Turn One Photo into an AI Character Reference Sheet with a 4-Step Prompt

X creator Soaima (@Soaima_Ai) shared a 4-step workflow on October 3, 2026 that turns a single photo into a consistent AI character reference sheet. Open Gemini, Grok, or GPT Image 2.0, upload a photo, paste the identity-locking prompt, and generate.

Image source: @Soaima_Ai on X

The key idea is to state face, build, hairstyle, and skin-tone consistency explicitly in the prompt and to request four views at once: front, three-quarter, side profile, and back. The two attached example photos (843×1264) show the resulting turnaround sheet for the same character.

The 4-step workflow

The author's steps, in order:

1. Open Gemini, Grok, or GPT Image 2.0.
2. Upload your image.
3. Paste the prompt.
4. Generate your image and video.

The original post gives no per-model settings (aspect ratio, resolution, seed), so use your model's default image-generation screen as is.

The identity-locking prompt, verbatim

The confirmed portion of the prompt from the author's follow-up post reads:

Create a professional AI character reference sheet for a modern young woman named Zara. Keep the character's face, facial features, hairstyle, body proportions, skin tone, and overall identity highly consistent across every image.

Character: Zara, a beautiful woman in her late 20s, slim/athletic build, warm light skin tone, oval face, expressive dark brown eyes, natural eyebrows, straight nose, natural pink lips, long textured dark-brown hair with soft waves, elegant contemporary appearance, confident and approachable personality.

Create a clean full-body turnaround sheet showing Zara from:

1. Front view
2. 3/4 view
3. Side profile
4. Back view

Also include:

• Face & identity details: front face, 3/4 face, a…

Everything after that last line is truncated in the acquired source bundle and cannot be verified. Do not guess the missing part; copy only the confirmed text and swap in your own character's name and appearance. In practice, replace "Zara" and her description with your own character.

Caveats

• Uploading your own face subjects it to that service's image-processing and privacy policies. One reply to the original post asked in Chinese whether an uploaded portrait becomes reusable by other users; no author answer was captured. Check each model's privacy policy before uploading a sensitive portrait.
• Most replies to the original post are short praise with no additional verified settings or prompt variants.
• The workflow assumes an image-generation feature in the Gemini, Grok, or GPT image family; the original post mentions no specific paid tier or paywalled feature.

Original source

• Soaima (@Soaima_Ai), original post: ① Open Gemini, Grok or GPT Image 2.0…