reference
• An active subscription using the v6 or later model
• Patience to dial in the --cw weight

Step 1: Generate or choose your base character

Start by making one strong portrait of your character with a normal prompt. Pick the cleanest result, upscale it, and Open in Browser to grab its URL. A front-facing, well-lit face works best as a reference.

Step 2: Build a new scene prompt

Write a fresh prompt describing the new scene and pose you want, but do not describe the face in detail. You want the words to handle the situation while --cref handles the identity.

Step 3: Attach the character reference

Add --cref followed by the URL of your base character. Optionally add --cw, the character weight from 0 to 100, where 100 copies face, hair, and clothing, and a lower value copies the face only.

/imagine prompt: the same young explorer climbing a snowy ridge at dawn, wide shot --cref https://cdn.discordapp.com/.../hero.png --cw 80 --ar 3:2

Step 4: Tune the character weight

If the outfit keeps copying over when you wanted a new costume, lower --cw toward 0 so only the face carries. If the face is drifting, raise it toward 100. Re-run with the same prompt and only the weight changed.

Step 5: Build the series

Reuse the same --cref URL across every scene in your story. Change only the scene description each time. The face stays put, which is what makes a sequence read as one character moving through a narrative.

Result: a set of images that clearly show the same person in different situations, ready to lay out as a comic strip or a pitch storyboard.