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Re-pose a character with AI, without changing the face
One master portrait, the Character role, and a sentence of new direction. 8 credits a pose. What survives a re-pose, what vanishes, and why the badge on the reference decides it.
To re-pose a character without changing the face, give the model one clean picture of that person and tell it explicitly that the picture is the person — then describe only the new pose. On aikizi the Character role writes that sentence for you. It costs 8 credits at 1K. The face, the hair and the clothes come through; small marks like scars and tattoos do not, unless you name them again.
One move, 8 credits
The master it came from was a plain grey studio portrait, front on, arms out of frame. Everything about the body changed. The face, the beard, the brows and the olive kurta did not — and the small mole below his right eye is nowhere to be found, which is the whole lesson of this page in one detail.
The prompt was one sentence of new direction — three-quarter view, waist up, at a workbench, holding a brass fitting to the light — sitting under the sentence the Character role adds automatically:
Reference 1 is the character — keep their exact face, features, hair and age. Do not replace them with anyone else.
Why that sentence is the whole trick
Gemini has no typed reference slots. Every attached picture goes into a flat array with your prompt appended last, and nothing tells the model which image is the face — it infers it from the words. So if you attach a portrait and write "a woman at a workbench", you are asking for a woman, and you will get one. The role makes the instruction explicit, with the reference's position number in it.
The opposite mistake is just as common: attaching a person with the Style role. That role says, in as many words, to ignore the picture's subject and composition — so the face will not survive. If your character keeps changing, check which badge the reference is wearing before you rewrite the prompt.
What survived and what did not
| Feature | Held? |
|---|---|
| Face — nose, mouth, jaw, eyes | Yes |
| Hair length, texture and line | Yes |
| Age and build | Yes |
| The olive linen kurta, its collar and cut | Yes |
| Hands | Yes, both correct |
| A small mole below his right eye | No |
So the pose, the place and the light are yours to change freely — that is what the model is doing well here. The price is that every re-pose is a fresh roll for the small stuff, so treat your mark list as part of the prompt rather than part of the character and write it out again each time, side included. Part 6 has the full list of what survives and what does not.
A set of poses, and what it costs
- Make one master on a plain background in flat light. Reuse it for every shot; do not make a new master per pose.
- Attach it with the Character role every time.
- Change only the pose clause between generations. Keep the lighting words identical or the set will not match.
- Re-state every mark, every time.
- Check at 1K for 8 credits, then upscale the keepers for 15 instead of regenerating at 4K.
Three angles at 1K is 24 credits, and you should expect to discard one — budget four generations, 32 credits, for a usable three-angle turnaround.
The honest plan note: Basic allows 3 reference images per generation and Pro allows 10. For character work that gap matters more than the credit count, because a mark appearing in three references is much harder to drop than one appearing in a single reference.
FAQ
How do I change a character's pose without changing the face?
Attach one clean portrait of them with the Character role, which tells the model to keep their exact face, features, hair and age, then describe only the new pose. 8 credits at 1K on Nano Banana Pro.
Why does my character's face keep changing?
Usually because the reference is not labelled, or is labelled Style — a role that explicitly tells the model to ignore the picture's subject. Check the badge on the thumbnail before rewriting the prompt.
Why do scars and tattoos disappear when I re-pose?
Because a re-pose is a fresh generation, not an edit of the old picture, so the small details are rolled again every time. Keep your mark list in the prompt on every pose, side included.
Can I re-pose a character into a completely different scene?
Yes. Ours moved from a plain grey studio backdrop to the floor of a daylit workshop in one generation, keeping the face, the beard and the kurta. Describe the new place in the same sentence as the new pose.
How many credits is each new pose?
8 at 1K on Nano Banana Pro, 16 at 2K and 24 at 4K — the normal ladder, because attaching a reference costs nothing extra. Check the pose at 1K, then upscale the keepers for 15.
Make one plain portrait in the Studio, badge it Character, and re-pose it once. The full version with the failure list is part 6 of the generation series.