Consistent Characters, with External References... in Midjourney!

Better than --cref alone > This method AMPs the real-real of what's possible in AI.

The last post, we looked at the addition of the SplitScreen method (that I explained and made an eBook for back in V.5 BEFORE the —cref was introduced).

Character Consistency in Midjourney, That's BETTER Than --cref? YES!

This time, we are going to work external reference images for even greater realism than before!

I started by taking a photo of myself. Just to remove any distractions, I shot the selfie against a white wall - and separated me from the background in Photoshop.

A bearded, bald middle-aged man sitting on the living room floor drawing in a sketchbook. Wooden floors, and a minimalist interior design style. A sage-colored sofa and a sideboard against the wall, along with a wooden desk, braided rug centered in the room. The room is filled with bright daylight and warm colors. High-resolution photography. --ar 4:5 --quality 2 --stylize 300 --v 6.1 --cw 30 —cref (image you see above)

While there is a bit of nuanced similarity in the image… it is not perfectly “Brian.” So - how can we improve on this to get something… better? More true to the character?